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Ace of Diamond (TV) (All Seasons).


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getchman
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Joined: 07 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 9:45 pm Reply with quote


Ace of Diamond (TV)

Genres: comedy, slice of life, tournament
Themes: baseball, sport

Plot Summary: Eijun Sawamura is a pitcher who joins an elite school with a brilliant catcher named Kazuya Miyuki. Together with the rest of the team, they strive for Japan's storied Koushien championships through hard work and determination.
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Who's up for some hot blooded baseball!? 3 episodes in and I'm enjoying this very much.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:45 am Reply with quote
I'm liking this ok, but the 4th episode suddenly felt like watching Naruto, with Hinata cheering from the sidelines. I like the new rival guy. Don't much care for the coach. He seems more concerned with ruling with an iron hand than developing the kids' potential.

It's way past time for someone to have been working with Sawamura on his mechanics. All I can think of is blown out shoulders and elbows with it seeming like everyone is just doing their own thing, and rising or falling based on what they can work out by themselves.

I don't usually care much about animation quality unless it's so bad even I notice it, but the ED looks like it was put together by the producer's ten year old niece as a class project, and some of the animation in-series is just godawful. The girls cheering on the team looked like they were having seizures.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:00 am Reply with quote
I didn't like the first episode but I've actually been enjoying this more and more.

The MC by himself would probably annoy me but his interaction with everyone else is fun (actually it was the same with Big Windup, even though the MC was the opposite of this one, two extremes).

So far I like the catcher the best (him being voiced by Sakurai does not hurt). However the rival character is an interesting addition. I really like that the rival is on the same team, that creates an interesting dynamic.

However in practical terms to me it doesn't hurt to have two great pitchers on your team. But story wise I guess having a rival character is more fun.
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Spastic Minnow
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 10:09 am Reply with quote
Not all baseball stories have to be, or should be, about the plucky band of underdogs going against all odds to get to the Koshien.... but this team really does come off a little as a bunch of egotistical jerks. It's like we're following the villain team from an Adachi series.
Not to say they're hateful or anything, but I do hope part of the show will be about teaching them some humility. If it goes on like this for much longer I may be changing the title in my head to Ass of Diamond.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 10:58 am Reply with quote
Spastic Minnow wrote:
Not all baseball stories have to be, or should be, about the plucky band of underdogs going against all odds to get to the Koshien.... but this team really does come off a little as a bunch of egotistical jerks. It's like we're following the villain team from an Adachi series.
Not to say they're hateful or anything, but I do hope part of the show will be about teaching them some humility. If it goes on like this for much longer I may be changing the title in my head to Ass of Diamond.


Weird they don't come off as villains or egotistical to me at all. They are strong but we see they don't take that strength for granted as they practice hard every day. Granted they are not an underdog team and as much as I enjoy watching the underdogs reach their goal, I think it is interesting & a bit different to start with a strong team right off the bat.

Also what makes this set up interesting is right now it doesn't seem like the competition is going to be against other teams, at least not at first. But instead the competition is going to be against each other to be the starting players. Hence why we have the start of a rivalry between two pitchers on the same team.

That being said I am sure they will face stronger teams eventually, I mean they can't be the only strong team in Japan.
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Spastic Minnow
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:28 am Reply with quote
Well,
The Mitsuru Adachi Villain Coach... always wears sunglasses. Although this guy comes off more as the jerk coach from Touch than the evil Coach Daimon in Cross Game. Belittles his "ace" pitcher, unmercifully dismisses him.

Egotistical Cheer annoyed me.

Not really any respect shown toward their opponents in the game.

And Sawamura had a point in the first or second episode of the show when he said he'd rather play for a "team"... they really are a collection of talent that doesn't show much cohesion yet.
Of course, this is something that will be worked on eventually as Sawamura moves up the ranks and he gets to express his righteous views and affect the team. It's a standard story progression.

But they're not really hinting at that much. Oh well, it's early.
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WhiteHairGirls



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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:45 pm Reply with quote
Spastic Minnow wrote:
Well,
The Mitsuru Adachi Villain Coach... always wears sunglasses. Although this guy comes off more as the jerk coach from Touch than the evil Coach Daimon in Cross Game. Belittles his "ace" pitcher, unmercifully dismisses him.



..... I guess you don't watch sports. Not all coaches are "GJ KID YOU GAVE IT YOUR BEST!1!!1!." There exist coaches that are harsh and vocal if you perform poorly.
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Stark700



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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 1:18 pm Reply with quote
Lol, that last scene was priceless when Eijun was running. I hope he can improve himself and kick some ass in baseball soon.

He sure made his presence known though (not exactly in the right way).
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Spastic Minnow
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 2:36 pm Reply with quote
WhiteHairGirls wrote:



..... I guess you don't watch sports. Not all coaches are "GJ KID YOU GAVE IT YOUR BEST!1!!1!." There exist coaches that are harsh and vocal if you perform poorly.


...And in sports stories... they're the villains.
They often are in real life too. Like that Miami Marlins coach.

And it's not like what he said to the ace pitcher was said to motivate him, he was done with him and basically told him he was worthless.
yeah, The coach needs readjustment not real world understanding.
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getchman
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 4:27 pm Reply with quote
so, I've been wondering about something for a long time now. Is Japanese high school baseball just tournaments? do they even have some sort of a regular season where they play against other High Schools in the area like we do here in the U.S?
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WhiteHairGirls



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PostPosted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 5:19 pm Reply with quote
getchman wrote:
so, I've been wondering about something for a long time now. Is Japanese high school baseball just tournaments? do they even have some sort of a regular season where they play against other High Schools in the area like we do here in the U.S?


Probably since it seems to the same in Kuroko no Basket. All of their games so far have either been preliminaries for a tournament or just a friendly scrim match.
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WhiteHairGirls



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 8:12 pm Reply with quote
Spastic Minnow wrote:
WhiteHairGirls wrote:



..... I guess you don't watch sports. Not all coaches are "GJ KID YOU GAVE IT YOUR BEST!1!!1!." There exist coaches that are harsh and vocal if you perform poorly.


...And in sports stories... they're the villains.
They often are in real life too. Like that Miami Marlins coach.

And it's not like what he said to the ace pitcher was said to motivate him, he was done with him and basically told him he was worthless.
yeah, The coach needs readjustment not real world understanding.


Well I guess he isn't one based on episode 4.
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Stark700



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PostPosted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:56 pm Reply with quote
Wow, he got spoiler[lucky on that final pitch there]. This show continuously impresses me each week with the intensity and humor.
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Spastic Minnow
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:05 am Reply with quote
@WhiteHairGirls
I'm not sure I like that turn though. It's drama by contradictions. He's one way, then he's the opposite. It's a trend of the show so far. Some characters have already turned from nice, to jerk, to nice again a few times so far. It's not so much depth as it is manic depressive.

And then there's the thing with his curving pitch that is driving me absolutely nuts. Absolutely everyone halfway knowledgeable sees what's special and/or wrong with his pitch BUT NO ONE TELLS HIM ABOUT IT?

They did the same thing in that crappy Knight in the Area soccer show last year... everyone knew what the main character's problem was, from the brother in the first couple episodes to the girl "friend" to every good player and coach on his high school team... and because of the absolutely messed up timeframe of that show it meant he went over a year being completely ignorant about it, characters would have the inner dialogue of saying something like "you'll never succeed if you don't stop doing THAT" but never bothering to tell him... and finally they go into games without anyone clueing him in and it actually turned out to be something horribly basic like his eyes were following the leg he was passing with- a long-standing bad habit that he needed to break.

And here we have something similar. The scout saw his curving pitch, saw it was special... but never told him about it. The catcher saw it too during his visit. No one ever said "here's something to think about in the two seasons of the year between your visit (which should have been late summer or fall) and your graduation from middle school" (early spring). Then we have the coach look wide-eyed at a miraculous long distance curve and sends him to run around the field tied to tires for a few weeks.
If it turns out the "secret" is just that no one has taught him pitching grips I'm dropping the show.
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Gina Szanboti



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PostPosted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 1:59 am Reply with quote
You may as well drop it now then. It's clear that it's his grip, and the problem is he has only learned one grip, probably self-taught, and he doesn't know how to use it effectively, or even get that it's a good thing to have a wicked curve ball. That's driving me crazy too, that no one is taking the time to teach him anything, when that's what any secondary school athlete is there for - to be taught how to improve.

I expect someone will finally break it to him in the next two or three episodes. I hope. Either way, I'll stick it out. The only sports anime I ever dropped was Hajime no Ippo because I hate boxing (and I even finished the original series at that).
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