Tennis no Oujisama

The Prince of Tennis - a sports-driven anime that debuted back in 2001, depicts the story of Echizen Ryoma and his experiences in the world of tennis. Along with Hajime no Ippo, the Prince of Tennis helped start the rave with sports-driven anime craze, and its not really a wonder why a lot of those anime use many of the elements from the Prince of Tennis - its so good that its still being animated (in OVA form) this very day.

Normally, with sports anime, you see the rise of a certain young star from not being a very good player to being the ace ... of their sport. The Prince of Tennis pulled something out of the ordinary and made Echizen an amazing tennis player right from the start. Now you're probably thinking, "Well, where's the fun in that?" Well, Echizen is always going up against top-notch opponents and throughout the show, you'll witness him going from a cocky, immature kid to one who actually respects his opponents (well, sort of anyway) and development of new, exciting skills. Echizen join the Seigaku high school tennis team and participates in tournaments with them. And of course, the overall theme is to aim for the top of the tennis world.

The art is pretty good. It starts off so-so, but before you know it, it gets to that level where you're impressed by it. As for the animation, you'll see a lot of repeated frames throughout the show (as usual with sports anime), but the way they animate all of the new skills and tennis matches is just so amazing, that after some of the matches, you just stare in awe at its magnificence.

The sound, I would say, is probably the weakest point of the show. Although the music presented in the Prince of Tennis does suit the mood and is pretty upbeat at times, there really isn't a score that will stand out to you, where you'll be saying, "Ah!! I need that on my computer/ipod." Nevertheless, its relatively enjoyable

Since the stories are pretty much the same throughout all sport anime (overall), in order for an anime to be amazing - especially the case with sport ones - characters and unique personalities need to be there. And Prince of Tennis does not disappoint in that category. This show unveils so many different memorable characters, that you'll undoubtedly have trouble picking your all-time favorite one from the lot because they are so unique. And the best part about it is that the creators were able to somehow give each character a unique way of playing tennis. With the amount of characters and opponents they present, you'd think that they would have to repeat somewhere. But that's definitely not the case.

With amazing tennis matches, a plethora of unique and lovable characters, and a cocky main protagonist that will get on your nerves at times but you'll respect out of necessity because of his skills, the Prince of Tennis is an amazing sport anime. The best part of this anime is that you will have a hard time knowing who will win matches. Surprisingly enough, all the main characters experience losses matches at times, which makes it interesting to see how each one responds to the agony of defeat.

If you are looking for a sport-driven anime and are in for the long haul - meaning 170+ episodes, the Prince of Tennis is exactly what you're looking for.

Story - 10
The story is very original, where the protagonist comes from America to Japan as a well-developed tennis player. His father has him enroll in Seigaku Tennis Club, where he plays opponents who can challenge his skill, while the team seeks to reach the National Tournament. Although the story sounds simple, there are many episodes that get more in depth by revealing more of the characters and the storyline, which I would rather not spoil.

Art - 9
The art in this anime is spectacular! However, it is a long series, so some frames are repeated throughout games, yet it is still well done to the ... point where it will not bother. There is a large cast of characters, and each of the players have there very own original moves, yet the art is detailed so well it is easy to distinguish between all characters. Even the comedic and chibi episodes were truly amazing and had detailed art.

Sound - 8
The sound in the anime was mediocre. The opening and ending themes sounded like karaoke songs, and they were not real catchy... However, some of them were really good, in my opinion. The sound effects throughout the anime were fine, however, so the music does not really take away from it overall.

Character - 10
This is one aspect of the anime that truly made it one of my favorites. There is a huge amount of characters in the anime, and all of them are original and well-designed of course. There will definitely be many characters you can connect to, as there are many types of personalities amongst them. The characters also develop throughout the anime, so a character you may not have liked may become your favorite. Amazing set of characters in this anime!

Enjoyment - 10
I most certainly enjoyed this anime, as anyone else who's seen it has. The great plot, good art and characters play a great part in this animes success. Everything from the action packed episodes to the comedic chibi episodes were truly enjoyable!

Overall- 10
This anime will not disappoint!

"Mada Mada Dane"

Once upon a time in Japan, a manga artist by the name of Takeshi Konomi came up with a manga by the name of Prince of Tennis, and it quickly became one of - if not the - most popular sports manga of all time, doing for tennis what Slam Dunk did for basketball, it caused a massive boost in popularity for the sport in its native country. To this day, it's hard to really say that Japan ever got past Prince of Tennis fever, one look at the various pieces of Prince of Tennis merchandise like the musicals or even the live-action ... film, makes it instantly clear just how big of a thing this is for them.

Naturally, such a popular manga was bound to be subject to an anime adaptation, and so in October 2001, an anime version of the mega-hit was released by none other than...J.C Staff? Wait, seriously? Someone thought that that was a good idea? I mean, J.C Staff, a company that is well known for messing up and/or butchering adaptations of great works? (I'm looking at you Spiral) This is a company that for the most part, seems to have very little in terms of "great" budget, and suddenly they're expected to animate 178 episodes of such a huge hit? All of a sudden, Prince of Tennis the anime sounds like it's going to be a disaster.

You know what though? It's not; in fact, Prince of Tennis is actually pretty good.

That's not to say however, that this is the best sports anime out there - indeed, there are definitely flaws with PoT, mostly to do with the animation, which I'll cover later on - and if you've had any animosity towards sports anime in the past then you can immediately forget about liking Prince of Tennis, as it most definitely won't change your mind about them, it's possible that it may make you dislike them even more actually; even sports anime fans that I've talked to have dismissed PoT out of hand calling it "ridiculous" "a joke" and "an insult to the actual sport itself", and whilst I can certainly understand why people dislike certain ridiculous elements of the show, I find comments about it being a joke and an insult to be quite puzzling, because personally, I found that once PoT hit its stride, it was a huge barrel of fun and enjoyment.

The story is typical sports anime fare: Team wants to become the best. Team goes up against many strong opponents and becomes stronger after each match. Team wins some games, team loses some games. It's a tried and trusted formula which, while not really turning any heads in terms of how things play out, provides decent enough motivation for the characters to at least keep you emotionally invested in them for a while.

What's interesting about the story is that, whereas other sports shows would immediately opt for making the main protagonists team a group of underdogs, going up against impossible odds and coming out better for it, the tennis players of Seigaku are actually rather strong by comparison. We're presented with players who are already known at the national level, a player that's regarded by practically everyone as a tennis prodigy, and Jesus himself, Captain Tezuka. These are character archetypes that, in nearly every other sports show, would be reserved for the opposing teams, their sole purpose to make the protagonists team stronger and stronger after every single match, and we're meant to watch them playing for the home team.

So how then does that make the matches interesting?

As mentioned before, Seigaku is constantly going up against stronger and stronger teams, with players that are just as equally strong as them (with the exception of Captain Jesus, who I'll talk about later on), this means that even though there are main characters who are ridiculously powerful, the players are almost never really in a position in which they can just sit back and take the match easily, meaning that it successfully maintains a feeling of excitement and tension, despite the several curb-stomp matches that do occur throughout the series.

One major stand-out of the original PoT's storyline, rather funnily, is the filler. Now obviously, in an anime this long filler is bound to be expected - this could range from anything to funny filler episodes to outright filler arcs - but what's interesting to note is that, well...the filler is actually pretty damn good.

No seriously, I mean it, I wouldn't joke about this even if you paid me.

After about 125 episodes, PoT goes off on its own route because the animators decided that they wanted to give the audience a different Prince of Tennis experience than that of the manga, and it actually pays off rather well, I'm sure the whole Junior Selection Camp thing served in some way as the basis for what would eventually form the plot of New Prince of Tennis; in reality I suppose these filler episodes are nothing more than a clever way for J.C Staff to fully exploit the huge cast of bishonens that exist in PoT, and create new pairings for its ever growing fanbase of yaoi fans (heck I'm a straight male and even I supported some of the pairings). Nonetheless, these filler episodes are at times more entertaining than the actual matches from the proper storyline, they're a strong example of how to do filler, and more importantly, how to do filler well - the fact that I was able to marathon through the final 78 episodes in the space of about two weeks is a testament of how good I personally found the filler.

However, regardless of how good everything else is in Prince of Tennis, there is one factor that threatens to nearly derail the viewing experience almost completely. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Prince of Tennis's utterly woeful animation.

Artistically speaking, the series fares well, Takeshi Konomi's numerous bishonens translate well to the screen, enough so that that was the deciding factor in why the score isn't less than 5, it's when it actually comes to animating that Prince of Tennis utterly falls down.

You will see stock footage, a lot of it, I lost count of the amount of times I saw the same footage for Ryoma's Twist Serve or Fuji's Higuma Otoshi repeated again, and again, and again. Static images are abound in the anime. It's not often that animation in an anime is so bad that it's actually detrimental to the viewing experience, but in this case, it most definitely is. For whatever reason - perhaps due to J.C Staff's lack of funds - simple shots are repeated in little boxes that suddenly appear on the screen, so you're subjected to the same footage you saw not two seconds ago; randomly, a character will take a shot and the anime decides that for whatever reason, it's going to show the same shot again in a spiral that suddenly bombards your screen. I could quite literally turn this review into a complete list of faults with the animation of the show. The animation is meant to be a medium that conveys the manga format effectively, and it seems as if somewhere along the line, J.C Staff forgot about that little detail, as such, we're presented with matches that, in the manga, would only take about 3 to 5 chapters (I bothered to use the Seigaku VS Yamabuki match as a reference for this) and in the anime, take roughly the equivalent of about 4 episodes by comparison.

In short, it's pretty much total butchery, and something that wouldn't be fixed until the National Tournament OVA's in which it was then animated by the far more capable hands of Production I.G.

Musically speaking, PoT fares significantly better, one of the many things that defines a sports anime - or long running anime in general - is the soundtrack; without a good soundtrack, quite a bit of the effect is lost whenever something dramatic happens, and what PoT lacks in the animation department is something that the sound department makes up for. Cher Watanabe composed an absolutely awesome soundtrack, the opening themes are, personally, among some of the best and really get you in the mood for Prince of Tennis, seriously, just try and listen to "Driving Myself" (by far the best of the opening themes) and not get pumped.

The rest of the soundtrack is also pretty good, I remember plenty of moments when the music was the best thing about the show, particularly when tracks like "Mission", "Hangeki" and "Koutekishu" were playing, it's hard to not at times feel a big goofy grin appear on your face when the soundtrack is at its best.

Voice acting is equally strong, there are plenty of arrogant characters in Prince of Tennis, not least Ryoma, Atobe and Kirihara, and the voice acting is able to pretty much hit all the right notes when it comes to performances, whether it be one of the arrogant characters or one of the softer characters, or perhaps one of the stoic characters - it's hard to fault the voice acting, with the exception of the really annoying little kids that pretty much form Ryoma's fan-club, their voices grate significantly and any attempt at humour with these characters falls flat down on its face.

Also, a word of advice, avoid the dub at all costs, they never did dub the entire show but what they did dub was pretty poor; it seems as if practically no one was taking the anime seriously enough to bother contributing something that can actually be considered a performance.

As you will no doubt know, sports anime and manga are usually not reliant on their story (even if, in this case, it's actually pretty good), the sport is usually the lifeblood of its respective anime or manga, but it's the characters that really make it stand out. If you were, for instance, to try and watch Eyeshield 21 without Hiruma, you would be stuck with an anime that, while having its moments, doesn't have a strong enough cast for you to keep yourself interested in it. Thankfully, PoT's characters are strong enough to keep your interest, you will definitely find at least one character among this cast that you can actually bring yourself to like. Like yourself a cocky, confident main protagonist who knows what he's doing? Then you'll probably quickly find yourself fawning all over Ryoma. Do you like relaxed, composed characters with strong poker faces? Fuji's the one for you. Do you fancy unbelievably arrogant, king-like characters? Look no further than King Atobe himself.

Of course, those are just the base character traits, over time, the characters (especially Ryoma) develop into more than that, becoming much more likeable, more sympathetic and much more worthy of you rooting for them. Gags that originally weren't funny, such as Inui's special juices or Kawamura's Engrish, gradually become chuckle-worthy, heck even downright funny, and that's because of the way the characters develop.

Unfortunately, the characters aren't quite perfect, and that's due to the fault of one character: Captain Jesus - I mean, Captain Tezuka.

Tezuka is, hands down, the worst character in the show, so naturally, he's one of the most overpowered too. He's bland, dull, has practically no emotions whatsoever, and is just completely uninteresting as a character and as the team captain; Kabaji had more character development than Tezuka, and the only thing he said was "Yes"! Of course, this also makes him practically unbeatable, with only really the best of the best standing a decent chance against him. The only thing that Tezuka is good for is providing Ryoma with at least some motivation to start getting better, and even that's only a small catalyst.

Despite its faults - and woeful animation, which it should be noted, does actually start to improve in the last 8 episodes - I thoroughly enjoyed Prince of Tennis, it was a fun ride with some excellent filler, a strong cast of likeable characters and a great soundtrack. It most definitely won't change your mind about sports anime if you didn't like them to begin with, especially when it starts bringing in elements that take it from almost believable to downright Super Saiyan, and I wouldn't really recommend it if you're just starting to get into sports anime either, perhaps after you've seen something much more realistic like say, Hajime no Ippo and fancy something that isn't as bothered by the laws of physics. Still, it's a great ride once it gets going and well worth the time you put into it, especially as you're rewarded by Production I.G's glorious animation in the Nationals.

Prince of Tennis, in my opinion, is like .. superpower tennis. Not in a bad way, but that's what makes this show enjoyable. Ryoma is your typical tennis prodigy who overcomes players more skilled then he is. Story overall was good, with some bumps and twists along the way. The episodes that contain side-stories and stories where the characters are chibis are hilarious. Best I thought was bowling and Snow White.

Art was good, though when in tennis matches, you'll notice repetitions such as their special techniques and missing the ball. That's okay, unless you don't like the moves. The good thing is the art's ... pretty consistent. I'll give my opinion that the English dub mixed with the animation is such a pain to watch.

Sound? Yeah, it gets a thumbs up. Music is good too, especially Wonderful Days, where it's sung by some of the characters. Dream Believer, love that song!

Characters, haha there's A LOT. I'm not talking 20, there's got to be somewhere around 50 or more. Plus they're pretty all unique. Well, except some players that use their wit. They just look different. You'll love some, you'll hate some, that's a possibility. Sometimes it's hard to believe they're only in middle school. Shocking right?

Enjoyment, I enjoyed it. The show is really funny. I mostly remember it being funny just because of Inui. Him and his special drinks.

Overall, the show gives a lot. Maybe not romantically, though you get Sakuno crushing on Ryoma, who, of course, doesn't notice. If you want to get a good laugh, watch the special episodes that don't really correspond to the storyline. So stop reading and GO WATCH!

I'm a big fan of sports, especially Tennis, so when i discovered Prince of Tennis i thought this might be what i've been searching for, however it became very clear it wasn't.

Initially it was watchable but rapidly became unwatchable, the problem with Prince of Tennis is that the parameters of the world we are supposed to be immersed in are not defined, this inevitably leads to more and more ridiculous events occurring.

I appreciate it isn't meant to be realistic however when you start from the stars in no time you will reach the sun and then where do you go from there?
What i mean ... by this, is that these first year high schoolers are so overpowered that when you try to imagine what the professional tennis players in this world are like it just becomes utter nonsense.

At a young age these kids are playing shots where the ball doesn't bounce off the court, or making the opponents shots magnetized to wherever they are on the court and many many more ridiculous things.
So my question is, when these kids get to their final years of high school what kind of shots would they be playing? ones where the tennis ball turns into a dragon and breathes fire at the opponent and anyone in the vicinity?

Terrible!!!

The Prince of Tennis. I'd have to say this is one of my most favorite anime yet, So I do strongly recommend it if you haven't seen it. It really gave me that sad, but happy and satisfied feeling after I finished the series. It includes comedy and sports, but yet humorous at the same time. The Prince of Tennis mainly focuses on Seishun Gakuen's Tennis team (Seigaku) trying to reach for the nationals and become pros one day, while Ryoma Echizen, the protagonist, has his own dream of winning against his father, the former pro in the tennis world. ... Also, a few of the episodes include the Tenipuri series, when Seigaku and everyone else are chibified. Those times are Hilarious and yet cute.

This isn't just normal tennis you see everyday. There are lots of strange, but yet interesting techniques they use while they play, such as the invisible ball and the Tezuka zone, You have to use your intelligence and stamina in order to win a game. You may find their games somehow deeply move you, as they get more intense, serious, and dramatic at the same time.

The art and how the characters are drawn are pretty amazing. Their expressions and body movements are so realistic when it comes to moving around a lot while playing a tennis game, Everything is drawn neatly and in funny ways.

I have nothing to complain about the Seiyuu's in The Prince of Tennis, they all did a wonderful job and I love how they all sound! I'd say their voices really suit the characters personality very well. I'm especially impressed with Minagawa Junko, ever since I found out Echizen was voiced by a girl. Shes so talented so have such a manly voice ^-^ Although I haven't been paying much attention to the background music sounds of the anime, I do think that Little Sky was sung very well. Dream Believer was also pretty good, since the members of Seigaku sang it. Some of them will even result you in going crazy looking for the name and who the artist is.

Characters...each and every one of them has their own different personality and look, which I find very unique and entertaining. Sometimes you can find the complete opposite personality from a character. I turned out to love all of them, even though my first impression was that they all sounded strange. I like it how all the schools first start out as rivals, but as the series slowly develops, each and every one of them start to change and become friends and allies with eachother, this is one of the most heartwarming things about this anime.

Well, I really enjoyed The Prince of Tennis, and I'm still sulking at the fact that it ended. Each and every one of the episodes captures a memory into your mind. The funniness really sticks in your head when you think about it, and the characters too, you can never forget about them.

I've grown to really like this show, and recommend you to watching it too. 178 episodes + The OVA's and specials, You'll regret it if you don't!

The Anime Starts out well.. but loses steam halfway through the stories.. with potholes the size of craters.. i was hoping it would get better but it was a dud...

With an obvious plot of the Protagonists winning every tournament.. the opponents in the beginning are intimidating but as the series progresses no matter what the opponents did the seigaku team ends up winning...

i'm a sport anime fan.. i was looking forward to learning a lot from the show.. like i did with Slam Dunk.. but the show ends up showing tennis as a sport where you can win a few rounds at the US ... open but still get beaten up so bad in an U-17 Japan Camp...

i was expecting a lot more from this show but was left high and dry...

i really liked the build up to the National tournament.. but in the national tournament ends up becoming a show of super powers..

i'd prefer Baby Steps over this.. it's more realistic..

Story:
Your typical sports anime, but with a twist. Right from the start, the main character is pretty AWESOME at the game. There comes it being VERY predictable. 'Ryoma's going to win' especially when it relates to tennis. If an enemy is winning, one of Seishun's students (usually a regular) will make an *unexpected* comeback. Could have been much shorter and better without the 'filler' episodes (filler, as in when Seishun isn't playing in a tournament).

Art/Animation:
The art is great, far from being spectacular. I find nothing wrong with it, but it isn't spectacular. As for the animation, I've been seeing a lot of clips used over ... and over in matches and it's a little iffy sometimes.

Sound/Voice Acting:
(Japanese dubbed, English subbed)
The music isn't really impressive, just fitting for this type of anime. Nothing really that goes into your head, though. As for the sound, some sounds are over-exaggerated and some are perfect. The voice acting was okay, though some of the voice actors, especially Seishun's regulars, weren't very fitting.

Characters:
Amazing, wide variety of characters with their own unique personalty that develops little by little as you watch more episodes. This is definitely this anime's strong point because they all have their own styles. However, as each new character is introduced, the show seems to has to go longer for character development and exploring more of his or her personalty.

Enjoyment:
An interesting anime to some, a repetitive and tedious anime to others. To me, Prince of Tennis is an uninteresting, repetitive anime. Sure, there's a lot of special moves, but they're quite unrealistic and fails to want me to watch any more episodes.

My friends think I'm weird for liking a sports anime. "What's the big deal, it's just sports! You can watch real people play tennis on TV instead!" What they don't realize is that Prince of Tennis, as well as many other sports anime, is about much more than just the game. In fact, as far as Prince of Tennis goes, there is far more time spent outside of the court, developing characters and improving the viewers' bond with the anime.

The story's a real shocker here (not). Young prodigy joins a famous tennis school aiming for the national championship, overcoming all sorts of seemingly-impossible challenges and ... making lifelong friends along the way. It's a tried and true formula for any shonen anime, especially of the sports genre, but what I really appreciate about Prince of Tennis's take on the genre is the truly equal amount of attention given to each of the regulars on the team. Compare this with Kuroko's Basketball, another fantastic sports anime. Yes, all of the players on the team are important and have their own abilities, but the spotlight always shines on Kuroko and Kagami first and foremost. Prince of Tennis, on the other hand, thoroughly develops not only each player's skills, but also their personalities and relationships with everyone else in the anime. There are side characters in Prince of Tennis that are more developed than some main characters in lesser anime.

And that's the thing! The characters are all so lovable! I've watched Prince of Tennis in its entirety at least 10 times in my life, and there isn't a single character in the cast of Seigaku regulars that hasn't been my favorite character at some point. I wouldn't dare put any character from Prince of Tennis on my top 10 characters list because I'd have to include at least 7 more. And it's not that they're each some kind of ideal person, they all have issues and imperfections, but they're so well-developed and unique that it's really hard to not fall in love with the entire cast.

It's a kind of old anime, so it stands to reason that the art style starts out a little... well, outdated. Animation is sometimes rigid, and pretty much every special move animation is just cut and pasted every single time it's used, but rather than making the anime seem cheap, I've only ever felt more excited by the incredible style that this show has. It's not "oh, not THIS animation again..." it's more like "Awww yeah, here it comes! TWIST SERVE!!!" The main point is that it works really well, and contributes to the entire sense of style that this anime has.

As far as sound goes... Amazing. There are some really, really great noises that come out of this anime. I think a really good testament to a good show, or at least a good long-running anime like Prince of Tennis, is a sense of familiarity and belonging. Everything in this show has its own "sound," from special moves to catch phrases to background music for specific moments. After watching through this anime, you'll be able to listen to a sound bite and almost immediately point out what special move it is, or whether the tables have turned at the last second of a match or not.

So as not to belittle any of the other 10/10 anime that I've found, I can't say that Prince of Tennis is my very favorite anime, but... It's pretty much my very favorite anime. There is so much more to it than just tennis, so to any of my friends that criticize me for loving a sports anime, I only have one thing to say to them:

"Mada mada dane."

Story: The Prince of Tennis has a very unique plot but logical with a few "suprise" episodes along the way (eg. Tenipuri). I enjoyed watching the Prince of Tennis but once you watch it a few times over, it will eventually get really boring.

Art: For me, the art is quite average. What makes it seem so exciting is the background, Fuji (wuhoo) does one of his special moves and there's this dark swirly background and some bright lights on the end of the raquet so that's an extra point or it will be a 7. But that just makes the bishies even hotter. (fangirl squeal).

Sound: ... Not the best songs though, I can't remember but some are really really really good, like wonderful days. Esp. when in one episode when 8 bishies acually SING it. I'm not sure what to do for sound? Where there are Sound effects at the right moments (woosh, thud, nya) but some are overexagerated (Bang, Kaboom, woah...).

Character: I HAVE to give a 10 for this one. I mean, ther are SO MANY cute bishonen. All of the characters are boys excluding a few girls, so far I think four , excluding sisters, women and a couple in the background. Everyone has unique personalities and signiture moves. Takeshi Konomi must have spend a LOT of time create each of them, I mean around 11 teams/schools and 8 per team, that is a LOT of characters. That guy must have one heck of an imagination. Oh, and I gave it 10 coz THERE'S JUST SO MANY BISHIES!

Enjoyment: I fell in loved with it in the very first episode I watched, the suspense, drama...etc. But because I loved it so much, I rewatched it and I wish I didn't as I knew watch is going to happen next and that ruined the whole show and experience. The best part of the Prince of Tennis is the tension, who is goin to win that match, what will he do next, what does to opponent have up his sleeve? It's that that makes it so enjoyable but once you know, it's not that good.

I love that show, man, however much silly and kiddish that sounds, I love it. Humor, Suspense, action, that show has it all (even some violence too! Bashing up with tennis balls) . Here's a tip, only rewatch an episode a couple months after you last seen it.

After reading the reviews for Prince of Tennis, and hearing that it was a very popular manga series, I thought to give it a go. I had just finished watching Hajime no Ippo and enjoyed it immensely, so was looking for a long series with the same kind of intense sporting atmosphere. And I enjoy tennis. Great game. So it all seemed to fit together.

The motive fit. But PoT is a crime.

I felt the urgent desire to offer to the anime community a fair and balanced review of this series. Let me cut to the chase. It was awful. ... Prince of Tennis was like a pussy boil of irritation. I tried ignoring it, but the irritation only spread. Allow me to explain.

First was the woeful characters. Woeful doesn't quite sum up the enormity of the irritation the characters in this series cause.

"Mada mada dane", or "it's not over yet". No, God damn right it's not over. Not till a blow your irritating head off along with that stupid hat you're wearing with a bazooka!

in PoT we follow the main protagonist, a budding tennis prodigy who gets labelled by his prepubescent fan club with the name Prince of Tennis. Echizen Ryoma, a 12 year old who begins at a secondary school known for its tennis prowess, carries himself with a more than adequate degree of annoying arrogance. This arrogant nature that pervades the main character is commented on by other equally arrogant tennis players who all prove themselves inferior in skill. Echizen has no endearing or attractive qualities that can be mentioned except that he is abnormally good at tennis and loves rubbing his opponents noses in the fact that they're inferior to his godlike qualities. Not, that is, that they don't deserve to be brown nosed. If you can handle a snotty nosed little kid, with oddly enough women of all ages drooling over him, then by all means, enjoy this series.

Secondly we have the sound. Where did they find that track that pervades most of the show. It's like they ripped it off from a 70s porn film and stuffed it into a tennis match. Have you ever watched a tennis match with 70s porn music playing in the background? Well I can assure you, it's quite disconcerting. (I joke). Variety of music? No. Music that at least fits the mood? No. Bowawowawow-wow.

Where can I go from here? Okay the animation. Woeful. Dreadful. Just plain crap. The tennis matches are meant to be exciting, this is why people watch, because they are meant to generate tension and interest. We want to be held on the edge of or seat, biting our fingernails, unsure if our favourite character was going to win... or God forbid lose! No. No. This is impossible. Firstly you want Echizen to lose, because you don't like him. Unfortunately you don't really like his opponents either, so... Secondly the way the matches are animated is boring. So man stills, continuous repetition of the same shot over, and over, and over again. Like a broken record. Like someone raking their nails down a chalkboard. All the while 70s porn film music playing in the background.

Then there is the tennis itself. Okay, you have to give these kind of shows some creative licence. They're as much fantasy as they are real. We're prepared to suspend our disbelief for a certain amount of time and to a certain degree. But the moves they produce and the crap they come up with to explain each players unique techniques and skills is utterly ridiculous. Laughable. Just plain stupid at times. As I write this I'm shaking my head in utter bemusement.

Then there is the character designs and the voices. Why do half the tennis team look like females, act like females, have female voices... but are apparently male. What's with that? Maybe female voice actors are paid less and they were trying to cut on unnecessary costs. Don't get it. Please explain. Echizen himself looks like a little midget amongst the other tennis players. Like a weird little rumplestiltskin of tennis. Like an odd little evil pixie taken from another anime and transplanted into this one. He looks out of place with a big hat on his stupid looking oversized head.

So. What's left? Are there any redeeming qualities to this pain-filled anime series? I'd like to say "no", but their are a few. A few hints at something better, something greater, something it could possibly be, something it aspires to be, something you hope it will become... but never actually get there. The father of this annoying kid tennis player is kind of entertaining at points... and...

No, that's all I can think of.

I felt I had to inform people about this ordeal I experienced. I had to let others know. Give a balanced view. Albeit I did not watch the entire series, but the first 25 episodes I did watch left me with little hope was to any positive outcome or enjoyment. I quit. I had to. I'm sorry. Good luck to any of you who want to take the journey.

*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS NO SPOILERS*

Ah, Prince of Tennis. One of the greatest sports anime which is overshadowed by the admittedly better sports anime like Hajime no Ippo. But don't let that deceive you. This is easily one of the greatest sports anime out there. So let's get to it.

Story:- 8
While the story isn't anything out of the norm for sports anime it still has the feeling of uniqueness. There are many fillers along the way but the best part about this anime is that even it's fillers are reasonably entertaining. The story never feels repetitive even though it is.

Art:- 7
Keep in mind that this is ... a 2001-2005 anime. So obviously comparing it to today's standards is not a good idea. But even comparing it to it's own time period it still seems a bit dated. It actually reminds me of the style of art used in Cowboy Bebop. So as you could tell the art is nothing special. But then there's the animation of the matches. Being a sports anime, there a going to be a gigantic amount of sports and unsurprisingly this anime has some of the best matches I've seen till date. The animation put into the body of the players while playing the game actually makes you feel like that's how the ball is supposed to curve and usually it follows the laws of physics pretty well, that is until you get to a certain point in the anime.

Sound:- 7.5
The soundtrack of this series like the art is nothing special but there are themes or songs that will very soon get stuck in your mind. The best example of this is "Honki Moodo" one of the most identifiable songs in the franchise. The openings and endings while nothing brilliant are still a charm to the ears.

Character:- 9
This is where the series really shines. Each and every character in this series has their own special personality and has quite a bit of depth in these personalities. My favorite being the Quirky Kikumaru.

Our main character, Ryoma, is a cocky but nice hearted protagonist. Even the "antagonists" of the series like Atobe or Yukimura have a large amount of depth to them.

For real villains like Akutsu or Mizuki they make you hate them since they either cheat, have no regard for their team or are really violent. Sort of like the real world since no one would like sportsmen without sportsmanship. Right?

Enjoyment:- 8
All in all I love this series and if you like sports anime or are a sports player I would recommend this to you. Even without any prior knowledge of tennis the anime will teach you it's basics. The fillers will have you laughing and the matches will have you pumped up. It's always a good time with this anime.

Overall:- 7.8/10

This series was one of the very first that I’ve seen when I was younger and one of the reason why I fell in love with animes.

There’s a very long review coming as it was one of the longest series…………….

About the STORY
Because it is a story about a genius tennis player, the storyline becomes somehow predictable. They lose at the start then after that you know they will win amazingly. I guess the only thing unpredictable is how they will win amazingly as it is of course, done differently every game. The opponents are made ridiculously irritating to make the winnings of the main characters ... really great and so cool. That kind of storyline was really a hit before and sometimes even till now but seeing it for the first time now when that kind of storyline was so used so many times over the years, it really becomes quite cliché. One of the things that I like about sports series is that you can learn a lot about the sports that they’re featuring. That being said, most of the moves and techniques in the series are so fictional and can’t be used in real life. Players are burning with fires, players are flying and doing some exaggerated moves in mid-air, people are even disappearing, balls are going around poles, balls making a B sign, disappearing balls, and there are even cyclones created by players; these are only few of the countless magical-like moves during games. Some of the drama and lines can still be effective but some can really be cliché and cheesy.

About the CHARACTERS
It is given that there is a long list of characters as it is one of the still on-going series out there. And so there’s enough time to explore particular character’s background. And are these kids really middle school students? That can be quite far-fetched if I may say so. It can be considered cliché but it really feels genuinely great when the protagonists are winning against the extremely irritating and cocky opponents. That is the very reason why that kind of storyline is still often used nowadays even if it’s been already used so many times. It is something to look forward to every single game. The opponents are completely different from one another. They play differently which make every game a lot more exciting but all of them are the same with one thing, every single one have their different version of cockiness, pride, and arrogance. And what’s with this series? I honestly think that 90% of the characters are extremely overconfident. I’ve never seen a series with characters with overflowing cockiness, arrogance, and overconfidence. Sometimes, it just feels too much. And they get nastier and a lot more arrogant as the series progresses. Well, as they get nastier, their defeat feels a lot greater that way. But I honestly like Atobe’s arrogance. It is very king-like which can really be cute and funny.

About FUJI SYUSUKE
My favorite among the team is of course, Fuji. I just love enigmatic characters because they are so mysterious. Whenever he changes his attitude from being calm with closed eyes to being serious or mad with opened eyes, he can be really scary. And among all the characters who had been Ryouma’s opponent, Fuji is the best. Their game is one of the best in the series. Fuji can even make Ryouma lose his cool. Though he’s one of the geniuses in the series, it is quite ironic that his technique is also one of the most fictional. He also cares so much about the welfare of his friends and family, particularly his younger brother. He has this own way of avenging the people that he cares about which is very admiring.

About ECHIZEN NANJIRO
Fuji might be my favorite among the team but my number one in the whole series is none other than Echizen Nanjiro. He’s the only one Ryouma’s arrogance won’t work and actually losses his cool. The father and son have a unique and sweet relationship. Nanjiro’s roundabout way of teaching his son about tennis and life is just so admiring and interesting. And let’s not forget that he’s the main source of comic relief in the series which make him a lot more interesting. I just wish he has a lot more air time.

About ECHIZEN RYOMA
As Ryoma is already considered a genius at the start of the series which is quite different from the typical sports series protagonists who start off as very naïve and weak, there’s a different kind of character development for him. As the series progresses, he starts to realize he’s limits and work hard to overcome them. He’s a genius already and really arrogant about it so his character development is whenever he is beaten. Later on the series, despite still being as arrogant and show-off as ever, he becomes more mature. His arrogance becomes a lot more convincing and cooler compared at the beginning. Ryoma is so handsome and cute for his age. I guess, this is what the Japanese would call “Bishounen”. And to think that he’s only 12 years old despite already having a strong personality and attitude. But if you think about it, the most exciting way to beat an extremely arrogant and irritating opponent is for them to be defeated by an equally arrogant main character which really feels so good. After all, princes do have overconfident attitude.

About the ANIMATION
As this is an old series, the animation is not that great compared to those of todays. But I think it was great enough during it’s time. At least, that’s what I remember when I first saw it before, when it was still airing.

After watching animes for so many years now and seeing it now with its original version, with all honesty, it’s no longer that amazing compared before when I first saw it. Without a doubt, there are really other sports series which have very fictional moves and techniques, I just find this series has exaggerated it a bit too much. It can be really over the top. And it is quite ironic that the most exaggerated match is also the most awaited one which is between Ryoma and Tezuka. For some, it can be really “KAKKOI” or cool but for some it can be a bit too much.

I'm a big sucker for sports animes that gets you all pumped up and excited, Prince of Tennis is one of those. It actually inspired me to play Tennis. Now onto the actual review.

Story- 8
The story was not the most original,however it has its own unique quality. Basically, the protagonist, Ryoma Echizen is a 12 year old tennis player who travels back to Japan from America to surpass his father and develop himself to become a better tennis player. The story follows the challenges he faces and the people he encounters. The story has its ups and down and there are a few surprises, so ... in all I think it's a great story.There are times where the story seems to drag or some repetitions in the matches-like my friend once told me : I got bored past 100 episodes because they were basically repeating the same thing with the different characters. I don't know if that might be the case for you, but it wasn't for me, I found it to be interesting nevertheless. Also, some parts of this anime seems to defy logic and physics, haha. It's like watching superman tennis or something ^_^

Art-7 + Sound-8
The art was bothering me at first, but I guess it's pretty decent for a 2005 anime. I totally love the soundtracks, some of them really bring the necessary emotions in the scene.

Characters- 9
As for the characters, I think they are extremely well-done. I grew an attachment to most of the characters in the anime. They have unique personalities, and each and every one of them felt really realistic.Though, I must say the girls' personalities are pretty typical. I found myself tearing when it was ending because I didn't want to part with the characters. (Yes, even Horio-kun LOL) They were so wonderfully made and developed. Additionally,it was the first anime where I didn't have any characters that I hated.

Overall, I give this anime an 8. It was fairly enjoyable and a perfect anime to watch. I highly encourage you to watch it if you want to kill time and enjoy some laughs as well as emerge yourself in some sports anime.

What is Prince of Tennis? In short, it is an anime about tennis and the only one of its kind. Some people may find it boring while others will find it interesting; this is an anime that either you will like or don't, there really isn't a middle ground. I personally love this anime and have re-watched it a few times. The story is good, the characters are well developed, the music and art is good.

- Story and Plot - 9/10 -
The main plot of the anime is how the main characters, players of Seishun Gakuen, deal with the various situations dealt to them ... in the world of junior Tennis. Their youngest teammate is Echizen, Ryoma, who is the one referred to as The Prince of Tennis due to his skills.The story follows through their trials as a team, in their ultimate goal of playing in the Japanese Nationals. Each player of Seigaku, though may not be treated specially, helps the team with their unique talents in order to further their goal.

The team plays other school teams such as Fudoumine, St. Rudolph, Yamabuki, Hyoutei Gakuen, Josei Shonan, Rokkaku and Rikkaidai in order to reach the Nationals. These teams also feature players with unique abilities and talents, showcasing them during the several matches they play against Seigaku or each other.

Overall story follows the same patterns as anime such as Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball, etc. where there are intermittent episodes in-between the different story arcs. Each new arc has Seigaku playing against a new opponent and the players must increase their skills in order to move onward. The story is good because you learn more and more about the players and their backgrounds as the anime progresses and this helps you understand their personalities also.

- Art and Character Design - 9/10 -
The art is great in the anime, even though there are a lot of repeated scenes. The one thing that amazes me is the detail art for each character, whether main or support, of the series making them all stand out from each other. Exceptionally well done art for being old (which I honestly do not care about) and keeping the same style till the end.

- Soundtrack - 9/10 -
Like the art, the music is amazing for the anime. This is one those anime that has Seiyuu music, which is awesome. Some of the opening, insert music and endings are done by the Seiyuu and that adds spark to this anime.

- Character Development - 10/10 -
This anime has a lot of different characters who are introduced, each with their own unique stories. Each team brings in a new story about their drive and motives for success, much like the main team Seigaku. This is the best part of this anime; unlike other anime with several characters, Prince of Tennis is the only one that I have seen so far, that actually develops all the characters introduced.

The main characters of the anime are the team members of Seigaku. A lot of them are great but some of the characters from other teams are also note worthy. So I will just point out the ones I like:

Ryuzaki, Sumire (Seigaku): Ryuzaki is Seigaku's coach, who is constantly yelling at the members of the team. Even so, she cares a lot for her team and has one of the best coach-member relationships in the anime. She understands each of the players and takes a lot of pride in her position as Coach.

Tezuka, Kunimitsu (Seigaku): The leader of Seigaku, Tezuka is portrayed as a serious and distant person whose aim is to take Seigaku to the Nationals.One of my favourite characters because he shows exactly what it means to be a leader. Not only is he fair with all his members, but he keeps order within Seigaku without resorting to cheap tricks. He also has the utmost respect from everyone in the series, not only due to his skill in tennis but also because of his character.

Kawamura, Takashi (Seigaku): Kawamura I would say is given the least attention amongst the members of Seigaku. His talent is power mainly and his personality is pretty shy when he isn't playing tennis. I particularly like his character because he progresses through the anime without any special skill, just strength and motivation. The team is foremost on his mind and he is known to take "the hit" for the team, much like his captain. Kawamura's character shows that through inner strength and motivation, many things can be achieved also.

Inui, Sadaharu (Seigaku): Known for his Data Tennis, Inui is feared among people in general not because of his nature but rather for his weird concoctions which he calls "Inui Juice". He uses this to motivate the team to work harder during training as none of them want to drink it. This is the best part of the anime, every time Inui brings out his juice, everyone runs away from him; simply hilarious.

Atobe, Keigo (Hyotei): Captain of the Hyotei team, he is your regular wealthy student with a lot of influence. He keeps a flashy personality to hide who he is really is. Atobe is more understanding than he looks and takes a lot of pride in his team and his own play. Atobe sees Tezuka as his biggest rival but he also understands Tezuka the most. In my opinion, his outward character is just a cover for his true personality and that is why he is one of my favourites. There is always a meaning behind his actions.

Other characters that I really liked would be Rokkaku's Vice Captain Saeki, Rikkaidai's Vice Captain Sanada, Fudoumine's Kamio, and so many more. There is just too many characters in this anime to list them all :).

- Viewer Enjoyment - 10/10 -
I thoroughly enjoyed the anime because it was pretty laid back and was not demanding at all. The anime is hilarious but serious at the same time and scenes do not take forever to happen. Yes the arcs can be a bit repetitive but name an anime today that has more than 75 eps which is not. Every new arc brings in more players and these players always make appearances later on in the series. Every time the teams meet up, there is always some sort of overall friendship between all the players showing that sports, even though competitive, can have room for friendship. Just because someone is your opponent and beats you, does not mean that they are your enemy. Good sportsmanship I would say is the overall theme that is portrayed here. That you should love the game first and foremost; what matters most is Tennis and not whether the player wins or losses.

- Overall Rating - 9/10 -

I don't care much for tennis, nor any sports for that matter. Never liked sports, sports games, sports shows, sports movies ( well, some movies ), sports fashion... none. I don't care if some sport is considered particularly lame compared to another.
Sports are - in my opinion - incredibly boring.

But I've watched the whole thing and enjoyed every second.

There's a lot of tennis. With very few exceptions, there's no episode that wouldn't have at least one short match of tennis in it. Of course, it isn't just any tennis, it's anime-tennis, which has been made exaggerated and humanly impossible.
I understand quite well ... if someone dislikes that and I find it a bit bothersome too from time to time but I guess I've learned to overcome it. Those who think that it's completely okay to make 13-year old boys jump 10 feet up the air in anime, think of it this way in this case: PoT is in our world. It's not in some weird Ninja Country or some Alternative Dimension that resembles ours. It's not even in the Far Future nor Long Long Time Ago. It is not fantasy per se. So it's a bit 50/50 situation; on the other hand, it's just an anime and it's okay to exaggerate but on the other hand, sometimes people should think when it's ok to exaggerate and how much. I think in PoT, they have over-done it a bit, but it's nothing you couldn't overcome with a bit of quirky sense of humor ( try to imagine real life players shouting out the names of their special-serves and whatnot like that, it IS hilarious ).
Also, I don't know how the Japanese normally talk about tennis but with my limited understanding of it, I noticed that the matches are usually talked about as "battles" and the players are "warriors" ( this doesn't show in the fansubs )... which is a bit... ehh... lame. Then again, Japanese are a weird and passionate bunch in my books anyway so I wouldn't be surprised if they really *did* talk about sports with words like that.
So, the tennis in PoT, got the name of Ninja-Tennis from me. That's also the reason to why the matches aren't THAT boring in PoT, even while they are a bit predictable and repetitive. Heck, I have grunted "drat" after Seigaku does bad in some match ( or the hell with Seigaku; if the characters I like do bad, I cuss ).

So what of the story? Apparently, it's just about how the main character's team Seigaku makes it's way to the National Tennis Tournament. However, 170+ episodes fit alot of other stuff as well. Personally, I don't mind the little side stories. I don't mind at all to see an ep with almost no tennis at all. Actually, I wish there was more eps like that because I'm very interested in many of the characters, and the characters are so much fun. They are what keeps me watching.

Also, while this is certainly not an *obvious* shounen-ai anime, it's certainly veeery slashable.
Thar be Fanservice.

Well, even if you aren't into shounen-ai, there's nothing stopping you from watching. Everything for now has just been little jokes and I doubt it would get any different ( otherwise the anime wouldn't be so popular, sad but true ).

The animation and style is... well. Okay. I can't really say much about it because it hasn't really struck me as really good or really bad. It's general good, the look doesn't change in every other episode and it's easy to follow. Maybe it could have been a bit "cleaner" somehow, but it might be that I'm just fooled because of the quality of the fansubs. I was slightly amused by the fact that the animators have often taken care to draw a lot of detail in the shoes of the characters, heh.

This is the first time I've paid so much attention to the sounds of the anime, not counting in voice-work. I will have to say I'm surprised: they used REALLY old sound effects. A lot of the SFX are familiar to me from an old anime called Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin ( Silver Fang ). According to this page, it's from the year 1986. And dude, you can hear the quality. Well... I kinda like it on the other hand that PoT constantly reminds me of Ginga ( I've loved that anime since I was a kid... I've watched it countless of times, that's why I recognize the sounds ) but I really think they could've used a *bit* newer SFX.
The music of the anime is nothing great either. I'm reminded of some sports games my bro used to play on Amiga 500. Also, beware if you hate that kind of music: it's repetitive.
Aheh... but I do have to admit that I've so far watched the ending song only once. Opening I haven't watched... ever. They just didn't strike me so I've skipped them. At some point, they sounded ok but I was eager to see more of the anime.
Voice-work then again is really good. The voices fit the characters really well and none of them sound too awkward.

The characters. Absolutely wonderful. First of all, there's gazillion of them. Secondly, they are all unique. Of course, there are only few main characters but of course there's a lot of characters that pop up in the matches through out the anime. Though I must say I'm really having hard time remembering all their names ( then again, my name-memory is really bad anyway ). I'm actually a bit jealous to the person who drew the manga ( I haven't read it ) because with tennis, he got to make up so many characters without having them clogging up the story. Only two things bother me with the general setting of the characters:
1st: quite many of the teams Seigaku has to play against, are full of a-holes. It's a bit unbelievable, because it gives the impression that if they are Seigaku's opponents, they must be evil... which is just stupid. Plus the fact that it's not like few members of the team are a-holes; the whole team is. Thankfully there are few exceptions, and they bring more fun characters around too.
2nd: the characters are SUPPOSED to be like... 12-16 years old or something... right? Excluding the Freshmen, almost all of them look more like 16-20 years old, if not older. I'm 21 and I'm having a bad conscience because I coo over anime-kids.
Well, some individual characters then...
I wish SO bad that the main character, Ryoma was better. Because... he is a horrible character. Well, first of all he is an annoying person I can't really like much at all and secondly he is just a bad, bad character. He is TOO good at everything, tennis, English, ping pong, friggin' bowling. He is so good at all of that stuff it's just not funny or entertaining. It's boring and annoying. He has some mild weaknesses, mostly concerning tennis but other than that he is nearly perfect all the time. Know of the name Mary Sue ( or the male-version of it, Gary Stu )? I'd almost dare to claim Ryoma is a Perfect!Stu. I mostly wanna smack him all the time. Also, he says "mada mada dane" ( "not quite yet" ) waaaaay too often, even when I don't really see how it fits the dialogue.
Horio, the freshman with 2 years of tennis experience. Well........ it's pretty obvious that he is meant to be incredibly annoying character. And they damn well succeeded.
Tomo(?) and Sakuno(?), those two little girls. Why are they there? What is their purpose ( except be annoying and provide the obligatory anime-chicks even while they are just kids )? So far I really really don't see any point what so ever to the existence of those two. Both of them are just annoying, Sakuno being unable to friggin' say a word to Ryoma because omg, she is SOOOO in love with him. It's not cute, it's frustrating. Someone in the reviews here called Tomo a rodent. Rodent is almost right. I prefer vermin ( because rodents are cute ).
But yeah, if you don't like the first ep and think the anime is doomed because of the characters that were introduced in that ep, do watch more. There's a lot of characters to be showed yet and I'm pretty surprised if you don't find some you like.

Since I watched AnimeOtaku fansubs, I might as well say a word about them, though it's not gonna be nice. First of all, I really REALLY hate it when fansubbers don't translate everything but sometimes sub some words or phrases untranslated ( in PoT, it's often "mada mada dane" ). I've seen worse than this ( ie. in some Furuba-subs ) but it's still annoying. Get over it, translate it ( even if a bit inaccurately ) or just forget it but don't friggin' write Japanese into the subs. I know that ie. word like "desu" is pretty impossible to translate because it really doesn't mean anything but if you can't figure something out, just drop the word. No anime-fan is going to die because of that ( besides if it's a big anime-fan, she can probably pick up that "desu" from the speech ). That one guy said "dane" at the end of every sentence. You can't help but pick it up. But subbers could've translated that "right" or something.
The way the color-border of the subs changes when the speaking character is in or out of the picture is pretty useless. For a good while I was wondering why the text changes color and then I realized what it was. Yet not once had I been confused about who's talking.
The encoding could've been better from here and there. Some of the eps are of pretty bad quality, though honestly I'm not the type who has to have everything in HD.

Since I am a fan of sports anime, it was such a shame that it took me so long to finally start Prince of Tennis. I think the fact that it was an old anime and it has 178 episodes made me hesitate to start it. But I am so glad that I finally watched this anime.

My feelings for this anime came to a point where I was so happy that there are still more episodes to watch and then when I was nearing into the end, I got sad because the episodes were getting less.

STORY: 10/10
It's not your typical weak lead trying to ... get better throughout the series. Finally, we have a strong one who aims to be number one. So we have a strong school, a strong team and a strong male lead. All is good, and I thought it was perfect for a striking continuous win throughout the episodes but NOOOOO, it's not an easy story. I like when I try to predict the outcome, then it turns out I'm wrong. And that's Prince of Tennis folks. I never got the outcome right. Just when you thought he's going to play: NO. He's going to win: NO. It's going to be okay: NO. He'll be chosen: NO. (and vice versa). That's why it wasn't boring at all.

At first it's your ordinary competing with other schools story but along the episodes, it gets better. Since Seigaku is a strong school, honestly I thought rather than competing outside to be a difficult feat for them, it's them competing with each other for their regular spot was much more difficult and interesting to watch. Because we never know who's going to play. There's no fixed team in this club.

What excited me the most was ep 130+ and onwards. Literally just got better and more exciting. I think these arcs ahead was where Ryoma struggled the most. And heck I was surprised. I won't go into detail any further, just watch it.

ART: 8/10
The art for season 1 is beautiful and amazing but for the rest of the seasons, you'll miss the old version. What disappointed me was the animation and transitions. I guess I'm going to describe the majority of their matches as a "metaphor" for their techniques and play style. Because at times the serves, volley, techniques, etc. are exaggerated that it looked like some sort of power from a fantasy comic book. But I'll to try to understand since it makes the anime exciting and dramatic in a way. The transitions are repetitive to the point that you'll know what technique their going to use if this is the transition that they're going to use. To make up for it at times, I tell myself it's an old and long anime so I'll let it go and just enjoy the matches.

SOUND: 8/10
The opening and ending songs are not that memorable or addicting to listen to but it's okay. Although the background sounds does make me hype especially when a match is happening, and makes me anxious when something goes wrong.

CHARACTER: 10/10
THE LEAD: When I read some reviews and comments before watching Prince of Tennis, there were a lot of complaints that Ryoma is unrelatable in a sense that he is too good to be true or otherwise a perfect lead. That's why I had this expectation finally watching the series that he is really good, and he is, but he's not perfect and you can relate to him. And for the record, he has a legend pro tennis father as his mentor or coach, he competed from different competitions in the States and won them 4 times, so I believe having that experience is worthy of him being praised as someone who is really good. So his character as being cocky and arrogant comes from a basis and foundation. And I find this type of main character refreshing unlike some sports anime. Although at first I was kind of irritated at him at times but you'll find yourself loving him along the journey. He is cocky but he admires those who passionately and seriously competes with him and is thankful to the people who has taught him along the way. And his motto "Mada mada dane" comes from a very humble and persevering meaning.

For the rest of the characters, I found myself liking the other Seigaku members first rather than liking Ryoma. And it's not bad. It just means there are so many variety of personalities that this show has to offer. The regular members' unique and likeable traits makes the show more interesting and appealing. While for the competitors, the majority would literally annoy or anger me but they have their own story. And I should thank them for spicing up the anime.

ENJOYMENT: 1000000/10 (lol I had to)
If only the score could exceed 10, I would give the enjoyment that I felt watching this anime more than 10. It was that good. Until the end, I enjoyed everyone's journey, especially Ryoma's. I thought I was never going to be immersed with his journey. I was curious but I was not that invested with Ryoma at first. But until at the end, his journey was what captured my heart with this series. Truly the prince of tennis.

OVERALL: 10/10

Let me take a guess, you're thinking: 'wow, an anime about tennis? really? I don't see how they can make this any good' and you click the 'next' button because hey, you have no interest in sports or tennis to be exact, why would you want to watch an anime about it? How can it be any interesting for you? Well Prince of Tennis happens to be much more than just about normal tennis anime, it has suspense, each new character comes with something new to the table of awesomenes, it is overall a very very well made anime (and manga) about a very unique ... topic, tennis, if you are looking to experience character growth, edge of your seat adrenaline and humour when it's not full on serious (sadaharus drinks!) then go and watch this anime! (romance not included, main character is oblivious)

Story:
Basicly, the main team seishun academy of tennis, goes around playing tennis tournaments, they build up and up in intensity and importance as the series goes on, we also become familiar with some other teams and get an insight of them such as hyotei. The story is not insanely complex, such as animes like neon genesis evangelon or anything, but it is intense such as a lot of the tennis matches are insanely close and the end of the match is unpredictable, it is not a 'good guy wins' type of anime so there is possibility for anything to happen.

Art: The art is decent for an anime made in 2001, it is very watchable art and definitely is not a set back on the anime.

Sound: The sound for the anime is good, you can hear the ball being hit clearly and on several occasions when something epic is happening the music is just as good, the anime has some pretty catchy openings you will find yourself humming to occasionally if you decide to pick this up.

Character: The characters, especially the characters of the main team, seishun academy are very relatable, they each have very unique traits and personality ranging from the slithery, timid and sensetive bandanna wearing kaido to the limitless, mysterious and relaxed fuji and many more, outside of the main team we also get to find out about other characters and their personality/backgrounds such as atobe from hyotei, every character is extremely unique and has something different going for them in tennis, this keeps the excitement going throughout the whole series as in every match there is something new to see and learn.

Enjoyment: Prince of Tennis is an incredibly enjoyable anime as it does not take much thinking to watch and you can just lay back and watch the action take place. There is never a dull moment in this anime as there is always so many mysterious faces showing up and there is always something interesting happening or building up to happen.

Overall: This anime is very enjoyable and incredibly unique in the sense that it uses tennis as its main theme which is not seen in any anime, you do not have to be a sport or tennis lover to really enjoy this anime as it can also relate to animes such as dragonball or yugioh in the sense that each character has a different sort of 'power' and is trying to defeat the other characters. I also recommend watching the prince of tennis movie which absolutely HILARIOUS after you have finished the anime (I will never get over how funny they made tezuka look in real life, lol)

The prince of tennis, I have probably rewatched all 176 episodes + the specials + the ovas + the movies maybe about 2-3x each ,

Echizen ryoma a first year highschool student first ever to become a regular on the tennis team faces many strong adversaries in the early episodes he says he hates tennis because he only wants to play it to finally beat someone , that someone is , someone close to him will not say for the people that have not seen this anime yet. Echizen ryoma has to play many strong opponents even people on his tennis team at school such ... as Tezuka, Fuji . The captain, and the legendary player with the 3 triple counters , ... For now.

You may also expierence things in tennis that can probably never happen. A lot of the moves that are done here are not things that someone can repeat just because of the over exaggeration towards it, but it works . its a well done story line in my oppinion. I enjoyed this .

Echizen becomes the pillar of support for the tennis team he is on, everyone has high hopes for him . as Echizen eventually leaves to the US to play in the US open, He comes back to play in the ........ Dont want to say exactly for those that have not seen this anime again.

Echizen's team goes towards a special Training camp to improve future superstars this is a great season to watch it has comedy and action and it just an enjoyable expierence


Story - 9 I say the story is magnificent this is one of the ONLY sports animes that i have been able to watch without wanting to kill myself over and over and over again. because this anime does have alot of fiction anime towards it it in total has over 200 episodes , but it is one of the better animes i have seen in the past couple of years.

Art - 7 The art for this anime isnt that greatest , But it is good for the YEAR it came out . alot of people complain about how the art isnt good. look at the year it came out before u make a judgement of how it should be drawn

Sound - 7 some of the characters may bother me quite a bit. and i quote " Dane , Dane, Dane Dane " This is an extra character towards the middle of the season !

Character - 10 I personally gave the characters a 10 just because it is not completly circled around just one character but they introduce alot of other characters also, and every character is amusing to watch and is very entertaining with a good back story to each and every one of them

Enjoyment - 10 I enjoyed this anime so much that i have rewatched it 2-3x Maybe a bit more, If this is your kind of genre and you have the patience to survive the first 10-14 episodes then enjoy the ride you will not regret it !

overall - This anime is one of the best animes i have seen i think it has an amazing story and a good plot to it, plus the ending gave me closure because the anime itself has finished to a place when i am content with it unlike so many animes that finish half way through.

Whenever i think great sports anime this is deffinetly the one that comes up. Prince of tennis might be long but the amount of rewatching i have had with it proves it atleast to me that its worth enjoying to its fullest

So why do i enjoy this relativ old anime. Well first Story centering around echizen Ryoma a tennis prodigy who just sticks out like something of that uniqness shown in old classics. As the story progress so does the character with the good flow of a great story. It makes tennis of course look more special that what it is in a sence but ... the way the creators have come up with sort of abilities that the tennis players have isnt unormal for a sports anime. Shooting a tennis ball hard enough to break a racket is it logicall not really but is it fun for the action of the anime hell yeah. through the story the creators have filled it with characters that either you will love or it will grind you the wrong way which is fun in one way. I think the first time i watched it was in one go and only few anime can do that to me. The story moves forward and rarely stops in a boring way. its stops are made for you to wait in anticipation of the next great match its stops makes you want to see what new moves are out there.

I loved the characters of this anime because there is always something that either makes them funny to watch or you look up to them as someone great. The interaction either in matches or just at school makes you want to follow them to the next stage and see how much they can improve. Specially the litlle samurai Echizen Ryoma whos mind is filled with tennis and only that and is oblivious to everything else then that. For once the cool and calculated character has gotten the main character role and that feels like a fresh breeze through the world of anime. The type of character he is normally gets casted so to speak in the supportive role but here he is the main character and he is the one that will prove his abilties against whatever opponents comes his way.

I rarely adress the art of an anime but this anime makes the art or drawing works so well with the plot and characters. The art is old but its that kinda of classical old that gives it a great feel to watch. Its nostalgic feeling is rare in many ways and you just get pulled in by it.

If you love sports anime this is one of those Must watch classics why because it gives you everything a sports anime needs. Great matches , great story , great characters and a music that keeps you on your toes through every match. This anime for me is one of those rare masterpieces that i cant come without because of how normal and yet so great it can be. So yes this anime gets its 10 because of how classical and great it is.