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I'm writing this review for a variety of reasons: for a manga as popular as Prince of Tennis (POT) i would expect much more reviews, there are currently three i believe, and all three of these reviews have a strong positive bias which doesn't sit well with me. I do believe that this manga has some merits but i feel that the popularity is completely undeserved. before i move on to the main section of the review i am going to list what i like about the manga, and from the low score i gave it, it should be obvious the list is small. It ... was an epic manga that incorporated emotions very well. For such a cheesy story i was surprised that at times i sympathized, and on the occasion empathized, for the characters. As i progressed through the manga i realized that aside from when the characters are quite realistic. I particularly enjoyed sections with Kawamura, whom i found to be the most realistic and mysterious. For having such a large cast i feel that Konomi manages to give the right amount of detail to all of the main cast. What pissed me off the most was of how small character Sakuno became as the manga went on; by the end of the manga i had nearly forgotten about her. It is almost unheard of to me for a shounen manga to have such a pathetic female lead, almost to the point where it is either her grandmother, the team's coach, or the fact that in the manga there just is no female lead, which is also a feat in shounen manga i find quite undesirable. That rant wasn't supposed to happen as i was hoping to list what i 'liked' about the manga. i'll end this section on a poistive note and say that the art in POT is wonderful, one of the best i've ever seen. Attention is spent to detail. All of the characters look distinct and i found that it seemed that the characters faces greatly reflected their type of personality.

Story: 3
I loved the story at the beginning. I found it realistic, plot driven, and refreshing in comparison to the similar story of many action shounen. It should be obvious, however, that POT is very, very long. What was an enjoyable plot became more and more typical. When i finished the manga i remembering comparing its story line to Rurouni Kenshin and Shaman King. In all these manga the main characters encounter a strong opponent, defeat the opponent and then face a stronger oppponent. this reoccurs in all of the nearly 400 chapters of the manga. the fact that some opponents are reused does little to sway my opinion that the story line boring and not enjoyable. It is long, unrealistic -- extremely unrealistic, has to much filler, and forced comedic scenes that aside from being humorless, they are weird, bizarre, and embarrassing to read. To be blunt; comic relief in POT is anything but relieving. Also these junior high kids, 13 14 and 15 year olds, performing superhuman tricks that i've never seen Roger Federer or Raphael Nadal come close to doing, is... bad. Are these kids playing tennis or do they belong in Dragon Ball Z?

Art: 9
I stated earlier that i loved the art in this manga, but i'll state why its so good, perhaps again. the characters all look unique and the detail to everything is great. the looks are very cool and many of the expressions the characters use sum up their personalities better than their quotations and actions.

Character: 6
the main cast, those on the Seishun Academy tennis team are unique, cool, and well developed. I liked them a lot. the way they acted as friends was very real. However many of the opposing teams were both needlesly aggressive and stupid. I often times found that Konomi spent to much time on the main cast and to little on the opposition, those that served as antagonists. As their were many its difficult to remember just one and ever more difficult to distinguish between the large amount of them. This made them seem very cheesy at times. Often to the point where it baflfled me. I am going to say that while real people act like those from the Seishun Academy, when it comes to the underdeveloped side characters i have yet to see any one person in real life that is like them.

Enjoyment: 3
If i were a kid perhaps i would have liked the manga more. It is after all, a shounen manga, and an extremely popular one. But, after reading POT i feel like i wasted my time reading, especially when i should have been reading something else. I liked the main cast but i found all of the other characters to be despicable. A manga with such poor antagonists would be dreadful. While i did hate them, which is often times the point to an antogonists existense, i feel like i hated them because, honestly, as characters they sucked and it was boring to read about them.

Overall: 3
I would never reccomend this to anyone. Those who wish to read a good shounen should read DBZ or Shaman King, or pretty much any other title. The plot dragged on and on. In my personal opinon POT is stupid. The mindless aggression of many of the antagonists, the gore in a sport where there is rarely ever any blood, seriously this is one gory manga, the forced and stupid humor, all coupled together with the result that this manga should not be viewed, that is just my opinion. i end by stating that it baffles me that not only is this one of the most popular mangas currently, it is one of the most marketable. There are musicals for this in Japan. If they reach American shores i will lose faith in the American Manga/Anime industry.