Viz Media
Prince Of Tennis: Box Set 1
$29.99
$41.99
When 12-year-old tennis prodigy Ryoma Echizen, the hero of the shonen (boys') sports series The Prince of Tennis (2001), enters Seinan Academy Middle School, the tennis coach, the members of the team, and the kids in his class are all intrigued. Many of the early episodes follow a formula: an arrogant bully challenges "the kid" to a match and Ryoma beats the shorts off him. Ryoma's response to these challenges is an intense glare; he rarely talks to his rivals--or anyone else. He hurts the well-intentioned Sakuno because he repeats fails to remember her. While a self-contained stoicism characterizes many anime heroes, Ryoma is a difficult character to know or like. Things become more interesting when his icy façade cracks, enabling him to forge an alliance with teammate Takeshi Momoshiro in a doubles match. Ryoma also has a difficult relationship with his father Nanjiro, a former tennis pro once known as "the Samurai." A goofy monk who spends his time reading girlie magazines and playing with his cat, Nanjiro refers to Ryoma as "that cocky, rotten boy of mine." Director Takayuki Hamana uses split-screen, multiple images, negative color, and manga-style drawings to enliven the inevitably repetitious scenes of tennis games. Based on the long-running manga by Takeshi Konomi, The Prince of Tennis scored a big hit in Japan: the broadcast series ran for 178 episodes and spun off two OAVs and two features, so this 13-episode set is only the beginning.
