Maybe stop watching those types of shows and indulge yourself in a genre that isn't filled with utter crap. I hear shonen's pretty good this time of year what with DBZ Super's first episode having come out. Haven't watched it myself because it hasn't been dubbed in English, though.
But Baby Steps is a shonen action series. Yeah, the main characters classmates give him crap for the first couple of episodes, but that's just the backstory really. After he gets into tennis you hardly see any school scenes. It's really there to highlight how he's a nerd.
It feels like school all over again where being even slightly different or awkward can leave you ostracized even if it wasn't even your fault or even a problem.
Realism, basically.
The story is not about an OCD person cured by sports, not at all. It's about an OCD person applying his OCD skills to play sports.
Yeah I have to get through the first few episodes... but man could I just not even get through the first episode after it kept giving me low blow and low blow. Every time the main character was attacked by the anime I felt like "I" was being personally attacked. I wanted to smack the anime at the backside of its head and tell it he was perfectly fine and to shut up!
How many episodes until the anime shuts up about it? I don't do this but I'll skip to it... Everyone is a total witch and I'd prefer to skip to where Tennis makes everyone love him because they are all sheep and should be ashamed of themselves. CONFORM CONFORM CONFORM!!!
What was that anime? A Handsome, social, kind, healthy, athletic, fashionable, and intelligent person with an OCD that doesn't interfere with his day to day life is a pathetic loser? The guy who basically gives everyone highly detailed notes that are QUOTE "Better than the text book"... Is the loser?
Ippo was at least such a wimp that he never bothered to stand up for himself or make himself visible in any respect, the kind of person who just blended into a crowd. The Main character of Vanguard (whose name escapes me) was at least a pathetic loser who was so socially cloistered that he could never make his own friends. Yu-Gi from fricken Yu-gi-oh was someone with no spine and a punching magnet.
Seriously Anime what is the flaw here? What is the freeken flaw? Why does he have to conform to your stupid tennis game to be acknowledged? Why do you feel the need to CONSTANTLY poke holes into this character.
Honestly his "loserness" feels like more of an implied trait then one the anime is able to show in any capacity. In fact he is more noticeably "loser" when he plays tennis versus when he is in school (where he should be one of the most popular kids in his class).
This is so painful because I am here crying and moaning about an anime which by all means isn't that bad. I have seen MUCH worse anime that I was 100% justified in giving the hateful stare of scorn! But this just hits me so close to home. At most this anime is more the PERFECT example of an "implied flaw" but so what? But this character who in real life or any other anime in existence would be the popular student being treated like garbage and considered "justified" by the anime (because the anime itself thinks he is a loser) is just too far. Like I have been outraged before... but this is the first time I felt personally hurt by an anime.
Mind you this is also a Japanese show... and Japan is pretty much hell on earth if this anime is a good indication. So maybe this IS how school is in Japan. Where being a kind, studious, helpful, and social person means you are a pathetic loser... While being a total witch but attractive means you are appealing.