While I had no chance to write any blogs, I have continued to watch anime and manga. One anime series that has kept me surprisingly hooked for a long time is "Prince of Tennis".
This started when I wanted to try out a few shonen series. I did not seriously expect much, but you never know so I thought instead of carrying a prejudice against them about with me for the rest of my life I should rather just go and read a couple. I bought the first 8 or so volumes of the manga series at ebay and started reading. Nobody was more surprised than myself that I really enjoyed it - my belly hurt so much from laughing. Prince of Tennis is hilarious. Entertaining. Exciting. Inspiring. And simply lots of fun. Later I gave up on the mangas and simply watched the anime instead - and this is a case where I seriously even prefer the anime to the manga. Sports just come across a lot better in motion.
Sports?
Well, Prince of Tennis is - don't be shocked - about Tennis. Basically it follows a middle school boy named Echizen Ryouma, who as the promising son of a former pro tennis player more or less grew up playing tennis and does not do much apart from swinging the racket back and forth. He lives with his parents, cousin and cat. And his father registered him at Seigaku Middle school, where he himself was training once. Ryouma becomes the first first-year student of the Seigaku to enter the schools team of regular players. Together as a team they want to win the national championship.
The AMV I have selected above for you gives a glimpse of the story and how the anime is made and shows some of my favourite characters
Surprisingly the anime is really mostly about tennis. There is the odd episode in between that covers a bit of personal stuff. Or the odd chibi episode. But mostly it is about two (or in case of doubles four) guys playing tennis.
Now, I have taken a class of tennis at university sports about 230 years ago. I wouldn't say that I can play, but I staggered over a court, played balls into the net or the out-area and learned the basic rules. I wasn't good, but it was fun. What is not fun - to me at least - is watching other people play tennis. I fail to see the point of watching tennis matches in TV or elsewhere. The constant plop... plop... sound and the lemming-like turning of heads to the left ... to the right ...to the left is just so ... boring. But not in an anime! Watching Ryouma and friends play tennis was exciting. Would he be able to return the smash? Was the injury too bad to continue playing? Who would win? I was really absolutely into it.
But not only the sportive excitement makes this anime a success. There's also the characters. You get to know Ryouma and his fellow team-mates very well over the time of 178 (!) episodes ( plus some specials). Each player has his own style, his own repertoire of tennis tricks, his own character. There is Ryouma. Shortie, youngest in the team, rookie. He shows no respect towards anyone, unless they earn it the hard way. He seems cold and detached, but isn't. There are his friends and team-mates Momoshiro, Kaidou, Fuji, Tezuka, Inu, Oishi, Kawamura and Kikimaru. And there are also many other teams and their numerous members - friend and foe alike.
I want to introduce you to my favourite Prince of Tennis characters.
Echizen Ryouma - the prince himself. The main hero. He's such a cheeky little punk with no respect but plenty of attitude - you just have to admire him.
Ibu Shinji - Ibu is one of Ryoumas first opponents, there is some rivalry amongst them, but also understanding. What I like about Ibu, apart from the half long black hair is mostly his character. He is an even more reserved character than Ryouma. He's also a muttering guy. Always quietly muttering some things to himself. I just love this kind of weirdness.
Sanada Genichirou - another opponent of Ryouma, but much later and the first guy to seriously crack Ryoumas cool exterior - but not for long. Another cool guy, relatively quiet, but out of self-assurance not lack there-of.
Atobe Keigo - Now HE is anything but reserved. How much so you can deduct from his favourite saying "Beware of my prowess!". Atobe comes from a unbelievably wealthy background, complete with butler bringing him his racket and everything. He's arrogant - unbelievably vain. And very entertaining.
Even my children have started to get into "Prince of Tennis" - totally ignoring the fact that they don't understand Japanese and can't read the english subtitles. My son has become a big admirer of Kikimaru Eiji - to the point of where he wanted to die his hair red and was running around with an elastoplast on his cheek. I believe that is mostly because Kikimaru plays athletic tennis with lots of daring jumps and sommersaults - to be athletic and flexible like this equals true greatness in my sons eyes.
Yaoi? Are you kidding me? This is a boys' tennis club. Plenty of young men getting sweaty together ... of course Yaoi fans have long ago claimed the Prince of Tennis guys for their perverted fantasies. There's lots of stuff out there. Fan stories. Doujinshi mangas and fanart.
Just to prove my case:
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