The final battles get underway.
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)
Baby Steps certainly knows how to draw out its matches, where one might be frustrated that it’s going on for so long, but damn if you aren’t wholly invested in it. And that’s because of how it unfolds with the internal dialogue for both players that we get, the tension as they try different strategies and the way time wears them down, but the challenge reinvigorates them a good deal as well. The power of the match at hand between Eiichiro and Araya is a strong one and seeing the ebb and flow of it was definitely really well done since it has so much going for it as both of them really come across as respecting each other highly, struggling against each other, and in the end becoming better players because of it. But there can be only one winner here.
The intensity of the match this time around just feels even more intense as it goes on, not because of physical exhaustion, but just the overall strain of playing as hard as they are and the way their expressions are reflecting it. Because of the nature of this tournament, there’s no tiebreaker game to settle things, but rather the necessity to have a two game lead once they reach that point, which means it can be drawn out for quite some times. Mistakes are more easily made the longer it goes on, so it becomes more about endurance and stamina, particularly as the players both end up learning more about each other and their respective strategies. So when we get the switch here with Araya ahead by one game, you can see Eiichiro doing his best to figure out a strategy to turn things around because he doesn’t want to lose because of simply being tired. Not that that would be bad, because tired doesn’t really explain the physical level they’re playing at.
The first half plays this match well as the two really go at it and you can feel the strain in each motion they take, and see it in their faces. Eiichiro, in fact, seems to be playing by muscle memory in a way, as his body is taking over as his mind becomes more worn down by it. And that gives him a chance to rally, though with the emotional context to really drive it forward. So when it all falls apart, essentially in an instant, there’s this sweeping exhaustion that falls out from both of them. But also this really strong sense of investment, because of the number of people watching that Eiichiro was unaware of, he now hears their cheers and praise, which makes a big impact on him as well. His innocence makes it so that he can’t quite understand it in a way since he lost, and maybe he’s a bit embarrassed, but overall it’s a net positive for him. While he lost to Araya, again, it’s also made clear how much he’s grown and won as a player himself. It’s one of those pivotal growth moments for him as a player, where he can now really move forward in a bigger way.
In Summary:
With this tournament coming to a close, it’s something that fans of the show are likely mostly able to accept, investing several episodes into a competition that ends with Eiichiro’s loss. The show is one that has done well to make the viewer invested in the matches and understand that Eiichiro can’t always win because it’s just wholly un realistic. The thrill here is in watching his play, the dynamic between him and Araya, and seeing just how far they both push themselves and each other to win. It speaks well of both and really drives home Eiichiro’s overall growth since the start of the first season. And it all comes across as pretty realistic and thoughtfully executed to maximize the struggle and the meaning of it all. There’s a lot to like here and while you do lament his loss, you also thrill at the journey itself.
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.
