The manga binge continues, and this time, I struggle to pick a title from the hundreds I have in my digital library. So, here's a kind of random one, I guess. BACKGROUND:
While I've heard of a few sports manga series via the popularity of their anime adaptations, I can't say I've encountered a baseball manga until I added this one to my library. When it comes to baseball (which is what this manga's all about), I do know a bit about it thanks to the power of video games and the Internet. It's definitely not a sport I follow, though. SUMMARY: Ace of the Diamond tells the story of Eijun Sawamura, a gifted pitcher fresh off middle school who just wants to continue playing baseball with his friends. His intense pitching style sadly led to a heartbreaking loss for their team at their final game, but it also caught the attention of a recruiter for Seido High School, a prestigious institution where Japan's most gifted young baseball players are training. While hesitant (even dismissive at first), Eijun takes a tour of the campus, and his experience there changes his outlook on the beautiful game forever. Most of this first volume is simply setting the stage for Eijun's journey to become an ace pitcher. They show his time as the "commander" of his middle school baseball team, the fateful game that put him on Seido's radar, and his earliest days at Seido. His journey's only getting started, but there's already some interesting stuff here. What stood out to me in the beginning is how Eijun truly cherished his friends and how he loved playing baseball with them. Not only was he content simply sticking with them through high school, his friends were incredibly supportive of him when word came out that Seido was scouting him. The book doesn't really spend much time fleshing out the bond between these kids, but what is shown here is more than enough. Eijun loves his friends dearly to the point that he felt personally responsible for giving them a happy memory in the form of success as a baseball team, and those friends of his were genuinely happy for him when they learned that he had a chance to become the best pitcher they already knew him to be. It's quite heartwarming to read, and I empathized with Eijun's internal struggle with choosing between one dream and another. Eijun's trip to Seido completely redefines his love of the sport thanks to a bit of batting practice with the arrogant Kyokuni Azuma (who dares Eijun to pitch against him) and the snarky Kazuya Miyuki (who offers to be his catcher). That game ignited a desire within him to properly test his skills, and after facing the bittersweetness of having to leave his friends behind to chase this dream, he officially joins Seido as one of their freshmen. There's only one chapter of Eijun being a student in this volume, but it's got enough to keep me intrigued. He gets to meet his roommates (who aren't fleshed out yet, but already seem to be quite the pair of characters), try to adjust to the strict training regimen of the school, and face his first big test as he faces off against their intense coach. It feels like Eijun may be way in over his head here, but the volume ends on a cliffhanger seconds before a moment of truth for him. Nearly all of the focus is naturally on Eijun, though they do give brief moments to characters who are being set up as his major supporting cast throughout the series (like his fellow students and his coach). There's also Eijun's talent scout Rei Takashima (an older woman with quite the no-nonsense professional demeanor) and his grandfather, whose solution to everything is corporal punishment. The art style has a solid level of detail to it, but the aspect I want to highlight the most is the superb linework to depict the intense, dynamic motions the baseball players perform. These range from missile-like pitches, full-blown sprints, and bat swings that'll knock a person out cold. Baseball is often derided as "boring", but the manga's visuals are anything but. VERDICT: Eijun's quest to be the best in Ace of the Diamond was interesting to me off the bat with how his view on the game changed with just one trip to Seido's campus. There's really not much forward movement in terms of the story in the first volume, but the foundations for it (the value Eijun sees in his friendships, his new colleagues in Seido, the strict training regimen) are more than solid. I wouldn't mind reading more of this. I can't really sell people on this based on the sports element of it, as I am neither American nor Japanese, the two places I know of where baseball is huge. For what it's worth, I liked the protagonist and am interested in his journey, so if that's a story formula you're into, this might be up your alley. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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