Baby Steps

[MFauli]

56113l.jpg

Maruo Eiitirou (E-Chan), a first year honor student, one day decides he's unhappy with the way things are and lacks exercise. He finds a flyer for the Tennis Club and decides to check it out. He's instantly captivated by it.

With no prior experience and poor physical conditioning, join E-Chan as he embarks on a tennis journey using his smarts, dedication, and work ethic.

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

Another jolly good sports anime, tennis this time around.
E-chan is a somewhat atypical hero, in the way that his behavior actually lays the foundation for a pseudo-realistic explanation for his, obvious, future growth. In other anime, heroes "somehow" manage to find out stuff. E-chan IS the kind of person to analyse each and everything, so it´s not coming out of nowhere.

The preview for next episode indicates relationship-bullshit, but I´m confident we´ll get enough good tennis-action from this. Interestingly, just like with Haikyuu!!, the main girl in this anime is not hot at all imo. Herp derp face.

[MasterOfMoogles]

I really enjoy this not having the typical hot-blooded shounen sports thing.
I'm way more interested in this than Haikyuu this season for that reason.

I really like some of the jokes driven by Ei-chan, like him asking how big the court is and other random stuff no normal person would care to detail.

[MFauli]

So far this anime manages a good balance between realistic improving speed and exciting events. Looking forward to see if Ei-chan manages to return a single ball.

[MFauli]

Horrible Subs - Episode 04
---------------------------

Fantastic pacing. Finished the contest against Takuma AND we´re already done with the training "arc". Next episode seems to cover the first match already, too. And yet it doesn´t feel rushed.
I liked the trainer peeking into Ei-chan´´s notebook.

Still, highlight of the episode: Brunette glasses-girl. I´m not typically into meganekko, but she´s super cute. Way better than the blonde herp derp-face.

[shinta|hikari]

Seems like this isn't getting the attention it deserves. I blame PoT and KnB for deterring people from watching sports (magic) anime.

[David75]

But it seems that tournament is still earlier than the one he plays in Ep01.
Because the tournament he enters now is at 4 months since he started, and the one in Ep01 was at one year at least?

[MFauli]

SHARINGAN KAKUSEI!


Great episode as usual. It´s so much fun to watch an outsider/beginner take his first steps into the world of tennis. If you think about it, Ei-chan is the villain here - playing tennis for 4 months and already on the attack? He´s the genius, attacking the hardworkers. Although Ei-chan´s genius kinda is being a natural hardworker, haha.

What was stupid, though, was Ei-chan´s weak serve. So he´s been playing for 4 months and ... never practived serving? Dumb.

[David75]

Ei can only work so many basics at a time when he's so toroughful about how he trains every little detail.
It's already a marvel he can master serve returns on both sides that well in such a short time.
He clearly didn't have time to really train his serve. And serve also is about technical details and hours of pratice.
So his serve is more about getting the ball into play without faults, for now.

[Buffalobiian]

That hair .... >_> (Reminds me of my bedhair sometimes actually)

Nat-chan is prodigy-girl-who-likes-you done right. Her lackluster intelligence and good nature gives a good reason for her to support the MC. This is particularly the case when Ei-chan has the talent and work ethic to continuously deliver results worthy of those expectations and feelings.

It's good that they've dropped the brat-kid and Takuma-likes-Natsu antics. There's really no room for them with all this tennis going on.

Art-wise, this reminds me a lot of Knight in the Area.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Tsugumi_Halberd_anime_character_art_2.png
eiichiro_maruo_34107.jpg

Are they related? I can't unsee this on Tsugumi now.

[MFauli]

oh god, for some time i though maruo would lose this match again. so glad he won. would have felt so stagnant otherwise.

i guess next episode we´ll get a quick "and he lost the next match" ending for this tournament. If thats the case, I wonder how many year this series will use up until maruo gets to win a tourney.

[MFauli]

Episode 12:



VERY NICE! He actually beat the next opponent, too, and without problems at all. Unexpected!
The advice of that american coach was, truth to be told, really good and I´m thinking about applying it to my own daily life. Imagining memories of good situations to boost your current spirit low.

Hope he manages to beat the 3rd seed, too, don´t like this guy.

And just to repeat myself, Sasaki-chan, the pig-tails glasses girl, is super cute.

[MFauli]

Episode 14:
----------------------

Win by default, hm.

Anyway, I just don´t see Maruo defeat Araya. Speed and Power? Well, that´s like everything his opponent has then lol.

I guess the goal to win is for Maruo to gain the conviction of becoming a pro, and why he´d follow that path.

[David75]

Last two eps were very weak due to that stupid idea they had with this opponent wanting to draw masterpieces with ball trajectories.
That show is enjoyable to some degree, let's hope they get back to something better.

[Buffalobiian]

The conviction to win is what I'm looking at. Maruo wanted to play against power/speed because it'd be fun, but he needs to look into winning and strive towards that.

If Araya only has speed/power, then he could lack technique and agility.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - episode 15

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



Sasaki is cute but I think Nat-chan still wins it for me.

I'm also happy to see that Araya was finally getting good. Watching him get played by Maruo in the beginning felt to unfair. Now I'm back to rooting for Maruo. It's stimulating to see him think logically even when he loses a point. He's not annoyingly depressed but also isn't senselessly optimistic without a plan.

[MFauli]

I'm also happy to see that Araya was finally getting good. Watching him get played by Maruo in the beginning felt to unfair. Now I'm back to rooting for Maruo. It's stimulating to see him think logically even when he loses a point. He's not annoyingly depressed but also isn't senselessly optimistic without a plan.

You´re right, objectively speaking. However, thinking with anime-logic makes me feel like all of the above is actually a bad sign for Maruo. In anime, the hero is not supposed to be strong from the start of a fight. The fact that Maruo is imo paints the picture of a cruel incoming defeat. Of course, I expect him to win this match (unless we´ll have another 1 year-time skip), but I also see him losing contenancé at a soon rather than later point, expressing depression and helplessness. Which he will overcome and proceed to victory.

Also, Sasaki <3

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 17

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








Soo close! I'm happy with the result, but still what a shame.

I don't know when it was that I stopped thinking that his hairstyle was ridiculous and not cool, but it must have been a long time ago now.

[MFauli]

It had to happen at some point. I´m actually shocked that Araya and Takuma are considered equals (with a one-sided victory record, mind you), since Maruo went toe to toe with Araya. Applying shounen logic here, he should be able to beat Takuma next year.

Sucks that he cant participate in that junior open tournament

[Buffalobiian]

He should be able to beat the current Takuma, who is in a slump mind you.

His growth was huge, but I would expect it to die down more as he matures and diminishing returns start kicking in.

That said, the growth would still be substantial. Souji's introduction just moved Ei-chan's goalpost from Prefecture #1 to International.