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Taishi Murata, Minako Kotobuki Star in Baby Steps Anime
posted on by Egan Loo
This year's eighth issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine is unveiling the cast and character designs for the television anime of Hikaru Katsuki's Baby Steps manga on Wednesday.
Taishi Murata will play 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 only has passion for tennis. Ei-chan meets Natsu at the tennis school.
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.
The anime will air on NHK's public television channel E-Tele this coming spring.
Katsuki launched the manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2007, and Kodansha shipped 29th compiled book volume on Friday.
