Ace of the Diamond Season 2: Episodes 19-21 FULL LENGTH Reaction!
Added 2021-12-29 14:00:05 +0000 UTCWe get resolution to that cliffhanger from the last set of episodes! Oh, and what resolution it IS! But, oh, Ochiai, you smart, slimy man...you actively want me to not like you, don't you? This episode there were soooo many seeds of discontent being sown by this assistant coach (don't mind my alliteration, there), and I just...*sigh*
Episode 19 had so many beautiful and cheerful moments! But then you have Episodes 20 and 21 coming into to muck up the waters! Y'all...this show...so much to talk about!
LINK: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/X6seKuSBfpqZnbtUpEqMgQ?
Thank you for watching with me and for the support!
Comments
Furuya’s decision to play with his injury is frustrating, because he has SEEN what Tanba and Chris’s injuries were like for them, so he should know better…it can be blamed on him being a teenager or whatnot, but it’s still sad to see and Ochiai wanting him to play despite it is insanity to me, like you said, mainly because he is such a fanboy for Furuya. That’s a really good comparison to Kakeru’s coach in RWTW; I hadn’t thought of that comparison, but a lot of Ochiai’s thoughts and theories kind of align with that type of coaching, so you may be onto something, hahaha! I like the idea of Ochiai and Kataoka working together to bounce off the ideas that DO work together, but dude needs to stop lurking between vending machines (hahaha) and start communicating with Kataoka for that to be a thing. I’m excited to see Go and Oya in the next few sets of episodes; should be interesting!! :) Thank you for the kind words and happy New Year!
Romaniablack
2022-01-01 20:07:59 +0000 UTCI can't believe that awful cliffhanger was resolved before the opening! They were so mean! :D I fully expected them to take half the episode to repeat the tension and trauma, but Sawamura's dispatched Umemiya with ease! I hate that Ugumori had to lose though. Seeing them all devastated hurt, especially Nao and Umemiya. But I'm glad they're pulling themselves up and setting their sights on the next summer. As is Tadano; I love that determined expression of his - so intense! Mei had better be ready! And it was nice to see Shunshin one more time; it would have been nice to see more of him, but you can't use strategy against a force of nature... And finally! I have been holding my tongue about Furuya's injury for so long! And let me tell you, I am not happy. Here we are, thinking that Furuya has overcome his own hang-ups, is pitching for the team, and pitching well; and it's all a lie. He's only (ironically) doing "well" because he's distracted by his foot. And to top it off, he outright lies to Kataoka about his condition in order to stay on the mound; and the game is nearly lost as a consequence. I am too tired of his selfishness to even be angry anymore. He may not be a "bad" rival for Sawamura, but I'll be hard-pressed to ever think he's a good one. And "whispers of the devil" indeed. Ochiai is so frustrating! And 'snake' is an apt description of him. He has so many unlikeable traits (such as lurking between vending machines O.O) but telling Furuya to practice on an injured foot is completely inappropriate (and confusing, given his usual myopia towards Furuya) and reminds me of Kakeru's high school coach in RWTW. Yet, at the risk of playing devil's advocate (pun intended), I can't dismiss his knowledge or help but agree with him on some things. If the goal is victory in Koshien, and you're not worried about mentoring or building character among the players, pursuing quality over quantity and limiting the team to 20 students per grade seems reasonable. Nor can you deny the man's skill at teaching baseball. Yes, he completely stole the idea from Kataoka; but neither Kataoka nor Miyuki were willing to act on it. And while I doubt that he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart (more likely he's trying to prove his point about how useless Sawamura is), if Sawamura succeeds in pitching the change-up, Ochiai will have done more for Sawamura as a player than anyone not named Chris or Kataoka. And in opposition to Ochiai, Kataoka ends the tension among the second-years by reassuring Nabe and his friends, all without ever knowing there was tension to begin with (a negative mark, but I'll let it go). Maybe he should take his own advice and not resign? In the end, the whole situation was for the sake of Miyuki's growth as a leader (yes, being a leader means that often you have to set aside your own opinions for the good of the group). And Yuki was brilliant for turning Miyuki's own opinion back on him to make him realize how poorly it comes across. As for -Ochiai-Jr.- Go, he and Oya seem to be building up an interesting opponent. On the surface, they seem to be like Sakurazawa - just another public school reaching for the stars - but this public school has been to Koshien (the school sign says 83rd Koshien, so six years before the one that just ended, i.e. 2001). And despite that achievement, Go seems to have a big chip on his shoulder regarding private "baseball" schools. It'll be interesting to see if he can turn that antipathy into victory in the next game... Happy New Year!
zeroantizero
2022-01-01 05:04:35 +0000 UTCThank you so much for the kind words! There was so much in this post I was nodding along with! Thank you for the clarification on the semifinals And Akira’s pitch! My thoughts on Ochiai are similar; I HATE that he tries to pit the other players against Sawamura! Especially if he’s going to become the ace, you just can’t do that! :( Not a fan!! There’s so much that happened in these episodes and so much set up for future moments. UGH, this was a good set of episodes, despite how frustrating Ochiai was! Thank you SO much for the awesome comment and well wishes! Happy New Year, too!!
Romaniablack
2021-12-31 19:57:22 +0000 UTCI definitely am NOT a fan of him urging Furuya to play with his injury — I’m like, DO YOU KNOW HOW TRAUMATIZED WE ARE FROM CHRIS-SENPAI AND TANBA?! Hahaha, yeah, I am trying to be open-minded with Ochiai, but he was such a snake this episode. @_@ And I am really glad that Kuramochi was honest with Haruichi; I am excited to see how our pink-haired boy grows this season! :3 Or I hope so anyway! And Ryo’s interactions with Haruichi will NEVER get old for me! I love it so much! Thank you for the kind words and yesss! I hope you have a great New Year’s as well!
Romaniablack
2021-12-31 19:40:51 +0000 UTCOchiai the destroyer of enjoyment and peace tbh 🙄 Anyway lol I love getting to check in on our opponent teams. Shunshin is one of my faves and I love getting to see him play Raichi even though that result was pretty expected. I hope he genuinely loved playing Japanese baseball. Amahisa, or Kosei, is another favourite of mine lol. Hes an interesting bean but I do love him. The screen said Hachiya Ouji but I think that's the team they were playing. Amahisa is on Ichidai and that's the team Manaka played for last year when Raichi smashed him in the shoulder with that ball. They're one of Seidous top rivals. Sanada is such a lovely guy to see lol. He doesn't ever get overwhelmed or upset or stressed he just admires people and it's so nice. I dont think I'd ever be motivated by anything more than seeing a disappointed Nao after a game. I would never want to see that. They did so well regardless. To me, nothing Ochiai said to Kataoka was logical nor did it make sense for the whole situation. Kataoka saying to Ochiai that if Sawamura could work on it on the off season and in his second year was Kataoka trying to discuss past Kataokas resignation. The coaching staff doesn't really know that Ochiai has all these underhanded plans nor that Ochiai thinks Sawamura is useless so Kataoka saying that to him was him trying to say like "you should work with him on this during the off season and his second year and he'll be a lot of help to the team". Never did he plan for Sawamura to be used as a stepping stool for Furuya to get better. You were right that Ochiai was projecting his own feelings on Kataoka right then. To Ochiai that's how that makes sense but to Kataoka, who doesn't prefer Furuya to Sawamura or vice versa, just thinks of them neutrally as a coach, having both of them improve for themselves makes sense. Kataoka has always seen Sawamuras ace spirit and knows how fast he improves from a front row view point. Ochiai hasn't seen everything Sawamuras done since he started at this school. I dont think Ochiai is always 100% logical I think he's biased a lot of the time. He's never going to put anyone above Furuya because Furuyas a prodigy so why would anyone be above him even though prodigy doesn't mean superior. People can grow past prodigies. Too many people listen to Ochiai say all that and think that's exactly what Kataoka was doing, that he also believes Furuya will be the Ace the entire time they're at Seidou and that improving Sawamura is pointless when that's clearly not true at all. Nothing is ever set in stone regardless of what Ochiai thinks. Also Nabe did not hear the coaches lol. He was outside the cafeteria when Miyuki and Zono were fighting and then moved to a different location to think. During Ochiais talk about roster players and motivations and what not they just flashed to Nabe to show an example of a character with wavering motivations who has worked hard to make the roster. I dont think Tetsu has ever been considered "frantic" in his life but honestly I'd love to see it 😂😂 The way Ochiai talks about these players is like he thinks he's a pro coach in the pro leagues coaching pro ballers lol. Like relax. They're high school kids. It doesn't hurt you or the team or anyone to let anyone try out and to have people motivate eachother. One of my biggest problems with him is that he doesn't ever actually offer any advice or help or constructive criticism. He just nags people, tells them they aren't good enough and then leaves. If you don't think Haruichi can handle the wooden bat then either help him get stronger or give him some actual advice. What kind of shitty coach just nags from the sidelines and then wonders why their past players don't visit 🙄 The best thing about Kataoka as a coach is not only does he never give up on his players, but he also works his players enough to build a team resolve. Letting however many new players join doesn't just give you a wide variety of players to choose from that could help fill the holes on the current team, it also allows players to feel pressure from other players which motivates them to work harder and it helps them appreciate every moment of opportunity. They don't get complacent and they don't get cocky because they know there's a valley of hungry wolves under them ready if they make a misstep. One of the worst things that Ochiai does in the entire series is the way he tries to turn Seidous players against Sawamura. Sneaking up behind Asou and his friends to talk shit about Sawamura and how "they won off of luck" because "Sawamura sucks and isn't consistent" and how "he won't get them to nationals" like that was beyond low and slimy. It's absolutely disgusting. With a sport so tightly knit around teamwork and trust, to wiggle in and try to break apart the seams of the team just so you can get a step up when you take over is just gross. Personally, if I were Miyuki, I wouldn't trust Ochiai to teach Sawamura anything. Clearly he's wary going into him offering to teach him but I'd genuinely be worried about him trying to destroy Sawamuras form AGAIN. Also Akira was a knuckleball pitcher not a forkball pitcher. Knuckleballs are one of the hardest pitches to learn and Akira spent his 3 years mastering that. I dont think its possible for me to find Sawamura annoying. He's absolutely a ham and we all know it but even when he's in the center of a crowd and talking so haughty and whatnot I just know it's because he doesn't often get compliments so he tries to almost ease them out of people. He definitely has a praise kink lol. But I always see it as a "if no one else is gonna talk me up, I'll talk myself up" while also being one of the most self depreciating players in the whole show. Hes so hard on himself so its not even that he's cocky or thinks he's all that it's just him trying to squeeze himself in and feel confident in himself. He likes people relying on him and praising him. I can't find that annoying lol. Also Ryou doesn't dislike Sawamura I think he's just a blunt person lol. He genuinely seemed happy for him moving up the ladder in that scene. Ryou just enjoys tormenting people younger than him and he doesn't sugar coat anything lol. Ryous always put too much effort into wrangling Sawamura in to dislike him. He also wouldn't let Sawamura call him "big brother" if he didn't like him 😂 Miyukis thoughts trailing was basically foreshadowing to Sawamuras breaking ball learning. He was implying that if he could be greedy about Sawamuras pitching, he'd want Sawamura to learn a breaking ball. It just didn't come out lol. And also when Kataoka says the semis and the finals are back to back he means that both semis are on the same day and the finals are on the day after. The semis and the finals aren't both on the same day there just isn't an extra day in between. Such a good set of episodes, I'm excited for next week and I hope you had a great, restful Christmas and a joyous New Years 🎉🎉
Kelsey
2021-12-30 03:40:43 +0000 UTCMy hate for Ochiai knows no bounds! Every good thing he does is crushed under the weight of the horrible way in which he does them! I hate how he does everything behind everyone’s backs and sneaking around like a snake. I also HATED that he planted in Furuya’s mind that he should play through an injury, especially since Furuya is so immature and wont realize the true danger doing that can do to his career. AND him coming for two of my fave Haruichi & Miyuki is just UNFORGIVABLE! Ugh, I just can’t stand him. THANKFULLY, Sawamura proved him wrong and closed the game beautifully!🙌 Also, I’m so thankful that our ex captain & vice captain put Miyuki & Zono in their place and that the waters have calmed among the third years! Hopefully, like Kuramochi said, becoming stronger after this fight will help them grow closer into becoming like their senpai.💕 I was SO glad that Kuramochi gave it to Haruichi straight because even if he is a great player, he is still a first year and there’s always room for growth. Plus, based on the couple of flashbacks we have gotten in both, the anime and OVA, Ryo was a WAY harsher partner. And I can imagine he was also harsh with Haruichi when they used to train/play together, so Haruichi can take it. This trio of episode had one of my favorite comedic scenes in the anime. I love how Ryo asks Sawamura about Haruichi and that his response is that Haruichi is in his rebellious phase. Always cracks me up!🤣🤣 Anywayyyy, thanks for the awesome reaction! I hope you have an amazing New Years Eve/New Years!🥳🎉
Melanie Marie
2021-12-29 21:40:55 +0000 UTCThese episodes were REALLY good! Hahahaha, I want to like Ochiai, I do, but he makes it so hard spreading all his negativity around -- I want Sawamura's nakama-no-jutsu to reach him, hahaha! :)
Romaniablack
2021-12-29 14:18:04 +0000 UTCidk, I really liked this episode, because, unlike most others, I really like Ochiai for some reason, LOL. edit: I clicked enter without sift on an accident, BUT Ochiai really seems to like talking about baseball, from what I have gotten, and even when he seems like an asshole, I don't think I can blame his thoughts, especially that he has mostly seen only one side of Sawamura. also, sometimes he seems kinda like an antagonist, but not really? like why would he antagonize the team that he's supposed to coach soon? And the reason why he doesn't really act on his " I should teach this to this guy" is bc Kataoka is still the coach and Ochiai seems to respect that. He tells what he thinks when he feels like he should say it. But he doesn't act on anything, because he's not the coach yet. idk how to explain my view on him. I have a smol fever, but it's one of my fav moments with Ochiai so I wanted to open my mouth, or well write my opinion in this. hehe.
The truck
2021-12-29 14:13:30 +0000 UTC
