Shin Tennis no Oujisama: U-17 World Cup

If Haikyuu is the most grounded sports anime, Prince of Tennis is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and I think that it carries its own charm. You have people doing backflips while hitting the ball, people creating gravity wells on the court, people using execution techniques and applying it to their tennis shots, there really is no end to it. Every episode I found myself grinning ear to ear at the sheer ridiculousness of the "tennis" on display. Add to that a lovable cast of characters and you have yourself a winning formula. Even as a longtime tennis ... player, I found myself totally enamored with this show. I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun sports anime that casts aside all pretext of realism and takes it to the extreme.

This is not an anime if you actually like tennis. This is an anime if you want to watch crazy shit happen and cool effects. Think of this like Dream Sports from Mario & Sonic Olympics. It's not really the about the original sport. It's about having an excuse to fire off 10 tennis balls in one shot or create black holes on the court. For people that like high paced action like that, then Prince of Tennis does that with a side of backstory.

Most of the time in Prince of Tennis you're getting people's faces smashed in with tennis balls or someone is making ... up some insane trick shot. But when push comes to shove, when it comes down to the wire, you get to learn about people's origins, their motivation for winning. And that's when their personalities manifest themselves on the tennis court.

If you're the kind of person whose going to complain because 2 middle schoolers are rallying with 10 tennis balls, then this is not the anime for you. But if you like flashy, high octane battles, you will like the show. Prince of Tennis doesn't try to be the perfect show, but the areas it does well, it does so with meaning.