Is Baby Steps Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Manga (shōnen), 464 chapters, 47 volumes
Run	2007–2017 · completed
Community score	AniList 7.9 · MangaUpdates 8.6
Where to read	K MANGA — official

Overview

Ei-chan is the kind of student teachers point to as a role model — perfect notes, perfect attendance, zero wasted motion — and exactly the kind of person nobody expects to become a competitive athlete. When he picks up tennis almost by accident, he doesn't bring any natural talent to it. What he brings is the same obsessive, structured thinking that made him a straight-A student, and Baby Steps spends its (very long) run showing what happens when that mindset gets pointed at a sport most players approach on instinct.

The manga's whole identity comes from that mismatch. Ei-chan isn't the fastest or strongest player on any court he steps onto. He wins, when he wins, because he's done more homework than his opponent.

What it does well

The tennis itself is the best part, which isn't a given for a sports manga this long. Katsuki draws matches with real tactical logic — you can see the shot selection, the positioning, the exact reason a strategy is working or failing, rather than just an artist's impression of "impressive tennis." Ei-chan's notebooks aren't a gimmick either; his habit of logging opponents' tendencies and adjusting mid-match is the actual throughline of the series, and it makes every win feel like a puzzle solved rather than a plot convenience.

The supporting cast pulls their weight too. Natsu, the promising junior player who becomes his training partner, gets a real career and real stakes of her own instead of just existing to cheer Ei-chan on, and the parade of rivals each bring a genuinely different style and outlook to the court, so the matches don't blur together even after dozens of volumes.

Where it falls short

The patience that makes the tennis compelling is a real ask over 47 volumes. This isn't a manga that skips through training with a montage — it shows the work, match by match, adjustment by adjustment, and that pacing can feel like a slog if you're not fully bought into the format. By the later stretches, the rhythm of "study opponent, adjust strategy, win narrowly" repeats often enough that some arcs read more like confirmation of what you already know about Ei-chan than new ground.

It also asks for a real time commitment. This isn't a story you finish in a weekend, and its steady, unhurried tone won't suit everyone looking for a sports manga with more spectacle.

Verdict

Baby Steps is one of the smartest, most technically grounded sports manga out there — a story about winning through preparation and observation rather than talent or grit alone. If you want tennis (or any sport) treated like a genuine intellectual problem to solve, this delivers on a scale few other series attempt.