Tennis no Oujisama

At the request of his father, tennis prodigy Ryouma Echizen has returned from America and is ready to take the Japanese tennis scene by storm. Aiming to become the best tennis player in the country, he enrolls in Seishun Academy—home to one of the best middle school tennis teams in Japan.

After Ryouma catches the captain's eye, he finds himself playing for a spot on the starting lineup in the intra-school ranking matches despite only being a freshman. Due to his age, the rest of the Seishun Boys' Tennis Team are initially reluctant to accept him, but his skill and determination convinces them to let him in.

Armed with their new "super rookie," Seishun sets out to claim a spot in the National Tournament, hoping to take the coveted title for themselves. In order to do so, the team must qualify by playing through the Tokyo Prefectural and Kanto Regionals. Yet, the road ahead of them is shared by a plethora of strong schools, each playing tennis in unique ways for their own reasons. Ryouma and his teammates must learn to cooperate if they want to become the champions they aspire to be.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Echizen, Ryouma Main

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Fuji, Shuusuke Main

Kaida, Yuki Japanese

Tezuka, Kunimitsu Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Kikumaru, Eiji Main

Takahashi, Hiroki Japanese

Kaidou, Kaoru Main

Kiyasu, Kouhei Japanese

Momoshiro, Takeshi Main

Onosaka, Masaya Japanese

Inui, Sadaharu Main

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Kawamura, Takashi Main

Kawamoto, Naru Japanese

Oishi, Shuichiro Main

Kondou, Takayuki Japanese

Atobe, Keigo Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Takahashi, Tomoko Producer

Hamana, Takayuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Hiramitsu, Takuya Sound Director

Andou, Masahiro Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 8, 2007

VK11

Recommended

The Prince of Tennis - a sports-driven anime that debuted back in 2001, depicts the story of Echizen Ryoma and his experiences in the world of tennis. Along with Hajime no Ippo, the Prince of Tennis helped start the rave with sports-driven anime craze, and its not really a wonder why a lot of those anime use many of the elements from the Prince of Tennis - its so good that its still being animated (in OVA form) this very day.

Normally, with sports anime, you see the rise of a certain young star from not being a very good player to being the ace ... of their sport. The Prince of Tennis pulled something out of the ordinary and made Echizen an amazing tennis player right from the start. Now you're probably thinking, "Well, where's the fun in that?" Well, Echizen is always going up against top-notch opponents and throughout the show, you'll witness him going from a cocky, immature kid to one who actually respects his opponents (well, sort of anyway) and development of new, exciting skills. Echizen join the Seigaku high school tennis team and participates in tournaments with them. And of course, the overall theme is to aim for the top of the tennis world.

The art is pretty good. It starts off so-so, but before you know it, it gets to that level where you're impressed by it. As for the animation, you'll see a lot of repeated frames throughout the show (as usual with sports anime), but the way they animate all of the new skills and tennis matches is just so amazing, that after some of the matches, you just stare in awe at its magnificence.

The sound, I would say, is probably the weakest point of the show. Although the music presented in the Prince of Tennis does suit the mood and is pretty upbeat at times, there really isn't a score that will stand out to you, where you'll be saying, "Ah!! I need that on my computer/ipod." Nevertheless, its relatively enjoyable

Since the stories are pretty much the same throughout all sport anime (overall), in order for an anime to be amazing - especially the case with sport ones - characters and unique personalities need to be there. And Prince of Tennis does not disappoint in that category. This show unveils so many different memorable characters, that you'll undoubtedly have trouble picking your all-time favorite one from the lot because they are so unique. And the best part about it is that the creators were able to somehow give each character a unique way of playing tennis. With the amount of characters and opponents they present, you'd think that they would have to repeat somewhere. But that's definitely not the case.

With amazing tennis matches, a plethora of unique and lovable characters, and a cocky main protagonist that will get on your nerves at times but you'll respect out of necessity because of his skills, the Prince of Tennis is an amazing sport anime. The best part of this anime is that you will have a hard time knowing who will win matches. Surprisingly enough, all the main characters experience losses matches at times, which makes it interesting to see how each one responds to the agony of defeat.

If you are looking for a sport-driven anime and are in for the long haul - meaning 170+ episodes, the Prince of Tennis is exactly what you're looking for.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 16, 2015

elnini

Mixed Feelings

I'm a big fan of sports, especially Tennis, so when i discovered Prince of Tennis i thought this might be what i've been searching for, however it became very clear it wasn't.

Initially it was watchable but rapidly became unwatchable, the problem with Prince of Tennis is that the parameters of the world we are supposed to be immersed in are not defined, this inevitably leads to more and more ridiculous events occurring.

I appreciate it isn't meant to be realistic however when you start from the stars in no time you will reach the sun and then where do you go from there?
What i mean ... by this, is that these first year high schoolers are so overpowered that when you try to imagine what the professional tennis players in this world are like it just becomes utter nonsense.

At a young age these kids are playing shots where the ball doesn't bounce off the court, or making the opponents shots magnetized to wherever they are on the court and many many more ridiculous things.
So my question is, when these kids get to their final years of high school what kind of shots would they be playing? ones where the tennis ball turns into a dragon and breathes fire at the opponent and anyone in the vicinity?

Terrible!!!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 26, 2015

armking

Not Recommended

The Anime Starts out well.. but loses steam halfway through the stories.. with potholes the size of craters.. i was hoping it would get better but it was a dud...

With an obvious plot of the Protagonists winning every tournament.. the opponents in the beginning are intimidating but as the series progresses no matter what the opponents did the seigaku team ends up winning...

i'm a sport anime fan.. i was looking forward to learning a lot from the show.. like i did with Slam Dunk.. but the show ends up showing tennis as a sport where you can win a few rounds at the US ... open but still get beaten up so bad in an U-17 Japan Camp...

i was expecting a lot more from this show but was left high and dry...

i really liked the build up to the National tournament.. but in the national tournament ends up becoming a show of super powers..

i'd prefer Baby Steps over this.. it's more realistic..

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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