Story (9): As someone who's seen quite a few shonen, and sports shonen in particular, Baby Steps stands out from the pack in ways that I feel make it a worthwhile series for almost any viewer. The story, unlike most sports anime that follow prodigies building their legends, follows a complete novice who takes up the sport as a hobby and slowly becomes dedicated to it, eventually deciding to pursue it as a life passion. The story follows him building up simple skills through hard work and by utilizing his few natural strong suits, making his gameplay entirely unique, leading to all the matches throughout the series having variety and strategy as their main appeals over very hyped up, loud action sequences. The focus on self improvement and character growth through effort (as stated at the beginning of every episode even with the phrase "Believe in yourself!") is appealing, cute, and very well done here, despite a somewhat slow start in the first couple episodes.
Animation and Style (7): I feel this will be the main deterrent for most viewers in watching Baby Steps, given the streak of most sports anime focusing on high budget action sequences that carry the energy of the show. The visuals of this show are effective and somewhat mundane, with simple life-like palettes and a look that screams more 'slice of life' than 'epic sport shonen' -- but the simple visuals here are effective and homely, very nicely explaining the somewhat heavy complexity of ball bounces, strokes, and other intricacies of the sport's mechanics.
Music/Sound (8): The show's music is quiet and doesn't overstate its welcome, only popping in when needed, which is something I can admire especially in a sports anime. Mirroring the concentration of the protagonist's concentration during matches, the less is more approach lets the character narratives and strategy shine. Not to mention solid voice acting from the entire cast and a great OP and ED to boot, the sound design is very solid, if at times a tad lackluster.
Characters (7): The characters here are a bit generic and generally underdeveloped with exception to the protagonist, Maruo. Despite this, I rather enjoyed the whole cast, they're simple and less defined than I'd prefer, falling into tropes rather easily, but I found they each had their own charm and performed their plot function well. Maruo and his love interest/rival in particular ring to me as a great pair of characters, with her story and character being much more grounded than 95% of female shonen characters, which is always an appreciated and pleasant surprise.
Enjoyment (10): I really loved this show. I can say with certainty if you asked me which shows move me emotionally the most, Baby Steps would be near the top of that list. The show's endearing main theme being to believe in yourself even when you stumble is something so many similar shows lack, and it's so earnest in its cast and characters that I genuinely wanted them to succeed every step of the way. Every game feels like an achievement whether our main cast wins or loses, and I have gone on to pursue the story of the manga beyond the anime's abrupt stop after season 2.
Overall (8): Baby Steps isn't for everyone, its a simple, cute, and effective story focuses on believing in yourself and character growth more so than even other very similar sports anime, such as Haikyuu!! and comes across for more similar to typical slice of life and character driven narratives. While not filled with the groundbreaking visuals that fuel other titles of the sports shonen genre, it has a special appeal and very rewarding payoff if you enjoy the characters. I would recommend it to shonen and slice of life fans alike.
