This week's Daiya...
...what am I doing here, being active on a practically dead journal?
Some thoughts about this week's Daiya no Ace, on both anime episode and manga chapter.
Daiya no Ace SS, ep 34 rants
This week I'm proud of the Seido kids. Especially Eijun and Miyuki. The dreaded part of the Seido vs Seiko match finally happens, but for some reason the impact is... not as strong as the previous episode. I still shrieked though.
After a series of misfortunes happening to Eijun because of several things I listed below:
(a) Learning how scary Seiko batters actually are,
(b) Giving up two runs,
(c) Knowing that it was his own fault for letting the two-point home run happened,
(d) Kanemaru's (another!) fielding error, and
(e) Yips about to return in full force...
Eijun starts regaining control of his own self and his pitching. On top of that his senses are opened that when one Seiko runner takes too big a lead, instead of actually pitching Eijun immediately puts down his leg and goes to throw to the first base and gets him out.
He does it without accidentally balking, I'm proud. Well, I think he does it many times too. (The one with Ouya players doesn't count because that one is them purposely making Eijun confused.)
However they still aren't out of the woods. Seiko's batters always give solid hits and their defense is impenetrable.
One good scene is when Eijun actually bunts along the first base line to get to first base, although he's just a step (or two) away from the base because Seiko players got him out. Like damn. Eijun, who usually bats like crazy and fails spectacularly whenever he's at-bat, actually takes the initiative to bunt while pretending to bat. It just shows how much he wants to contribute to the team, how much he's desperate to get to first base, how much he wants that run.
(The next scene is just too cute. If only Eijun manages to get to base.)
And then the dreaded scene many Daiya fans try to avoid seeing with their own eyes: Miyuki gets bodyslammed by Ogawa at home base.
Allow me to explain the rules a bit (I had to look up actual baseball rules to confirm because just understanding the gist on the running to home base rule from watching the episodes and reading the manga is not enough) before saying anything about this incident.
I can't wait to know how Seido wins, and how many points the team manages to get through the extra innings. (And who is the tiebreaker / the MVP of the match. Might be Miyuki but well... eheh) I actually found out the tiebreaker of the game. Damn myself for looking for the manga summaries XDD
Apparently the extra innings is used to determine the tiebreaker. If after the bottom of an inning one side gets a point and the other doesn't, the game immediately ends. If after the bottom inning both teams get same or zero points, it will extend to next inning.
Other notable achievements by the members:
- Asou's throw from outside to home plate as the team try to stop Seiko's Ogawa from getting home,
- Higasa's great 3rd base defense that Eijun admires with another "Shushushushushu--!!" (I really like this moment)
Some people on tumblr ask about the meaning of the episode title, "Innocent." They are thinking along the lines of Ogawa slamming onto (somewhat) innocent Miyuki, but I don't think that's the case lol. It refers to Ogawa's newfound joy of playing baseball.
Through the episode we find that Ogawa is like Murasakibara of baseball (lol); he's talented in baseball but he doesn't find playing baseball interesting. He just does it because people tell him to, and most of the time he's more interested in stupid things like changing hairstyles than baseball itself. In this game he discovers that baseball is actually exciting and fun, kinda like an innocent kid discovering something new, and he's full of excitement to go to home base and get the score for his team that he forgets the rules and doesn't care about what he's doing; that's why he slams onto Miyuki.
His innocence level is nowhere near Eijun's though (remember? Eijun is so excited when he gets to learn how to throw straight fastballs that are actually straight), and I do not approve of what Ogawa does at all. Hmph. How dare he hurts Miyuki. So much for that 'innocence'. *gives Ogawa the middle finger*
Daiya no Ace Act II, chapter 14 summary, rants and mis-translatons lel
This chapter summary(?) is presented with the help of my fave online Japanese dictionary, Jisho.org. The problem is that my Japanese grammar is so damn weak haha so I might mis-translate things.
The title of this particular chapter is, "Go Straight" why do we need to go straight when the characters are not exactly straight lol It refers to the current task Eijun is entrusted with: to pitch "nice, straight fastballs with lots of spins". Of course, he still needs to add whatever other pitches in his arsenal when called.
The first pitch is a straight fastball to the inside. The opponent goes, "S-so fast... This guy's pitch... is actually pretty fast..."
And look at the girls' (almost all of them are Furuya's fangirls) reactions. They have no interest in Eijun at all.
Girl 1: Eh? Is it ending already?
Girl 2: Called game? What's that?
Girl 3: Then, how about Furuya-kun?
Girl 4: Baseball rules are so complicated...
(One interesting thing is that even though they are not interested in the pitcher *pats Eijun's back* two of the dialogue lines show that they are interested to know about baseball rules. Maybe they are really trying to understand baseball, or maybe this way they can talk to their favourite Furuya-kun lol)
Then the batter thinks that not only Eijun's pitches are fast, they're also moving. And that it's hard to time the ball's arrival. And that it has power. And the batter gets striked out with 3 inside pitches.
As for the audience's reactions...
Speedgun readers: Oh, it's 135km/h!
Male audience: It's getting faster, huh!
Female audience: *bored*
Some things to explain here: Eijun's pitching speed has increased from not-even-130 km/h at the start of the series to 135km/h. Furuya-haters usually complain that this speed is still nowhere near Furuya's (of course it isn't) and that this speed increase is "just a slight improvement" but after reading a tumblr post about how hard it is for a pitcher to increase the speed of his pitches, I think a 5-6km/h increase is a good improvement.
The male audience, who seem to be interested in baseball in general, find this increase of pitching speed is notable. But the girls... they look so uninterested and with dead eyes, one of them even yawns, it's clear that they are in the stadium for the sake of good-looking boys with flashy pitches (a.k.a. Furuya).
Next batter, Eijun pitches to the outside, a perfect pitch. Male audience are like, "Sawamura's pretty good!" "He's pretty sharp today!" Miyuki, as usual, is proud of his pitcher boy, saying that Eijun is full of fighting spirit. :3
The batter gets striked, the team cheers on Eijun. Yui is analyzing Eijun's pitch, from the timing to the late arm swing, he wants to know what kind of fastball Eijun pitches. (!) While some are talking about the possibility of Eijun pitching the changeup, Asada stares at his roommate senior with... awe? There's something about the senior that he doesn't know what, that's what makes the pitches somewhat... great. (Sounds too vague and too pessimistic lol, but in general there's something about Eijun's pitches that Asada finds amazing although he doesn't know what it is.)
Eijun takes out the 2nd batter with a high inside straight pitch with this "bam" sound, this kinda perks up the girl audiences' interest a bit but then they immediately go back to playing with their phone lol. Damn those bored eyes XDDD Let's pretend they're searching what the phrases the announcer says means. "In-hai sutoreeto! Ni-sha renzoku sanshin!!" (Meaning, "Inside high straight ball! Two consecutive strikeout shutdowns!" or something like that.)
The first years' reactions though... some are excited, Asada is like, blank (!), and Koushuu... "It's not just the course, the use of highs and lows too... He doesn't pitch meatballs at all. The pitcher's feelings induced by confident leading..." (he's referring to the Eijun-Miyuki battery) Ohohoho, you interested, Koushuu? :3
The 1st year catchers are also interested in the way Eijun responds to Miyuki's leading; it's beyond their expectations (or something). The "lucky" guy to get under Eijun's crotch shot is Masashi but do I need to point it out? Also, Mogami's half-face is so damn creepy.
The next few pages are bothersome to translate (it's not like I'm fluent in Japanese language anyway), so I'm gonna say what's about to happen with my limited understanding: Miyuki has analyzed the opponent team's batting pattern and thinks that this 4th batter tends to go for the first pitch. Now that Eijun's shown most pitches in his arsenal (cutter, moving fastball, changeup, etc.) Miyuki decides that Eijun is to pitch a straight fastball; the nice, straight fastball with lots of spins. The pitch that only belongs to Eijun.
Eijun, getting excited in response, pitches his best, low, straight fastball. What is the outcome of this battle? That, we'll find out in the next chapter!
[So there are two possible outcomes: expected outcome would be the batter getting striked out, but given negative people's impression on Terajima being a troll there's the possibility that the batter actually hits the ball lmao] Looking at the last panel/page, Miyuki's mitt is closed which means he has caught the ball, and the batter obviously swings for it. It looks like the "standard swinging-strikeout" pose we've seen in the manga many times. Which is a really nice outcome, but we'll see for sure in the next chapter.
Some thoughts about this week's Daiya no Ace, on both anime episode and manga chapter.
Daiya no Ace SS, ep 34 rants
This week I'm proud of the Seido kids. Especially Eijun and Miyuki. The dreaded part of the Seido vs Seiko match finally happens, but for some reason the impact is... not as strong as the previous episode. I still shrieked though.
After a series of misfortunes happening to Eijun because of several things I listed below:
(a) Learning how scary Seiko batters actually are,
(b) Giving up two runs,
(c) Knowing that it was his own fault for letting the two-point home run happened,
(d) Kanemaru's (another!) fielding error, and
(e) Yips about to return in full force...
Eijun starts regaining control of his own self and his pitching. On top of that his senses are opened that when one Seiko runner takes too big a lead, instead of actually pitching Eijun immediately puts down his leg and goes to throw to the first base and gets him out.
He does it without accidentally balking, I'm proud. Well, I think he does it many times too. (The one with Ouya players doesn't count because that one is them purposely making Eijun confused.)
However they still aren't out of the woods. Seiko's batters always give solid hits and their defense is impenetrable.
One good scene is when Eijun actually bunts along the first base line to get to first base, although he's just a step (or two) away from the base because Seiko players got him out. Like damn. Eijun, who usually bats like crazy and fails spectacularly whenever he's at-bat, actually takes the initiative to bunt while pretending to bat. It just shows how much he wants to contribute to the team, how much he's desperate to get to first base, how much he wants that run.
(The next scene is just too cute. If only Eijun manages to get to base.)
And then the dreaded scene many Daiya fans try to avoid seeing with their own eyes: Miyuki gets bodyslammed by Ogawa at home base.
Allow me to explain the rules a bit (I had to look up actual baseball rules to confirm because just understanding the gist on the running to home base rule from watching the episodes and reading the manga is not enough) before saying anything about this incident.
- When an offending runner goes to home plate, the defending catcher cannot block the home base unless he has possession of the ball.
- When the catcher has the possession of the ball, one of these things happen:
- The catcher protects the home plate to avoid the runner from getting scores;
- The catcher tags the runner with the ball in his possession to get the runner out; or
- The runner avoids the catcher from tagging him and touch the home plate to get a run.
- If the catcher somehow loses possession of the ball before tagging the runner, the runner is 'safe' and can get a point when he touches the home plate.
- The catcher protects the home plate to avoid the runner from getting scores;
I can't wait to know how Seido wins, and how many points the team manages to get through the extra innings. (And who is the tiebreaker / the MVP of the match. Might be Miyuki but well... eheh) I actually found out the tiebreaker of the game. Damn myself for looking for the manga summaries XDD
Apparently the extra innings is used to determine the tiebreaker. If after the bottom of an inning one side gets a point and the other doesn't, the game immediately ends. If after the bottom inning both teams get same or zero points, it will extend to next inning.
Other notable achievements by the members:
- Asou's throw from outside to home plate as the team try to stop Seiko's Ogawa from getting home,
- Higasa's great 3rd base defense that Eijun admires with another "Shushushushushu--!!" (I really like this moment)
Some people on tumblr ask about the meaning of the episode title, "Innocent." They are thinking along the lines of Ogawa slamming onto (somewhat) innocent Miyuki, but I don't think that's the case lol. It refers to Ogawa's newfound joy of playing baseball.
Through the episode we find that Ogawa is like Murasakibara of baseball (lol); he's talented in baseball but he doesn't find playing baseball interesting. He just does it because people tell him to, and most of the time he's more interested in stupid things like changing hairstyles than baseball itself. In this game he discovers that baseball is actually exciting and fun, kinda like an innocent kid discovering something new, and he's full of excitement to go to home base and get the score for his team that he forgets the rules and doesn't care about what he's doing; that's why he slams onto Miyuki.
His innocence level is nowhere near Eijun's though (remember? Eijun is so excited when he gets to learn how to throw straight fastballs that are actually straight), and I do not approve of what Ogawa does at all. Hmph. How dare he hurts Miyuki. So much for that 'innocence'. *gives Ogawa the middle finger*
Daiya no Ace Act II, chapter 14 summary, rants and mis-translatons lel
This chapter summary(?) is presented with the help of my fave online Japanese dictionary, Jisho.org. The problem is that my Japanese grammar is so damn weak haha so I might mis-translate things.
The title of this particular chapter is, "Go Straight" why do we need to go straight when the characters are not exactly straight lol It refers to the current task Eijun is entrusted with: to pitch "nice, straight fastballs with lots of spins". Of course, he still needs to add whatever other pitches in his arsenal when called.
The first pitch is a straight fastball to the inside. The opponent goes, "S-so fast... This guy's pitch... is actually pretty fast..."
And look at the girls' (almost all of them are Furuya's fangirls) reactions. They have no interest in Eijun at all.
Girl 1: Eh? Is it ending already?
Girl 2: Called game? What's that?
Girl 3: Then, how about Furuya-kun?
Girl 4: Baseball rules are so complicated...
(One interesting thing is that even though they are not interested in the pitcher *pats Eijun's back* two of the dialogue lines show that they are interested to know about baseball rules. Maybe they are really trying to understand baseball, or maybe this way they can talk to their favourite Furuya-kun lol)
Then the batter thinks that not only Eijun's pitches are fast, they're also moving. And that it's hard to time the ball's arrival. And that it has power. And the batter gets striked out with 3 inside pitches.
As for the audience's reactions...
Speedgun readers: Oh, it's 135km/h!
Male audience: It's getting faster, huh!
Female audience: *bored*
Some things to explain here: Eijun's pitching speed has increased from not-even-130 km/h at the start of the series to 135km/h. Furuya-haters usually complain that this speed is still nowhere near Furuya's (of course it isn't) and that this speed increase is "just a slight improvement" but after reading a tumblr post about how hard it is for a pitcher to increase the speed of his pitches, I think a 5-6km/h increase is a good improvement.
The male audience, who seem to be interested in baseball in general, find this increase of pitching speed is notable. But the girls... they look so uninterested and with dead eyes, one of them even yawns, it's clear that they are in the stadium for the sake of good-looking boys with flashy pitches (a.k.a. Furuya).
Next batter, Eijun pitches to the outside, a perfect pitch. Male audience are like, "Sawamura's pretty good!" "He's pretty sharp today!" Miyuki, as usual, is proud of his pitcher boy, saying that Eijun is full of fighting spirit. :3
The batter gets striked, the team cheers on Eijun. Yui is analyzing Eijun's pitch, from the timing to the late arm swing, he wants to know what kind of fastball Eijun pitches. (!) While some are talking about the possibility of Eijun pitching the changeup, Asada stares at his roommate senior with... awe? There's something about the senior that he doesn't know what, that's what makes the pitches somewhat... great. (Sounds too vague and too pessimistic lol, but in general there's something about Eijun's pitches that Asada finds amazing although he doesn't know what it is.)
Eijun takes out the 2nd batter with a high inside straight pitch with this "bam" sound, this kinda perks up the girl audiences' interest a bit but then they immediately go back to playing with their phone lol. Damn those bored eyes XDDD Let's pretend they're searching what the phrases the announcer says means. "In-hai sutoreeto! Ni-sha renzoku sanshin!!" (Meaning, "Inside high straight ball! Two consecutive strikeout shutdowns!" or something like that.)
The first years' reactions though... some are excited, Asada is like, blank (!), and Koushuu... "It's not just the course, the use of highs and lows too... He doesn't pitch meatballs at all. The pitcher's feelings induced by confident leading..." (he's referring to the Eijun-Miyuki battery) Ohohoho, you interested, Koushuu? :3
The 1st year catchers are also interested in the way Eijun responds to Miyuki's leading; it's beyond their expectations (or something). The "lucky" guy to get under Eijun's crotch shot is Masashi but do I need to point it out? Also, Mogami's half-face is so damn creepy.
The next few pages are bothersome to translate (it's not like I'm fluent in Japanese language anyway), so I'm gonna say what's about to happen with my limited understanding: Miyuki has analyzed the opponent team's batting pattern and thinks that this 4th batter tends to go for the first pitch. Now that Eijun's shown most pitches in his arsenal (cutter, moving fastball, changeup, etc.) Miyuki decides that Eijun is to pitch a straight fastball; the nice, straight fastball with lots of spins. The pitch that only belongs to Eijun.
Eijun, getting excited in response, pitches his best, low, straight fastball. What is the outcome of this battle? That, we'll find out in the next chapter!
[So there are two possible outcomes: expected outcome would be the batter getting striked out, but given negative people's impression on Terajima being a troll there's the possibility that the batter actually hits the ball lmao] Looking at the last panel/page, Miyuki's mitt is closed which means he has caught the ball, and the batter obviously swings for it. It looks like the "standard swinging-strikeout" pose we've seen in the manga many times. Which is a really nice outcome, but we'll see for sure in the next chapter.