The Prince of Tennis

Probably the most popular anime sports title thus far.

Synopsis:

Echizen Ryoma is a young tennis player genius who has been in America competing, and winning a cup in the U.S. Junior tournaments for 4 consecutive times. He has remarkable skills under the attitude he shows, despite his young age and appearance. Being a newcomer to the Seigaku school in Japan, he effortlessly shows his skills and defeats his way for respect among the older players. As he meets with the Seigaku regulars, their possibilities will be endless as they strive to be the best and to give it their all.

Rating Key:

Excellent
Good
Average
Bad
Not worth your time
= half a rating


My Ratings

Story-
Music-
Characters-
Video and Sound Quality-
Series length- 178 episodes
Released in the U.S.?- Yes
This series contains- Sports, Comedy, Bishounen.
Some facts about this title-
* An OVA is also released which is a sequel to the series due to popularity.
* The manga is also released for this title.
Where can you purchase this series?
AllAnimeDVD.com, SunDevilDVD, Ebay

My Thoughts:
 When I first heard about this series, of course I was a bit skeptical, because 'tennis' was in the title (the reason why this series is often overlooked), so I didn't think it would be that interesting, since it would just be about tennis. However, I have came across many merchandise from this series and cosplayers as well as pictures (many which interested me in some ways), so I looked up some reviews and heard from many fans why they liked the series so much, so it made me decide to try it out. To my surprise, it was actually more interesting than I expected and the abundance of unique and likeable characters were unlike any other anime I've seen. It's rare that a show focuses on so many male students (many who are very bishounen) from different schools who have a similar interest in a modern-day/realistic setting, it's probably one of the few you'll find with these elements combined.

The series started off very well and draws you into the story. It was interesting to learn more about each of the characters, because they have a lot to reveal, not to mention their signature moves and styles of playing. And the tennis matches themselves were much more entertaining than I thought. They are action packed and sometimes you'll be hooked on the match or want to cheer for them ^_^. Not being a big fan of sports in general, this series definately makes you want to be a part of this sport with the way they play it. I was surprised that these characters were in junior highschool o_O, a lot of them look like college students o_o. There must have been almost more than 40 of them throughout the whole series, and a lot of them are memorable and some will be instant favorites ^_^. The people behind this series really did their research and know a lot about tennis, and I mean everything from the accuracy of the equipment, famous players, training, rules, movements, styles, and tricks to the game o_o. You can tell once you see the series that there were actual pros involved in the making of it.

The animation in the show is also consistent and top-notch with vibrant colors and great sound quality, so that is a big plus. Since the series is 178 episodes, there are a lot of opening and ending songs. Surprisingly they range in different styles from slow songs, to rock-ish, vocals, and others, so some will satisfy any fan's taste. Many of the opening and ending scenes were also very well done. Some show them play tennis with a lot of energy and movement with neat camera angles, and the CG effects added to the tennis court also makes it even more realistic. Later on in the series, there are also special "chibi" episodes they insert in between certain episodes, which is a neat and unique idea to me in an anime series. They do parodies of each of the characters and have them in these mini stories, so they are always a treat to watch.

There were, however, some characters I found a bit annoying at times especially the magazine reporters, Sakuno, Harupine (doesn't sound like a real cat ~_~), and sometimes Horio. Thankfully though, they are minor characters. But the main characters and many of the tennis players from the other schools will be very likeable. Sometimes you would even wish they would show more of certain characters, because they are so kakoi, especially Atobe-san ^_^. The voice acting for the series is also very well done and the choice of voice actors couldn't be better in my opinion.

In this very long series, a lot of episodes were stand-out and interesting, but some though were kinda pointless where they put in random characters and feature them in an episode or (from a fan's point of view), some episodes would have a match with characters you don't really favor on either side. So those are really the only faults. Despite some of the less exciting episodes, you will be glad that you watched the first half of the series, because things will get even more interesting later on when they bring the students from the different schools together, creating a more interesting, adrenaline-rushed, atmosphere (and having have seen their scenes and known their personalities in earlier episodes makes it even more interesting, so skipping episodes might affect the impact the later episodes will have on the viewer). After seeing this show, you will have MANY favorite episodes that you will want to watch again and again, you'll just have to keep track of which episodes they are >_>. It feels like the creators for this series are putting all the elements together there is to make the anime much more unique for the loyal fans of the show. They have blended almost every theme AND sport into this series (not only tennis), so you will be surprised how creative and open-minded they were when making this show! Many people will enjoy the unusual situations and scenarios that their favorite characters are put in. Because of that, you won't be stuck with tennis matches all day or scenes with tennis in it throughout the series, so that is another big plus. Because this is a thing many people overlook, they miss out on many cool episodes, because they don't bother watching the rest of the series.

Despite the length of the series, I was sad when it ended, cuz it felt like there was still so much that could happen with the future and possibilities ahead of them. Maybe the fact that the viewer is almost learning and growing with these characters throughout this long series, it's hard to have it just end there. Loyal fans of this show won't want to miss the OVA ^_~. The screenshots doesn't quite do the series justice, because there are so many characters and so many cool scenes that it's hard to get them all >_<.

My Final Opinion: A series many people overlook because of its title. This is a very enjoyable series that anyone can watch, but you should at least be interested in tennis to fully enjoy this series. With many memorable characters and a open-minded/varied storyline, this is a very unique and beautifully animated sports series that you will rarely come across. It's definitely popular for a reason!

Screenshots: Here are some high quality shots I took of this series.