News
Mao Abe Sings Baby Steps Tennis Anime's Opening Theme
posted on by Karen Ressler
Entertainment news source Oricon reported on Monday that singer-songwriter Mao Abe's new single "Believe in Yourself" will be the opening theme for the television anime of Hikaru Katsuki's Baby Steps manga. The anime will begin on April 6.
The anime stars Taishi Murata as Eiichirō "Ei-chan" Maruo, a punctual and earnest boy who has strived for straight As since elementary school. The 15-year-old high school boy stops by a tennis school to deal with his lack of exercise. Minako Kotobuki will play Natsu Takasaki, a beautiful, earnest girl who Ei-chan meets Natsu at the tennis school and who only has passion for tennis, while Takuma Terashima and Daisuke Namikawa round out the main cast as Kojirō Kageyama and Takuma Egawa, respectively.
Pierrot (Naruto, Kingdom) is animating the television series in 25 episodes. Katsuki himself is collaborating on the creation of episodes with original stories not told in the manga. Kenji Saitō (Dennō Coil, Bakuman., Bottom Biting Bug) is producing the anime for NHK.
Abe's new single celebrates the fifth anniversary of her first single, and will ship on May 21 in Japan. Mao Abe's earlier song "boyfriend" received an animated music video with voice acting from Masaki Okada.
