Baby Steps Episode 13
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)
Baby Steps has given us some good material for Eiichiro as he moves through the new tournament with what he’s learned. With the wins he has at hand, one of which was done largely off screen, he’s now gearing up for his next match against Iwasa, a third seed that he ran into while getting his racket dealt with. There’s a lot of apprehension and tension on Eiichiro’s part because of this match since it has a lot of unknowns and because he’s gotten further than he has before. A third seeded player definitely puts a bit more worry into himself with what he has to face and it’s certainly understandable. But he also downplays his own achievements since he’s largely focused on what’s coming next, so there isn’t a lot – or any – chest thumping over his position and how far he’s come.
With this match now getting underway, there’s a lot of familiar territory in a way as we get the two young men trying to gauge each other and what they represent in terms of ability and skill as well as style of play. That gives both of them plenty to chew on, but for the viewer we get a bit of Iwasa’s back story along the way that fills us in on him as a child which is cute and fun to watch when placed against the more serious and straightforward player that he is now. Naturally, that also gives us a chance to see how Eiichiro reacts to him and starts to do what he can to figure it out, which provides for some decent analytical material on his part. But we also get that from Iwasa, in a nice change of pace, which means we’re definitely getting two interesting players going at it here, especially when you see Iwasa pull off a drop-shot at the last moment and we see him draw it into another visual form as well.
There’s a lot to like in the breakdown of things, especially as we get some good time from Iwasa’s point of view at times, which is a welcome change. With Eiichiro though, he’s still so new overall that even though he has established some form of a style, it’s not a fully set one and he’s not bound by it, something that can give him enough wiggle room to survive. As it progresses, we get to see a lot more in the way they’re challenging each other, but it’s also good to see that Iwasa really does push and challenge Eiichiro in many ways because it’s how it should be for someone with so much experience. And with Iwasa doing a hard push forward to regain his position, though still fighting to gain the lead, it ends up putting Eiichiro into a hard and tired spot. Which is good, once again, because these are the defining challenges he needs to really figure out himself and to move forward as a player.
In Summary:
Baby Steps again gives us a pretty good opponent for Eiichiro to face as he moves up in the tournament and finds himself against even better players. He’s struggled at times so far and this one even more so, but it’s also one that really lets his analytical mind work to figure out what it is that needs to be done. He has a lot to face and seeing him really just focus, including spending time with his notebooks, definitely reaffirms who he is and what kind of player he is. While I admit I would have liked a little more Natsu there to cheer him on or provide some commentary, I’m loving that the main focus is very much on Eiichiro himself and his growth.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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