What They Say:
Baby Steps centers on an honor student named Eiichiro Maruo who becomes frustrated with his life and decides to join the tennis club. Despite lacking experience and physical strength, he utilizes his studious nature to develop a strategic approach to playing tennis. Taking notes of his opponents’ habits and tendencies, he is able to predict their next move before they even react. He also meets Natsu Takasaki, a beautiful girl with a passion for tennis. With her help, he aims to become a professional tennis player.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The shift in Eiichiro’s life since taking a stab at tennis has been fun to watch, especially combined with his hard working analytical style, and he hit a new level recently with his desire to try and go pro. That actually involved his parents for a bit, which was welcome since parents are usually absent in meaningful ways from so many shows, and it’s now given us a new path for Eiichiro as he goes forward. We’ve seen how his coach is pushing him harder and harder now compared to before when he was helping him to just get a feel for things and handle the tournaments, and it’s certainly taking its toll on him. Which is good, because Eiichiro really does need all this kind of training end body transformation experiences to become physically fit and capable of handling what’s going to be thrown at him. His brief time playing a pro for a few minutes made it clear their difference in levels and what he has to do in order to really play at that level.
As the show moves forward once again here, we get a good look at the kind of rough training he had and the changes his body has gone through. When he gets to do a little practice on the outside while under view of others, he’s definitely feeling the suffering of what he went through, but he’s also learning just how much his body is changing while playing in this new tournament and what he experiences there. It’s a bit awkward in some ways at first, but we see that as he goes on, his body is reacting better, faster and with less fatigue than he used to and it’s making a significant difference in his play. The realizations as he moves in the third day of matches is really fun to watch because he realizes he’s lighter, faster and strong all around. When going against former opponents, they even realize he’s a completely different player and moving at a whole other level that surprises them – and Eiichiro.
Eiichiro’s changes continue to be fascinating, but it’s also fun seeing him in other settings. Such is the case at school with the festival setting that he hasn’t’ been involved in because of all his tennis time. This has him doing a bit of cosplay that’s fun and he makes a hilariously interesting butler – though Takuma wins with his particular outfit. The butler café is a staple to be sure and Eiichiro has a lot of fun with it, being more outgoing than you’d expect of him. This makes for some fun and we get some decent time with Eiichiro and Natsu as well, which in its own way nudges their relationship forward in a cute and awkward way. While the main focus is on tennis of course, they’ve kept the relationship side potential there lightly, nudging and toying with it in a very good way, which when dealt with in episodes like this is definitely enjoyable and fun to watch. Everyone has their own thing going on but there’s just a nice real world kind of sweetness about it.
In Summary:
Baby Steps gives us the usual array of material on the tennis side that we’ve come to expect. A real growth in what Eiichiro has learned since starting the pro path and the first half showing how it’s changing his body and his game, which isn’t overdone but logical and definitely great to watch. We also get the welcome bit of personal time, something the show has always dealt with in small ways, and we get nearly half the episode devoted to the culture festival and the fun of the butler café and character interactions in normal settings. This lets us see a lot more of Eiichiro and Natsu and you really come away wanting to see them developing things more. I’m grateful that we get so much tennis focus, but I wish we had just a bit more of the personal side mixed in as well.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
