Story -6 : The story of this series is very typical shounen material so its something you would expect from most sports anime. Usually a sports series is good because of its characters anyways so thats all I will say for the story.
Art -7: I liked the art, it doesn't try to be too flashy, and characters all have different designs so its easy to tell the difference. I think the anime does a decent job, especially when trying to portray the emotions of certain characters like when they feel frustrated the color of the backgrounds change with the emotions of the characters. I think the art of the manga is better though as the author is pretty good at drawing the faces of his characters, especially the eyes. Really brings out the intensity of the characters.
Sound -7: The sound was decent, although sometime the ost were repetitive, i enjoyed them. The sounds of the baseball bat hitting the ball is also repetitive but its not an issue for me. The openings were great and the endings were ok. The best part is for sure the voice acting. The VAs are so into their roles that they hold special events to do with this series and cosplay as the characters. There are even character songs of our favorite characters in the series which i recommend everyone to give a listen.
Characters -8: Now, like most sports anime this is the best part of a series . There are a lot of characters in this series and while not all of them are amazing, there are quite a few likable ones. Usually, the mc Sawamura eijun would be the main focus of the series. However, a lot of times the focus shifts to the Seido team as a whole. There are senpais in the series who are great supporting characters of the first years but they also have their own goals that they want to accomplish, to be a big contributor to the team. Seido baseball club is so lovable because of the interactions of all these characters as well as how they support one another or striving to improve themselves.
Yuki is the captain of the team so he has a lot of responsibility and usually gives his teammates encouragement. The most important characters to the mc are Miyuki the catcher and Chris the other catcher. Chris is the main support of Sawamura and is a big part of his development as a character. Chris himself was struggling because of an injury and this was also one of the reason why Sawamura developed. These characters support one another but are also self motivated.
Miyuki, the main catcher of the team is sometimes the core of the team because he is the one who takes care of all the catchers. He has a carefree attitude and his teammates get pissed off because of him sometimes but they respect him a lot. Like Chris, his relationship with Sawamura is amazing and you get to see it from a realistic perspective. Miyuki's relationship with Sawamura is one of the best dynamics in the series.
The backstory of the characters are simple to understand, and although the series is never deep, its executed in a realistic way. Sawamura is still the main character and got the most development. He was a typical shounen mc at first but his characters development is done in the most realistic way possible. Many people complain that he gets overshadowed by his rival Furuya and doesn't get enough screen time but for me that was why I liked Sawamura even more. He struggled a lot and being an inexperienced first year, he had to learn a lot from his mistakes. Its amazing how much struggles he goes through and seeing him overcome them is satisfying. He has a loud personality but is also very self motivated, which makes him a perfect character to root for and makes him more suitable to be an ace. Season one is him discovering his potential from the help from others and from himself, and slowly developing it so his struggles made a lot of sense. His rival Furuya however, is different because he had natural talent from the start, which was a good contrast. Character interactions, relationships, and their goals is what makes this series great in its characters.
Enjoyment -9 and overall : I enjoyed this series a lot. It can be slow in pace and some fans might still be angry or impatient about Sawamura struggling so much but for me thats why this series is so different than the other shounen. This series is nothing deep like Ping pong or Ashita no joe but its done realistically in shounen fashion. Its pretty similar to haikyuu but a lot more focused on the mental side of athletes because of how the sport of baseball is structured where there is a special meaning of being an ace in the team- a person who shoulders the hopes and dreams of everyone else and leads the team to victory. Mainly I love seeing Sawamura working hard to reach that goal of becoming an ace and he still has a lot to learn.
7.5 is my score of the anime. I originally gave it at least an 8 but after catching up with the current manga, season 1 is good but not nearly as good as the current manga. I recommend more people to watch this anime because the character struggles of Eijun make him one of the best sports protagonists imo
