Why Eijun Sawamura getting his Ace tag is the most cathartic moment in sports anime history: Essay
The Diamond No Ace manga has been serialising since 2006 and it has taken the sports anime industry by storm. The longevity of this manga comes from a time where manga from this genre would go on for a very long time, with examples such as Ahiru No Sora and Dear Boys. Modern sports manga would dictate such that it's a lot shorter than its older counterparts, with Haikyuu ending at 403 chapters and Kuroko ending at 275 chapters. Diamond No Ace however, uses long term story telling akin to series such as One Piece to pay off some of its narrative high points.
A typical high school sports anime has a template as such: Team plays the inter high => loses to a strong team => tries again with the next nation-wide tournament => qualifies for the national tournament. It's a tried and true formula which has been proven to work many times. What does it mean for Diamond No Ace? It's not typical whatsoever.
Many sports anime would feature an underdog team but Diamond No Ace does the opposite: It features a powerhouse team in the strongest baseball region in Japan. Seido High School has been well renowned as one of the strongest schools in the Tokyo region, with many Koshien (national tournament) appearances before the main plotline takes place. Players that join the school for baseball have an exceptional skill and talent for it, and usually have been playing the sport for many years. In this case, what's so interesting about a team that's already developed? The main character: Eijun Sawamura!
Eijun Sawamura was basically from the boonies, the countryside and played baseball for fun with his childhood friends as a pitcher. He was seen with promise and potential by a Seido scout and made a difficult decision to move to Tokyo and pursue his dreams of becoming a pro baseball player. However, he found himself inferior to many of the players. Mainly, Furuya.
The importance of an ace tag
Furuya Satoru was another 1st Year player scouted to play for Seido as a pitcher. His relationship with Sawamura is akin to other sports anime duos such as Kageyama and Hinata and Rukawa and Sakuragi. From the very beginning, Satoru was labelled as the better pitcher. What did this mean?
He was in the way of Sawamura becoming the Ace of Seido High School. After being told that he was filled with promise and potential, as well as moving away from his family, friends and his entire life, Sawamura instead found himself playing second, nay third fiddle to the ace of the school. It was at this moment he knew the hard work that he had to put in to put the school on his back as the future ace.
The ace tag, the number 1 on the back of the players, is only given to pitchers who have shown great talent and aptitude in breaking down the defense of their opposing team's batting order. Throughout the series, it was emphasised that the reason why Seido wasn't a top tier team was because they lacked the indomitable ace that was present in other powerhouse teams like Inashiro. The appearance of Furuya and Sawamura would inevitably begin the battle of who would become Seido's ace and lead the team to become the National Champions.
The first challenge for Seido was the Summer Koshien tournament. Seido usually makes it very far into the bracket as they are a powerhouse team. However, since Tokyo is one of the biggest and most competitive regions in Japan, it's split into East and West Tokyo. This meant that only one team from each split would make it to the Summer Koshien with the other teams in the nation. Seido undoubtedly blasts through the entire bracket until the finals where they face off against long time rivals: Inashiro High School.
The long time winners of the West Tokyo wing of the Koshien qualifiers, they were the undisputed champions of the region. With an unstoppable batting roster, they were already one of the best teams in Japan. What puts the cherry on top? Their ace, Narumiya Mei.
He was everything Seido was looking for to become the best team in Japan. The pitcher that could put his team on his back and lead them to victory. It was a battle of ideals akin to Shiratorizawa Vs Karasuno from Haikyuu. The heartbreaking thing was: Seido lost. Without a pitcher that could match Narumiya Mei, they just couldn't close out the game with their lead. We said goodbye to the Seido third years and this of course led to Sawamura feeling distraught and putting the blame on himself.
For the following months, Sawamura found himself in a state of despair. He wasn't able to pitch and improve like he was prior due to his mental failing. When someone like Sawamura puts the weight of the loss entirely on their own shoulder, it's bound to have consequences. However with the help of his teammates and coaches, Sawamura bounces back and slowly makes a recovery on the way to the Fall Koshien
After finding himself back on his feet, Seido had to go through a rebuilding phase to prepare for the next Summer Koshien: The Fall Koshien. Unlike other sports anime with a second chance, the Fall Koshien fulfills a criteria:
The third years aren't able to play, so no such thing as a Winter Cup or any cop out of such form
It ultimately doesn't have the same prestige as the Summer Koshien tournament.
This means that the loss against Inashiro still had weight and consequences and showed that Seido still had to move on with whatever they had left. Sawamura took this opportunity and ran with it as much as he could. In matches such as the Yakushi and Hakuryuu ones, Sawamura proved to be a skilled and amazing pitcher in his own right.
His biggest plus compared to Furuya was that he has variety in his pitches while Furuya mainly had speed. Sawamura diligently put in the effort but still played second fiddle to Furuya, who had become the new ace after the third years retired. This however did not affect Sawamura's journey and ambition as he and the rest of Seido moved forward through the Fall Koshien. Doing pretty well for themselves, they beat Yakushi in the finals of the qualifiers and made it to the quarter finals of the Fall Koshien before losing to the favourites, Komaidai Fujimaki.
After concluding their Fall Koshien journey, Seido found themselves in a new year with new first year students. This meant that there was a need to form a brand new roster with the new members and such. After the Fall Koshien, Furuya found himself in a rut. He was unable to pitch at such a high level consistently due to his godlike performance in the match against Komaidai Fujimaki. Furuya was still great don't get me wrong, but a certain someone was waiting in the shadows and showing off his new weapons and skill.
After a year in the plot and FIFTEEN YEARS IN REAL TIME, it was the moment everyone had been waiting for. The new year began with Sawamura pitching for Seido in practice matches. He had formed an amazing chemistry with the catcher, Miyuki. Sawamura developed new pitches that had a high level of consistency and variety. As a result, most teams that played against Sawamura had no idea what to do as they tried to predict his next move. Sawamura had become the rock of Seido.
His skill, improvements and consistency had proven to be an invaluable asset to the team and as a result, he was ultimately chosen to become the Ace of Seido, representing the entire team to once again take on the Summer Koshien.
Whatever I have touched on was just the tip of the iceberg of the brilliant storytelling that is Diamond No Ace. The other narrative threads such as the third years retiring, Miyuki's story arc and Chris' back story has a comparable amount of emotional weight but this particular thread had one thing that shines from the rest: Long term storytelling. It was a story that was 15 years in the making, every page, every drawing and every word in the manga led to this moment where Sawamura achieves his first big milestone as a baseball player. The story is far from over as Seido has yet to win the Summer Koshien and I am excited to see what's next in possibly Act III of Diamond no Ace.
With all this being said, Sawamura getting his ace tag is the most cathartic moment in Sports manga history. (My opinion LOL)
