Baby Steps 2nd Season

"I used to think Maruo was the insecure type who isn't capable of having big dreams. But that's not right. He's the type to have countless smaller dreams that he can achieve perfectly, one by one. They may be small individually, but as they keep coming true, they quickly become one huge dream."

Baby Steps is a realistic, mentally engaging sports anime. It's well paced and subtle in its delivery of drama and romance, preferring to focus on the physical and mental aspects of playing tennis. The show has a good use of inner-monologues to display realistic and intriguing thought processes of each character throughout the ... matches.

This second season of Baby Steps introduces slightly older and more mature characters. They start to think about their futures more seriously, whether that be going to University or pursuing tennis as a career. Consequently, the outcomes of the matches carry a greater sense of risk which makes them even more exciting to watch.

Baby Steps is very good at making us empathise with Maruo's feelings of excitement and determination; especially in those matches when his future depends on whether he wins or loses. Even when we already know what the outcome should be for the story to continue, the tension is kept high as in the past, Maruo has not been an automatic "plot-armour" type of character. He has lost many times, but he learns from each failure.

The pacing of the story is arguably a little on the slower side, but I feel this reflects Maruo's patient, strategic playing style. Of course, his skills have improved quite a bit since season 1 (he even learns some new shots) and he's getting one step closer to playing at the professional level.

One might think his progression is too fast to be realistic, but there do exist prodigies who are natural at their sport, even becoming pro after starting relatively late. And when you consider Maruo's rare work ethic and unusually good eyesight, it's certainly not impossible. Baby Steps does an excellent job of balancing a fun, exciting story with enough realistic elements to keep fans of the sport happy.

My favorite thing about this show, which I feel is unique compared to other sports anime I've seen, is the way the psychological aspects of the sport are explored in a surprising amount of depth. Anyone who's played tennis competitively or recreationally will recognise how your mental state plays a big part in how well you perform. With the margin for error so small in tennis, a slight shift in your mindset even on a subconscious level can make the difference between your shots going in or out.

This season also explores a concept called "the zone". I believe the author of the manga has thoroughly researched tennis psychology to describe this as accurately as possible, because it matches surprisingly well with my own experiences as a racket sports player. The zone is an ultimate state of mind where one is so focused that they are completely unaware of anything else. They are focused only on the present moment without worrying about what will happen, or has happened in the past. The result being, the player's best physical and mental performance is achieved.

Of course the show also deals with the physical and technical ability of our main character, which improves even more from the first season. One of the only things I was disappointed with in the first season was a lack of focus on the serve; considered one of the most important shots in the game, but very difficult to master. This season does address it, as Maruo tries to strengthen his body and improve the efficiency of his movement to improve his serve drastically.

One minor criticism I have of this season was the lack of general training scenes compared with season 1.

And if I'm being ultra-critical, I noticed one or two technical errors such as players serving to the wrong service box at the start of a game. It's a minor thing that would hardly be noticeable, but it does bring into question the lack of attention to detail by the animators/director.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Production values:

Art - Much fewer mistakes compared with season 1, for the character designs, though there are still a few derp faces present on a few frames.

Animation - Improved over season 1, though it could be a lot smoother and fewer still frames. However, during important matches the animation quality is significantly boosted which really adds to the entertainment value.

Sound - A few new OSTs are added since season 1 which sometimes adds a some more excitement to the matches.
However, most of the time we have the same video-game-bgm type of soundtrack which isn't very noticeable. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it does it's job well of being "background" music.

The opening song is the same catchy tune from season 1 ("Believe in yourself" by Mao Abe) but now the song is timed perfectly to more dynamic visuals that really gets you pumped to watch the show.

For the ED, I didn't care much for the song, but has nice visuals.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the romance that was hinted at towards the end of the first season has more development in this season. It's still not enough to distract from the main story line but it manages to be more satisfying than even a lot of romance-genre shows.

A big difference between this show and other sports anime it has no "drama" in the genres. This actually is part of why I love this show. There are no over exaggerated reactions, crying, etc. The emotions of the characters are subtly portrayed which helps you empathise with them better and keep a sense of realism.

In conclusion, I fully recommend Baby Steps to anyone, even if you're not a fan of sports anime in general. It has intelligent strategies, realistic development, like-able characters and even a touch of romance so there's something for everyone to enjoy.

Side note: You don't need to have any prior knowledge of tennis to enjoy this anime. (Just remember to start from season 1)

Story: 10/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Character: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10

Overall rating: 10/10.

Baby Steps oftentimes gets praised for being one of the most realistic sport anime out there. This point stems from the fact that all the moves MC pulls out are thought out and explained in a rather elaborate manner, and we see everyone, not just main character, struggle to get better match after match. Yet, everyone seems to forget that Eichiro - as talented and as gifted as he may be - has only been playing tennis for so long. If you wish to thread the line of realism, it's impossible for him to beat people who have been playing tennis their whole lives.

On ... the flip side, Baby Steps definitely is amusing. To be honest, it's really kind of like a shounen battle manga translated into sports, with a dash of well-done romance (if you'd believe it, I consider it to be the most realistic aspect of this manga). Rivals come and go, stronger ones appear, random new-moves MC thinks up on a spot work, and he often wins battles that seem far out of his reach. It's not a bad anime, just calling it realistic is quite a stretch.

Story is slow paced. And I mean slow paced. It may not seem so at the beginning, but the longer you keep watching it, the more you realize that not many things are happening. Sure, it's not the slowest paced sports anime out there, but it's not the fastest either. This takes a huge, huge spike if you get into manga where 1 match can drag on for 20+ chapters which mostly consist of monologue - and the same case is with the anime itself.

During matches, audience is being fed exposition like no tomorrow. Main character literally explains everything that's going on as if everyone in the audience is a machine incapable of grasping a simple concept of "oh, he's trained for his whole life that's why he's better". Anime tries to shrug it off on his personality, as Eichiro is a rather anal person, but it's a large stretch and I often found myself skipping scenes as they literally recap what happened 2 minutes ago. This alone stagnates the story in a large way, and slows it down too much. Some people call it realism, but, what it actually is, is just dragging the shit out. Another weird part is that anime will sometimes have huge time skips (for three months as an example) so it makes me wonder why not just balance the pace. Such large contrasts in storytelling only serve to bring the overall quality down, and were the first signs, at least to me, that this won't be as fun of a ride as I had hoped.

Another point that I need to drill on is monologue: it's insane. If you think that Your Lie In April has a lot of monologues, you haven't seen a damn thing. Monologues usually go this way:

1. Ei-chan is in trouble and/or is being completely ran over by his opponent
2. He initiates a severe dose of monologue waging his options and the success rate of each
3. His chosen option flat out works or he says something along the lines of "well, I didn't score the point but that move shook my opponent so it was worth it".

It. Never. Changes. Absolutely never. Yes, problems and options may differ, and sometimes the outcome itself is unexpected, but that doesn't change the fact that the pattern is noticeable the moment you start thinking about it. It's not rare for writers to fall into a trap of explaining things in the same manner, but this is just literally acing it home.

Within the story you'll find your standard sports drama; unfortunately, this is not a good thing. Why? Because it's the same shit you've seen everywhere. Zero-to-hero stories can be done well, but if you follow every aspect of it, you simply make it predictable. I never had any trouble figuring out whether Ei-chan will win or not. As the matter of fact, I predicted every single match in 2nd season with 100% accuracy, something that hasn't happened even in Diamond no Ace, the epitome of cliche sports anime. This trend continued on in the manga, basically nullifying a large portion of what makes sports drama exciting: being unable to predict the outcome.

Story is by far the weakest aspect of this anime (and manga as well) and drags it down by quite a large margin, just making you think "what could have been".

On the flip note, production values are higher. Art itself is colorful and crisp and, while it isn't really spectacular by any means, it's more than enough to hold the show itself on a higher note. Animation can be hit and miss; oftentimes, you'll simply see stills of shots rather than the animation itself, but it has some decent moments. Don't expect nothing on the level of KnB or DnA because, remember, this sport story is realistic.

Music itself is passable. Opening song is catch and good though, simply showcasing just how bland the soundtrack is. Voice acting is fairly decent and there's a huge cast so you'll probably find a performance or two you'll like more than others. Overall, nothing spectacular, but definitely on-par with today's standards.

Now we come to the characters, the thing that makes this anime realistic supposedly. Nope. Again, I'll repeat myself: no matter how talented he is, he should NOT be able to compete on national level after mere 2 years of training. Not only is the tennis one of the hardest sports to pick up as you get older, but he actually doesn't even have innate talent from it. They shrug it off on "working his body beyond its capacity", but if that's all it took in real life, everyone could be a great athlete. Don't get me wrong though: Ei-chan is a good character outside of tennis, but I have a feeling this manga would have been far better if it focused on a sport that's solely about thinking, as this would be far more realistic.

With side characters ... as expected of sport stories, there's a bucket load of them. From the ones that get forgotten to the ones that stay all the way through. You have Nat-chan, probably one of the best female leads I've seen in a while. There's nothing exceptional about her character, but it was executed so well that you can't help but somehow feel entranced by her. She's "go with the flow" type of a person and, even though I usually have a hard time connecting to people like that, I found myself drawn to her far more than any other character in the entire series. The romance between the two MC's is definitely slow (as in, real slow) but as it's just a side thing, it was actually a breath of refreshing air whenever it came up, and it didn't drag on for as long as I thought it would. Props for that.

I won't discuss any others because then it would take me 10 pages to cover them all. Just know that there's a huge cast of diverse characters and even though sometimes you'll be thinking "ugh, freaking backstory; I don't care, just go back to the fucking match already, Jesus", I found myself liking more characters than I disliked, so that's a good thing.

Overall, if you're into sports anime, you will enjoy Baby Steps. It's a relatively easy going watch but, again, if you're expecting true realism, you won't find it here. You'll realize this rather quickly, but it shouldn't really deter your enjoyment of the series too much.

I've only done review for poor shows so now here's a good one. After the experiencing the incredibly strange and very disappointing Prince of Tennis, I was hesitant to pick up another tennis series. But after marathoning a slightly slow but promising first season, I continue into the even better second season of Baby Steps

Story and Characters:
Maruo Eiichiro continues on his path to professional tennis, having only just started playing 2 years previously. Maruo goes to THE LAND OF THE FREE, to do some training and improve. The show keeps things interesting and continues to show how he grows and improves at the sport. In ... this aspect it may be the best sports anime. It details Maruo's training regimen and the numerous hours he spends while being believable. Along with that it shows different strategies and techniques needed to win matches, making viewers interested in the show and the sport itself.

This importantly comes together so that at no point does Maruo have a strange or illogical jump in skill and neither does it make his opponents look weak. You continue to see just how difficult MC's training is and how hard he works with weight training, jogging, drills, and all the other crap no one wants to do. The show doesn't preaching about working hard though. Maruo works in the most effective way possible. MC then goes onward to reach the All Japan Junior tournament, competing to be the best young player in Japan and eventually go pro

All the players represent different playing styles and personalities that are interesting and believable. In sports and shonen anime at times characters can be ridiculous exaggerations of certain personalities and archetypes found in real life but that isn't the case here.

A few things I did like was after MC played someone who used various "dirty" tricks, the lesson at the end wasn't that you can't use tricks to win, you have to use them in the right way. In the end the player need to use the tricks to back his tennis, rather than making them the center of the play.

Animation:
The animation does it's job. Though there are sports anime with better animation at certain moments, Baby Steps never has issues with poor animation or episodes where time and money is clearly being saved for later. That being said this is a case of you'll find the best of the animation in the OP.

Overall: 8/10
Everything makes it truly interesting to see how far the MC can go. Though matches don't create the same excitement and some other sports anime, they're still interesting and moments in between are never dull

Season 2 steps up from last season and I eagerly await a third. Baby Steps is one of the best sports anime out and it's well worth watching

An Almost Too Deep Vision of Tennis Hinders Character Development.

Story - 8
Story and characters go hand in hand. What helps or hurts one can also help or hurt the other. This story follows a "I must get better to win" concept that is at the competitive heart of most sports anime.

What it tries to do, it does well, but it doesn't try to do enough. The knowledge of tennis I gained from watching is really incredible. I went from knowing almost nothing to really understanding on a deep level what actual pros might think about during a match.

There are enough surprises and changes of pace ... to keep you guessing, but during matches it can get very repetitive. I understand the need to build tension, but watching every single point of a set does get old when you aren't actually there.

The story does go a lot further than the first season, but it spends a bit too long to make each point. If it went a little quicker at some points, there would have been more room for other stories which could have developed the characters.

Character - 8
The enormous cast is really incredibly talented and well-designed. Like the story, the characters are all realistic, and almost every one provides good insights to tennis and life.

Unfortunately, many of the characters change very little. Ei-chan does change quite a bit, but many of the main supporting characters continue to fill the same old roles.

Although not necessarily a bad thing, the fact that the characters are so limited in what they do makes them close to one-dimensional. When a character is allowed to tell a different part of their own story, it is brief. Ei-chan takes too much screen time when others could have taken the spotlight for a while. Some characters are introduced and then completely forgotten, not only by the writers, but even by the characters themselves. The series could continue and make up these problems, but as of this season, it still falls short.


Art - 5
The design of the characters and settings is average. Maruo's notebooks can be quite detailed at times, but that is where most of the detail stops.

Most of the show happens on a tennis court. The players do change shirts between matches, but lots of the other shots are replayed. This is to be expected in a sports anime, but it is still repetitive. Sometimes the ball bounces somewhere it shouldn't - if it needs to be inside a box on a serve, it isn't always there, and some rallies have shots where the ball lands in the doubles boundary. It might be a clever way of inserting different court backgrounds to change the camera angle just enough so that some replayed cuts aren't as noticeable.

There are times where the art really shines, and actually tries to rise to great levels, but these are few and rushed, and lead back into more replayed cuts. One example is when a player is bouncing the ball before a serve, and the ball carries some of the court's dust up with it.


Sound - 7
Voice acting is top-notch. Game and environment sound is very good. There is enough variety in sound that I never thought I heard the same ball bounce twice in the entire show. But the soundtrack is lacking. This season's OP is the same as the first season. More songs could have been written instead of just re-using the same few over and over, but I suppose the budget was tight.


Enjoyment - 8
Overall - 7
As far as sports anime go, this one goes for it all and then some. The story and characters are a solid 8 or 9, doing a fine job to make the time enjoyable, but not quite complete. There aren't many times I actually laughed at a joke, but the character humor, while sparse, does get the job done. There aren't a lot of times that this show pulls your emotions in, but the depth of tennis makes up for it, especially for a sports anime. I hope that this show can get better by adding another season, because this season definitely improved on the first.

First time review, and I'm only doing this to get something off my chest, really.

Baby Steps really pulled me in during the first season. It was great to see a sports anime that had a more realistic vibe to it, unlike some I've seen. The characters are all likeable; protagonist, antagonists, supporting characters. The plot is clear, and easy to follow without it getting too convoluted by sub-plots and the like. A very solid story. The reason I'm giving it an overall score of 7 is because it left me feeling like more needed to happen.

Story: 9
The story gets a solid 9 from me. Mauro ... (Ei-Chan) is a meticulous note-taker who becomes fascinated by the world of tennis. After YEARS of hard work, and painstakingly long hours of reviewing his notes, he becomes a solid player fit to one day go pro. The reasons it will not get a 10 from me is because of a few little things that irk me a bit. But those things are best unsaid so as not to write any spoilers. Let's just say that I don't feel all my questions were answered.

Art: 7
Is this the most captivatingly beautiful anime out there? No. Does it hold up? Yes. And it has a bit of a 90's anime vibe to it which I actually enjoy. Besides some of the weird noses and long faces they give some of the characters, the art really didn't deter me at all.

Sound: 7
The OST is somewhat catchy, and fits with the series. The sound effects are pretty normal, and every once in a while you get a sound bite that sounds like it came from an older anime. Love that.

Character: 8
I begrudgingly give Baby Steps an 8 for character, because this is really where I have my problem. The main character, Maruo, is highly developed. You know what is going through his mind at all times. Even all his antagonists have a little back story to make you feel for them when they win/lose. But the supporting characters is where they really just didn't give me enough. Especially the number 1 supporting character, Natsu. She just really doesn't have enough said about her. Sure, you get she likes Maruo, wants to go pro, is really attractive, and is almost a complete contrast of Maruo because she uses intuition instead of reason. But besides a few snippets of footage showing how she has been an influence in other character's lives, you don't get any background on her. That's all she does. She is just the girl that inspires the guys. It is really such a waste of a good character. And what really pisses me off is how she will give her complete attention and support during Maruo's games, but he really never supports her. Maybe 1 game in the entire series. I don't know why this angers me so, but it does.

Enjoyment: 7
I loved almost everything about this series EXCEPT the drawn-out matches and some of the crazy analytical hypotheses Maruo would carry on about during said match. I really just wanted to fast forward to the end of the match most of the time... and I actually did at one point, haha

Overall: 7
All in all, a good anime, probably a better manga. Besides the small issues I have with it here and there, I did like it. I actually really hope they make another season, but it seems unlikely.

I am not a native english, but i will try my best to express my thoughts.

To be honest, I thought I wasn't going to like this anime as much as i did. If you have seen some sports anime, you know that generically the MC is overpower from the start or maybe he has a great capacity of growth, and eventually he will accomplish his main goal in a near future. Don´t get me wrong, it doesn´t make them bad, and some of them are really amazing. However, baby steps´s main character, is weak and loses frequently, which makes this series REALISTIC. Besides, it isn´t ... just that point that makes it realistic. The main character was pretty good at school and had a guaranteed future, but he decided to drop it and tried to get better in something he loved doing, despite of being bad at it, aiming then for a professional career, which retracts a lot of people in real world. Not only people from physical sports but for everyone that tries to be the best or one of the best at something. You have to fully dedicate at it, think, study, pratice all days for tons of hours and even Baby Steps represents it when maruo travels to florida and meets people aiming for a professional career and professionals too.

Baby steps, show us every single MC´s steps in his tennis career from the very first start. Every single difficulties, thoughts while he´s trying to improving something that he´s bad at and how he did it to surpass that. So, the title speaks for itself, "Baby Steps".

It has a slow pace, of course, but it doesn´t make it boring, it analyzes deeply the sport in question, making it realistic, teaching to the tennis newcomers more about the sport and making them like it, and probably some of them will surely try getting into it in real life.
Of course, to the people that were already fan of tennis, they´ll enjoy a lot this series.

One thing that lacks in this series is the animation, it improved from season 1 and it is noticeable that they placed some more budget in it, but still not the best. But, to be honest with you, it doesn´t interfere in the general quality of the series and doesn´t take our enjoyment of the series.

It has some romance it, nothing special, but its becoming more interesting as it progresses. I am looking foward it and see how it develops.

Is Baby Steps worth watching? yes.
If you´re looking after some realistic and mature content, Baby Steps is good to getting into, and if you´re a sports fan, makes it perfect.

Don´t get affected by the lack of popularity that Baby steps has, or if someone says it´s bad. Try it yourself and you´ll see the potential in it. Unfortunately it doesn´t have the attention it deserves but what can we do, right?

Overall, i am rating it with a solid 9/10, mainly because it has a well written story and good characters which for me, are an important aspects to a great series like this one.

Hope i was helpful, and enjoy the series.

There are some things in my Baby Step's 1st Season that I am not going to mention again here. If you haven't seen this show, I recommend you read my first season's review here:
http://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=205243


This season is way better. Comparing this season to it's previous season, you can see a vast improvement in terms of story and character development. The beginning of this season shows the start of Maruo's training in Florida. It starts of slow, but the thrill of tennis kicks in this season.

The first season tennis matches weren't that thrilling, but the thrill is really found on this season. I am impressed on how ... they really pace and execute the badminton matches (Of Maruo). I was literally shouting and jumping while watching this show and I haven't done that since I watched Kuroko no Basket (Which ended months ago).

What makes this season outstanding is definitely the character development. It's really "awesome" to see how far Maruo has rapidly develop since the first season. The show may heavily focus on Maruo as he is the main character, but we also see other characters develop especially Maruo's new and old rivals. That is what I liked about this season. This is one of the best character developments in Sports anime (Other than Haikyuu!!). Oh yeah, romance. Expect some romance on this anime... finally.

I can see a slight improvement on the animation. Sure, there are some parts that uses still frames, but it's lesser than its first season. Also, that opening animation of this season when it enters the chorus. I love how they used the rotoscope (I believe it is) and everything makes it so smooth. Now if only they applied that to at least one episode of this show.

The only thing that bothered me at the start of the show is definitely how they portray Florida. Majority of them still speaks Japanese and the only English you can hear the most is "Yes!", "Hey!" and other expressions. I kind of understand why, but come on, they could have done better.

Loving this anime and I demand a third season! This anime has so much to offer and you shouldn't miss it.

Score: 8.8/10 (Because of my enjoyment factor, it is rounded up to 9/10)

Yoshi!... Is what I like to say but I can't. The second series is a total fiasco in my opinion considering how good the first series was. So what made me decide that the anime is a letdown? First of all, a lot of things happened in this series that you wish they didn't do through out the story. They gave short back story to all the supporting characters except for the female MC which I find very boring since they decided to put romance on it. They should at least put an episode for the character instead of giving them all to the male ... MC.

I actually find Maruo's character this time very annoying, imagine a 25 episodes series and half of it was used to emphasize his training abroad, work out and practicing his serves just to lose a match. For me, I feel I wasted my time rooting him and wanting more out of him when he lost that match. Yes, his character is well written and developed but how would you react to someone who done everything (even doing zone) but still not able to prove himself as worthy to be a champion?

The art is not that good, I admit but the music is damn so good which at least gave me some motivation to watch it until the end. But honestly, I'm ready to give up on it half way.

The story is very progressive, but its predictable. You already know what will happen next, during his matches etc etc. The ending is also predictable and left you hanging at the end. I would like to see a season 3 but if with less pathetic MC.

Overall, I still enjoy the series though its predictable and somewhat disappointing the anime is still good. Except for the fact, I really get annoyed on the male MC's character this time. Everything he did so far were wasted because of overthinking. The jokes in the series is quite forced too even the romance between the protagonists are forced too. Yoshi!

Baby Steps is my favorite pure sports anime.

I really do not write reviews ever (this is my first time writing a review on MAL as well) so I am just going to do a short write up talking about why this is my favorite one.

Baby Steps is about big payoffs, watching the show you start slowly. With each step of progress the main character (Maruo) makes you can feel the weight of that step immensely because of the time and buildup leading up to that moment. The title speaks for itself, it's about Maruo's journey from being a novice at tennis to getting better through ... hard work and determination. Things like romance, outside life, pressure to succeed, and more all drive the story forward, with an excellent cast of characters to help push things along.

At the top I said Baby Steps is my favorite 'pure' sports anime. And by that I mean there is nothing unrealistic about it. This isn't Kuroko's Basketball where every character seems to defy all reality with their abilities. Everything that happens is completely possible in the real world. It teaches you about the sport of tennis and you genuinely get to learn and grow with the characters without ever wondering if this can even happen in real life.

The series remains consistent with it's animation quality, uses a superb soundtrack as well as OP and ED music and animations and is paced incredibly well and faithfully to the source material. You don't feel rushed and every big moment has their time in the spotlight.

Overall Baby Steps should be one of the top choices if not the top choice for anyone wanting to watch a sports anime. With awesome characters, story, animation, and pacing, Baby Steps is an anime to remember and following Maruo's journey to grow as a tennis player over these past two seasons (and hopefully for a third season as well) has been and will be incredible and fun to watch.

Baby Steps get's a 10/10 from me. Thanks for reading!

Paced quickly, nothing ever lingers or over stays its welcome. This season maximizes the set-up and progression of the main characters to it's fullest, putting them in situations where they bounce off nicely each other or where they can show growth that feels earned after season one. It's everything a second season should be.

But apart from how it relates to the first season, it's own achievements are worth mention. For a 25 episode show, characters never looked off model and animation remained smooth in most all moments. The season introduces many new characters, some that feel like are set up for a third season. ... The OST while more than just satisfactory isn't the most memorable part of the show. Most of the best auditory moments are from the sounds of running, the ball or the net, the show displays good sound design throughout the many matches in the show.

As a short note on the ending, without spoilers, it was a satisfying ending, one that felt very appropriate. The only detriment to it is the lack of a season three. Enough loose threads are left open that a season three would be much appreciated and only to the shows benefit, yet without it the show ended in a satisfying way that leaving it there isn't an issue.

Who knew tennis could be so riveting? The first season of Baby Steps was pretty good but I found season two even better. Ei-chan has a great character progression from a boring reserved teenager into a passionate tennis player and we really see the fruition of it in this season.

The side characters are also endearing and I found myself rooting for man. The tennis battles are fantastic and created tension in me I haven't felt since I last watched Kaiji and the almost every player Maruo faces is well developed and feels like a real character with their own goals. Perhaps the strongest aspect ... of Baby Steps is the relationship between the male and female leads. They actually care about each other, inpire and support each other and don't blueball viewers about the nature of their relationship for five hundred episodes.

Yes there are a couple of nitpicks like the life story monologues (often right in the middle of a match) and some awkward animation.These are very minor cosmetic flaws hiding in a very exciting, inspiring and endearing show. The final reminder here is that season two ends in the middle of the manga and there are currently no plans for a season three so you will have to read the manga to see what happens next.

As an avid tennis fan and player for almost twenty years now, I stayed away from tennis anime like the plague, for fear of anticipating constant cringe in an anime, from a sport that I know and love. Let's just get one thing out of the way, I REALLY like tennis and have been pretty obsessed with it in the past. I mean, absolutely balls deep into the game, following the professional tour every tournament, playing down at my local club 3-4 days a week (used to me more back in my School days), learning and studying the techniques, the grips used, the rules, the ... players, the history of the game, etc, the list could go on and on.

These days, I don't have as much time to keep up with the tennis world as intensely and rigorously, as I once had, and I have a couple of other interests that also share up that time, one of them being obviously, anime watching. I still go down to the courts when I can and while I don't watch nearly as many full length tennis matches of the pro tour, I still follow what's going on, who's winning, who's losing, who's injured, replays if I have time, highlights on YouTube if I don't, etc. Still, nothing compared to what I was doing a few years back.

I frequent a tennis forum and I got recommended this anime from another member, who knew I was into anime. Prince of Tennis was a no go for me, mostly due to the amount of episodes, but this show "only had 50" in comparison. He told me he enjoyed it himself and his analytical tennis brain is similar to mine, so I ended up taking him up on his recommendation.

So, what did I enjoy about this show? Well, the first thing is, and this goes even more so for the first season, was how much time and effort went into explaining the rules, strategies, game styles, the mindset, the overall physicality of it all, the training side of things, it was rather meticulous and detailed, you can obviously tell that the author is a fan of tennis or at least has people in his vicinity that know their stuff. A lot of accuracy in all this information we are spoon-fed. And it is spoon-fed, for better or for worse.

The second thing I enjoyed was the little romantic sub plot, it didn't feel forced, nor was it swept to the side, their chemistry was always there and it finally came to fruition in this 2nd season. It was handled well and it didn't become overbearing or affect the plot much at all.

The third thing were the characters, especially Maruo. All different personalities, builds and game plans, same end goal. To turn professional. Maruo has to be most analytical main character I have ever seen, not just in sports anime, but in anime overall. I loved the notebook thing (even if remembering and drawing patterns of play, point by point during a match, suspends my belief lol), it reminded me of myself who would take notes and do write ups of every pro match I used to watch, did hundreds and hundreds of them, so I could relate to the nerd inside him. I did like the idea of an MC like that, my favorite players are the smart tacticians, and most sports protagonists are generally gifted elsewhere, mainly physically.

Now, what I didn't enjoy. His rise to the top is ridiculous and clashes with the realism of the sport shown and the meticulous analytical side of things, to the point where it is a little too nonsensical for me, even as a sports shounen. No tennis player EVER has managed to do what Maruo does, no matter what other members here say, "some people develop at a much faster rate, yada yada", no. This goes well beyond that. Maruo's incredibly fast development and rise is a big "press X to doubt" moment throughout the series for me, though I kind of took all that at face value for the most part. You can be the most dedicated, diligent person on Earth, you're not improving at such a quick rate and competing against top 500 players in the world, which he was doing a couple of times during the show XD This could have all been prevented if the author just tweaked his backstory a little bit or something, he started young, quite tennis, but came back, for example. I don't think you would have lost much overall.

The second thing I thought was overdone, was the introspection side of things. The endless inner monologue, the dry exposition of the way a match was going, his thoughts and feelings about every single thing, no matter how big or little it was, all throughout his tennis matches. This is where my thing as a tennis fan comes into play, personally, this was torture at times, listening to him repeat things ad nauseum, information that I am already aware of. I could also see this being incredibly boring and off putting for a casual watcher, getting info dumped like this during a match or Maruo's.

The third thing I thought was subpar at best, was the visual direction of the tennis matches. The animation of the matches themselves were poor overall (whether it was in birds eye view or not), from the overall fluid movements of the strokes (the serve looked quite good for the most part) to the player positioning on the court, to the wide shots of the court and the frigid player and ball movement. It left a lot to be desired unfortunately. Still, ten times better than 1973's "Aim for the Ace", where everyone is falling over every damn point, so I suppose there's that XD

There were other minor nitpicking things, technique being completely wrong for the underhand serve, the complete lack of forced errors in matches, Maruo being very competent in almost all areas of the game, yet not enough screen time or practice on these certain elements to believe it, etc, small things in the grand scheme of things (well, maybe not that last one lol), but again, it's the tennis fan and player in me.

Overall, it was a pretty solid watch and around the same sort of level that the first season showed. Fairly abrupt ending, though obviously they were hoping for a 3rd season in the near future. Unfortunately, it's been about 8 years, one can still hope though, especially with all these anime being adapted with big gaps in time between seasons.