Daiya no Ace, also known as Ace of Diamond, ended its run in Weekly Shonen Magazine. The manga ran for 16 years, starting in 2006. The first series ended in 2015, and then resumed serialization a few months later as Ace of Diamond Act II. An anime series for Ace of Diamond started in 2013 and it is available on streaming services such as Crunchyroll. [Thanks, Comic Natalie!]
The story of Ace of Diamond follows Eijun Sawamura. He is a pitcher who joined the prestigious Seido High School baseball team, where he meets genius catcher Kazuya Miyuki. After their first nationals, the third years that made up the majority of the team’s manpower retired. This leaves Sawamura, Miyuki, and the other first and second years with the task of putting together a new team. Their ultimate goal is to go to nationals again and convince their coach to stay.
George Morikawa, the creator of Hajime no Ippo, left a congratulatory message for Yuji Terajima, the creator of Ace of Diamond. Other people who left comments include Ryota Osaka (the voice actor for Sawamura), GLAY’s TERU (who sang the openings), and Shohei Ohtani (a professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels). Weekly Shonen Magazine is also holding a lottery in which 100 people can obtain a replica of the Seido High School baseball team uniform. There will also be a timeline looking back on Ace of Diamond‘s 16 years of history.
Ace of Diamond is available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Kodansha licensed it in English.
