Shin Tennis no Oujisama

Ryouma Echizen is one of 50 nationally ranked middle school tennis players to receive an invitation for the Japan U-17 tennis training camp. Previously open only to high school players, the exclusive regiment trains the best players in the country for the upcoming U-17 World Cup. The high schoolers are not pleased that these middle schoolers are allowed into the camp, but the middle schoolers easily overwhelm them before they are halted by the coaches.

The rules of the camp are soon explained: the players are split into one of 16 courts based on skill, with the best players occupying Court 1. Players move up and down courts based on "shuffle matches" that occur before practice begins each day. In anticipation of a game, the middle schoolers are asked to pair up with one another, only to find out that they would not be playing doubles with their partners. Instead, they are pitted against each other in a tiebreaker-style game. The winner of the match would be allowed to stay to further develop their skills whereas the loser would be sent home.

For the sake of tennis, friendships and camaraderie are all put on the line. As the fierce competition between the middle and high schoolers persists, the situations they find themselves in goes deeper than just playing to remain in the camp.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Echizen, Ryouma Main

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Fuji, Shuusuke Main

Kaida, Yuki Japanese

Tezuka, Kunimitsu Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Kikumaru, Eiji Main

Takahashi, Hiroki Japanese

Kaidou, Kaoru Main

Kiyasu, Kouhei Japanese

Momoshiro, Takeshi Main

Onosaka, Masaya Japanese

Inui, Sadaharu Main

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Kawamura, Takashi Main

Kawamoto, Naru Japanese

Oishi, Shuichiro Main

Kondou, Takayuki Japanese

Atobe, Keigo Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Yamamoto, Hideyo Director, Storyboard

Hiramitsu, Takuya Sound Director

Tada, Shunsuke Episode Director

Matsuzawa, Kenichi Episode Director

Reviews

Apr 14, 2012

chiaokeli

Recommended

I liked it. Prince of Tennis is one of my top favorite animes...but this new season...
STORY
The story is ok, there is a plot...sort of. It's pretty basic, and not very complicated. The comedy is not sidesplitting. The matches seem repeating, but the techniques they have now are not like the first anime; they make you go "oh cool", unlike the first season where I was beyond excitement.
What devastated me beyond repair is the ending. To not spoil anything, I will not go in detail. It is among the worst ending I have ever watched, and if it's not for the following reasons, I am really ... annoyed:
1) Creating another season
2) Mid-break
ART
The art is pretty much the same. I don't EVER have a preference in art for anime or manga, unless it's unbearable to look at. Whatever the art is, it's usually easy to adjust to. The NPOT is not exceptionally detailed like CLAMP, but it's not amateur like the really, really old mangas. The expressions shown are understandable.
SOUND
I don't pay attention to the sound much, unless, of course, it is impossible to decipher any words they are saying. The quality this time was not very good...there was the occasional static around the voices and afterwards. The voices of the actors sometimes sounded muffled. The background sounds were pretty basic sounds, but it's as expected, same as the art level. As for the static problem, it might have just been the source, maybe it sounded fine if someone bought the DVDs, whereas I watched it online. And as always, Japanese seiyuus are amazing!
ENJOYMENT
I enjoyed it as always. I waited eagerly for each episode to come out, and was never disappointed. After finishing one, you just want to watch the next one ASAP! The matches made my attention go down a bit, but I drank in every detail because I am just that big of a fan of POT.
OVERALL
I would recommend it only for patient or experienced anime watchers. As it is a sports anime, it may be hard for your attention span, and is not a good first impression for an anime newbie. POT is still better, and of course watch that before you watch this!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 21, 2012

pika2000

Mixed Feelings

It's been a while since I watched Prince of Tennis. Good to see this new series, albeit a short one.

Just for starter, everybody is in this series, and I mean everybody, from Tezuka to Atobe,. The series rely on your familiarity of PoT in general. Oh, they are also adding the high school players. This may alienate new viewers, but the story is fairly simple that it shouldn't be a big issue. Just don't expect much. It's only 13 episodes.

And that's where the story is a bit of a letdown. The opening made it seem like they would form a new "ultimate" team at the ... end of the series, but obviously it won't happen in just 13 episodes. This feels more like a teaser, for the upcoming season(s), maybe. The episode where Tezuka played with Seigaku's former captain was the highlight of the series for me. It's still the typical PoT pattern (or pretty much any sports/fighting anime), and features even more ridiculous training and tennis moves in addition to fan favorites, but the short series made it so a lot of the matches being cut short/over-simplified. This is true especially in the end. But at least the fan service is there. I mean come on, who doesn't want to see Tezuka zone one more time? In short, it's a teaser series for the fans.

Everything else, it's PoT. The same animation, moves, etc. It's fair. If you are a PoT fan, you already know what to expect. If you're new to the series, it won't hurt to watch the previous series first and/or consult your online sources to get some background on the multitude of characters. I just wish they did the opening differently so people don't have some kind of expectation at the end,and be disappointed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 2, 2012

Karpman

Not Recommended

New Prince of Tennis. A sequel which should not have been born.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved the series and am still reading the manga. But I am not here to rate and talk about the whole series. I am here to talk about this particular season, I am going to review the 13 episodes I watched.

The story starts off where the last one ended. Seigaku became national champion and almost all of its regular members have left. But where are we now? Now we suddenly are at a U-17 training camp for tennis. And this U-17 camp is for the representatives of Japan. ...

I was really disappointed by this set-up. It would have been interesting to see Tezuka, Fuji and the rest fade to the background while Arai and others become regulars and face a hard time trying to defend their title. Instead we get this. A clusterfuck of characters where each of them get 5 minutes of actually playing tennis and not creating a single good match. I am here to watch a lengthy exciting tennis match, damn it!

Like I said, the characters getting about 5 minutes of screen time each is disappointing. Another thing which was quite Prince of Tennis like was a training camp. Oh wait, again? Yes, again. And to be honest it isn't even exciting, there is not some kind of big challenge ahead. And the only thing we see them doing is run around saying "I can't accept this training" and then "I finally understand the meaning of this."

What I am saying with this is; a good build up is wasted without a (proper) story. In the case of New Prince of Tennis it might be different, this time around they only got 13 episodes to air and for such a slow paced anime which likes to take its time to create amazing matches. It has been far too little.

Art. There is not a lot to say about it. It is as good as it was in its prequel. Which may sound disappointing, but certainly is not. The faces of the characters seem alive and lots variances in their faces.

Animation is also superb like it was. The actual tennis has lots of moving around and nothing sloppy for me to criticise.

Sound is a part of the review which never is heavy for my final score. Because frankly there is not too much to talk about, the opening was not to my tastes. It doesn't fit a usually action packed anime like Prince of Tennis. The voice actors didn't change from the previous series as far as I noticed.

The one problem Prince of Tennis always had is: Characters. It had way too many of them. And it also unnecessarily revives supporting characters over and over again too give the already big bunch of main characters even less screen time. Not saying any of them really sucks, but they are unneeded. I think if it cut back on the characters used for this 13 episode anime. There would have been a lot more actual action and tennis matches.

Though I will say this. Even though it always had way too much characters. All of them were entertaining too watch when put them up against each other and the "evil" team was actually seemingly a bit malicious.

Overall I didn't enjoy this. The plot wasn't what I would have liked it to be. And the characters were in to many numbers and little of them contributed to the plot.

Strong points:
- The variety of characters were not similar and all of them had their own little thing.
- The goal for the protagonist was set high and was not overcome with "resolve".
- The comedy was quite good.

Weak points:
- You need not look further than the characters page, it has way too many and created for little plot.
- Cut-off matches. Only small portions of a tennis match were shown and far too less happened.
- The opening song did not fit for its theme: Tennis.

So if you loved the prequel for its characters and was not a too big fan of the action, you will probably dislike this one.

Life lesson learnt: Quality over quantity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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