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 well, outdated.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."
