Ace of the Diamond Season 2: Episodes 16-18 FULL LENGTH Reaction!
Added 2021-12-22 14:00:06 +0000 UTC**Maybe a Headphone Warning?**
Ugumori wins the hearts of the crowd...and my own...with this set of episodes! Y'all know I love the series "REAL," so Nao's backstory tugged at my heartstrings, and they're clearly making this to where Seidou is the underdog!
Our Sunshine boy comes out, but the tension is ON as he faces down Umemiya in the twilight inning of the game...and of COURSE, I've been doing really good to avoid cliffhangers in this series...until now. I apologize for the wait on this one...show, how could you?!
LINK: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/P23n9jWGyfYW5S97eaNQ44?
Thank you for watching with me and for the support!
Comments
I seriously am questioning if they put that cliffhanger in there to get us to read the manga! I’m glad I’m watching a little ahead with this series, so I could go ahead to the next episodes – sorry y’all have to wait! Yessss, how could you not fall in love with Umumori in these episodes?! They’re literally a dang found family on the field and Nao is so darn adorable; how can you not root for them? I would literally watch a spin-off of them or Yakushi after this series, if possible! That’s a good note about how they’re different from Seidou, especially this new Seidou line-up. Yeah, I’m not a an of the “indomitable ace” idea, where one pitcher does the entire game – I like the relay idea and especially Furuya and Sawamura splitting; we’ll see where that all goes in this series, but it’s neat to see the two pitchers start to develop distinct style in this show. I’m glad one’s not trying to copy the other. Umemiya is so awesome! That line about giving up just elevated him! 😊 I love the mind games he plays, but he’s still such a down-to-earth person and has that Kuramochi vibe to him – yup, really like him! And yeah, our boy Sawamura has his moments where even I’m like, “pump the breaks, kid,” but you can’t help but root for him, especially at the end! That build up! Seriously – this is definitely his most important battle since Raichi; I agree, and I was hoping the entire time it would go well for him! And YES! Miyuki is learning and recognizing Sawamura’s mental state – see them develop in this second series has really been great! Thank you for the kind words and Merry Christmas as well!
Romaniablack
2021-12-25 03:36:57 +0000 UTCI was honestly so excited to see this week's reaction, especially knowing you'd end on that cliffhanger! (I thought about suggesting you watch four episodes, but I remembered you said you were going to need to watch ahead a few weeks, so I thought "a couple of days can't hurt..."; I'm sorry.) I'm so glad I wasn't watching this as it was airing, because I wouldn't have been able to handle the suspense; I would have gone straight to the manga! But isn't that the whole point of adaptations? :D I'm totally with the crowd at this point; I couldn't help but fall in love with Ugumori. It's not just that they're the under-dog, or that they're playing for fun as much as victory like Yakushi; they're practically a family. It's so different from Seido, where - while working as a team on the field - they're not all friends; and even more different from Inashiro. And it's because they're so different from most teams, that Miyuki underestimated their drive if not their skill (although I think he underestimated their skill a bit too...). Of course, they're like that because everyone on Ugumori is inspired by Nao. This is all supposition on my part, because we'll likely never know the full circumstances, but I think that they all had to have been friends on top of teammates to have followed him to Ugumori. I mean, were there others besides Umemiya who were no longer playing? Were some scouted by other schools, but rejected their invitations? Did Ugumori even have a baseball team before they all went there? Because it looks like they only have just enough players to field the team. I want to know everything about them. Even with all that, this is still Seido's game to lose. And as well as Furuya's been doing, they are on the way to losing the game because they left him in too long. Probably on purpose, given the title being "Ace of the Diamond", between Kataoka, Ochiai and Kunitomo, the coaches. of this series really push the (more-or-less true to life in Japanese high school baseball) idea of the indomitable ace. But throwing your lot in with one pitcher is an awful strategy. However good a pitcher is, batters will adjust to them and start hitting, so they should be pulled after one or two batting cycles. Something you suggested, Furuya starting games and Sawamura closing them (and maybe vice versa sometimes to throw them off even more), would probably do well to keep down any opponent's batters. If one can be in the outfield while the other is pitching, even better. That being said about Furuya, ever the contrarian, - even though I know that it's Sawamura's way of motivating him and has the extra effect of quieting the crowd - and knowing Sawamura has been dishing out back-handed compliments for a long time, something about his speech to Furuya rubbed me the wrong way. And it's probably the first time I've disliked Sawamura to any degree... Too the other extreme, Umemiya is definitely the star of this set for me and is easily one of my Top 5 characters right now. I just can't get over his line, "giving up is the easiest and most boring thing to do"; he might have the best attitude of any pitcher in the series. And regardless of what I said above about Sawamura, when it came to that final pitch, I was rooting for him the whole time. The intensity between him and Umemiya - building up the question of whose will is stronger - is wonderful. I don't think it was drawn-out at all. This is Sawamura's most important battle since Raichi. And Miyuki is finally paying enough attention to allow Sawamura to calm down before pitching against a batter with so much intensity. Everyone is really starting to grow, and I hope the results bear the fruit of that growth! Merry Christmas and see you next week!
zeroantizero
2021-12-25 02:39:37 +0000 UTCSERIOUSLY, I wasn’t ready for that cliffhanger. At. All! Ooohhhh, okay, Nao and Umemiya being rival pitchers makes perfect sense, as does Nao being an ace. I’m all about a good enemies-to-lovers, so here we go, right? 😊 Nao SO gives off Chris-senpai vibes, too! This show did all it could to make us feel inspired for Ugumori; at this point, though, the show practically KNOWS what it’s doing, and having that music kick in? SO GOOD. XD I feel like Sawamura is so loud, the audience has no choice but to listen to him, haha! But I loved that he stood up for Furuya and gave him that pep talk – I just need Furuya to do that for Sawamura and we’ll be good; but then again, that’s TOTALLY out of character for Furuya, so I doubt we’ll see that anytime soon. And yessss, these chaotic gremlins! The evil grins from Sawamura and Miyuki; they’re too much together, haha! Their chemistry is much different than Miyuki with any of the other pitchers and you can tell. @.@ Hahahaha, oh, I see what you mean about Ochiai – yeah, he’s…all I can say is the next set of episodes is…interesting with him. @_@ And that is INTERESTING about the other possible Umemiya ship! Hmmmm…I do love him with Nao, though! Ahhh, and that is great to know about the fielder vs batter live ball rule! Thanks for that info! I am VERY glad that Sawamura took his stress and trauma from the Shirakawa moment and took a breather, and Miyuki encouraged it. That was really well done! But yessssss, that clifhanger! Thank you so much for the comment; hopefully, the next set will be here before we know it! 😊
Romaniablack
2021-12-23 20:30:13 +0000 UTCGod. That cliffhanger really is harsh isn't it lol. I knew it was bad but I forgot just how bad. So evil. I understand why you'd think Nao was a catcher but I'm actually pretty sure he was a pitcher. Him and Umemiya were like friend/rival pitchers for the same little league team I believe. Nao was the ace. If I'm not wrong. Ugumoris backstory really gives you no choice but to cheer for them lol. Its so heartbreaking that this whole team came together and decided they were all going to go to the same high school as Nao so they could make his dream come true. I love that you also noticed how similar the music cues and inspiration was to the Sakurazawa game 😂😂 I was cracking up everytime that song started. I also absolutely agree with you that Nao gives off major Chris vibes as a person lol. Situations very different but just as a person he seems very similar to Chris. Makes sense why it's so easy to love him. Sawamura promoting Kuramochi to the audience... lol kid thinks he's the PR agent for Seidou all of a sudden. But really that speech to Furuya was so heartwarming and this is why I'll argue all day that they have one of the best rivalries in sports anime lol. Just like Miyuki, Sawamura knows that Furuya can take some harsh comments so he laughed at him and mocked him a little before appealing to his sense of responsibility and competitive nature by reminding him that he's the ace and that he needs to act like it. Sawamura knows him very well and even though Furuya doesn't say it out loud, as we see from his own quick flashback, he pays a lot of attention to Sawamuras pitching and uses parts of it to help himself improve. I love that for them. Though tbh, everyone in the stadium listening to Sawamura yell his speech gave me some second hand embarrassment 😂😂 so much attention on him screaming. Regardless of anything, Miyuki loves catching for Sawamura and you can tell lol. He looked stoked that Sawamura was coming in lol. And those matching evil grins, ugh! I forgot that was in this set of episodes. It's so funny lol i adore them together. I think Ochiais point in episode 16 about keeping Furuya in wasn't so much the same as yours. His point was keeping him in through everything that could happen from there, yours was more you agree with keeping him in unless something goes wrong. Ochiai is still on that "sacrifice the team for Furuya" kick so for him, even if Furuya gives up 20 runs and can't breathe Ochiai would still keep him in. It's so messed up to me. There is 1 other ship I can think of for Umemiya but you won't see it for a bit lol. Him and Nao are absolutely adorable though. If a runner is hit by a live ball thrown by a fielder, it instantly becomes dead so that's why that play didn't work out. If a runner is hit by a live ball hit off the bat however, it's considered interference and the runner will be out. Trauma really picks the darndest moments to make itself known. It's heartbreaking but that whole scene was so beautifully done and I love it a lot. The red tension was amazing on its own but the flashing lights, the beating heart, the deep breathing.... so amazing. Seeing the flashes of Shirakawa in Umemiya and the muffled voices of the fielders built such a good tension. It's almost easy to forget about the original trauma situation when you're so focused on Sawamura getting over it but seeing it all played out again was just so brilliant. And Miyuki taking a minute to think it over and let Sawamura take a breath I thought was so good. Miyuki, who's likely very stressed at that moment, knew he himself needed a minute to think over the next move and I love that he did that. It's all so hard to watch for the sunshine boy to struggle like that but honestly his moments where his PTSD comes out full force just take my breath away. Anyway, curse that cliffhanger lol. Really can't wait for next week 😭
Kelsey
2021-12-23 04:28:45 +0000 UTCSeriously, I was even rooting for Ugumori through this, and I'm wanting Seidou to win, haha! Also, Sawamura being a supportive sunflower was just PRECIOUS! <3
Romaniablack
2021-12-22 20:50:08 +0000 UTCI loved supportive Sawamura in this episode. He really does have the spirit of an ace/leader!!! - And , yes! Nao & his team are just such good characters that you can’t help but want to cheer for them to win!
Melanie Marie
2021-12-22 19:47:46 +0000 UTC
