The Tennis Supremacy

Title: Tennis no Oujisama (The Prince of Tennis)

Creator: Konomi Takeshi

Genre: Shounen/Sports/School/Comedy

My Rating: ****

TeniPuri (short version of Tennis Prince) basically progressed around Echizen Ryoma, a first year who attended the Seishun Gakuen (Seigaku) and joined the tennis club. To make the short story long (hehehe), his father, Echizen Nanjirou was a tennis pro who suddenly disappear from the tennis world. Ryoma's dream at the beginning of the anime was to beat his own father (who he had never won against). After the experience he went through with the Seigaku team and the memories he built with them, Ryoma finally found a new dream, which is to be the best player in the world.

Seigaku regulars before the captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu injured his left shoulder

top left: Echizen Ryoma, Momoshiro Takeshi a.k.a momochan, Kikumaru Eiji, Fuji Syusuke

below left: Kawamura Takashi, Kaidoh Kaoru, VC. Oishi Syuichirou, Capt. Tezuka Kunimitsu

Happy Times ^^v

This anime had been aired a very long time ago but I never get the chance to watch it until now. I finished 178 episodes in a week! Just imagine how torturing it would be if I were to follow the television airtime. The anime was very nice and good for people who took tennis. But it doesn't mean that those who doesn't like tennis shouldn't watch this. Though most of the times they were talking about tennis, the humor and the plot are very good too. What's more, the characters differs in their personalities which create a unique atmosphere in the anime.

Ryoma and Tezuka Buchou (Japanese for Captain) are somewhat similar in their coldness but Tezuka is mature and very grown up while Ryoma is a bit childish and reckless. There's Inui, who's like a mad scientist always creating bizarre drinks such as Aozu and Akazu. Fuku Buchou (Vice Captain) Oishi as the members put it, the 'okaasan' or mother of the Seigaku team. He worries about the team member's welfare all the time. Kikumaru Eiji is the only one who I think suited the image of a 15 years old school boy. He has cute ways of saying words for example saying "mango, mango" when apologizing (it sounds almost like 'gomen, gomen' when saying it backwards - gomen is sorry in Japanese) and he ends his sentence with 'nyaa' most of the times ( he's portrayed as a cat in the chibi version). Kawamura Takashi is a very peculiar character. I wonder if a person like him exist. When he holds a racket (it also works with badminton racket if if I'm not mistaken) his gentle personality changed and he shout English words like 'burning', 'baby', and 'come on'. Kaidoh Kaoru and Momoshiro Takeshi are rivals from the start. The two will fight whenever fire sparks between them. Kaidoh makes snake-like sound 'fshuu' when he breathes which is hillarious but gave me goosebumps at the beginning (snakes are not my thing). Momo-chan is the closest to Ryoma since they have the same hobby- eating. Lastly, the tennis prodigy, Fuji Syusuke. He appears as an elegant and mysterious person, even the other regulars having hard time figuring him out. He loves drinking Inui's special juice but after having a taste of Aozu, he collapse which was a big surprise to the others. In one of the episodes, he admitted that despite he likes drinking Inui's juice, he loves watching people suffer more.

From left: Tezuka, Fuji, Kaidoh, Kawamura, Oishi, Kikumaru, Momoshiro & Inui

On Skateboard: Duh, Echizen Ryoma

I dont have much complain about this anime but for from the looks of it, only Ryoma and Eiji looked their age (bear in mind that they are junior high schoolers). Tezuka looked and acted as if he's at least 17 years old. Same with the other third years. And some minor characters who are also junior high schoolers even looked like old men (ie. Kabaji from Hyoutei Gakuen). Some tennis techniques are 'out of this world' but I don't want to say more than I have coz I don't play tennis. So all in all, I'm pretty satisfied with this anime. It cracked me up, made me sobbed, and kept me going till the last episode. Banzai for the creator ^^v!



Disclaimer: Do not own anything except the words in length ^^v

p/s: reviews are for leisure purpose only. Thanks for reading and please leave your comments!