The Prince of Tennis
The Prince of Tennis is one of the most popular manga and anime titles in Japan. It is written by Takeshi Konomi, who has also written a manga called Cool. The manga is published in Weekly Shonen Jump, and is published in English by Viz.
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2 Seigaku Tennis Club Regulars 3 Minor Characters 4 TV Show 5 Impact 6 External Links |
This sports manga takes place in Tokyo. Ryoma Echizen, who is a prodigy in tennis, goes to a school called Seigaku青学 (short for Seishun Gakuen Middle School 青春学園) a school famous for its strong tennis club and talented players. Because of his cool and apathetic attitude, upperclassmen challenge him to play tennis. However, Ryoma had won the American junior tennis championship tournaments four times in a row, and easily defeated the upperclassmen.
Making new friends and learning new tennis tactics, Ryoma and the Seigaku tennis club strive to win the All-Japan junior high tennis team championship tournament.
; Ryuuzaki Sumire : Coach of Seigaku's tennis club.
; Arai Masashi : Junior in Seigaku's tennis club who will probably end up a Regular his senior year.
; Horio Satoshi : Know-it-all freshman in the tennis club with "two years of tennis experience". Main purpose for comic relief.
; Katou Kachirou : Freshman in tennis club who is a voice of reason for Horio.
; Karupin : The Echizens' cat.
; Mizuno Kashio : Basically the same as Kachirou, but Kashio is not featured as much.
; Ryuuzaki Sakuno : Coach's granddaughter and Freshman who clearly has a crush on Ryoma Echizen.
; Osakada Tomoka : Freshman who is Sakuno's best friend. Also is president of the Ryoma Echizen Fanclub.
; Echizen Nanjiroh : Ryoma's father and former tennis pro. Is currently a monk.
; Nanako : Echizen's cousin who lives with Ryoma and his father.
; Inoue Mamoru : Reporter for Monthly Tennis magazine who follows the Seigaku team.
; Shiba Saori : Photographer for Monthly Tennis who follows the team with Inoue.
The television program The Prince of Tennis is slightly different from the Manga version. While most of the story and characters such as Ryoma Echizen, Takeshi Momoshiro, Syusuke Fuji, etc. are the same, there are small story-changes in the animated version because because the author, Mr. Konomi, thought it would be too boring to read what fans have already watched.
For example, table tennis scenes exist in the TV version, but not in the manga.
There are over 150 episodes today.
It is on TV Tokyo every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Interest in tennis in Japan had been decreasing due to the lack of a strong player, but thanks to the Prince of Tennis, tennis is making a comeback in Japan. It is said that the over thirty thousand people who were influenced by the manga had started tennis. The JTA (Japanese Tennis Association) has accepted Ryoma Echizen as a formal image character of the organisation.Plot
Seigaku Tennis Club Regulars
Minor Characters
TV Show
Impact