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Is it me or did the animation quality sky-rocket for that episode? The actual tennis playing with the ball traveling from the player perspective was pretty drat sharp. Even Maruo's time on the line had him hopping and moving and flipping his racket.
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May 25, 2015 21:42
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I randomly stumbled upon this show. I like it. Still on S1 though.
PaganGoatPants fucked around with this message at 22:29 on May 25, 2015 |
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May 25, 2015 22:24
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PaganGoatPants posted:I randomly stumbled upon this show. I like it. Still on S1 though. It gets better as it goes along so you have plenty to look forward too.
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May 25, 2015 23:18
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Mo_Steel posted:Is it me or did the animation quality sky-rocket for that episode? The actual tennis playing with the ball traveling from the player perspective was pretty drat sharp. Even Maruo's time on the line had him hopping and moving and flipping his racket. They never would have done that last bit in the first season. My guess is that their budget got upgraded for the second season so they're putting more effort into the animation, even for mostly unnecessary details like that.
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May 25, 2015 23:28
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AVeryLargeRadish posted:It gets better as it goes along so you have plenty to look forward too. I hope he continues to write notes forever.
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May 25, 2015 23:35
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I'm all caught up now. The America stuff was good. Do they really have facilities that complex around here? Also a kid at my gym is aiming to be a tennis pro. He's 15 and plays against 18 year olds. 
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May 30, 2015 02:33
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PaganGoatPants posted:I'm all caught up now. The America stuff was good. Do they really have facilities that complex around here? The Bollettieri academy that it's based off of is I believe the single largest and most extensive tennis academy in the world. A huge number of top tier professionals have been there at some point in their career, so it'd have to be a top-tier facility to service them. I haven't personally been there though. Nick Bollettieri himself is an internationally famous coach.
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May 30, 2015 03:21
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ViggyNash posted:The Bollettieri academy that it's based off of is I believe the single largest and most extensive tennis academy in the world. A huge number of top tier professionals have been there at some point in their career, so it'd have to be a top-tier facility to service them. I haven't personally been there though. Nick Bollettieri himself is an internationally famous coach. It's like Disney World for athletes  . Looks incredibly expensive.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI4nQOXVOT4 PaganGoatPants fucked around with this message at 04:02 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 03:59
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PaganGoatPants posted:It's like Disney World for athletes I'm pretty sure the only reason someone would go there is if they're filthy rich and have no shame or are already competing on a national or international level, so really the cost is meaningless really.
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May 30, 2015 05:01
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Unfortunately they cut the scene from the anime, but in the manga there is a scene where Maruo has to negotiate with his parents to get them to pay for the trip, the cost was 380,000 yen or about $3,000 at todays exchange rate and back when that issue of the manga came out the yen was higher and it would have been around $4,800. So yeah, pretty drat expensive for a week of training, though I think Maruo is the sort of person that can receive the greatest benefit from an experience like that what with how analytical and fast thinking he is.
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May 30, 2015 06:54
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How far a ahead is the manga?
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May 30, 2015 13:19
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PaganGoatPants posted:How far a ahead is the manga?
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May 30, 2015 14:34
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I'm actually surprised she got creamed so bad by him I half expected it to go the other way. He's the newcomer here.
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Jun 1, 2015 18:59
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Nihilarian posted:The match with Miyagawa ends in chapter 111 in the manga, and looking at the wiki there are 342 chapters out in Japan. So we've got enough for another season or two. That's good to know. As for the episode...  The gently caress is that? Why is there a concrete building at the back of a tennis court, and why is the rest of it a grass hill? Who the gently caress would build a court like that?  Maruo vs. Natsu was a fun match, mostly because of Maruo freaking out when Natsu didn't do anything he expected her to. That's not really a bad way to play since it'll throw off your opponent, but you'd need the mental strength to be confident in such a roundabout approach, and the physical and technical ability to play flexibly. The major downside is that a player with quick enough reflexes could easily take advantage of her inefficient shot choice and punish her. Her coach mentioned that her opponent for the finals plays similar to Maruo, so that could very well be why Natsu hasn't been able to beat her.
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Jun 1, 2015 20:39
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So Maruo has to win every match from now on until he's a pro? That takes some drama out of it.
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Jun 2, 2015 02:36
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PaganGoatPants posted:So Maruo has to win every match from now on until he's a pro? That takes some drama out of it. Nah, at the very least he doesn't need to win the upcoming match against Eyebrows in the finals. It's just that if he wins this smaller local tournament, then I think he can get seeded in the All-Japan? Something like that. And he could still totally become a pro if he lost the All-Japan in the finals or something, it'd just create a conflict within himself and between him and his family. Which would actually be really interesting to watch.
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Jun 2, 2015 02:52
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PaganGoatPants posted:So Maruo has to win every match from now on until he's a pro? That takes some drama out of it. I think he just needs to qualify (which he just did I think by making it to the semis), the better he does in the next tournaments, the better seeded he is in the open which makes the path much easier. I'm unsure if the Open is single elimination, at least at first. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have to win the final here.
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Jun 2, 2015 02:53
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Oh ok. Cool.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:21
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I've been reading the manga and appreciating your comments about real life tennis. Kind of interesting the extent to which it follows real strategy and stuff, instead of pure gimmicks and bullshit. I feel like the series does a pretty good job about Maruo not being unstoppable? Not to be that guy dancing around spoilers. But I think it's pretty rare for a sports show to have the protagonist outright fail so at some point you've got to expect that he's going to win most of the big matches. I don't think that necessarily kills the tension, you could probably say the same for big action movies and I can still be engaged by how well assembled the whole thing is.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:45
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LorneReams posted:I think he just needs to qualify (which he just did I think by making it to the semis), the better he does in the next tournaments, the better seeded he is in the open which makes the path much easier. I'm unsure if the Open is single elimination, at least at first. Pretty much all tournaments are single elimination, except for some qualifier tournaments. The number of sets may vary, though the standard is best of 3 for a typical pro tournament. As for the Araya match, you guys are correct in that he doesn't need to win, technically. But beating Araya and grabbing that first place trophy also gives him a huge rank boost, high enough that he becomes a seeded player in the All-Japan Juniors. Take a look at the full draw for the tournament that Maruo has been burning through:  Notice that all of the seeded players are spread out, such that they won't play each other until the later rounds. This is intentional, and is generally how the draw is organized in any tournament. Being an unseeded player is a detriment because it means that you'll have to play a seeded one early on... or the guy that beat the seed, which would be worse. But if Maruo gets seeded for the All-Japan Juniors, then he won't have to play a seeded player until maybe the round of 16 at the earliest. This then means that he won't have any tough matches at first, so he can conserve his energy, both mental and physical, for when the going gets rough. Match length is a very significant factor in large tournaments where you might have to play up to 8 matches over a week, maybe 2. Unless you are Ferrer, the Spanish Energizer Bunny. I am convinced he could keep playing forever and not give a gently caress. ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 05:47
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One of the reasons this series is so accurate is because the author is someone who plays tennis and tried to go pro himself but fell short. I guess he took "write what you know" to heart.
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Jun 2, 2015 06:17
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Gils posted:I've been reading the manga and appreciating your comments about real life tennis. Kind of interesting the extent to which it follows real strategy and stuff, instead of pure gimmicks and bullshit. You never really feel like the time was wasted when he loses, either. Even when he does so he learns a lot of new things to try out next time. The manga title is super apt that way.
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Jun 5, 2015 20:48
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I never even noticed Araya was left-handed until it was mentioned. I hope he just runs around and hits it with his forehand.
PaganGoatPants fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jun 7, 2015 |
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Jun 7, 2015 22:14
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Episode 11: Is this the longest a match has gone on for? The episodes have been pretty great, but I could see more than three episodes getting real old, real fast if it happened often. As it is, I'm banking on 1-2 non-tennis episodes in payment. Like every sports anime, the episodes that are the most fun, are the no sport episodes.
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Jun 14, 2015 13:38
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linall posted:Episode 11: Is this the longest a match has gone on for? The episodes have been pretty great, but I could see more than three episodes getting real old, real fast if it happened often. As it is, I'm banking on 1-2 non-tennis episodes in payment. Like every sports anime, the episodes that are the most fun, are the no sport episodes. I don't think any have been longer than 2 episodes so far, but I guess this is a FINAL so they were like 
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Jun 14, 2015 15:29
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Does the manga do a good job fleshing out the side characters? I'm enjoying the show but finding Maruo a bit bland and wishing the supporting cast was more than just a cheer section.
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Jun 21, 2015 00:18
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TEHJOE posted:Does the manga do a good job fleshing out the side characters? I'm enjoying the show but finding Maruo a bit bland and wishing the supporting cast was more than just a cheer section. Yeah, do we ever find out what style of tennis the guy with the weird fashion sense has?
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Jun 21, 2015 09:32
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Neeksy posted:Yeah, do we ever find out what style of tennis the guy with the weird fashion sense has? The losing kind. 
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Jun 21, 2015 17:46
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Neeksy posted:Yeah, do we ever find out what style of tennis the guy with the weird fashion sense has? 
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Jun 21, 2015 19:26
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Nihilarian posted:you're going to have to be more specific. The one who keeps calling him "big bro" (aniki). He has the U-shaped nose. He dresses like he fell into an early 90s sitcom character's closet.
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Jun 22, 2015 09:51
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This episode was really good because unlike a lot of other shows, poo poo moves forward!
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Jul 5, 2015 21:12
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A great episode to show things moving along. The thing I like about the timing of it is that it makes it seem like someone's actual life and not "hero defeats the villain and gets the girl".
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Jul 5, 2015 22:04
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The Black Stones posted:This episode was really good because unlike a lot of other shows, poo poo moves forward! It was cute as hell.  I like how casual Natsu was about asking him to go steady and how well it fits with her personality. She has always struck me as someone who just strikes forward to get what she wants, so her just going "Hey, why don't we start dating?" fits her perfectly. Also her taking him to the beach to make it more romantic was super cute and not something I expected her to do, it's nice seeing her plan something like that out. 
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Jul 5, 2015 22:07
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Over/Under on how many episodes this match is going to take set at 3. Viggy, come back!
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Jul 12, 2015 18:13
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AVeryLargeRadish posted:It was cute as hell. This is pretty much why I call it the anti-sports-manga(in a good way). The hero and heroine actually getting together like normal people instead of 500 chapters of will they/won't they??? Notice how the story is better for it and DIDN'T suddenly explode and give the world cancer like most sports manga apparently thinks it does.
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Jul 12, 2015 20:28
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LorneReams posted:Over/Under on how many episodes this match is going to take set at 3. At least 3 
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Jul 12, 2015 22:38
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LorneReams posted:Viggy, come back! I got kinda sick of watching tennis what with the French Open and Wimbeldon happening nearly back to back over the last couple months and could't be arsed to watch and comment on the show. Wimbledon's done now, so it's time I got off my rear end and got back on it. Maruo VS Araya It's neat to know that Maruo serves a lot like I do. I don't mean stroke or technique, I mean in the way he's visualizing the kind of serve he'll hit, and how to follow it up, on every single serve. I certainly can't do it quite as accurately or consistently as Maruo must be, but I'm still proud of my serve. Araya mentions something that I think I've mentioned before, and that I've been thinking about for most of the show: Maruo's pretty weak. His grueling training that taught his body "active rest" only brought him on par with the field, but it did not give him the physical ability to move much farther beyond. What Maruo has been doing is min-maxing his capabilities based only on the tools he currently has, which is limited by his physique. So of course his only play here is to... figure out that Araya is left-handed?  Dammit Maruo, what is wrong with you? Obviously a left forehand is going to be different form a righty backhand! They work entirely differently! And now your backhand's broken. I can relate pretty well actually. If I don't play for a couple weeks, I almost entirely forget how to hit a backhand and have to resort to crappy slices.On a side note, it seems like the translators are writing "winner" instead of "ace". That was sorta confusing. I like Maruo's strategy for dealing with his lack of lefty-opponent experience. It's safe and methodical, and gives Maruo time to deal with his inexperience, like he explained himself. The first point of Araya's game after that is interesting. Your first serve is obviously an important weapon since you can gamble with relatively low risk. But there is still risk, even if you get it in. Consider a first serve in which you put a lot of mental focus and physical effort into getting a quick point off the serve, but your opponent hits an ok shot back anyway. Now you're off balance both physically and mentally and have to scramble for ball. Now, about that drop shot return. That... that doesn't happen. Like, ever. The last time I saw that happen was when I accidentally framed my return slice and it happened to drop really short. That was about 8 years ago. It's just not a thing that's normally viable, especially against a solid server like Araya. Modifying your pace is, however, quite effective against many people. It's the edge that sets apart the best of the best from the almost the best. It's definitely not something that's easy to do, and it certainly doesn't come naturally. That's mostly because you have to think a lot, and most people don't like thinking while being in the hot sun for an hour and a half, or more. Oof, that bad call. People smash rackets over calls like that, especially at important points like 30-love. It's also the kind of call that might incite rage-fueled, 4-ace games. Well, that was one hell of a roller coaster to watch. 3 episodes for the match... drat. That must have been, what, 2 1/2 to 3 hours long? Take a rest Maruo, you deserve it. ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Jul 13, 2015 |
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Jul 13, 2015 02:40
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Holy poo poo this week's episode was great. There is a whole metajoke going on here where even Maruo says "I'm being pulled into his story".
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Jul 13, 2015 03:10
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Neeksy posted:Holy poo poo this week's episode was great. There is a whole metajoke going on here where even Maruo says "I'm being pulled into his story". Yeah, there is a 100% chance that watching the Ide episodes is going to be a window into a worse tennis show. It's probably going to be at least three episodes, but I'm really hoping they will wrap it up faster. Probably never happen though.
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Jul 14, 2015 21:13
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Yeah, the Ide stuff feels like "This guy would totally be the main character in any other tennis anime." It's great. Also Viggy's posts are awesome, read all of them as I was catching up on the anime and they were really fun to read through. I'm not a huge tennis player, but I'm big into fencing which I personally think is pretty similar in the mental aspect. Wonder if a lot of one-on-one sports have a similar mental aspect like that, because a lot of times I'm watching this and can think of a lot of analogues about what Maruo is saying. Like the change of pace strategy can be really important in fencing since parries are pretty much rallies in mental terms and the moment your opponent is used to your style your hit accuracy goes down dramatically. One thing I really love about this anime is how they put just as much(if not more) emphasis on the mental aspect than the physical one. At high level competitions(at least in fencing) the effect mental stuff can have on a match is huge. So I used to always be a little upset about how sports animes just had characters unlock more and more skills to get better. I figure they probably did that because that's way easier to write about, but I absolutely love how Baby Steps portrays each match as a war of attrition even when there's a huge skill gap between the two. It really feels like we're watching Maruo look for a tiny crack on a huge wall so he can exploit the hell out of it and that feels a lot more fun to watch than the usual anime "blow away the entire wall" ending because it feels like he actually earns his victories. Also really love how they are developing Maruo and Natsu instead of sitting around doing nothing with that plot point.
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