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The 2nd season for Diamond no Ace keeps the hope of winning a ticket to national tournament alive!

Story: Like almost every sport anime I have seen the goal is very simple indeed. (Baby Steps, Prince of Tennis) Still the story keeps surprising by different factors which are common in real life, not everything can go as planned. This is exactly why Diamond no Ace gives this refreshing "slice-off" life feeling. Even though the story isn't that awesome, they manage to perform so well. Main protagonists are pitcher Sawamura Eijun, Furuya Satoru and catcher Miyuki Kazuya, but because of this is about baseball a team sport ... we will also watch how other players will grow as a players. Story pacing is very good, individual elements like slice of life amazing! Especially the moments where pitcher was about to pitch felt thrilling. Ending was satisfying and almost just almost got tear.

7/10


Art: Art is pretty memorable, but nothing "overly" unique. Animation is fluid through the whole series. Character design is well done and my favorite is Miyuki Kazuya. Best animations were in action scenes so pitching and batting were intense, well described and overall good. Background animations and so on weren't impressive quite dull, but at least they managed to do the most important thing right!

8/10

Sound: Characters voice actors were very fitting and I liked a lot of Kataoka Tesshin voice. Background music was the most amazing of all sounds. They enhanced feelings like fear, excitement, frustration and the moment when you success and win! My favorite OSTS are Grow Stronger step by step, Grow stronger day by day theme of Sawamura (same kind of as the earlier one) and Climb over Wall. I think they are pretty much the same as in previous season. (Can't remember the one they used when batting to intensify the feeling). Openings (2x) are catchy, but I liked the final opening much more. Endings are good but nothing significant.

10/10

Characters: Characters are almost well-rounded but for some odd reason there is a trend for little bit "dumb" characters. Fortunately it doesn't stick out that much that it would disturb. Characters reacted to things realistically especially in depression, feeling of the loss and victory. Character growth isn't that versatile but it happens when people want to learn from their mistakes or support their teammates. Sawamura learns to be more confident in his pitches and Furuya learns the responsibility as a pitcher. Characters like Sawamura, Furuya, Miyuki and Haruichi are more fleshed in the series than their teammates. There aren't any "villains" there are just amazing players who want to win for different reasons. I will remember especially the main characters I said and probably Haruichi and Miyuki better because I liked their design more.

8/10

Enjoyment

Sport anime can split opinions from one end to other end, but I started watching sport anime with a little hesitation, but pretty open minded. So yes, I think that non-anime fans can enjoy this if they are pretty close to sport overall. Re-watching this series will lower the emotions which were felt because successful and unsuccessful pitches and batting are remembered. This anime is memorable also because I don't watch that much sport anime but also because I enjoyed a lot considering that it's belongs to "sport" genre.

10/10

Story: I'm just going to make synopsis very short and say that Satoru Fujinuma possesses some kind of paranormal ability to predict bad results/future.
Because of the ability the story is told in different so called "universes" and it also has some little fragments of past. (Like very short ones)
Personally I felt that the story was continuous, until it became discontinuous/fragmented after episode 8 and things started to crumble faster near the end. In episode 10 to 12 it became disturbingly fragmented and unexciting, because in my opinion they were kinda rushed. I felt almost through the series this thrilling emotion, but around ep. 6 - ... 8 it had this little nice pause to thrilling -factor. ( I would have still preferred excitement through the whole series than being calm down and unexcited). Well the story idea is pretty simple one and like everyone knew who the bad guy was, but personally I think they did pretty good job on carrying it out. Romance was okay, I guess but I just wonder how Satoru Fujinuma's actions/mind stayed as the same after the change... I mean it felt little bit awkward that 29 years old thinks stuff the same as 10 - 11 years old. I didn't find other individual elements besides mystery good or above mediocre (psychology isn't really that much worth to mention). There weren't really deus ex machina techniques in my opinion because it was quite clear what was going on. Ending was warming, but that's about it. The way they carried out was simply bad and rushed, thus it felt abruptly forced ending. They still left some major plot holes 1) Satoru Fujinuma ability? Not even the slightest idea?
2) How would he know what the murderer was thinking at the end because he didn't see it in another parallel world... I know someone will probably say to me that he "understands" the reason behind the person, but still the action Satoru pulled was confusing to me.

7/10

Art

The art looks overall great, pleasing and sharp. Objects are clear, sharp and well made and the textures are okay, but nothing to take into consideration because of standards in anime nowadays . Art isn't really that memorable because there are similar ones for example Charlotte and probably will be. Art quality was good through the series and scenery are breathtaking. (Well there are very few and most of them are on houses/cities, except for the very beautiful tree shown in ep. 3). Characters design are pleasing and it didn't really give out the identity of the murderer...

10/10

Sound: OP is made by Asian Kung fu Generation band which made Naruto OP2 and FMA OP4. It's little bit similar by style(I don't really have an ear for music but anyways). OP is catchy and has a nice rhythm and isn't overly .. rock like the naruto OP for example. OSTS weren't really memorable, but sadness OST is good and does a good job enhancing the emotion. Even though this anime has only 12 episodes I would have liked another OP, but it's quite understandable because of the tight-episode build. I think that this is like the first time I like ED more than the OP which is quite surprising for me. I probably won't hype much about the songs/osts but I will put them to my Youtube list and listen them like a few times maybe. Not really outstanding osts, but very good ed and op.

9/10

Characters:

Okay characters with strengths and flaws, but somehow not exactly memorable ones. Mainly characters are dealt on surface for example Satoru's friends are pretty transient through the whole anime and only depth is in Hinazuki Kayo. (background on her and her mother so easier to understand their actions/reason). Satoru inner-child thing is still a mystery and disturbing. Satoru and Hinazuki Kayo made character progression/grow, stuff like friendship, trusting and believing to other people and Kayo made the most character progression in the entire anime. Murderer had a pretty good reason why he killed people.. yeah. Little bit background story about him/her, not much. I didn't really specifically like or dislike any character in the anime and I'm not sure if I will remember the characters when time passes. Pretty bland characters in my opinion overall.

7/10


Enjoyment: This anime just pulled me and was thrilling for the few episodes until I realized the change that it became just "okay" near the end. This is probably things you experience "once in your life" meaning that second time would be waste of time watching this anime. I won't watch this again or go over certain episodes. There was no mystery in the beginning and the excitement factor would become bad in 2nd time watching this. This will be one of the anime which is either like or dislike because if you didn't enjoy the excitement the anime will be just dull and bad for you. Characters weren't really anything out of ordinary and neither was the story. However I personally enjoyed this even though it has some major flaws and I will highlight the excitement I had in those few episodes.

8/10

Overall: Well I kinda said what I wanted to in enjoyment factor already so going to do a short summary.
Story was "good", pretty continuous until it crumbled, but it has some major plot-holes and ending felt forced.
Art is the best thing in this anime and it's a little bit of shame that other factors didn't succeed so well. Clear and sharp overall and detailed objects.
Enjoyable and catchy OP and ED, osts weren't really prominent.
Characters were dealt only on the surface mainly, little bit of depth in villain reason but not much. In the end characters aren't memorable.
This anime does still a pretty good job on entertaining if you aren't looking for anything "deep" related stuff or magnificent background stories and characters. A non-anime fan could still find this enjoyable and this would be pretty easy to approach probably.

8/10

Updated: 26th, march, 2016
Fixed grammar errors, and shortened some details.

First of all, I have watched/finished this anime pretty long time ago but this is my first time reviewing it completely. [Have started watching again]

Story: Arcs are all good and solid, though I felt that the first arc: Hunter Exam Arc was one of the most interesting and exciting. Few episode side stories are good and the best part is that they give depth to some characters like Killua for example. Story proceeds logically, is continuous and pacing is really good. This is one of the few anime I would recommend for beginners because deep inside ... the "typical" and shounen adventure anime there are some real aphorisms, like what is true friendship? What keeps you motivated to sth? Ofc it has the most typical confrontation that is basic in anime is right vs wrong. Hunter x Hunter 2011 is very easy to approach because it doesn't have confusing flashbacks, loose stories and it also has understandable entirety. Story core is simple, but the way they proceed feels natural and pleasing. I had little bit mixed feelings at first in Chimera Ant Arc and last arc, but they ended extremely well. Story is unique and not predictable. Now some things about individual elements in the story: action is thrilling (heart just beats and accelerates). Adventure is intriguing and motivating. I was going to give 9/10 because 148 episodes is a lot, but I decided not to because they just simply did/performed very well in overall.

10/10

Art: Is unique, fresh, memorable and the character design is at a first glance a little bit "childish", but you get used to it pretty fast and start to like it. There are some decent details in cities/houses outside [Little bit of texture], but not considerably. Animation overall is good and throughout the episodes solid, they also describe action scenes pretty well for example speed/velocity lines when someone is punched. Action scenes are the point where they have succeeded the most in my opinion. Most of the characters can easily be recognized who is "bad/evil" and who is "good", not much of exceptions there. I didn't really enjoy scenery because they weren't crisp/detailed enough.

9/10

Sound: Well this is one area I have to tell the truth I was a little bit disappointed when I found out that OP:s are all the same, just animation changing. Yes, it is very good, cheerful and compelling, but I was expecting more cool OP:s like in FMA: Brotherhood. Themes/Osts on the other hand were excellent. I get chills when something tense is happened and ost is playing on the background. [The puppeteer and Riot are one of those]. My favorite theme is the Legend of the martial artist. ED:s are excellent besides ED1 isn't really to my liking... I am strict because of the reason that they didn't even have a 2nd OP and that's why I won't give a "great" score.

8/10

Character: This is the best part of all in this anime. You get background info so it gives nicely depth to characters and their motivation/reason of doing things. Characters are "so-so" balanced because of the genre/type it represents, there are not usually "very" realistic characters with flaws. MC is unusually stupid and here I remember likable or not Luffy from One Piece and Naruto. It's good that they won't show "that" much his stupidity, but I don't understand this thing. Character growth/progression is something where Hunter x Hunter shines, [well except for Gon...]. Killua actually "changes" in the series and acts/thinks differently which is extremely good! Gon on the other hand ... stays as a Gon, but he also shows a small progression/becoming a little bit more mature. Leorio and Kurapika have also character progression, in my opinion more than Gon even though they have less screen time... Like I mentioned earlier, Killua is the one who rocks in character growth! Villains motivations weren't deep and they were pretty confusing or too obvious. So we can say Hisoka was the best villain from the rest because his motivations were at least partly concealed which is better than being overly obvious or confusing.

10/10


Enjoyment: Yet another one I watched/currently watching with my sister who is not an anime fan [Has watched FMA in childhood and we watched later on FMA: Brotherhood]. Very easy anime to approach because no fan service at all! Yes, I would probably watch this for the 3rd time and it would still feel almost as good as it was at first. Of course you know what happens next, but the main thing is how they perform it. My heart was literally beating at one scene in Hunter Exam Arc and the ost just made it beating more!
This anime is very memorable because it is close to my heart. I've found some nice quotes and I like to listen to ED Reason by Yuzu over and over again.

10/10

"You should enjoy the little detours to the fullest. Because that's where you'll find the things more important than what you want. - Ging Freecs Hunter x Hunter (2011)"

Overall: Solid and well-built story with nice side stories. Depth in characters although not much in villains. Character progression a lot when compared to other anime. Exciting and intriguing anime which deals with humane questions/psychological factors like: Why am I, what I am? [Pretty bad one for example..]. Also includes conventional friendship -factor.
Good ED:s and various osts, but only one OP.
Unique and memorable art which is a little bit playful.
Scenery aren't breathtaking or enjoyable to my mind. Last but not least, easy to approach.

10/10

Edited: 5/March/2016, some grammar errors fixed.

As someone who has seen the original FMA I can certainly convince that FMA Brotherhood was presented in much better and effective way.

Story: FMA: Brotherhood did very well without leaving any difficult thoughts about "plot-holes" at all. Brotherhood has a well-made continuous story which ofc has some flashbacks so the viewer gets more source to the character backgrounds and can understand them better. The smartest thing they did in this story in my opinion is the ending. They applied their own "Alchemy" -law and took advantage of it. Ending doesn't have to be a tragic to be good -
Ishval ... Civil War gives depth to army veterans.
Fort Briggs serves as a some kind of side story which has a meaning when approaching the end and the story OVERALL.
Personally I feel that the story is really something that takes you to the World of Alchemy. It's not all about happiness, sadness or jokes. This feels somehow realistic. Story wasn't predictable and especially the ending.
Pacing is really good like mentioned above.

10/10


Art: Character hairs are little bit natural and the animation gives off this "realistic" kind of vibe. Through the episodes art felt solid and did not get worse. Background/scenery are simply breathtaking. [Not Garden of Words level but FMA: Brotherhood is older]. On the other hand I don't feel that the houses/objects had that much of details.

9/10

Sound: This is one of the aspects where Brotherhood shines. Every OP and ED are EXCELLENT. To be honest I don't listen to ED:s but Brotherhood was one of those anime where I watched OP:s and ED:s. My favorite OP:s are 1 and 4. Very compelling songs. [Fav. ED 5 and 4] Background themes/osts are also pure gold, they enhance emotions, action and strokes of a wit! Characters voice sounds very natural and pleasing, the definitely know how to do the voice acting!

10/10


Characters: Side characters are excellent, they may even tell little bit of background story about other characters so the viewer understands why he and she does this and acts like that. Every character has their flaws and strengths like in real life and no one seemed unusually strong. Elric brothers also make character progression when they get to know other people hard/tough backgrounds and empathize to them. While on journey Elric brothers find sadness, despair, happiness and you can feel their emotions. Villains for once had a "real" motivation to do things their way and background was added for depth. Scar is one of the early villains seen in the anime and they built pretty good background story which wasn't separate to some other characters background.

10/10

Enjoyment: After I have done this review I feel like watching Brotherhood for the 3rd time. IT just never gets old. Even though I have watched it, I watch some parts from the anime from time to time. I have also put OP:s in my Youtube playlist. When characters/people feel sad or are ready stand up after failure it just keeps you motivated and reflects those feelings.
My sister who wasn't a fan of anime watched this with me because in our childhood we saw FMA on TV. Even though some time has passed I can still remember some scenes well.

10/10

Overall: What can you expect from an Anime that has done story very-well, put depth to characters and made excellent songs? At the cost of 64 episodes is little when compared to what has been achieved! I hope some unmentioned anime would increase their episodes so they can built a good story and "world", though I'm not entirely sure if it would work...