Audience reviews
12 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Nykima
Aim for the Ace is one of the great sports classics in shōjo anime. It is an iconic work from the 1970s that had a strong influence on many later series, including Oniisama e. The story follows Oka Hiromi, a young high school girl who joins her school’s tennis club after being inspired by the talented and elegant player known as Madame Butterfly. The arrival of a new coach, Jin Munakata, changes the club’s direction. Seeing Oka’s hidden potential, he decides to train her to become a true tennis ace.
The plot is fairly simple. The beginning may feel slow and not very engaging, but the story becomes more interesting as we follow Oka’s growth. As a product of its time, the anime uses many typical elements of the 1970s: repeated scenes, exaggerated sound effects, colorful backgrounds, and str…
Read at the sourceyanaoraa
Ace wo Nerae! is a classic sports and drama anime from the 70s, centered around passion and determination. Despite its dated animation, this shoujo story struck me with its sincerity and the strength of its adorable heroine, Oka Hiromi.
The story follows a timid 15-year-old girl who discovers tennis and dedicates herself completely to it. While the first few episodes may not immediately capture attention, things become quickly much more engaging as the episodes go on. Especially with the growing female rivalries, one of the key elements of the series, which is also said to have helped shape some of the early yuri conventions, giving the series both historical significance and lasting appeal.
What begins as a simple sports story gradually turns into a genuine exploration of self-improveme…
Read at the sourcei_oncebitanapple
Tune in to this anime if you want to witness amazing sportsmanship and a well-paced, satisfying growth. This show exceeded all of my expectations and have become one of the my absolute favourites! Now that I have finished the 26 episode series, I reflect on it melancholically, because it had wholly captured my heart. I would recommend that anyone who comes across this review watches the show themselves to discover the points that I have mentioned below because it truly makes the experience better with a more subjective approach.
Story: There is not a single episode which will make you delay watching the next. The pacing is really something to savour! The growth of Oka Hiromi's skills is slow but steady; it is perfectly handled. There is rivalry, denial, acceptance, training, matches, dev…
Read at the sourceLuxuriousHeart
Aim for the Ace follows Hiromi as she's picked as regular member of the tennis team.
Hiromi starts off as a casual tennis player with not much confidence in herself. She never believed that she'd go far, but she joined the tennis team anyway due to her girl crush on Madame Butterfly. The coach sees potential in Hiromi, which starts the main drama in the first half. She's having to navigate jealousy, hazing, and bullying, while not having confidence in her own skill. "Why did the coach pick me?", and "what does he see in me?" are the questions that she constantly asks.
This anime is an 8/10 for the romance, character development, and the grit of the different tennis players. This anime was an obvious inspiration for later sports series, but you also see the inspiration that Attack No 1 h…
Read at the sourceTeramol
Dezaki Osamu is my favorite anime director. I still haven't seen everything from him but now I got around to Aim for the Ace!, somewhere in the middle in terms of how well known it is among his works. His most known works tend to be more lenghty so let's talk how a more simple show about a girl discovering herself via the world of tennis played out.
The premise itself is simple. We follow Hiromi, an innocent girl joining the tennis club of her school Nishi High because everyone including her admires a girl there known as Madame Butterfly aka Ryuzaki Reika. We also immediately get introduced to Munakata Jin, a former professional as he is assigned to be the new coach of the tennis club. Then throughout the two cour runtime we see these characters interact, grow, form rivalries and much mor…
Read at the sourceThe_Namer
Some genres evolve beyond recognition over the decades. Others have such powerful foundational works that you can still see their DNA in shows made half a century later. Sports anime are very much the latter. The tropes that form the backbone of the genre today can be traced back to shows like Aim for the Ace! Far from feeling like sports anime have left it behind, this 1973 Osamu Dezaki classic is as riveting now as it must have been when first broadcast.
Indeed, the king of melodrama raises the tension to breathtaking heights. Though it follows the straightforward story of a girl learning the hard work and guts it takes to master tennis, the visuals ratchet up the intensity masterfully to mirror the emotions of the characters. At one point Hiromi has hard lessons beaten into her in a te…
Read at the sourceephemerry
Ace wo Nerae! is an iconic sports series that has been famously referenced in series like Urusei Yatsura and Kill la Kill. Osamu Dezaki, the director behind Rose of Versailles and Oniisama e…, has a directorial style that is notable for using a lot of stills and focusing on dramatic angles of a characters’ personality. I personally am not a fan of his. I think the directing in Ace wo Nerae is artrocious. For a sports show, there is barely any animation in this series AT ALL. When a character hits a ball with their tennis racket, it pans up a still ten times and then switches over to character making a shocked face or something comparably outrageous.
• Ace wo Nerae did many things that Ashita no Joe did, at the time, except it had much lower quality and worse writing. This series is like…
Read at the sourcelogyloo
Ace wo Nerae! tells of Hiromi Oka's experiences while she is in her school's tennis club. Personally, I think the anime wasn't anything special and it didn't really stick out to me. I gave the anime a 5/10 overall.
The story was standard for most sports anime. Hiromi Oka joins her tennis team with no skill and eventually becomes better through hard work. There was little romance, but it was entertaining. The tennis matches were also enjoyable.
The art was nice for being from the 70s. The character design reminded me of other 70s anime such as Rose of Versailles. None of the art really stuck out to me.
The main character, Hiromi Oka, was very annoying. She cried over everything and the only person who could give her motivation was her crush. All the other characters were pretty boring an…
Read at the sourcetriplefox
I first watched Ace wo Nerae! in 2009, after learning of its existence through Gunbuster, and it had quite an impact on me at the time. It's a simple enough story - a great coach sees potential in a young student, and trains her to be a strong, courageous person on and off the court. Through hard work and persistence she overcomes her obstacles and grows successful.
There is no audiovisual spectacle to be found in TV animation this old, from an era where Japanese animation's budgets, technical background and conventions were relatively limited. The most charitable thing you can say about it is that it has some stylish design ideas, and a catchy opening theme. I tend to like art that borders on the abstract, so I still give it a decent rating.
What I get impacted by every time I rewatch…
Read at the sourceUnowen
Animation as any other form of art can't avoid the rule of percentages that supposedly determines what is good amidst the mediocrity (that some would claim is around the 90% of the total).
When it comes to old anime as the one object of this review, new factors appear, and the challenge is placed in discerning between what was lacklustre back in the day of its creation and what are the mere consequences of standing the test of time.
Aim for the Ace! (Ace wo Nerae!) is one show worth to be highlighted thanks to the apparent simplicity of its premise, and the good mixture between the sports' department with the constant dramatic situations and the psychological exploration of the characters. The fact of being only 2-cours long makes it from the very beginning way more accessible than some…
Read at the sourceNotenSMSK
Ace wo Nerea! Translated to Aim for the Ace is an underrated 1973's anime and that probably brings the first doubt to mind: The animation. Now before we move ahead, I'll tackle the animation as quickly as possible so it is easy for animation critics to decide whether to watch it or not.
The animation of course is old. It lacks the luster and details, and fluidity of more recent animes. The colors are dull and at times the character features are seriously out of shape. Plus, there is a lot of sequence repetition. However - and this is important, the animation has its positives. The char features and build are consistent and the facial art style is somewhat unique and at times even attractive. They have repetition, yes - however they do manage to pull of unique sequences when required as we…
Read at the sourceBowlingJD
As an anime coming out of the 70s, about tennis, and by Madhouse, I had certain expectations and let downs.
First off, this screams 1973 perfectly from the clothes the characters wear, the sound/music, all the way to blood flowers. You'll know what I mean when you watch it.
There is so much to love about Aim for the Ace. First off, the main character Oka Hiromi is a bit of a cry baby and is easily overcome with emotions. But, she slowly evolves into a strong-willed women and matures as much as she improves her tennis game. She undergoes very tough training to improve her game and it is exactly what you want in a sports anime.
At first the art style will throw anybody off, mainly sparkle sweat. I quickly got used to it within the first episode and grew to love it.
What I loved the most abou…
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