Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/21185/Baby_Steps
Name: Baby Steps ベイビーステップ
Status: Completed
Episode: 50 (25 + 25)
Release date (for eng subs): -
Summary:
Diligent and methodical honor student Eiichirou Maruo decides to exercise more during the little free time he has available because he is worried about his health. For this reason, after seeing a flyer, he joins the Southern Tennis Club at the beginning of his freshman year.
During his free trial at the club, he meets Natsu Takasaki, another first year student, who is determined on becoming a professional tennis player due to her love for the sport. In contrast, Eiichirou's study-oriented life exists because he believes that it is what he has to do, not because he enjoys it. However, his monotonous days come to an end as the more he plays tennis, the more he becomes fascinated by it.
Baby Steps is the story of a boy who makes the most of his hard-working and perfectionist nature to develop his own unique playing style. Little by little, Eiichirou's skills begin to improve, and he hopes to stand on equal footing with tennis' best players.
Summary by: MAL Rewrite
Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/21185/Baby_Steps
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Personal Ratings: 3.4 / 5
Use of Cliche Idea: 3 / 5
Baby Steps is a sports anime which focuses on tennis. Sports anime like this are really cliche and can be found anywhere. We already have several tennis anime like Prince of Tennis and Softenni. However, if you were to compare all these animes side by side, you can tell that they are very different.
In this case, unlike most sports anime where it’s set in a school club, this anime takes on a different approach, and is set in an independent well-known tennis club. This gives the anime a focal point on developing the main character to an in-depth level, and is very different from your usual high school club sports anime where teamwork is usually the focus.
In no way this anime has any fan
service, so there is definitely some risk in it because most people who watches
sports anime usually go for the fan services (i.e. Kuroko no Basuke, Prince of
Tennis, etc) and sports anime are known for having very good fan services. This
anime, however, backs it up with a proper story backbone and a strong
development.
Execution:
Development: 4 / 5
Because this anime main focus in on the main character - Maruo - most of the development goes into the 'main character develop' category, so here I'll talk about the matches itself.
The perks of having just to
concentrate on one character makes it a lot easier for them to plan matches out
really well. The details of each match is really very in depth and they focus
on each and every point. Also, the fact that it is not a school match means
that each player gets 3 sets in a match (depending on the scale of the
competition too, sometimes they get 1 set matches), this gives the anime and
plot more time to work its way out and for a proper development.
This anime doesn’t focus only on the
technical side of a match but also the many different areas which affects a
match and the players themselves; like the emotional side, or the luck side, or
the situational side. They have many different variation of matches which
focuses on the different types of areas which affects the outcome of a tennis
match, and having the main character build up experience with it as he goes
along.
Emotions: 2.5 / 5
The only thing which they are lacking
compared to most of the other ‘fan service’ sports anime out there is actually
the tension of the match itself. It doesn’t have the wow factor that makes the
viewers smile and say that it’s a good match. This is mainly because Baby Steps
sticks to the more logical side of sports. Which means that there are not
flashy moves to captivate the viewers. But this doesn’t mean that the matches
are not interesting.
The matches themselves, slowly
captivate you and draws you in because they go through with you the character’s
thought process. It allows you to feel that the main character is going through
and feeling.
Planning: 3 / 5
I think what made this show
unpredictive is the fact that they actually stick to the logic of things.
Outcomes of matches are not done to impress the viewers or to make sure that
the main character win, but they actually take into consideration the skill
levels of the characters when they are being made and developed. In most
animes, the main characters are surely the one to win the matches, but for this
anime it’s not true.
And unlike many other animes where
they set out to let the main character shine, in this anime, there were
situations where by the main character was not in favor of the crowd.
What I thought was lost in the anime
was actually the balance. Even though it’s a tennis anime, I still think that
there should be some balance between tennis and the slice of life side of it.
Many sports anime has this episode where they go on a break from the sports they
are doing (is usually a very funny episode). However this anime didn’t have
that balance. I thought that maybe they should have added a little bit of
scenes here and there about Maruo’s OCD to sort of balance out the whole anime,
but that was kind of forgotten half way (but what brought back by his racket
strings).
So while the overall planning of whole story was good, I felt that they left certain parts out, which resulted in the lack of balance.
Main Character Development: 5 / 5
The main character development is
really good, and they take you through even the smallest bits of details. It
feels like you are taking a journey with the main character himself. And
because of the way things are being set – having the main character having
known nothing about tennis – they take you on this tennis journey. Though each
basic area of tennis is being explained properly, I felt that there was a lack
of explanation for the different types of balls (i.e. slice, flat, etc) and the
characteristics of each balls, and because the main character actually focuses
so much on the different types of variation, I did think that it was hard to
follow his though process in the later part of the show because of this.
The development of the main
character is accumulative, and doesn’t skip a step. The slow (not too slow) and
precise development of the character is what fundamentally made this whole show
nice.
Side Character Development: 4 / 5
That being said, they don’t neglect
the side characters at all, and when you actually compare this anime with other
sports anime, I would say that the way in which they treat their side
characters are with a lot more care and development. None of the characters are
being abandoned, and they each have their own story to tell, which adds up in
the main character’s tennis growth. What I would like to comment on is actually
the development of the skills of the side characters. While it may sound very
obvious that the side characters also improve along together with the main
character, I find that this is one of the most neglected factor in most sports
anime. The proper growth in the side characters are properly portrayed in the
matches.
Seiyuu: 2/ 4
I was pretty shocked at the choices of voice actors for this anime, but I did like certain ones. To actually match the art and style of development they were going for, I think the main characters were a good match - someone who isn't too flashy but yet someone who isn't as plain.
As for the side characters, I liked some and I didn't like certain ones. For the side characters they actually use more popular seiyuus, in which one actually suite their roles, while some of them stood out too much.
Some of the good roles where Araya (CV: Hatano Wataru), Aoi (CV: Toriumi Kousuke), Takuma (CV: Namikawa Daisuke), Ide (CV: KENN), Ike Souji (CV: Hosoya Hoshimasa), Nabae (CV: Sakurai Takahiro), etc.
But certain roles I felt that the voices were overpowering the characters, especially since their voices were 'sparkling' while the characters look kind of plain.
I found that there was a huge gap
between season 1 and season 2. Even though they were both good, but season 2
was really good compared to season 1. I don’t know if it’s just because Maruo’s
skill is a lot better in season 2, thus leading to more interesting matches, or
if the OST has something to do with it.
I did feel that season 2’s OST was
used a lot better, but I did think that they could have done more in terms of
the OST to actually boost the viewer’s feelings towards the matches.
*while the ratings are 3.5 when u combine the 2 seasons, I feel that the 2nd season was way better, and everyone should give this anime a try.
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Art Ratings: 4 / 5
In this case, I'm not really rating the art, but more of the animation style. Even though I didn't really like the art style, I loved the animation.
The art style was supposed to be something more towards the 'realistic' type of art style, where by they try to draw the characters as realistic as possible. But I think that the art style for the body was not really to my liking - the males seems to have all the same body type, and there wasn't really a distinct difference in body types in this anime. I think that it actually plays apart in sports anime, especially when the different body types compliments the different style of tennis which each player plays.
But other than the negative character design and art style, I really loved the animation. I don't think most animation actually pay much attention to the different types of sounds used in different shots of the scenes, but this anime did - i.e. in a single scene, they can have different shots of different areas while the characters are talking, and complimenting the different distance and scale of the shot in question, the volume, and type of background sound effects changes along with it. It was something that I was quite amazed, because of the different types of depth it gave the animation, and I didn't think that it would make such a difference, but it did make you feel as if you were in the anime.
This anime also uses a lot of different types of shots - close up, zoomed in, etc. And I think that they really made full use of the different types shots to compliment what they were trying to convey to the viewers. The scale of each scene was thought to best compliment the match, in order for the viewers to get the best understanding of what they were trying to convey.
As for the animation of each characters, you can tell that they only included certain animation styles into their anime only after they realised they could/should do it (e.g. it was only in the last few matches were they actually animated Maruo turning/playing with his racket while waiting for the opponent's serve). There were also times where the fast movements of the characters during the plays were a little off or lagging, but overall for a 2D animation, I feel that it's one of the most smooth sports animation out there.
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Similar Animes:
This is probably the section where most people would just throw you all the random sports anime they have watched before, but other than Prince of Tennis (if it's tennis you are interested in), I don't think that this anime is really any similar to much of the other sports anime, or any anime out there in fact. Because this anime stays so true to the sports itself, I feel that it lacks that whole 'anime' part of it.
Tennis no Ouji-sama:
Basically this anime is one of the most popular tennis anime out there. But other than the fact that they both focuses on tennis, they are in no way similar with each other. Like many sports anime, Prince of Tennis is one that focuses more on the 'cool' factor, and also the relationships between the characters.
A kendo anime. If your looking for a sports anime that focuses on the sports itself, this is one of the other sports anime which I find that stays pretty true to the sports itself - other than some romance bit in it. This anime however talks more about the team in general and the problems faced by each one of them, rather than just the main character herself.
Chihayafuru:
Chihayafuru is also another anime that stays very true to the sports in focus - Karuta. Basically it follows the similar way whereby baby steps also took the slow development process of the sports, following the main character. In this case, even though this anime doesn't start from scratch (as in the main character doesn't start the sports from 0), each and every game is thoroughly explained, which I find was very similar to Baby Steps.
This is a baseball anime. I feel that the art type and the matches were pretty similar to Baby Steps, whereby fan service isn't applied to this anime (though in some people's mind it happens, btw don't get me wrong, I'm also a Fujoushi). Although it's also a school type of sports, and doesn't follow a single character, this anime focuses mainly on the 2 characters. And although this anime doesn't also start from scratch, each and every point is well explained, which I thought was similar to Baby Steps.
** and one last thing, because of the similar styles they have, even though this anime isn't something that is at all similar to Baby Steps, I feel that people who loved Baby Steps would definitely love Gin no Saji
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Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 13 and above
My Ratings: PG
