Changes are in the works, both for the game and the personal life.
What They Say:
Baby Steps centers on a 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)
While I wasn’t surprised that Eiichiro lost in his match previously, there as a little disbelief to it because he had come so far and you really wanted him to overcome. That aspect of the show is something that definitely draws you into it because there is that realism to it that makes you unsure of how it’s going to go. The lack of constant wins is a big plus and the losses are done in such a way that it feels like there’s real weight and meaning behind it with some solid emotion. That makes it compelling, in addition to the way that Eiichiro continues to grow and change, learning from what happened. There’s the emotional side of it as well with the losses, but since he’s made this his path now in order to go pro, he doesn’t let that dominate him and instead focuses on doing what he can to improve and to get better.
With this episode, we start off with some fun with Natsu as he gets called to her match as things are going rather poorly for her at first, but it all seems to improve after he gets there. There’s some really cute material between the two during this as she realizes that he came to watch her and there’s a near-blush aspect to it and from him that’s just adorable. It’s also being far more obvious to others what’s potentially there, which is nice to see even if it frustrates some of those with different interests. With Natsu now ready to move on to the next phase, we shift gears to getting a fair bit of practice material, training and general enthusiasm that’s welcome to see among those participating. Eiichiro really does double down for a lot of this as he’s doing what he can to gain more control and extend his skills while struggling with it since he knows he’s not national level material yet.
As we get some decent character material, we also get the changes coming up because of the next tournament and how coaching lineups are changing to deal with it. That has Eiichiro with a new coach, a bit younger than usual at 28, taking over for Miura as he focuses on Takuma for awhile. Aoi is amusing in this role as he’s got a very laid back and mellow attitude that is very different from Eiichiro. There’s also a lot of decent character material outside of the practice courts as we see everyone hanging out at home or getting together, but there’s also a moment where Kageyama works his magic by getting Eiichiro out for awhile only to meet up with Natsu. He does this as a wingman kind of thing by then ditching the two of them so they can spend time together. It’s a sink or swim moment for Eiichiro to try and spend time with her and it’s great to see the small but hones steps made here between the two after all that’s happened.
In Summary:
Baby Steps gets a few things moving along here in a decent direction that works well, both for the tournaments and matches as well as the personal life. Getting a little time watching Natsu play is good, but I was also glad that we largely got a character episode here that focuses on getting her and Eiichiro to get a bit closer together with Kageyama being a really good friend in facilitating the moments. We also get some changes to the training dynamic which could be good to see as learning new and different ways is something that Eiichiro can really handle as he adapts everything into his style to find what works. There’s a lot to like here and you really want to see more of Natsu and Eiichiro together after what we get this time around.
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.