Prince of Tennis

Prince of Tennis
AKA: Tennis no Ouji-sama
TeniPuri
PoT/TnO

Original Author: Konomi Takeshi
Published in: Shonen Jump
Tankobons: 21 and still running!

OVERVIEW
Prince of Tennis -- What do you think of when you hear that? Of course, a show about tennis! Based off of a JUMP manga means that the episodes will keep coming for a long time. There is no limit to the amount of merchandise for PoT: pencil boards, CD singles, keychains, plushies, stationary. There is even a live action musical, which is the funniest thing I have ever seen and heartily recommend it for its sheer weirdness! With the amount of boys in this show, there is no shortage of yaoi and shonen-ai doujinshi.

STORY
Ryoma Echizen, a 12-year-old tennis prodigy from America, returns to Japan and joins Seishun Gakuen's tennis team. Seigaku is a junior high widely known for its excellent tennis team, and Ryoma easily gets a spot on the team. With Ryoma and the rest of Seigaku, they're off to earn the National title by doing what the do best-- play tennis!

CHARACTERS
This is the real reason to watch Prince of Tennis -- the characters. Everyone has a favorite member of Seigaku and a favorite rival team. There is tons of different characters, so that no matter what kind of personality you like there is a boy to match. The nine Seigaku members are:

• Takeshi "call me Momo-chan" Momoshiro, a kind-hearted but powerful sophmore who's always eating.
• Syuusuke Fuji, who always is smiling but definatly not as sweet as he looks.
• Kaidoh Kaoru, the "Viper" who really isn't as mean as he acts towards everyone.
• Kikumaru Eiji, a bouncy and energetic boy whose play style is defined as "acrobatic tennis."
• Oishi Syuichiroh, the "Mother" of Seigaku. He worries about everyone's well-being, both on the courts and off.
• Inui Sadaharu, the technical one. He takes data on everyone and is all about calculations.
• Kawamura Takahashi, a mild-mannered guy who almost has a different personality when he grabs a tennis racket. BURNING!
• Ryoma Echizen, the cocky young tennis prodigy whose favorite phrase is "Mada mada dane." (Not good enough)
• Tezuka Kunimitsu, the stoic and stable captain of Seigaku. His personality is very dry, but he's a dependable guy.

In addition to all these boys, there are tons more from all the rival schools that are sure to suit everyone!

ANIMATION
Digitally done and nice. The character designs are all attractive and there is a lot of good colors. Since this is a show about tennis, there is not a lot of special animation effects. The art tends to well done for characters and backgrounds, although sometimes they use cheap effects for a tennis match. It's based on a shonen manga, so pretty much all of this show is character development and tennis playing.

MUSIC
Every single Seigaku player has a character song, and many of the rival players have them as well. There is a ton of music for PoT. There are two groups formed by the seiyuu. The one group is "AOZU" which is composed of Oishi, Tezuka, Ryoma and Fuji. They do mostly pretty and meaningful music. The other group is "Cap to Bin" which has Momo, Kikumaru, Kawamura, Inui and Kaidoh. This group tends to do goofy, stupid and happy music. For example, one of their recent songs is about doing something TeniPuri related every day of the week! Both groups are really great to listen to! All the openings and endings are energetic and have a J-rock feel. The background music is decent, there is nothing that really stands out but it's not bad.

SEIYUU
Most of the seiyuu in this show are newer, but they all fit the character perfectly. Tezuka is played by Okiayu Ryoutarou, who was K in Gravitation and Brad Crawford in Weiss Kreuz. Kikumaru is played by Takahashi Hiroki who did the original opening to DragonBall. Momo-chan is played by Onosaka Masaya who was Vash in Trigun, big Kero in CardCaptor Sakura and Dark Mousey from the D.N. Angel Drama CDs. Ryoma is played by a woman, Junko Minagawa, and she has the perfect voice for the part.

OMAKE
I had to note that while a good 75% of the episodes revolve around playing a game of tennis, the other 25% are hilarious filler episodes. The groups goes bowling, they play billiards, they get shrunk down to chibi form and save the school from a giant Godzilla-Horio with their special tennis moves. There are a lot of fun running jokes in the series that make every episode fun to watch. Witness poor Kaidoh try to pet Ryoma's cat, Karupin!

SLASHINESS
I'd hazard to say that more than 75% of the Prince of Tennis fanbase is women-- probably even more. With the abundance of cute boys, it's impossible not to slash them together for fanfiction or doujinshi. Oishi and Kikumaru are a popular pair because they play doubles together. They obviously care for each other as partners and it can easily be interperted as a romantic relationship. They are personally my favorite couple! Ryoma and Momo are often slashed together as well. They are good friends in the show and hang out a lot. Another popular pairing is Tezuka and Fuji. With this fandom though you can slash almost anyone with anyone else (very similar to Weiss fandom) and it's cool. The PoT fandom is wide and has tons of choices. My only issue with slashing characters in the show is that all of the main characters are in Junior High, but look like they're in High School, if not college. I don't know any 14-year-olds that look like Tezuka. If you can get past that fact then there is tons of yaoi doujinshi, fanfics and fanart waiting for you!

SUMMARY
There's a certain amount of cheese in this show, but that is true with almost any sport anime. If you find yourself rooting for your favorite boy to win his tennis match, then you've become a PoT addict. It's nice to not have a series with the fate of the world being the central plot. It's a long series, but worth watching for lots of character interaction and cute bishonen. Try it out and see if you like it!