Ace Wo Nerae! Continues its brilliance with this installment, its been 3 years and now Oka is a fully fleshed out player. The series has pointed out before how the best players are not invincible, and there is no exception to this in Ace Wo Nerae! 2. Oka has to deal with the sudden death of Jin Munakata and navigate her way around his passing to get back on her feet and play tennis again. This season takes time away from tennis to focus on the more human side of things such as grief, failure, and starting again, and it is here that we see Oka evolving evermore under tough conditions. Munakata's death was painful, and so was Oka's reaction to it, this season had many heart tugging moments (maybe a bit too much) that contributed to her growth as a person and as a tennis player.

It is not easy to recover from the death of someone dear to you and it shows, Oka is not magically better after a couple of episodes, it takes her a suicide attempt, 3 months, and a lot of support from her friends and family to overcome this harsh trial. To this point I want to say that I like how no one told Oka to just "snap out of it", this trope infuriates me so much and I am glad that it wasn't done here. Instead we get to see the full range of emotions from our main character and the other characters as well, such as Munakata's sister, Ranko Midorikawa. Again, Oka has to find herself and renew the love for tennis that her coach has given to her, but it is hard to do when he is not around (realism 100), she cannot bring herself to do it. It is only when Ranko gets into a motorcycle accident and asks for her racquet on the verge of death that Oka seriously considers returning to tennis.

Such a shock can strip someone of their motivation to ever come back to tennis, and even when Oka did return to tennis, things were not the same and will never be without the coach. Even if Oka needed the help of others to regain her passion, it is perfectly okay. The show ended the same way in which Season 1 did, with a battle against Ryuuzaki and Oka, but nothing is the same, maybe for the better. Oka couldn't ever be too dependent on her coach, this had to happen at some point, and now she will grow even stronger in Final Stage. Other characters had some development as well and it was nice to see.

Aside from that, the animation compared to S1 was a major leap quality so that was nice, but one thing I do miss is the traditional framing shots from Dezaki which amplified feelings. A shot by shot sequence is fine but some variety could have been used for more impact. The OP is bright, catchy, and cheerful, the ED is dark, depressing, but still beautiful. I heavily enjoyed both of them. I will be looking forward to finish this series with the next installment, Ace Wo Nerae: Final Stage.

9.5/10