daiya no ace long post that nobody asked for but i literally just finished it rn and i have a lot of thoughts
(mutuals who are into sports manga/anime please WALK WITH ME and what i have to say)
daiya no ace (ace of diamond) is a sports manga centered on baseball written by yuji terajima. it follows sawamura eijun, a pitcher, who was scouted to join an private high school known for its baseball team.
im going to be outright: i did not get this it at all when i first tried consuming it. initially, i tried watching the anime after a friend recommended it to me and it was also the first time ive ever heard of daiya. ao ashi is my favorite sport manga/anime of all time and she said that since i liked ao ashi sm, i should check daiya out since the two works have some parallels. so i did.
but i couldn’t get into it. it was so painfully slow and i also think my headspace/current situation at that time also had a play in it. i think i got to around seven episodes and stopped because things were barely moving forward. im a busy college student, and i really wanted to watch something that would entertain me during my rare free time, and it wasn’t doing it for me. so i stopped watching. but i wasn’t opposed to picking it back again some other time around.
fast forward to now. it’s a semester break, i picked the manga up a few days ago and decided to come back to the story but to read the source material first because im in a sports manga kick after reading slam dunk. and i think just found my second favorite sports manga.
like my experience, i understand that this may not be for everyone and that it’s hard to get into. the story really takes it time, act 1 (the one im talking here btw and the one i just finished. ill start act 2 tomorrow) has around 400 chapters and the protagonist isn’t even a starter for his team by the end of it. and you could say that it’s realistic and beats other sports mangas in the field in the realism department. because being an athlete isn’t easy, being the best in a team doesn’t happen in a blink of an eye.
but im telling you pls PLS give it a chance because once it kicks in, you can’t stop reading. like i kid you not while reading throughout the series and i only had a hundred something pages left, i felt like i was robbing my future self of joy by continuing reading because that means that the story would end soon (i know there’s act 2 but). like i simply did not want it to end soon, but at the same time i want to know what happens next.
the mc is also going down by my books of favorite protagonists of all time, and i want to add that im someone who don’t gravitate towards mcs most of the time. for some reason, other characters like a deuteragonist or side characters tend to catch my attention more. watching him grow and his journey was so … uplifting ? and it was such a joy i was rooting for him all throughout.
i also think that the manga does a good job in portraying the unpredictability of sports. most of the times in sports mangas/animes, the formula would be: main team would lose to the big guys, main team would train, main team would fight the big guys again, then they win. but thats not the case for daiya (i mean they will face them off again in act 2 but the fact that it subverts the formula in act 1 still stands), which again, accurately portrays the unpredictability of sports irl. some favorites to win get eliminated shockingly.
the story also does a good portrayal of a healthy rivalry where the competition between the two rivals (eijun and furuya) mutually allows them to grow and better themselves. not only that, but they’re also supportive of each other and have a good relationship overall.
anyways now i want to talk about my favorite character: miyuki
can i just say MI CAPITAN. literally my number one boy we cannot replace.
when i first tried watching the anime and my friend (the one who recommended it to me) asked me who are the characters that caught my eye from the few episodes ive seen, i mentioned a bunch of characters and she was in disbelief that i didnt mention miyuki and now that ive read the entire thing IM IN DISBELIEF TOO.
i just love him sm and the way he supports his juniors/pitchers. not to mention hes really an integral part of the team as the catcher, captain, and was responsible for two important aspects in a game in order for them to win. his whole performance in the seikou game is the biggest i am him performance ever and he just moves me sm like idk if i want to be with him or BE HIM. ive only finished part 1 and im curious to know more about his character on the second act.
anyways i think ive rambled too much and idk how to close this huge word vomit but yeah. READ DAIYA!! genuinely give it a chance and you wont regret it
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