Diamond no Ace

Sawamura Eijun is a gifted pitcher whose uncontrollable erratic throws caught the eye of a scout and assistant director from the Seidou High School baseball team. During a visit to the school, Eijun faced clean-up batter Azuma Kiyokuni with Miyuki Kazuya as catcher. Miyuki's words encouraged a nervous Eijun who throws his best pitch yet and greatly impressed the two. His inability to control his pitches, lack of proper training and exercise however make him an unlikely candidate for the team's ace. Eijun has to start at the bottom.

Eijun is joined by freshman Furuya Satoru, also a pitcher with high-speed and strong fastballs and forkballs. Like Eijun, he lacks experience in junior high baseball. He was alienated by his teammates who cannot catch his pitches and called him a monster. Eijun on the other hand was just unlucky to have average teammates who cannot match his passion for the game. Furuya also wants to be the ace of the team. He and Eijun will have to earn that position.

Another freshman, Kominato Haruichi, is a second baseman. He has an older brother on the Seidou baseball team who is extremely skilled. Haruichi has always been a big fan of his older brother Ryousuke and always imitated what he did. But imitation can only go so far. Will Haruichi finally be able to shine even when he's on the same team as his brother?

Seidou doesn't lack talent however. Despite Eijun's and Furuya's talks of becoming the ace, Seidou already has an ace. The best players in the team however will graduate after the Fall tournament. It's their last chance to get to the national stage. But even with reliable veterans, a great support system and talented freshmen Seidou has a lot of hurdles to overcome to reach that goal.

Sawamura Eijun

Furuya Satoru

Kominato Haruichi

Seidou High baseball team coach Kataoka Tesshin (right, foreground)

Eijun with mentor and senpai Takigawa Chris Yu

Seidou High Baseball Team

Seidou High baseball team's senior members

If you're a fan of baseball or just sports anime in general, Diamond no Ace continues the legacy of excellent team sports anime. The first season of Diamond no Ace is a story of discovery, triumphs and painful defeats. It has several colorful and memorable characters and intense match-ups. Although it doesn't require the audience to be familiar with baseball, a knowledge about the sport is an advantage when trying to understand to the various gameplays.

The plot follows the usual sports anime formula. A talented but untrained player comes into a promising team vying for the nationals. He wants to be the best in Japan but his ambition is also fueled by his desire to take his seniors to the finals who want to avenge last year's loss. One unique quality that separates this from other sports anime is that the lead character Eijun has a rival on the same team who is as strong or probably stronger than him. My only complaint is that the plays focus too much on the pitchers. That makes it difficult to remember the names of other characters besides Miyuki.

Sometimes several episodes are dedicated to one match and yet there isn't a boring moment. It's a level matched only by another series, The Prince of Tennis.

It's a relief that the 75-episode series did not choose to focus too much on the back stories of Eijun, Furuya and Kominato. Instead, it highlighted the plays and analyses of players. The humor was a bonus. If you enjoy sports anime or if you're a fan of The Prince of Tennis and you want to search for an anime with the same quality of story, Diamond no Ace is the series for you.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10