Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 14 Discussion

What did you think of this episode?

DO NOT discuss the source material beyond this episode. If you want to discuss future events or theories, please use separate threads.
DO NOT ask where to watch/download this episode or give links to copyrighted, non-fair use material.
DO NOT troll/bait/harass/abuse other users for liking or disliking the series/characters.
DO read the Anime Discussion Rules and Site & Forum Guidelines.

Jul 2, 2019 2:19 AM

Stark700

Offline

Nov 2011

127858

THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
I love the energy and intense music this episode. Eijun's confidence level with his team is also at all time high again.

Pretty fun match this episode. Furuya looks really focused as the pitcher.

Jul 2, 2019 3:52 AM

Ulquiorra

Offline

Feb 2013

24143

Sawamura needs to replace Furuya, fast!

Jul 2, 2019 4:23 AM

Kerozinn

Offline

May 2010

2883

Furuya playing for the other team once again...

Jul 2, 2019 4:46 AM

Pooyan22

Offline

Sep 2015

Kerozinn said:
Furuya playing for the other team once again...

🤣 The biggest conspiracy in DnA's high school baseball league has been exposed!

I'm thinking the Furuya haters and skeptics had a field day with this one!

Amahisa shows off what actually good breaking balls look like (once he got in the zone). Furuya's breaking balls are simply not polished to the level of being consistently viable, especially at Koushien level. Even as a manga-reader and Furuya apologist (I do like him despite my critique) it's frustrating to see Furuya coming to the wrong conclusions about what he lacked vs. Komadai (really, Hongou) and the lack of support in mitigating his weaknesses despite it being obvious he's not equipped to overcome these without said support.

LOL, that Inui and Mukai gag was great. Gonna miss these guys as they slowly and inevitably become irrelevant. Mukai will continue to rot unless he matures but fingers crossed Inui gets drafted after high school, this baseball samurai deserves it!

Even more than usual, the animation was shit! The art was noticeably shittier too. Lots of recycled shots... =/

Jul 2, 2019 6:06 AM

YuseiFudoU

Offline

Jan 2012

I had a feeling Furuya was going to struggle this match for some reason.
In the preview it even showed Sawamura going "What are you doing!?" which is EXACTLY what I was thinking.

Narumiya acknowledging and realizing that he was like that back when he wanted to fight on his own instead of listening to Tadano. It ended up getting Inashiro knocked out of the tournament after all.
Clearly Furuya has a similar problem at hand.

I'm sure he'll bounce back for sure with the help of his teammates, but man it hurts seeing Sawamura on the sidelines at times like these.

Yes Furuya is the Ace, it makes sense for him to start obviously.
But I'm pretty sure with how much Sawamura has improved he also deserves to stand on top of the mound, ESPECIALLY considering the situation at hand.
Kataoka Coach, you know what to do!

Also the new tracks from the new soundtrack are so awesome, can't wait for it to be released!

Jul 2, 2019 6:35 AM

FMmatron

Offline

Nov 2016

31345

Bring Sawamura ffs.

One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron

Jul 2, 2019 6:41 AM

MegamiRem

Offline

Oct 2017

23758

Ah Furuya is so self absorbed rn. He can't even hear what his team mates r saying. They should just bring out Eijun , I wanna see him pitch in a serious game badly.

Jul 2, 2019 6:50 AM

Lelouch0202

Offline

Dec 2014

7040

Great episode.

Damn, those first two runs that Seido scored was so satisfying to watch. I was smiling. :)
Kinda wish Miyuki had hit that home run. xD

Furuya seems to be struggling to control as expected, I feel bad for the guy so absorbed in trying to chase after something that he isn't able to see the team around him.

Loving the parallel between Narumiya from the last game and Furuya here.
Hoping Sawamura gets to pitch. Can't wait for next week.

Jul 2, 2019 7:46 AM

FlarisKnight

Offline

Mar 2008

1201

Well this is kind of what happens when the coach makes lineup decisions based on journal entries. He knew that against this specific lineup that Sawamura was the better pick. But he went with Furuya because his journal was really compelling.

It's a downright miracle that Seido is even ahead in this game. It isn't as if Furuya doesn't care at all. Part of his issue is trying too hard for the sake of making things easier on his team. But all he's doing is spiraling out of control. His control isn't there and his pitch count is rocketing too high.

In a rational view they'd let Furuya tap out. His control is only going to suffer more as fatigue starts sinking in. But I can see him being allowed to fail and staying in. I don't see him working through it and being able to hold on for a win considering his pitch count. And I think it is fine to let Furuya continue to develop as a character. It just sucks that the creator constantly forgets who is the main character in the actual story.

Jul 2, 2019 8:06 AM

#10

phantomfandom

Offline

Sep 2015

5861

I just watched previous season OVA and compare to this season, Mad x IG has more animation, but pure Mad draw characters sexier (though characters are not supposed to be that sexy according to manga).
For this episode, I love the 'self-absorbed' joke.
Another coach bias beside Furuya is that he let Tetsuya's little brother play even though he practically swing at any ball. But I don't mind cause he has good 'facial score' LOL

Jul 2, 2019 8:15 AM

#11

Lyrisia

Offline

Jan 2012

1085

I'm seriously surprised they haven't subbed Furuya out after how badly he is pitching. I can understand they'd want to give him a chance to get into a rythm and all since he's the ace but seriously feels like they are throwing away the game this way. I feel like they used to sub out Sawamura much faster after a mistake. It's not like they don't have other pitchers if one of them, even the ace, is not doing well that day.

Anyway the animation was soooooo bad this ep. So many stills. And then suddenly we get somewhat nice starry eyed fangirls... like wtf.

Jul 2, 2019 9:27 AM

#12

junmisugi

Offline

Oct 2017

555

I hope that in next episode we will have some great moment with Eijun ;)

What I liked in this episode:
- good batting for Seido
- Narumiya Mei thinking about past
- moment when Mukai was talking about hating self-centered players, reaction of catcher Inui was priceless xD

The Young Noble of the Field is currently watching - Diamond no Ace: Act II
Misugi-kun is also reading - Kanojo, Okarishimasu

Jul 2, 2019 9:32 AM

#13

killerqueen2000

Offline

Feb 2016

205

over 80 pitches in 5 innings is really really bad. I like how Mei saw his old self in Furuya. Furuya needs to get his act together or Kataoka has to switch him out immediately instead of just standing there watching him self destruct.
Really excited to see pissed Eijun next episode.

Jul 2, 2019 9:37 AM

#14

melinayuuki

Offline

Jun 2010

168

.Furuya is becoming a more uninteresting character every day. :(
.It looks like Sawamura is going to save the team.

Jul 2, 2019 10:45 AM

#15

Pooyan22

Offline

Sep 2015

phantomfandom said:
Another coach bias beside Furuya is that he let Tetsuya's little brother play even though he practically swing at any ball. But I don't mind cause he has good 'facial score' LOL

Jeee-sus, Kataoka's great but he makes emotional decisions. Plus he doesn't teach the pitchers enough pitching techniques even though he was a Koushien-level pitcher! He teaches Sawamura once or twice and that's it!

LOL, that Amahisa "joke" (thing with Amahisa, he probs wasn't joking) was so harsh on Zono but it was still funny! I guess you could justify Masashi as "needing to gain more experience" as once his contact improves, he'd be a bigger monster than his big bro. Still, it's aaaalmost comical how little batting patience (if that's the correct term) he has.

Lyrisia said:
Anyway the animation was soooooo bad this ep. So many stills. And then suddenly we get somewhat nice starry eyed fangirls... like wtf.

Tell me about it, I think the recycling factor was worse. At least with previous slideshows they bothered to draw new stuff. Yeah I noticed that about the fangirls too! It was so jarring since they were surprisingly well-drawn then back to the mediocre-to-shit slideshows.

killerqueen2000 said:
over 80 pitches in 5 innings is really really bad.

It is catastrophic. If he weren't the ace, he'd have been switched out earlier, to say the least. Furuya is quite black and white leaning towards a darker grey in terms of his overall performance across the series but this is a particular low that will never be forgotten by fans. It's still brought up every now and then.

Jul 2, 2019 11:27 AM

#16

Pooyan22

Offline

Sep 2015

jacippi said:
And then the fangirls with a completely different art style from the rest of the show... which scrapped anime did they pull those from?

I swear, Act II's forum is full of comedians! xD

Jul 2, 2019 2:44 PM

#17

CrookedPanther

Offline

Oct 2016

131

The god of flowing animation has forsaken us this episode... the match of still images. Mei realizing what s going on was good, truly shows how he has grown ... soon to be the strongest opponent !

Jul 2, 2019 2:48 PM

#18

CrookedPanther

Offline

Oct 2016

131

jacippi said:
I'm not one to whine and cry about animation quality (especially for something with a 52 ep season), but the quality was abysmal... kind of took away from my enjoyment of the episode to see the same Mei shot recycled three times.

And then the fangirls with a completely different art style from the rest of the show... which scrapped anime did they pull those from?

The new ED is also really lazy. I like seeing the manga chapter covers revisited, but it didn't match how upbeat the song (which is cute!) is at all.

The quality somehow keeps getting worse... even the manga felt more fluid and alive than this. For this even though it s animated it feels lifeless and dead.
I wasn't the only one who noticed the random girls in the stands ! That was so funny i saw them and thought what the hell ? It's funny how those girls screaming had the best animation of anything else in that whole episode x.x

Jul 2, 2019 3:56 PM

#19

Adaire

Offline

Dec 2017

Is it worth just reading the manga? I've never really dropped an anime franchise I liked due to animation issues but this season is ridiculous. It's understandable due to lack of popularity that the production quality lowers but almost 70% of an episode being still shots is not watchable for me :(

also that 'aura' around fururya is just getting annoying to look at now, not even funny as a reccuring gag anymore.

Jul 2, 2019 5:00 PM

#20

Wintovisky

Offline

Sep 2013

1711

I absolutely hate this fucking coach. Always picking favourites. Furuya playing like shit? Does't matter, I read his diary!!!! Maezono does nothing in the whole series apart from one swing? Lemme play him every game. Fuck this useless coach, seriously.

Jul 2, 2019 11:17 PM

#21

Pooyan22

Offline

Sep 2015

jacippi said:

Adaire said:
Is it worth just reading the manga? I've never really dropped an anime franchise I liked due to animation issues but this season is ridiculous. It's understandable due to lack of popularity that the production quality lowers but almost 70% of an episode being still shots is not watchable for me :(

also that 'aura' around fururya is just getting annoying to look at now, not even funny as a reccuring gag anymore.

The manga is fantastic. It is incredibly well-drawn and retains the humor of the anime (but to your point, I feel like they don't beat Furuya's aura to death like the anime does). Plus, the character designs are consistent and Miyuki's mullet doesn't grow and shrink with every new shot he's in.

While I love this anime, I like the manga twice as much.

I second jacippi, the manga is definitely better. I even think the manga has always been better.

Jul 3, 2019 6:26 AM

#22

killerqueen2000

Offline

Feb 2016

205

Read the manga for sure. Not only the art is better but the panel placement and flow of the whole manga is way better.

Jul 3, 2019 6:27 AM

#23

killerqueen2000

Offline

Feb 2016

205

Pooyan22 said:
It is catastrophic. If he weren't the ace, he'd have been switched out earlier, to say the least. Furuya is quite black and white leaning towards a darker grey in terms of his overall performance across the series but this is a particular low that will never be forgotten by fans. It's still brought up every now and then.

His breaking balls are supposed to compliment his fastballs but now all of his pitches are all over the place smh. worst performance from Furuya we've seen

killerqueen2000Jul 3, 2019 6:31 AM

Jul 3, 2019 8:21 AM

#24

Fayrin

Offline

Sep 2011

2632

They started so well, Amahisa couldn't anything to stop them from scoring those runs, but Furuya's state and performance is far from being ideal. I really like that Mei was able to clearly see his mistakes thanks to him though, I guess he won't become like that again. But now Furuya needs to let the tension go and trust his pitching and the team. Not that he doesn't trust them, but it's like he feels that he has to win by himself right now. And I really disliked the new ED's song, especially compared to the previous one, but I loved the photos.

Jul 3, 2019 3:06 PM

#25

Dragon_Slayer_X

Offline

Aug 2012

2302

Another episode of Furuya messing up but everyone still wanking him. There isn't even any rain to cool him down this time.

Can we get to the part where Sawamura cleans up after him again? He is already an expert at cleaning up the so-called ace's mess. He is the more interesting pitcher with his variety instead of "I-can-throw-fast-balls" Furuya.

Also what is with this season? Season 1 had actual games and player moving. Season 2 is 80% documentary, 10% characters moving around, 5% running bs of furuya wank and overused aura jokes and 5% rest. Can we have actual games and Season 1 animation back please.

Jul 3, 2019 3:17 PM

#26

t_tomodachi22

Offline

May 2019

195

Furuya = knows only 1 breaking ball + can only throw fastballs > can still not get them in the strike zone and is essentially the worst choice pitcher for tense situations because he fights alone

Sawamura = has about 6 changeups/breaking balls, etc in his arsenal + can actually throw straight to Miyuki's mitt and would be a much better starter than Furuya in about 70% of all the games they play

Kawakami = fierce sidearm pitch + pretty calm/not always confident but willing to play and is terribly under-utilized (he's not my favorite character, but I mean, come on..)

Honestly, I haven't ever really liked Furuya's character. His personality irks the living hell out of me, but I can say that batters have immense trouble trying to hit his pitches when he's on a role and so he is an essential player to the team, while Sawamura and Kawakami's pitches are easier for batters to get used to. I can give Furuya that, but this over hype and reliance on him as the ace of Seido's team, as if they blatantly ignore his weaknesses... I don't like it.

Jul 3, 2019 8:51 PM

#27

The_Fan

Offline

May 2007

580

Seriously, what's wrong with this season's animation ?? It's a sport anime and we only got fixed shots with charachters who are barely moving..

It's like I'm reading a coloured manga with seiyuus doing their job and some music.

Jul 3, 2019 8:58 PM

#28

jayhiei

Offline

Oct 2016

SAME ABOUT THE ANIMATION. I was thinking it looked really bad especially compared to how great the animation has been up until now. I'm sure it'll be better next week (I HOPE!)

Jul 4, 2019 12:43 AM

#29

Pooyan22

Offline

Sep 2015

killerqueen2000 said:

His breaking balls are supposed to compliment his fastballs but now all of his pitches are all over the place smh. worst performance from Furuya we've seen

Yah, "supposed to" being the operative phrase. Even his fastballs are quite inconsistent since day one. I'm still n00by when it comes to baseball knowledge but all the more that's saying something. The "smarter" teams just ignore the breaks that are obviously out of the strike zone lol and force Furuya and Miyuki to try and strike them out with a fastball (usually a "straight" one, I'm not sure what the exact term is). To be fair though, this can backfire if the opposition can't consistently hit Furuya's fastballs but of course it makes Furuya all the more predictable.

Dragon_Slayer_X said:
Another episode of Furuya messing up but everyone still wanking him. There isn't even any rain to cool him down this time.

He is the more interesting pitcher with his variety instead of "I-can-throw-fast-balls" Furuya.

Furuya's gonna forever be wanked because he has the God-given gift of being able to pitch those crazy heaters. The potential alone clouds the eyes of even players and staff who should know better. His talent isn't being nurtured. Either way Furuya's damned because the fans will pick him apart no matter what. Does well? Gary Stu hate. Does poorly? "Unworthy ace" hate. Kinda feel bad for him because responsibility also lies with Miyuki and the coaches...

t_tomodachi22 said:
Furuya = knows only 1 breaking ball + can only throw fastballs > can still not get them in the strike zone and is essentially the worst choice pitcher for tense situations because he fights alone

Honestly, I haven't ever really liked Furuya's character. His personality irks the living hell out of me, but I can say that batters have immense trouble trying to hit his pitches when he's on a role and so he is an essential player to the team, while Sawamura and Kawakami's pitches are easier for batters to get used to. I can give Furuya that, but this over hype and reliance on him as the ace of Seido's team, as if they blatantly ignore his weaknesses... I don't like it.

I like Furuya (but not as much as Sawamura of course) but when it comes to his pitching, he doesn't stack up to the hype everyone places on him other than being in awe of his potential and ability to throw maaaad heaters. When he's good like 20-30% of the time he's great, otherwise it's bad-to-OK.

BTW Furuya knows two breaking balls (slider and slurve) and I think he only uses two fastballs (the "straight" brute force one which I don't know the exact term of and a splitter). Yup, he's quite inconsistent when it comes to getting in the strike zone. Hell, his breaking pitches border on pointless atm and I can't remember his splitter being especially noteworthy. I learned flamethrowers sacrifice control but Furuya just seems too inaccurate.

According to the savvy fans, his form is poor too so that's why he gets injured semi-regularly and his "must overpower everyone" conflict at the moment just makes everything worse. It's hard to tell if his poor stamina comes from the form or he naturally has poor stamina since day one but the form made worse. At least he decided on how to improve that and is persistently working on it. Everything else, he either isn't shown to work on it at all or comes up with a bad solution because he doesn't get the type of support suitable for a person like him. He ain't smart, he needs someone to show and yell at him "THROWING HARDER ISN'T GONNA HELP IN THE LONG RUN 'CAUSE X, Y, Z. TRY DOING A, B, C INSTEAD BRO!"

Despite his demeanor, he handles pressure/tension unhealthily. It sends him into overdrive and exacerbates his weaknesses; the worst outcome being the Ichidaisan match currently. We've seen this happen with Umemiya too.

Jul 9, 2019 3:19 PM

#30

anthi-light

Offline

Feb 2012

1109

smh furuya is self destructing once again.
Just bring my boy sawamura in the game.

「 To other people, I might not have changed at all, but I feel like I was able to change... 」

💜Anime List 💜Manga List 💜Manwha/Manhua List💜

Nov 4, 2019 7:33 PM

#31

Ant161718

Offline

Oct 2017

333

TRASH ANIMATION THIS EP. TOO MUCH RIGID, wtf it's going on man?

-¡Give yourself to me!

Dec 20, 2019 7:07 PM

#32

erenmeii

Offline

Sep 2018

2132

What's wrong with Furuya?! Let Eijun pitch this time!!

Nov 3, 2021 10:16 AM

#33

Unkrowned

Offline

Jul 2015

9959

I disagree with Amahisa scores here, I would've given Maezono a great facial score as thats one of his few defining traits. Also Furuya messing up bad, I hope Kataoka replaces him with Kawakami or Eijun and doesn't keep him in just because he is the ace with crazy pitches.

Jul 18, 2023 7:02 PM

#34

Sun_Chan

Offline

Aug 2019

2154

So Coach Kataoka was planning on starting Eijun before because strategically it made sense since the other team has lots of left-handed batters, but he read Furuya’s diary and immediately changed his mind.

Why is everyone chin all the way up lmao.

Aug 21, 2023 6:18 PM

#35

1Konochi

Offline

May 2020

1635

Yep, Furuya is totally struggling this episode.

See All Discussions

Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 52 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 31, 2020	58	by Nova22 »» Mar 9, 5:56 PM
Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 15 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jul 9, 2019	74	by PrOxAnto »» Dec 17, 2023 3:21 PM
Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 23, 2019	74	by PrOxAnto »» Dec 15, 2023 12:14 PM
Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 24 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 10, 2019	31	by 1Konochi »» Sep 14, 2023 11:35 AM
Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 21 Discussion Stark700 - Aug 20, 2019	31	by 1Konochi »» Sep 8, 2023 4:44 PM

Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 14 Discussion

More topics from this board

Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 52 Discussion ( 1 2 )

Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 15 Discussion ( 1 2 )

Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 )

Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 24 Discussion

Poll: » Diamond no Ace: Act II Episode 21 Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters