Katsuki said:
Hello, it’s Katsuki. With this 47th volume, it’s exactly 10 years. And it’s become the last volume. There are various circumstances, but it’s a shame that the writing of Ei-chan’s life comes to an end here mainly with my lack of ability. The theme was independence, so I’m glad it reached the point of Ei-chan as a professional making his own team and finally having his world tour debut… If possible, I wanted to write the Davis Cup, but… Somehow continuing for 10 years is thanks to the staff who collaborated with all their effort, the large group of people who gladly helped with research, and more than others, you who read [the manga] until now. Thank you very, very much!! I think Ei-chan will face forward and continue on, so I also want to move forward. Well then, [see you] again somewhere….
Source: ANN
I’m late to this but it’s because I didn’t know until today 😦
I was checking out the series again, since I’ve been stalling to see if a s3 would happen, when I noticed these news from ANN. After 10 years of serialization and 47 volumes, Baby Steps got canceled.
It’s always sad to see stories not get properly finished like the mangaka hoped and wanted to. While it’s true 47 volumes is already pretty good, from what I read I do feel like the mangaka feels regret that he couldn’t finish it properly.
Baby Steps is a realistic sports series about tennis, perhaps its downfall is that it’s a slower story and so hasn’t been able to grab a bigger fanbase even though it has 2 anime seasons, and a live-action adaptation.
I hope the mangaka is able to start another successful series, this time finishing it off properly.
Source: ANN
Did you like this series? Did you know about it being canceled? Are you sad about these news? Tell me everything!
Among the Deep 
I got so outdated with the manga as I didn’t have time to read through the raws (I had to use the dictionary at times so it was time-consuming). When I knew that it ended, I decided to take a look at the last chapter and I was so frustrated that it ended just like that! It’s so sad that the mangaka wasn’t able to deliver the whole story.
I guess some fans thought it was dragging out for too long. I wished we could’ve seen at least Ei-chan playing in the Wimbledon. But I guess it’s doing too poorly in sales that it was decided to be axed. It’s sooooo sad. :((
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Yeah, I’d be waiting to see if a s3 happened since the translations were slow, so I hadn’t kept up with it. I still need to read it, but now I’m not even sure I want to considering the ending
The author wanted to do until the Davis Cup at least, but considering the time skips it didn’t help for readers
It’s weird it’s done poorly in sales considering there’s 3 adaptations of it, but rankings don’t lie. Tbh I don’t understand why magazines still have and do rankings. It makes me mad that they decide to cancel series based on that tbh 😤
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I do think if the magazine wanted to cancel, they should have given a little more warning. The author had to know the manga’s current ratings, but a good editor should have helped steer toward some kind of conclusion just in case. It’s sad for the manga fans, but I do wonder how many volumes the author was aiming for.
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The manga had been having low ratings for a while, and that’s why the mangaka did a couple time skips/jumps to see if it picked up steam again. Sadly, it didn’t work and they gave him a few chapters to close it off. It’s still a rather sudden ending, considering the mangaka wanted to write about the Davis Cup at least, but now it won’t happen.
Maybe the editor gave up since it was already 10 years old, Bleach got canceled too (if I’m not remembering wrongly) so it wouldn’t be surprising. It’s nothing to sneeze at that the series reached 47 volumes, but I’m sure if possible the author would’ve kept going for at least 3 more volumes, or more.
This is why on-going series are very frustrating to me, and I tend to avoid getting invested or even starting them until they finish properly 😫
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Okay I’m going to say something really embarrassing here: but I have never heard of this series 🙈🙈🙈 But then again I don’t read a lot of manga so it might be that is pretty much the reason. Seeing as it is about tennis I pretty much doubt I will pick it up at some point. But it’s annoying when a storyline is not completely finished, that’s for sure.
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Oh it’s not embarrassing at all. Baby Steps didn’t make a huge splash even though the anime has 2 seasons, I basically know most of the sports shows haha, tbh it’s not like there’s many 😹
It’s a bummer it didn’t get a proper end, but it also seems the mangaka was dragging it out so maybe that’s why. It’s realistic, might be the most realistic show, but in this case it had a slow pace which worked against it because it doesn’t have as much tension. I’m not too fond of action shounens disguised as sports like Kuroko no Basket, but I do need pressure and tension to be engaged 😹
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lol “action shounens disguised as sports”. that is one of the best descriptions of anything ever. xD
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Haha, thank you 😄
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