Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
The Prince of Tennis
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. The anime airs on TV Tokyo in Japan.
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Plot
This sports manga takes place in Tokyo. Ryoma Echizen, who is a prodigy in tennis, goes to a school called Seishun Academy Middle School (青春学園 Seishun Gakuen), or Seigaku (青学) in short, 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.
Seigaku Tennis Club Regulars
- Ryoma Echizen
- Kunimitsu Tezuka
- Shuichiro Oishi
- Shusuke Fuji
- Eiji Kikumaru
- Takashi Kawamura
- Sadaharu Inui
- Takeshi Momoshiro
- Kaoru Kaido
Notable Rival Schools
- Fudoumine Chuu
- St. Rudolph Gakuen
- Yamabuki
- Hyoutei Gakuen
- Midoriyama
- Jyousei Shonan
- Rokkaku Chuu
- Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku
Others
- U.S. West Coast Team
Minor Characters
Names are in English order, with the surname after the given name.
- Sumire Ryuzaki (竜崎スミレ Ryūzaki Sumire): Coach of Seigaku's tennis club.
- Masashi Arai : Junior in Seigaku's tennis club who will probably end up a Regular his senior year.
- Satoshi Horio : Know-it-all freshman in the tennis club with "two years of tennis experience". Main purpose for comic relief.
- Kachiro Kato (Katō Kachirō): Freshman in tennis club who is a voice of reason for Horio.
- Karupin : The Echizens' cat.
- Kashio Mizuno : Basically the same as Kachiro, but Kashio is not featured as much.
- Sakuno Ryuzaki (竜崎桜乃 Ryūzaki Sakuno) : Coach's granddaughter and Freshman who clearly has a crush on Ryoma Echizen.
- Tomoka Osakada : Freshman who is Sakuno's best friend. Also is president of the Ryoma Echizen Fanclub.
- Nanjiro Echizen (越前 南次郎 Echizen Nanjirō): Ryoma's father and former tennis pro. Nanjiro currently a monk. His name is spelled Nanjiro Echizen in the English manga and Nanjirou Echizen in Roman characters in the Japanese version of the anime.
- Nanako : Echizen's cousin who lives with Ryoma and his father.
- Mamoru Inoue : Reporter for Monthly Tennis magazine who follows the Seigaku team.
- Saori Shiba : Photographer for Monthly Tennis who follows the team with Inoue.
TV Show
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, Shusuke Fuji, etc. are the same, there are small story-changes in the animated version because because the author, Takeshi 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 currently more than 170 episodes.
It is on TV Tokyo every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Impact
Interest in tennis in Japan had been decreasing over the years 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.
External links
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