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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- Oh Natsu~ There were some teasing kinda typical I guess. 9 episodes in and the romance is a bit vague. I think in the manga, it's also a bit vague. Eiichirou's progress amazes me though, almost in the same way as Peco from Ping Pong during his match. Overall, good episode. |
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| Good to see Natsu encouraging Ei-chan like that! It was sweet! and it was nice to see the guy who goes to the same high school as Ei-chan, he finally got some role! XD I hope we can see him more at school, he's fun. |
| Ei-chan vs Koshimizu. A cute encouragement from Nat-chan :D Match vs Miyagawa comes next. I'm looking forward to it. |
| Hyuga Junpei: “Yeah… I’m confident… Because my teammates will help me out! I can shoot confidently.. because it will be okay even if I miss!” Kagami Taiga: “I don’t know about being the bad guy or whatever. It’s only in stories where titles like that decide the loser. This is our show. We’re the ones who are writing the script.” |
| Eiichiro got a little tense there but, Natsu's written advice on his notebook calmed him down. Can't wait for his next match. |
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| I wonder how many notebooks Ei-chan would have by the end of the anime. Natsu's note really did save Ei-chan! Nariyuki is way too competitive against Ei-chan, he even wants to compete for love xD So it doesn't matter how long a person has played the sport. It is the "how" that truly matters. How much effort and time Ei-chan as put in to make him this strong! Miyagawa with his fast ground strokes! Ei-chan going up against a 5th seed again this time. I don't want Ei-chan to lose again in like exactly the same spot, and the same number of seed though different player. But he is up against a 5th seed... but to wait for another year? I think Ei-chan would win by using everything he has. |
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| Natsu's comment about Kanagawa Wall-hitting Champion made laugh XD! |
"May those who accept their fate be granted happiness." "May those who defy their fate be granted glory." |
| Little Bit of Romance with the Notebook Message from Natsu( It actually feels weird not saying Nat-chan...ugh). Anyway little bit of back story with Takuya, you got the high expectation parents. So he only can shoot ground shots (different varieties of them, mind you) a little odd, but maybe that will be his downfall? Man Next Episode Can't Air sooner, we Get to see another what looks to be an Exciting match. Next week do hurry please >.< |
| Argue? Nah Too lazy For That... Are You Ready!~Gulcasa |
| That was a cute move by Nat-chan. I can understand why that guy would be jealous of Ei-chan XD |
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| Nice save by Takasaki! And now, on the dreaded third round, he's about to face one of the seeds already. Can't wait for it. |
| I love the Natsu x Eiichirou interactions. |
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| Let the Kanagawa tournament begin! Hahaha, Ei-chan was so nervous that he had to do something in order to forget about it. Years go by so fast in anime just like in real life. I hope Ei-chan makes it past the 1st round in this tournament. Lol, that guy sure wants Ei-chan to remember him XD. That Natsu... she really cares about Ei-chan. Great, victory! Good Job Ei-chan! A big game awaits us next episode! |
| "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall." |
| Eh. Still not a Natsu fan, but glad that she helped out Ei-chan. Miyagawa! I like him, but I also want Ei-chan to win. :P |
| Miyagawa is a nice character.Don't know who to cheer on now D: Natsu is just so...weird and awesome, lol. |
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| Natsu's seiyuu is 1000% perf. Fits her to a tee. P. much best girl in this year's selection of sports series. As expected, the derp faces and weird animation flee once the action gets started. Still low budget, but good quality is enough for me. Do right by Tennis-chan~ >:L Good match coming up. Baby Steps should begin picking up speed from there. |
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| Love the improvements Ei-chan is making. He will definitely continue to get better. Can't wait til hes at national level. I'm a sucker for romance so I kind of like the Natsu x Eichan hints they have going on. |
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| Yeeaah looking forward to Ei-chan's match with Miyagawa~ Miyagawa is so adorable with his tea and sour plums :) Also, nice to see Iwasa in the background a few times. |
| Looks like it's coming full circle to the beginning of episode one, next episode. |
| Mhmm good episode. After episode 8 I went and read 200 plus chapters of the manga in 2 days. The source material is amazing. Can't wait to see Eii-chan progress. |
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| It's so obvious Nat-chan and Ei-chan like each other. Why doesn't one of them just make a move already? |
| Nat-chan and Ei-chan's relationship is progressing slowly but that's fine I guess, I like it. alexpte said: Oh, this encourages me to read the manga when the anime is over.Looking forward to that Eiichirou x Natsu. |
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alexpte said: Looking forward to that Eiichirou x Natsu. I don't think it'll reach, that happens pretty far down the road from where the anime is at, but if it did happen, it would probably be episode 25, but still doubt it, so much content to cover. |
| He'll have a lot, but it's not uncommon to build up notes when you are facing the same players in a number of tournaments. As Sun Tzu said: Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught to fear in 100 battles. And yeah, I wish Nat-chan and Ei-chan would move a bit faster... |
Please don't feed the trolls! In my next life I want to collide at the corner with the cute transfer student carrying a piece of toast in her mouth...rodac |
Shuhan said: I love the Natsu x Eiichirou interactions. Yes, those are really great scenes. i hope we see a better improvement in romance part by the end of the anime. |
| I was a bit concerned for a moment when Eiichirou had tensed up but I had a feeling he would be able to turn it around. The relationship between Nat-chan and him continues to progress at a slow and methodical pace almost similar to Eiichirou's progress in tennis. It's been quite some time since they initially met and Ei-chan's tennis has progressed noticeably more than the relationship between the two. It's good to see they aren't focusing more on romance than the plot though. I find this series extremely refreshing among anime today. I have high hopes for Ei-chan to beat Miyagawa now that he's learned he isn't as versatile as he believed. Stark700 said: almost in the same way as Peco from Ping Pong during his match. overall, good episode. Would you recommend Ping Pong if I'm enjoying Baby Steps? |
BayrockJun 2, 2014 10:54 AM
| Good ep. Nice to see Eichiro playing good. Thnx to Nat-chan. Loved their interactions <3 Can't wait to see how well he can do against Miyagawa next ^^ |
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Shuhan said: I love the Natsu x Eiichirou interactions. Yeah they seem very good for each other |
| As Ei-chan improves his Tennis so does his relation with Nat-chan : ) I wonder if Ei-chan will beat Miyagawa next week?? Dat Ground Stroke though... |
| I'm really loving this adaptation of the manga and i hope they cover at least 100 chapters. |
| OMG OTP!! I couldn't recognize Hatano Wataru & Kakihara Tetsuya omfg surprised to see both of them voicing Araya & Miyagawa respectively. I don't know who to cheer T____T but hoping for Ei-chan to move forward and break his losing-at-3rd-round curse Wow omg the Koshimizu guy is like a senpai-pls-notice-me kouhai with all the "I'm gonna make sure you're gonna remember my name" ahahaha what a bad analogy Y__Y Looking forward for more Ei-chan's awesomeness!! and wow what a beautiful sight of the top seeded players they could be in my reverse harem if they can *brick'd* |
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| Koshimizu Nariyuki, probably long forgotten the next time A year has passed, since Ei chan's first match and it was cool to see his growth in Tennis The tournament feels came over and Nat chan encouragement scribble on Eiichiro's notebook was noticed at the right moment Can't wait to see what happens next against the fith seed |
| Koshimizu gets so mad when he sees Ei-Chan interacting with Nat-chan. |
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| Good episode!! Funny that the creators are teasing with traits of romance between Natsu and Eiichiro, and I personally ship these two a lot! :) Looking forward to see Eiichiros next match |
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| Nat-chan is the type of girl that would be a great friend to have. She's cute and all but her personality is so lovable. She writes a short message on his notebook, things like that are what makes friends such BFF's. I liked Natsu's tennis gear, she has such a smooth back very sexy. Ei-kun finally made it past the 1st round. Now he's facing Miyagawa, it could be his first major win but again that's if he doesn't tense up like he did vs his fist opponent. |
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| Nat-chan is an angel dammit. That rival with no presence appeared as expected LOL. Now this would be an interesting match. |
| The advice about not focusing on winning is some of the best you could ever get. Great for the anime to showcase it. To win one should focus on the broad, the opponent, and the experience of playing, not the specifics and certainty not the minute or oneself. I found the whole match with his school mate to be really funny. I also adored the moment Aniki-guy said that he wouldn't call Takuya versatile, rather the opposite. Just because someone perfects the multitude of ways to do one technique doesn't mean anything if you can counter that technique outright. This was another great episode and it had a lot of great insight on the competitive mindset. I took in a lot from the way Maruo took out his school mate. Find the strengths, the weaknesses, and the gameplan of the opponent and then strike to avoid the strengths, capitalize on the weaknesses and succeed. Maruo and Natsu are absolutely adorable. I love their moments together. |
| Really nice episode, and pretty sweet too seeing Natsu encourage Maruo like that, whether in written form as notes during his match or by just motivating him to do his best whenever she talked to him before/after matches. Really earnest and lovable dynamic the both of them have together. Regarding Maruo's matches, he struggled early on due to the pressure of being here after a year with going through all the training and hard work and prefectural losses to be here, but with the help of Natsu writing in Maruo's notes and motivating him, he realized to use that pressure and excitement to his advantage and have fun while doing his best. His abilities and play have grown astoundingly compared to a year prior where he would just randomly try his best to rally to prolong the inevitable. Got him facing Miyagawa next episode. Should be a nice match, the little bit of Miyagawa backstory said by Fukazawa definitely helped in giving him enough characterization for the match to be sort of different from Maruo's other bouts. |
| Ganbare with the progression Ei-chan~ |
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