This is your public service announcement: There is no Recap. It is strongly advised to rewatch the first season if you don’t remember much.
Eva’s First Impression
I can tell you right now I regret not doing a re-watch marathon of the first season last week when I had a relatively free schedule. It caught me off guard as I was more or less expecting the first comeback episode to feature a bit of a recap from the first season. But it was in fact a good thing that it didn’t happen. Baby Steps cut straight to the chase, starting off a bit on a confusing note but managed to find it’s footing again shortly after.
Eiichiro has traveled to the United States to participate in an exchange program for two weeks in order to gain as much experience as possible within that period of time. Eiichiro has only been playing tennis for two years, and most if not all aspiring pro players have ten or more years of experience. He is desperately looking for the more effective way to develop as a player so that he can be eligible to participate in the All-Japan Junior Remember, due to the promise he had made with his mother, Eiichiro only has one chance to win it all in the All-Japan Junior. Eiichiro has fallen head over heels for tennis and all he wants to do is tie the knot and play it for a living. The training facility he had went to is what he would describe as Paradise. Everything revolves around tennis and improving as a player. They require you to fill out a self-evaluation survey every week, follow a strict diet, limiting to the menu only offered at their cafeteria, cameras filming you as you practice so you can go back and watch yourself in order to find out where you need to improve. They have everything, including professional players to train with.
The folks within Eiichiro’s group were not impressed with his abilities, but they have no ideaEiichiro has only been playing for two years- and it’s that what makes him a scary player. His determination to become a pro and his optimistic drive of accepting his downfalls and weaknesses is what makes him strong. Alex, a player who has recently became a Pro (but is described to be struggling a bit) is the only one who knows about Eiichiro’s lack of experience after Ike gave him an explanation.
Having the opportunities to practice against strong opponents is not as simple as Eiichiro had hoped it to be. With his present skill level, strong players like Alex do not want to waste their time practicing with him. Thanks to Natsu’s asking of Ike to help Eiichiro out, Ike both saved and provided an opportunity for Eiichiro to play against every single member from his group by setting up a challenge where if they defeat Eiichiro in a match, Ike will play a match against them. Ike didn’t say that because he believed Eiichiro was going to beat them all, he expected him to lose. Instead it was important because in order to accomplish exponential growth, Eiichiro needs to play as many matches as possible to maximize the amount of experience he gains against strong players within two weeks time.
Lastly, who else was surprised to see the OP song didn’t change? I don’t particularly mind since the song is awesome. The OP Sequence was super slick, so it makes me very excited to see the future matches’ animation. Looks like they will be going all out and I can’t wait to see it.
Since Sidekick is still on hiatus, Vantage will be filling in her shared slot until she finishes her exams (around May).
Possibility of Blogging: GUARANTEED
Random Note of the Week: Baby Steps to Giant Strides, why am I choking up?
