Ranked #587

Prince of Tennis (Manga)

Throughout the years of lurking on the internet, all I ever heard about PoT is that it's crap. Even its fans wouldn't sound too enthusiastic about it. So it's only natural that I've avoided this manga like a plague.

That was until a few weeks ago, when I got a request to make a sig with a PoT character, and was reminded that not everyone hates PoT. And so I thought "Hey, maybe I should check it out after all. If it's really THAT bad, then I'll just drop it after the first chapter". And surprise surprise, Prince of Tennis is one the most engaging and exciting manga I have ever read.

-The Characters.-

Ryouma, the main lead, is cocky, but just too cool to not want to root for. In the very first chapter, where he gets hit with a racket, but doesn't get discouraged at all, and actually makes his opponent almost crap his pants, was what sold me on his character and this manga.

I've seen people complaining about Ryouma being too perfect, but I personally never saw anything wrong with a character being perfect. Ryouma being too good to be true was never a real minus for PoT, or at least in my opinion. Though I guess not being able to tolerate a character like that would really impair your enjoyment, especially in the moments where Ryouma comes to save the day.

Ryouma isn't the only person on the cast though. The cast is huge and filled with varied, memorable, and (usually) likeable characters. Even those characters that I disliked in the begging, I came to like later on as more of them was shown. Especially Kaidou and Inui, those two really grew on me.

My only complaint here would be Sakuno. From her prominence in the first few chapters, she seemed like a character that is a part of the main cast, but she quickly faded away, and not even into the background, she faded away completely, and would just get a random cameo from time to time. I didn't particularly mind that, but I guess she could have been better incorporated into the manga, with prominence that was a bit more consistent.

-Plot? What plot?-

For the first 190 or so chapters the tennis in PoT actually kinda looks like real tennis. But then, suddenly and unexpectedly, Ryouma wins a match against an overwhelming opponent by playing with his subconscious, and superpowered tennis gets introduced into the manga. It never stops entertaining you though. Even those characters that you would never expect it from, manage to have matches that keep you on the edge of your seat. You know Seigaku's going to win, but you still are too excited to stop reading.

I can see how the suddenly introduced superpowers can bother some people though. Especially since this manga basically has no story, just tennis, tennis, and some more tennis for a good measure, so not enjoying the matches means not enjoying the manga. (There are a few non-tennis chapters of comic relief here and there, but even those are all based on competing with each other, fitting the manga's never-ending string of matches.)

Though, in my opinion it's not really that hard to accept the superpowers as a part of the manga. As long as you keep in mind that stuff will get completely crazy by the end, you should be enjoying every match just as much as I did.

And, personally, I found the explanation for the "Ten'inuhou no Kiwami" to be very heart-warming. People tend to make fun of the moment saying that Ryouma turned into a Super Sayian, and while I do find the comparison to be very amusing, too many people seem to completely miss the message that the last few chapters send and make the finale completely satisfying.

The only complaint I have here is that Seigaku played against Hyoutei like three times throughout the manga. There are limits to how much you can squeeze out of the same group of characters having matches against each other. The mystery surrounding the opponents of Seigaku was one of the main attractions of the matches for me, you'd never know what trump card a character is hiding up his sleeve. That, though, is just nit-picking, the finale is more than exciting enough, regardless of which time Hyoutei was being played against.

-Art.-

There isn't really much to say about the art, everything is drawn clearly and you are never left confused about what the hell is going on. In the beginning those enormous eyes were a bit jarring, but thankfully they shrank pretty fast. And generally, the art gets noticeably better as the manga goes on, resulting in some really memorable double-spreads.

-Enjoyment.-

One qualm that I often have with manga, even those that are between my all-time favourites, is that while those manga are great, they are not consistently great. There are sometimes these moments that make you go "This manga would have been so much better if this chapter/page never existed". Not so with PoT though. I enjoyed every single chapter, every single moment of this manga, up to a 100%.

All in all, Prince of Tennis was an enjoyable and a very satisfying read, I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys shounen sports manga. read more

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. read more