Tennis is a tough game, and Oka Hiromi knows that.

Throughout the last couple years, I've been looking for a good tennis anime, none of them ever coming close to scratching the itch I had for someone to accurately portray tennis in all its wonder. Tennis is a complicated game and I am tired of pretending that it isn't. People who think its just about hitting the ball from one side to the other do not know anything about tennis. Baby Steps and Hoshiai no Sora attempted to show the complexity of the game but focused too much on natural talent (which is super unrealistic in tennis). Do not get me started on Prince of Tennis, it is super unrealistic to a point that it makes me furious. There is another aspect of tennis that has rarely ever been explored, and it is the biggest avenue of complexity in the game. The mental game. Tennis is a mental game beyond anything, and none have expressed that ever. Except for this anime. Ace Wo Nerae!

Ace Wo Nerae! is a tennis/shoujo anime made in 1973, it follows the story of 15 year old Oka Hiromi, who joins Nishi High's tennis club to become like the best player on the team, Ouchofujin (Ryuuzaki Reika). A new coach, Jin Munakata, comes in and trains her hard after seeing her potential. She is under pressure from herself, her coach, and her peers to become the best tennis player on the team, and aim for the ace. It is quite a dated anime but that does not hold it back in the slightest from telling a great, heavily character focused narrative which explores the growth of Hiromi in a brilliant way.

Oka Hiromi is not a mentally strong person, she is weak, frightened, and because she is a teenager, absolutely anything and everything gets to her. From love, to anxiety, to the overwhelming nature of tennis, she runs from it all at first. This is where the story shines the most, in her character development. Hiromi takes a bite that is too big to chew on when she chases her dreams of being the best player, often experiencing the stress and anxiety that comes with the sport. Every episode she is constantly faced with some sort of issue which takes a heavy toll on her, she ends up running away and crying all the time when facing challenges. At first, she is scared of tennis and does not want to lose, going so far as to running away from her match when she is called up to the court. But she has her friend, Maki Aikawa, her crush, Takayuki Todo, and her coach to help her along the way. She vows to quit tennis entirely, too afraid to play it after losing again and again, that is until Munakata (in one of the best scenes in the show) reminds her that we are all afraid when we are on the court. The tennis court is a lonely place, no one is there to help you, it’s a fight against the opponent in front of you, and the biggest opponent on the court. Yourself. The way that the loneliness and dread of tennis is portrayed is stunningly accurate, maybe I say so because I relate too much to Hiromi, being weak and fragile sometimes on the tennis court. Hiromi fails many times throughout the anime because she hates tennis and only plays it to be like Ryuuzaki, the one she looks up to. These failures are indeed, embarrassing and traumatic but they are necessary for her growth as she starts to find the beauty of tennis.

Oka slowly finds her own reason to play tennis, for her love of the game and that’s what keeps her going for the rest of the show. She decides to quit the tennis team in one episode and later cannot bear to not play tennis, it is too painful to be away from the court (this too is accurate) showing how much she loves tennis. Instead of chasing to be like Ryuuzaki, Oka evolves into her own player through hard training and loss, at the end, she even defeats Ryuuzaki in an epic match. Whenever Oka does win, it is a momentous occasion, because you know exactly what she has been through, and the hardship it took to win. On that note I would like to say that Munakata is a great coach, tough he may be, but he instills the correct attitude into Oka so that she can play her best tennis. Even telling her to throw away her love so that she can focus on the game. This too is accurate, in tennis, you cannot bring love or hatred with you to the court, it will mess up your game entirely. I want to name all the scenes in which Oka develops but I can’t, it would take me too long. Her character development is A+ and completely realistic. She is not naturally talented (which btw is not enough in tennis), no, and that’s what these anime do not show enough, the shock and pain of failure, and the joy of overcoming them, but Ace Wo Nerae! Displays every emotion possible outside or inside the court, some people may think of it as too much, but I say it is perfect. Every freakout, every tear, every laugh, every smile. Perfect. It is hard at first to root for Oka but as the series goes on, she becomes stronger and you want nothing but the best for her. She went from the girl with every reason to hate tennis, to the girl with all the reasons to love tennis and never leave. Oka Hiromi is not a good character because she succeeds, she is a good character because she has failed.

Other than that, the supporting characters are all nice in my opinion, Munakata being the best of them. They all make an impression on Oka but in the end, it is up to her to reach and realize her own power. Her friends helped, but ultimately it is her who gets the final victory. I am 1000000% sure that her bubbly friend Maki is referenced in Kill la Kill, their roles are similar (Mako is on the tennis team so that adds to my suspicion even more). The animation is nothing to awe at, its 1973, what can you expect, there are a lot of shots that are repeated again and again and again. But the framing and the artwork are all splendid, you really gotta give credit for Osamu Dezaki for doing all this. His masterful framing techniques amplify Oka's emotions on the court and elevate the scenes. Props to Oka’s VA for being so great and the opening for being catchy as hell, although the music in the anime could be better.

Final Score: this is a solid 10 with tons of emotion packed into it. This is the best tennis anime ever, and I couldn’t be happier that I found something like it, and I doubt that there will ever be another anime like this. This is an anime that will be near and dear to me forever.

You know what? Its also a 10, because I have experienced the same things that Oka did back when I was playing for my High School's tennis team, it gives this anime even more of an edge of relatability.