Aim for the Ace!: Another Match

I'm totally impressed by how much I loved this season of Ace wo Nerae! I enjoyed the 1973 series, even more the movie (1979), which I think it's better directed and you can note a great animation improvement. But Ace wo Nerae! 2 has everything I could've asked for. And not just because I love tennis with all my heart. We see our main character in her transition of a beginner in tennis to a one of the biggest promises of Japan. Oka Hiromi has been working for three years with her coach Munakata. First episode takes place in the final of the National Tournament in herthird year, while Madame Butterfly and Ranko are now college girls. We can see her new abilities and skills and it seems there is no rival for her in high school. This is just a preparation for what is to come in her career. Without making major spoilers, this season has a lot of drama, more than in the previous installments, and also more mature themes. It's not just that but it's better constructed than in the previous season. In the 1979 movie (which I highly recommend before watching this season), we see a certain problem with Munakata in the final scenes. The OVA takes place around those days, and this is where the real drama begins. Ace wo Nerae! 2 gives us a great representation of overcoming serious and personal difficulties while you are trying to improve and be the best in what you do. I really love all the characters' development, especially our main heroine Oka Hiromi, who suffers the transition of being a simple child to an adult who has to face the reality of the world where she wanna lives, where it depends on her to stand up and to continue trying her best. Regarding the style, you will note the typical designs of 80s-90s animes (I prefer these more than those from 73' and 79') and a better direction, mainly scene by scene which I really liked because it gave a better dynamism to the tennis matches, something important to keep you glued to the screen and make you think you are watching a real match. About the music, the OST is very good. The OP and ED are more than amazing and for me both are the best of the franchise. I'm really in love with that sax in the beginning of Endless Dream and also with Moriguchi's voice. I know that the main direction was made by Noboru Furuse and Osamu Dezaki was the chief supervisor, but this clearly has the stamp of a Dezaki work: splendid pastel freeze frames, screen split in two and more. This is absolutely worth it if you enjoyed the first season or the movie, and even if you weren't really convinced by the previous works and wanted to see more of this wonderful story of overcoming serious obstacles in life and trying to live in the sports world. I will be eternally grateful to have found this amazing anime and one of the spokon I have enjoyed the most.

In the world of anime, you can often find a lot of compelling stories across a wide variety of sports. Sometimes the true strength of a lot of these anime is not in the sports they represent but how much work they put into the characters to humanize them and show the many struggles they must endure to excel at the sport that is being showcased in that specific anime. For this review we are looking at the wonderful world of Tennis. Aim for the Ace 2 is a story that takes place three years after the original series where Hiromi Oka has already succeededas Japan’s junior champion, and she moves onto her next challenge in her life. However, the biggest challenge she must endure throughout this OVA has nothing to do with the tennis court. Her biggest challenge is dealing with her own feelings and her own purpose when an unexpected death to someone important to her happens that absolutely crushes her emotionally. She starts to question everything in her life to the point that she has completely lost interest in her love of Tennis and doesn’t see the point in continuing. It’s really a painful path of discovery and redemption for her as her friends help her navigate through this tragedy while many of her friends deal with their own feelings as they’re personally trying to deal with this unexpected tragedy as well. You’d be very surprised with this OVA is that there isn’t a lot of Tennis matches in it. We have some Tennis matches as Hiromi plays in an American tournament against a lot of other younger tennis proteges from different countries in the first few episodes of this anime and then we have a few tennis matches at the very end of this OVA as Hiromi enters an all Japan tennis tournament as a test of endurance and personal growth to see how much she has improved after suffering so much from such a tragedy in her life which resulted in her being in a very frail and very emotionally unstable state. At the very beginning of this anime, Hiromi is a Tennis powerhouse. Through the diligent and stern training of her coach Jin Munukata. The anime does take great care in making sure Hiromi is not unbelievably invincible when it comes to tennis. Even during this tournament in America, the creators make sure that she doesn’t win the entire thing but get far enough where she can be proud of herself for what she has accomplished when it comes to her skill in the world of Tennis. With every tennis match she is in she doesn’t win every match that she plays but I really appreciate that because it humanizes the main character throughout this main story and no matter if she wins or loses, she tries to take something positive out of the experience. When the tennis action does happen, it is animated incredibly beautifully. There is so much detail put into each of the tennis matches regardless if it’s the very intense back and forth play between Hiromi and her opponents, seeing Ranko’s cannonball serve and how Hiromi has a difficult time trying to return it, to even seeing these beautiful racquet shots catch the corner in order to score and secure a very important point. I will stress though that the tennis action is very sparse but when the tennis action does happen, it absolutely delivers. This story is about watching Hiromi evolve as a person through an unspeakable tragedy that absolutely crushes her emotionally to the point where she doesn’t even want to play tennis anymore. While she wallows in extreme sadness, all the tennis skills she has developed have completely disappeared and she literally must learn how to play professionally again since mourning the death of a specific character has kept her off the tennis court for a very long time. We as the viewer get to feel her pain through each episode, and we want her to endure and overcome the unrelenting sadness that is in her heart. Throughout this anime, we see firsthand that the emotional journey that she must overcome is not an easy one. Furthermore, there are other characters in this anime that are deeply affected by this tragedy as well and we get to see their personal journey’s on how they all each overcame this character’s death even though it’s not done as much detail as it is with regards to Hiromi’s personal journey. I do appreciate the maturity of the story because it is a very compelling drama with a lot of heart to it. The animation for this late 1980’s OVA is incredibly well done and there is so much detail put into character designs especially when it comes to very specific movements on the tennis court. There are even multiple occasions when a very impactful emotional scene happens, or an impactful action scene is just about to happen, and it switches to a very colorful and very well drawn animation still. It’s ultimately a true testament to the level of art that this OVA exemplifies. The music is very melancholy and surreal to match the emotional weight of this story. There isn’t much in the way of very high energy tracks when it comes to the music. I personally think the anime does an excellent job matching the music to many of the tender emotional moments of the story. The opening theme has a very positive vibe to it that gets us to cheer for Hiromi through every episode. The voice acting is top notch with each Japanese voice actor putting in their absolute best effort to show the wide range of emotions that many of the characters will endure during their own personal journey. This sports anime is much more focused on being a very compelling drama instead of fixating on the sport of tennis without being overly obnoxious about it. We do have enough tennis throughout the anime to keep the sports enthusiasts satisfied but at its core the second season of Aim for the Ace is really a character study on how tragedy can cause a wide range of emotions with each person all depending on the personal relationship that each person has had with the character that has unfortunately passed away. There are no antagonists or protagonists throughout this Ova’s story, but what we get to see is how such a large ensemble cast can evolve through such a traumatic event, and they all become better individuals because of that. We may not have any winners or losers by the time this story ends, but what we have is a bunch of characters that have learned to live past the tragedy and keep forging the best path forward for themselves and what they strive for not only in the world of tennis, but also their own personal ambitions while honoring and respecting the character that has unfortunately passed away.

Here we are. The next installment of Aim for the Ace! after a delightful series and movie adaptation. We step into a new and maturing Oka Hiromi now focused entirely on her tennis after graduating and becoming a junior champion with her teammates. Oka has achieved it all, she’s a tennis star, has a great coach, and amazing friends/teammates. Until she doesn’t. For fans of the previous installments, the style shift and VA changes might be quite jarring. As we turn away from the softer palette and character designs (a bit more similar to black jacks ‘93 OVA), Fortunately this does not distract too muchfrom the beloved tennis and personal drama. We also step away from unorthodox framing and shots to a more direct scene by scene. Sound quality is for sure a step up from the rest of the series as well. Aim for the Ace! 2 offers a look into the more personal trials and tribulations of our favorite characters as they go through loss, grief, and struggle. A more serious take on a sports anime, but absolutely worth it.

This season brings a stark contrast to the previous one, both with the animation quality and the focus of the show. In the previous season, the story, for most of the characters, revolved around the present—which was encapsulated entirely by tennis. We weren't introduced to, nor did we care about, the pasts of the characters, which, according to me, is the perfect stepping stone for this season to flourish as it approaches the more humane side of the characters, making them feel much more fleshed out and alive. At first, I wasn't happy with these changes, but all the events that happen in the show,especially the major one, have been handled so maturely that I can't help but praise the story. These distinctions can make one love both seasons individually, as well as together simultaneously. There isn't much I can say for the fear of spoilers, but, undoubtedly, this season serves justice to the drama tag under the title.