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Mar 5, 2012 10:19 AM
#1

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May 2010
1423
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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I was going to say "what a predictable ending", but the reality is that the reason it's predictable is because it couldn't have ended any other way. Bravo to Sumika Yamamoto for writing such a story and Osamu Dezaki for bringing it to life with such passion. I can see now why it was such an inspiration to others.

The sad thing is at the rate these things get subbed, I'll have to wait five years to see the sequel just like the original viewers did!
“Money can't buy dere”
Oct 30, 2012 3:06 PM
#2

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Sep 2012
15
I agree... Ace wo Nerae was predictable, but I liked it as a sweet story... I would be glad if the subs come sometime for the other seasons...
Feb 16, 2015 10:56 PM
#3
Mob Character C

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Oct 2009
5189
Okie dokes. I've wanted to say some things since the beginning, but held it off. I think the last episode is a nice place to put it.

Ace wo Nerae has been such a lovely little treat. It's been a while since I've been fully absorbed in an anime, and this is it. I feel like I came back every episode for the relationship between Hiromi and Maki. Throughout my viewing, I'd find myself stopping to say, "Oh my gosh, Maki's adorable," "she's [Maki's] so adorable," or "Maki's the best".
There are shows I end up feeling bummed about because it just feels like they have no one to turn to. Usually, these characters find someone that supports them or they find the drive to keep going/support from others and that ends up being the whole point of the show. It's fine because most people relate to that situation.

I really loved how (except for maybe that one episode when Maki didn't want to see Hiromi lose) Hiromi always had Maki behind her. I thought that was really heartwarming and maybe even one of the shows best aspects. While, I do feel like Maki could have used a nice bout of development, I appreciated her character a lot. It took away that frustrating, "I'd be there for you if I was in your world," thoughts one might have. Also, because Maki was always there for her, it made it clear that any demons Maki might have had were the cause of her own thoughts and not really caused by lack of support from others, and I think that's really important to note.

This anime was so fun to watch. It's very 70's-ish and that was great to experience. Because of its age, I got a chuckle out of some of the things you might not see today, and some of the things just worked so well, even now. I'm tempted to watch any others within the Ace wo Nerae franchise!

Enjoy your anime! | Witch Cafe Wisteria
Jan 22, 2016 6:58 PM
#4
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Aug 2011
7279
I loved this... I really loved this. <3

From looking at the cover I expected fabulous shoujo sparkles which I did get, but I never expected it to be so thrilling.
Yes a lot of the story was quite predictable but I was moved by the sheer amount of passion displayed by some of these characters.

Oka Hiromi is one of my favorite female characters now. Her growth as a character was impressive.

Seeing her going from this average high-school girl who only gushed about Ojoufujin, to someone who gave her all to a sport she grew to love truly did move me.
She was also such a good-natured character too that I wanted people to like her as she liked them, so unconditionally.
Speaking of that, can I mention Kyoko? What a turn-around! At one point I was thinking to myself. "When did Otowa Kyouko become this inspiring?".

Agree with @Swiggy. Maki was freaking adorable. We all need a Maki in our lives.

Swiggy said:
Because of its age, I got a chuckle out of some of the things you might not see today, and some of the things just worked so well, even now.

Yeah all the stills and such wouldn't work with sport anime these days but they are brilliant here a large part due to Dezaki Osamu's direction.
You really get the most of out every still/repetitive shot because they are delivered with a lot of impact.

I've not seen many of his shows but my gosh I desperately need to invest more time into discovering more of his works.


I feel like I have so much more to say but I don't know how to articulate myself in a coherent manner anymore.
standJan 22, 2016 9:03 PM
Mar 10, 2016 1:57 PM
#5

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Jun 2015
3462
An excitingly befitting ending. Really good series.
Aug 24, 2016 11:15 PM
#6

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Oct 2012
99
Amazing ending to this story. The culmination of Hiromi's youth and tennis training leading up to this moment. Finally, others are able to witness the true power of Hiromi. I really enjoyed watching this show, I hope one day S2 will be fully subbed.
Oct 15, 2016 5:07 PM
#7

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Apr 2014
1107
holy fucking shit what an intense match.....even though the art isn't top notch and the animation is reused, that was so nerve wrecking.

but am i the only one who wanted ochou to win by one point? it would have kept her winning record and made more sense because oka still hasn't been training for as long. well i guess it's because oka absolutely had to win that match and so her true power showed through. but i still think the normal oka would lose against the normal ochou

still super grateful that the coach wasn't made a love interest. however, we didn't get his past at all? this anime feels incomplete
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Feb 9, 2017 4:42 PM
#8

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May 2016
158
With the bad shounen episode premise (Oka has to duel Ryuuzaki as if she was the series' "final boss"), I thought this series was going to end in disaster, but the final episode was pretty good. This series was good, sometimes even great, but I'm not going to easily forget the string of horrible episodes I was subjected to between the 16th and the 19th. 7/10.
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Jun 8, 2017 7:45 AM
#9
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Aug 2014
1693
So were the other coached blind that they couldn't see Oka's ability? The match setup felt a bit forced and I think it would've been better if all the sets were close going from 6 - 0 to 1 - 6 is too much of a swing.
Aug 26, 2017 6:54 AM

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Dec 2015
6449
As above, I found the match to be forcedly triggered. On the other hand, it showed to be a natural finale for it. But if it had been only a part of a story, I would have find her victory far more meaningless than a competent duel against Ryûzaki, forcing her adversary to be serious, while still giving the match to the one who trained for more than her high-school years.

4/5 Positively surprised by how it concluded, despite its "cancellation".


Pretty good series overall, the focus on embracing a sport was rarely lost and the heroin was a good "motivational" character. The reduction of Munakata to such a simple existence with no real motivation or personal "conflict" or something both helped to emphasize Hiromi's road but totally deserved the character who could have been a strength for the series.
Technically... i can't say a lot since I 'm not used to this period of TV productions. The representation of the drama (lights/shadows, colour hues, etc, highly dramatic stills) was good though and made up for most of the lack of animation. The stubornness of the series to sometimes depict tennis matches for too long (despite its impossibility to do it correctly) made certain episodes more tiresome, along others where the focus seemed kind of lost.
A minus point would be Ozaki's redesign, it makes the character supposed to be "beautiful" rather ugly.


Score: 7/10

@FMmatron You can already check the movie. (even if you watched the first show, you will still have a great time, just like with any 80s movie)
After that: the second show (who re-adapts again, faster and at times more faithfully, the manga) is only available in japanese but the OAVs who adapt the later years (with several changes/shortcuts compared to the manga) are all available either subbed or in italian.

FMmatron said:
Do you know a torrent where I can find all episodes subbed ?


I found the re(adaptation on the Internet only in full japanese: some episodes were even on YouTube (ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KF0j7N4_1A ). When you already know the story, it isn't really difficult to understand and it's pleasant to see things again with a better animation and certain characters finally looking like their manga counterpart (and maybe a less dramatized touch for some scenes).

Ace wo Nerae 2 (13OAVs) was published in France: https://video.fnac.com/a2198022/Coffret-integral-DVD-Zone-2
I can't help you for an english subtitled version, but as I wrote above you can easlily find the italian dub on the internet.
The Final Stage OAVs were sadly not published here (thanks to the politics of the publisher's new direction), but they are also available on the Internet in italian.
The main problem with the italian dub is the "italianized" names.
Rei_IIIDec 31, 2017 7:49 AM
Dec 28, 2017 5:53 AM

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Nov 2016
31357
Great show,it may lacked a bit fire compared to other sports shows I know,but I guess that was to be expected since it's a shoujo and therefore it dealt with other topics,surprisingly well on top of that. Thought the drama and tiny bit of romance we got knew to convince.Loved also the character development for Hiromi and Otowa,think that was the aspect which impressed me the most.

Art and animation wise it wasn't really good expect for some scenes,but the good directing made more than up for it.

Tied between a 7 and an 8,I might change it in the future,but for now I'll go with an 8.

Now I dunno if I should wait for the rest of the subs or rather learn Japanese instead..*thinking intensely*

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


Dec 31, 2017 7:34 AM

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Nov 2016
31357
Rei366 said:
As above, I found the match to be forcedly triggered. On the other hand, it showed to be a natural finale for it. But if it had been only a part of a story, I would have find her victory far more meaningless than a competent duel against Ryûzaki, forcing her adversary to be serious, while still giving the match to the one who trained for more than her high-school years.

4/5 Positively surprised by how it concluded, despite its "cancellation".


Pretty good series overall, the focus on embracing a sport was rarely lost and the heroin was a good "motivational" character. The reduction of Munakata to such a simple existence with no real motivation or personal "conflict" or something both helped to emphasize Hiromi's road but totally deserved the character who could have been a strength for the series.
Technically... i can't say a lot since I 'm not used to this period of TV productions. The representation of the drama (lights/shadows, colour hues, etc, highly dramatic stills) was good though and made up for most of the lack of animation. The stubornness of the series to sometimes depict tennis matches for too long (despite its impossibility to do it correctly) made certain episodes more tiresome, along others where the focus seemed kind of lost.
A minus point would be Ozaki's redesign, it makes the character supposed to be "beautiful" rather ugly.


Score: 7/10

@FMmatron You can already check the movie. (even if you watched the first show, you will still have a great time, just like with any 80s movie)
After that: the second show (who re-adapts again, faster and at times more faithfully, the manga) is only available in japanese but the OAVs who adapt the later years (with several changes/shortcuts compared to the manga) are all available either subbed or in italian.


Checked the movie already and it made me eventually even lower my score for the TV version. And yes, I didn't find the re-adapted 1978 version anywhere :/ I also started the OVA Ace wo Nerae 2!,but it's only subbed till episode 6. Do you know a torrent where I can find all episodes subbed ?

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


Jan 6, 2019 2:55 PM

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Jan 2013
2251
wow, that was wild man.
Feb 24, 2021 11:21 AM

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Jun 2014
22470
I don't believe it, Hiromi actually beat Ryuuzaki. Even the coach had doubts, but Hiromi surpassed the odds. This is Ryuuzaki's first real loss, but she's not mad, because if anyone was going to beat her, she's glad it was Hiromi.

This is among the absolute best anime I've seen. I loved everything about it, from the 70s styles and soundtrack, to the story and character development.

Oct 16, 2021 12:40 PM
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Sep 2017
502
What a intense match. I can see Osamu signature all over this episode lol

Overall, this series was a fun ride.

Score: 8/10
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Apr 13, 2022 8:14 PM

Online
Dec 2021
1261
Damn dude, it hurts my heart and soul that I can't give this anime any higher than a 7. I wanted to love it more, as it has some truly great moments, but the animation is just not as good as I expected, which having seen Ashita no Joe (Which is older, sharing a lot of the staff from this anime), and Versailles no Bara (Which was done by TMS during the late 70s), this feels too cost cut comparatively. Some of the matches in it felt fragmented, like the things that happened seconds before don't connect to things that happened seconds later. I love the artstyle, and if it were animated better, I probably would've given it an 8.

Having read through other threads, it seems like the movie is a fair substitute for Shin Ace wo Nerae, though I'm not really looking forward to watching what is effectively the "first twelve episode of AnJ2" equivalent for Ace wo Nerae, just so I can then watch Ace wo Nerae 2.
Opinions are opinions, and differing opinions can co-exist. 🙂 But I don't do debate, life's too short to spend time debating people.
Jul 30, 2022 5:31 PM

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Sep 2018
4762
Finally done with this shit show, slugged my way through all that, that's for sure. Worst and most unconvincing sporting development I've ever seen a MC go through, it was horrendous and almost insulting to watch. The tiny bit of romance was like the director went "ah shit, we should really add something here, to keep the fans happy" right at the end as well lmao. 4/10.

The only positives were the soundtrack, some of the side characters like Maki and the comedy.
Nov 2, 2023 4:30 PM

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Jan 2021
169
Fantastic finale. Dezaki really knew how to direct an ending. There's a part of me that wishes Hiromi had lost the final set, but I can't complain too much.
Jan 27, 10:44 PM

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Sep 2020
645
What a thrillilng ending! Too bad it had to end, though, I was looking forward to seeing the actual tournament.

The whole series was a lot of fun, way more than I expected. I like old school shows but the only 70s anime experience I have Casshan, Chargemen Ken, and the Animerama films - none of which I'd call spectacular (except for Belladonna of Sadness). But despite the simple art and much recycled animation, I found the actual tennis parts & matches very engaging. Of course, the story and characters were where it really shines. Everybody was great, not just Hiromi (I just couldn't stop hearing them saying "okaa-san" though :p)

9 balls to the chin /10.
"You can't decide the future, but I'm going to re-educate you in the past!" - Erna Kurtz

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It’s time to ditch the text file.
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