The intensity puts everyone on edge.
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 match against Nabae has been one that’s really worked Eiichiro in a great way so far, pushing him in new directions and really making him struggle in a way he hasn’t for a while. The two of them are strong players with solid motivation and keep figuring out different weaknesses to try and exploit, though they last only so long when you get down to it as each tries to compensate for it. Eiichiro’s gotten a lot more pushback now though and is seriously struggling, which makes for some great internal dialogue from both of them and some really pained expressions that has you completely feeling his frustration in how it’s unfolding. With the way the series has had him lose at key times before you can’t help but wonder if this tournament will be one that he falls down with in order to build himself up again elsewhere later.
With things tightening as much as they have, Eiichiro knows he has only so many chances left to try and correct things. There’s this sense in how he plans and plots things out that it feels like making moves in a game of chess and the opportunities that exist and seeing him attempting to achieve it is really thrilling to watch, mistakes and all as the pressure mounts in a huge way. The two of them really go at it well here amid this as Nabae processes what it is that Eiichiro is up to and that even gets some of those in the audience to compliment Eiichiro’s coach because of the kind of training he must be getting. The early part of all of this brings us a minor backstory moment as well for Nabae, which you can mostly infer without it, but it feels like a decent bit of additional humanization for him even if it’s largely forgettable in the grand scheme of things of this match.
As the show moves into its next set in the second half where things are even tighter than before with Eiichiro ahead by a set and trying to break free, the pressure is intense on both of them and their play is thoroughly engaging to watch alongside the commentary from within them. This, combined with the analytical side of Eiichiro, makes for some really great moments – particularly as he manages to figure out how to break out of the box he’s in with Nabae. Eiichiro’s being challenged in some really intense ways here and while we get that to some degree with each of his matches, at least those that we spend more than an episode on, his match against Nabae is his most intense yet with what it does to his mindset and how it nudges his ability up even more, growing him as a player even as he struggles and falls behind over and over again just when he’s within striking distance of moving forward.
In Summary:
With one more episode to go it’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out for Baby Steps. Eiichiro has been put through more of a wringer here in this match-up than all the others in so many ways and it’s now pushing him to a place where it’s all come down to one more set where it’s make or break. His ability to grow as a player in short order is what really makes him engaging to watch in a game, particularly since it’s done with a real look at analysis and not just instinct for the most part. Nabae is pushing him in all sorts of ways here that he hasn’t figured out yet and now that he’s do or die time we’re about to see something potentially very new from him. I can’t wait for the next episode but I’m also afraid of losing one of my favorite shows of the last few years.
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.
