4/28/2006

The Prince of Tennis (テニスの王子様, Tennis no Ōjisama) 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 Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan, and is published in English in North America by VIZ Media. The anime showed its final episode in 2005 on TV Tokyo in Japan, though supposedly another 15 episodes worth are in the works, set to pick up where the original series left off. . The series has also produced a half-hour weekly radio show, over 100 music CDs, several games, multiple live-action musicals and a large selection of merchandise, and a live-action movie is also planned for 2006.

The manga is primarily set in Tokyo. Ryoma Echizen, a tennis prodigy, attends Seishun Academy Middle School, or Seigaku, in short, a school famous for its strong tennis club and talented players. Ryoma quickly defeats numerous upperclassmen shortly after entrance to secure himself a spot on the regulars team. In pursuit of their ultimate goal of winning the all-Japan junior high tennis championship, members of the team make new friends while learning and mastering increasingly complex techniques.

Even if you don’t like tennis, this manga is really interesting. Maybe it’ll even make you want to play - I got into Go from reading Hikaru no Go, after all!

Links:

Official Site
TV Tokyo Site
Shounen Jump Site
Prince of Tennis Domain (Fansite)

Source:

Wikipedia