Review of Baby Steps

In Baby Steps, we see how Eiichirou Marou a diligent student who appears to have perfected his note taking through his studies, but has no apparent talent in sport attempts progress in the world of tennis. In contrast to most sports anime were we see the main character constantly developing new skills, this anime depicts nicely how a transferring a skill such as “note taking” to a new area can result in a valuable asset when combined with HARD WORK. This doesn’t however result in him always having the upper hand; rather it allows him to analyse his opponents, adapting skilfully to different situations inorder to maximise the effectiveness of the skills he has already acquired through training to develop his game play.

Nevertheless, having played tennis myself, a noticeable flaw in this anime is the lack of relevance given to the psychological pressure during key moments in tennis matches. A sport show, which has undoubtedly done this in a superior fashion, is “One Outs”. This results in the matches having a linear atmosphere, which becomes quite noticeable towards the end of the season and could put off some people.

However, as a whole this is an enjoyable sports shounen anime with a romantic subplot that will keep most people interested.