Review of Baby Steps

If you've seen many sports anime, then you will definitely enjoy this as a refreshing take on the genre. If you're just starting to dip your toes into the genre, this won't be a bad one to start off with. First, it's for the reason that many reviewers have said before me, it's definitely more realistic and grounded than its peers. The MC did not immediately have the innate talent for it, but he has built it through training and experiences shown throughout the series. Not to mention, no character was extremely exaggerated or shown to be exhibiting super-human skills. There were just people who weretalented and then there were those who weren't.

Second, it's not a purely sports story. It's a romance, a slice of life, and a coming of age as well. It tackled different parts of the protagonist's life, like his school life and home life (albeit the latter comes only in passing and only became somewhat prominent by the end,) painting us a good picture of what kind of character he is. While it features an individual sport such as tennis, you will still see the camaraderie and relationship-building between the characters. Not everyone is antagonistic to each other all the time. Personally, I wondered if it was going to be a bit boring to be only following one character throughout the series (I was so used to team sports animes!) but I found it hard not to root for Ei-chan after seeing how much he has grown.

Third, what I found most refreshing in this series is that the storytelling and the pacing is tight. If you're a veteran in sports anime, you'll know the struggle of dragging out a match until the very (frustrating) end. With this series, sometimes I'm surprised that the fight is over and dealt with all in the same episode! Baby Steps' 25 episode run is very satisfying. Honestly, I did not expect that I would end up bingewatching this show from episode 9 to 25 in one day, but I did! It's easy to get into it yet the matches are timed so right that you can actually pace yourself while watching it, too.

For the most part, while Eiichiro is frankly a bit of a boring character to follow, it's hard not to watch him and root for him as he grows right before our very eyes. Baby Steps is just the right title for such a series where we see our lead comes into his own.