Mom and Me "Baby Steps" by Judy Postelak
Synopsis
Maruo Eiichirou, a outset yr honour pupil, one day decides he'southward unhappy with the way things are and lacks do. He finds a flyer for the Tennis Club and decides check information technology out. He'due south instantly absorbed by it. With no prior feel and poor concrete workout, join Eiichirou as he embarks on a tennis journeying using his smarts, dedication and work ethic.(Source: One Manga)
Background
Baby Steps won the 38th Kodansha Manga Award for the shounen category in 2014 and was adjusted into a alive-activeness TV drama serial in 2016.In the final volume of the serial, Hikaru Katsuki revealed that the manga's determination was decided past the publisher and not by his option.
Related Manga
Characters
Reviews
November 10, 2021
462 of 462 chapters read
| Overall | 8 |
| Story | viii |
| Art | 8 |
| Character | 7 |
| Enjoyment | 10 |
This is my first review of a evidence, but it is very plumbing fixtures that I write one most this manga. So I originally watched the anime first, but it was good so I kept reading the manga for about 200 chapters. I had no prior cognition about tennis before watching/reading this manga and left it feeling so much more understanding about how the sport actually works and the intensity and skill information technology takes to be able to play.
This is easily ane of my all fourth dimension favorite mangas/stories. At present, for the actual review.
The story follows a pretty typical shounen trope in that young boy has a dream that he wants get the best at. Simply what differs in this prove from many other shounens is that he has no real advantage or plot. The author does a phenomenal chore at accurately depicting progress in existent time. He gradually gets improve over time and loses a lot more than than a typical male protagonist in a shounen would. He has no feel playing the sport, and then the reader knows only near equally much as he does. Over time you lot first to see how his specific style of play allows him to bring his rigid nature into 1 of more enjoying the moment and play by play: something nosotros all could larn. His personal development through his losses and successes feel triumphant and heartbreaking still. At that place's likewise a sweet touch of romance as a subtheme and a subtle driver into how he achieves his goals. It gives a warm feeling to encounter how him and his interest chase their goals at the same time and how their strong beliefs in each other fuel their motivation. It'south mainly well-nigh tennis, which is how it should be, just it added an actress touch that y'all didn't realize was needed. Now, some people would like more attending on the side characters development, which are normally used to forwards Ei-Chan'south progress, but and then some people complain that certain shows focus too much on side characters. You tin can't satisfy everyone. I remember he is interesting enough as a main to carry the show and he does for over 400+ chapters. I'd propose reading over watching, the art in the show is not fifty-fifty close to equally good in the manga. The backgrounds of some the courts and famous spots are unbelievable. The intensity is felt through the games and I found it highly intense and never knowing who is going to win. It does a great job showing the motivations of each characters in the game and these stakes create a sense of ambivalence. or mixed feelings on the outcome of the lucifer. Y'all desire Ei-Chan to win for his reasons, but his opponent has but every bit adept if not amend reasons or higher stakes to bet on. The story is his own path to figuring out his goals and finding deep passion for something y'all didn't know you had. It is very realistic in his attempts to go a keen tennis histrion. It's also great because it is not based in loftier school, just a pro tennis club and then yous go to see the more competitive side of tennis as well as good world building equally it progresses. I highly bask this prove every bit a story. At that place's contest, skill/intensity, romance, failure, success. world edifice, good art, and decent characters. There could've been more development on other characters, especially, Natsu, who besides plays lawn tennis and is really good. I wish information technology showed the perspective of women'southward lawn tennis a bit more, and some other characters tennis path. Ei-Chan is a great primary character with stiff motivations and morals with a hard working nature and quirky side every bit well. Totally recommend to anyone wanting to watch a activeness packed sport anime with realistic progress and feel good romance.
Oct 1, 2012
129 of 462 chapters read
| Overall | ix |
| Story | 8 |
| Fine art | 8 |
| Character | nine |
| Enjoyment | 9 |
This is a review of this manga from the commencement to latest affiliate.(Around 129)
I will re-edit it when this manga is complete or near completion.
I will too exist trying to avoid spoiling every bit much equally possible and so pitiful if some things may seem vague.
When information technology comes to sports manga it seems you either honey it or detest information technology. Not a lot of us may take an interest in some sports whether it exist football, swimming, baseball or tennis or maybe we exercise but merely non in that specific sport. In club to win the oversupply over when it comes to sports manga and the sport it focuses on is upwards to the story that comes with it and characters. Let me offset off by saying that if you lot never had an interest in sports manga Infant Steps is the correct place to start, if you already do have an interest well then sit downward and relax because after you read this review information technology's time for you to read Infant Steps! Story 8/10 The story takes place in a high school setting in Nippon. Nosotros are introduced to the very intelligent A-pupil Maruo Eiichirou(Ei-Chan), a 15 year old genius who spends his fourth dimension studying and never really thinks near anything else. 1 day he decides that he needs to stay in shape and looks for some sort of physical activeness to do, one thing leads to some other and he ends up in the tennis lodge. This story follows him and the many other characters and what they do to reach their dreams. Now similar I said vague, but you get the point. The story does take place in a typical high school setting but is peak-notch though when it comes to terms of keeping you excited and wanting more. Information technology mixes many aspects of keen stories into it such as the comedy, sport, developing relationships(yes, possible romance.) and more keeping you ever interested whether it be the intense matches or having the characters interact with i another. The pacing is surprisingly fantastic and e'er changes at just the right times. Instead of taking upwards x more capacity for 2 pointless matches they'll go through them all quickly in a chapter to that final match we all wait for and instead make that match long and intense over a few chapters. The style they keep evolving the story with the pacing proves to make itself a great read. Art viii/10 Make clean, well-drawn and modern. Works for what it is. Character 9/ten The characters are fantastic in the manga. From the weak genius becoming potent, to the amazing girl always nervous because anybody thinks of her as perfect, and to the delinquent bad donkey who is a tennis pro that has a nice side which he tries to hibernate. Nosotros have many different and vibrant characters in this manga. Every graphic symbol, chief or supporting has a different personality which works for them best and allow them to compliment each other. The characters are not but express to a scattering either as nosotros are always introduced to new interesting characters. Enjoyment 9/ten I haven't enjoyed a sports type manga like this since The Large Windup. It kept me glued to my screen constantly clicking wanting to get more than and more into the story and fifty-fifty got me interested in the sport which I had no intendance for at all when I began reading it. Information technology's the kind of manga that you can merely sit back relax and read but at the same time excite yourself when information technology comes to the matches. Overall 9/10 It's not ofttimes I'm able to discover a sports shounen that mixes and so much and yet stays and so true to what it is. From the characters, to character development, and evolving story this is one manga that I thoroughly enjoyed. Coming into this manga with no cognition of the sport or treat it I thought information technology would have been a drop immediately. However I detect myself coming dorsum every week for the next update. It is certainly a manga that is worth a shot for anyone. And so don't be taken aback if you have no interest in lawn tennis! Read a few chapters and run across for yourself!
May v, 2015
244 of 462 chapters read
| Overall | 8 |
| Story | ix |
| Art | 8 |
| Character | seven |
| Enjoyment | nine |
I honestly don't really like sports manga. A lot of them that are super popular (Kuruko'southward Basketball, Haikyuu, The Prince of Tennis) just don't intrigue me. Baby Steps subverts all of that, making it one of the all-time sports manga I ever took the fourth dimension to read.
Good - Not bad protagonist: Babe Steps follows Eiichiro Maruo, nicknamed Ei-chan because he gets all "A'due south" in school due to his ridiculously meticulous nature. A chance encounter with Natsu Takasaki, a girl who is aiming to get a tennis pro, coupled with a want to engage in concrete activity leads Ei-chan to join STC as an amateur lawn tennis player, often playing against grade schoolers. Over time, Eiichiro realizes his meticulous note-taking and powerful vision to his advantage. A growing dear of the sport fuels him to exercise hard and aim to become a pro. While all sports manga necessitate that the protagonists have some talent, Infant Steps ensures that Eiichiro's talents are far from godly; Eiichiro must work hard twenty-four hours in and 24-hour interval out in gild to succeed. As a character, he falls into more of the Ippo category, but while he is shy, Eiichiro is not timid or that cocky-deprecating; he'south a polite beau who wants to win with his own ability. Eiichiro's hard work and realistic, relatable attitude let him to bear the manga by himself. Good - Fugitive the trap: The common trap of a shounen manga is what I telephone call the "power level" trap. When an adversary of an arc is defeated, how do you top that? You lot introduce a villain with a higher power level (or a set of villains with a college aggregate ability level). This always ends upwards deflating whatever tension in a previous arc: how can the main characters accept the same amount of problem confronting both villains if one is stronger? More importantly, how can the main characters vanquish the villain? With a super new technique. This repetitive cycle of shounen manga decrees the final antagonist be Gods, and that can occur in many sports manga. Baby Steps avoids this because information technology develops Eiichiro within the sense of reason. Aye, Eiichiro gets stronger, sometimes during a match, but that'south considering we see how hard he works. He never pulls something out of his ass like "Misdirection Overflow" that doesn't even exist in lawn tennis, ever improving in a realistic fashion. Good - Sense of tension: Have you ever seen a tennis match on TV? Have you lot ever played a tennis lucifer? Any sport definitely feels different for the spectators than for the players, and tennis is one of the sports that has a huge difference. Shounen manga tend to slow downward the action in society to feel the tension, and Babe Steps is no exception. Notwithstanding, over the course of its entire 200+ chapters that I have read, Baby Steps never loses that feeling in any of its matches. It is capable of keeping the tension at a realistic level throughout the entire series. Adept - About men simply not manly: Many sports manga have to ignore the female side, and depending on the sport and style of the manga, it can frequently drip with glistening testosterone. Baby Steps pretty much but follows the matches of guys. These high school guys don't accept low hanging assurance similar other sports manga characters practise, making it more accessible for people who tin can't take the sheer manly musk of some sports manga. Good - Not afraid to brand its hero lose: Not really spoilers; Eiichiro does not win all the time. He's no loser, only it's non completely uncommon. Sometimes he is crushed; other times it'southward a fluke; and other times information technology'south because his opponent is that good. Losing is a function of life, and Eiichiro is no stranger to it. Different Ash Ketchum, nevertheless, Eiichiro is amazing most learning from his mistakes, and whenever he surfaces at a new tournament, all of his previous opponents note how much time he spent to provoke insane growth. --- Mixed - All lawn tennis, all the time: Baby Steps excels in not succumbing to the bug of other sports manga. One of the huge issues that tin occur with a sports manga that has its characters in schoolhouse is that it makes the sport a schoolhouse sport, intertwining the two. This leads to a multitude of cliche schoolhouse life drama or slice of life scenarios to pad the fourth dimension in between matches, equally well as giving a bunch of side characters besides much screentime. This often adds unnecessary weight to a sports manga, making yous expect with begrudging apprehension for the next match. Babe Steps avoids this by making the tennis tied to professional tennis clubs equally well equally the pro scene, ignoring any school life tainting of the sports formula. But at what cost? Baby Steps goes to an extreme to solve the problem I but laid out: it's always tennis. If Eiichiro's non playing tennis, he'due south grooming for tennis, or talking about tennis, or thinking about tennis, or taking notes nearly tennis. This manga is probably written with the blood, sweat, and tears of actual tennis players. Having the sport is good, and I'm more invested in the manga because of information technology, just what about the characters? Autonomously from Eiichiro, I'm barely invested in anyone, considering I know comparatively picayune about them. It makes sense for me to know less about certain characters, similar many of Eiichiro's opponents; I know them through the "in-match flashback," and that's often enough; giving the characters some dramatic backstory would put a damper on whatever realism they have. They love tennis, and the manga brings out their personality through their playstyle and monologues. Information technology's not perfect, but it's serviceable. The i important character who doesn't receive this treatment (and definitely should) is Natsu, the female protagonist and Eiichiro'south dearest interest. Natsu'south a very cheery daughter who plays an instinctive tennis, opposite of Eiichiro's, and she aspires to be a pro. That's pretty much information technology. Natsu is super likeable and doesn't fall into any typical tropes for a heroine, which makes this hard to notice, but nosotros know and so lilliputian about Natsu, except how Eiichiro likes her. The best way the manga could gear up this is to give focus to matches that Eiichiro is non playing, but rather follow the matches of other characters and go inside their heads equally they go against each other. Unfortunately, that's also a mode to impale the manga; focusing likewise much on the side characters can devolve into a Bleach state of affairs, where nosotros barely run across the chief heroes just ever see 300+ minor characters' battles. Information technology's great that Babe Steps avoids this pitfall, but can't we see some more Natsu? Mixed - Passage of Time: For the most part, Babe Steps takes place during the times when tennis is played. That's part of the reason why information technology's all lawn tennis all the time: it doesn't really endeavour to give a plot during the times when tennis isn't played. So, through a montage (yes, training montages), the manga skips the drivel and goes straight to the side by side lawn tennis flavor. But is absolutely zippo important? It frequently follows the trend that Ei-chan loses, there are a couple chapters well-nigh his tennis, and then it'due south the next tournament or next twelvemonth or something. Y'all sometimes meet what the characters are upward to during brusque side capacity. Baby Steps could put in some padding to make the passage of fourth dimension seem and then much less sharp, and develop its characters! Information technology skips the vast majority of filler and makes you like the characters more! The other time when "fast forward" is implemented is during a tennis match. Lawn tennis is a long sport, afterward all. Do we want to see Eiichiro own worse tennis players? Not particularly. We'll run into some frames and then the score. That's fine. Practise we desire to see every single render? No, of course not; each arc would be the length of a 1 Slice arc if we did that. So fast-forwarding is washed to prevent us from getting really bored. Unfortunately, it is typically handled in the to the lowest degree graceful way possible; through a bunch of omniscient text boxes. Used sparingly, this is acceptable. In Baby Steps, information technology utilized to the point that over an entire set of a lucifer can be *explained* that fashion. Information technology's far from atrocious, but manga should take advantage of the fact that it can only show with characters and facial expressions and not always have to tell. More annoying is how Babe Steps sometimes wraps upward a tense lawn tennis match with a text box caption, instead of u.s.a. seeing the characters react and think as the Match Indicate is playing out. In the interest of expedience, it detracts from united states of america connecting more with the lucifer and the characters at crucial times. Babe Steps is a phenomenal sports manga. It'southward always engaging and keeps you on the edge of your seat since anything tin happen. If y'all need a sports manga to read, y'all really tin't go incorrect with Baby Steps, peculiarly if yous love tennis. Story: 9
---
Fine art: viii
Character: seven
Enjoyment: 9
Overall: 8.3 (rounded downwards to 8)
Sep 27, 2014
232 of 462 chapters read
| Overall | 9 |
| Story | 8 |
| Fine art | 8 |
| Character | 8 |
| Enjoyment | 10 |
This manga attracted me because the main grapheme, like us, is a novice at tennis, or at to the lowest degree I am. Therefore the reader learns about lawn tennis alongside Maruo (maincharacter), who is a beginner to tennis.
The story itself is simple. Maruo is introduced to tennis, decides to practise it, and nosotros read along, as simple as that. For the story of a sports manga to be interesting and to go along the readers attending, the execution of the games must be different from every other sports manga out there. As lawn tennis is a one-man sport, the mangaka's conclusion to make this manga into a offset person narration for the most part during games is obvious. The next pace the mangaka next took is to make tennis, a fast paced sport, into a strategic game for the chief graphic symbol. (the pace do not suffer from this) The manga's arroyo to the games therefore needs a particular main character... ... which is what we have in Maruo. He is a simple, but likeable character. Very logical, level-headed and insanely determined in whatsoever he do (studies, training, etc) and otherwise a social bad-mannered person. Nothing he does is instinct. Everything that happens in the games are thought out and written down in Maruo's notebooks. While a simple character fueled by instinct can be interesting, this would not match well with a one-man sport manga, at that place is other supporting characters who gets this part. The art is good. The faces profoundly differs from each other. The art is as well a great aid during explanation nearly tennis or strategic planning during matches. In the course of the manga details in the characters faces better but I meet null else that differs from the starting time of the manga to the latest affiliate. My only complaint is why Maruo'due south pilus absolutely must look like a hen's. I can't put information technology into words exactly why I bask this manga as much as I exercise, but I do think alot of it tin can the attributed to the strategy put into the games and Maruo, a MC, very different from most. For what the manga is, it succeed extremely well in its execution. Give this manga a go, information technology is a easy manga to read in times of relaxing the mind. Note: I tin recommend "Haikyuu!!" if y'all cease up liking this manga. It differs in obvious central points, simply my enjoyment is the same.
The pace of the manga is nice. One does not have to read many chapters before Maruo has his first official match. While Maruo'south training is nowadays in the manga, information technology does not go tiresome to read and as mentioned we readers learn aslope Maruo there is e'er something new that happens, whether this is games or training. The manga is light-hearted. information technology is a uncomplicated light hearted sports manga and graphic symbol backgrounds have small-scale attending.
As shortly mentioned character backgrounds is most non-existent in "Babe Steps". Almost all attention is put into Maruo. His starting point, is also the readers starting point, which focuses ane the development of Maruo's lawn tennis skills and his fight to be a smashing tennis player. there is absolutely no drama in this manga whatsoever, it is a easy low-cal-hearted read to the core.
Recommendations
Recent News
Recent Forum Discussion
Contempo Featured Articles
Top 5 All-time Tennis Anime of All Time
Tennis has been around in anime for some time now, only the number of series dedicated to it are surprisingly low. In the post-obit list, we'll take a wait at 5 popular tennis anime, including non just iconic classics, but also some newbie gems!
15 Inspiring Quotes from Babe Steps
Babe Steps is a very well-paced sports anime that focuses on the growth of a new lawn tennis role player named Eiichirou Maruo. Whorl downwards to check out fifteen quotes from the anime that volition put your motivation in overdrive!
Source: https://myanimelist.net/manga/8300/Baby_Steps
0 Response to "Mom and Me "Baby Steps" by Judy Postelak"
Post a Comment