Normally in many sport animes, the main character's team is seen as an underdog and not really taken that seriously. However, Seidou high is different. Despite them not making nationals in 6 years, they have a certain aura of prestige surrounding their name and already well known in the baseball world. This fact illustrates how our main character has to bust his ass to get to a significant position in such a well known and strong baseball team.
The story in diamond no ace isn't really that special. We have our main character who is from the country who has a gift for baseball. He is unaware of how to use this gift and gets an offer to a prestigious high school where he meets a genius catcher to get his potential truly realized. Now he faces many trials and tribulations to try to become the ace of the baseball team.
Despite the fairly formulaic plot structure, the story is actually quite well executed which saves it from being a failure. I mentioned earlier that this show illustrated the dynamics of a baseball team well. I say this because this show has a realistic and well executed approach to the hierarchy of a baseball team. Examples would be that a player would have to go through the second string to get to the first string and how new members spend a lot of their time running. I also enjoyed how the strategy of baseball is fully explored which is a treat for baseball fans such as myself. However there was a flaw in that. That flaw is that the pacing in this anime isn't really the greatest. For example when a character is pitching, there are a million things happening from in between him winding up and the ball actually going into the catcher's glove. This really slows down the pace of a lot of games and drags out a lot of at bats when it is really unnecessary.
Another thing there were some enjoyable episodes that didn't do a lot for the overall plot. However I can't be too mad about that due to some of these episodes containing great character development. Speaking of character development, the characters in this show are great. The interactions and chemistry between the characters is well executed. There are both comedic and dramatic moments present and it really heightens the character interaction. Different traits for each character is present and for the most part they are all likeable.
We know that in any sport we win or we lose. The pain of defeat and the sweetness of victory is present here. The characters also do their best to help eachother to improve. I thought that Coach Kataoka and Chris did this the best because they help the characters grow and mature and learn from their mistakes. A great point in this character growth would be how all of the characters kind of improve over time and how they rise up in the team. The jealousy and rivalry of trying to keep your spot on the team is also here and well illustrated.
I had barely any complaints with the art and due to the series' length, the art improves as it went on. The sound was also great with the voice work being solid and the music was amazing. I enjoyed all of the opening themes as well as the OST as they really set a great mood depending on the scene.
I mainly checked out this anime because I am now enjoying sport anime. And I also love baseball and can understand all of the depth they go into as far as game strategy goes. So overall if you want an enjoyable sport anime with awesome characters and music with a well executed story, check this one out.
