The Prince Of Tennis is a shonen sports manga written by Takeshi Konomi. Like most popular manga, an anime series has been released as well. Due to its popularity, the series developed into a media franchise, with musicals, video games, soundtracks, and etc. The orginal run was from July 1999 to March 2008 and from then on, it has turned into an anime, a live action movie, several musicals and an animated movie. To shorten the name fans have called it 'Tenipuri' or POT and the musicals are called Tenimyu. It was featured in Weekly Shōnen Jump and has 379 chapters in 42 volumes. From 2009 Takeshi Konomi released a sequel series: New Prince of Tennis. New Prince of Tennis is currently serialized in Jump Square and has released 70 chapters so far.
The story itself is about a 12-year old boy named Ryoma Echizen, who is a tennis genius. He has won 4 tournaments in the US and returned to his homeland in Japan to attend Seishun Academy and find out what tennis means to him.
Characters:
- Seigaku:
Seigaku is the school that the main character, Echizen Ryoma, goes to. It is famous for its tennis club, and was the alma mater of Japan's most famous tennis player, Echizen Nanjirō, the father of the protagonist. The school is in Tokyo. Seigaku is one of the few schools shown to have a high school division and a university division.
Echizen Ryoma
Echizen Ryoma is the main character in the story, he is the only freshman regular on the Seigaku Tennis team. His specialties include the Twist Serve and several drive volleys. He can also copy other moves from others that he's played. He also knows how to use all 3 of the Pinnacles., though he only activated Pinnacle of Perfection by accident and has yet to master it.
Tezuka Kunimitsu
Tezuka Kunimitsu is the current captain of the Seigaku tennis team. He is a stern but highly-respected leader. As a player, Tezuka is widely recognised as one of the best singles players and a "National level" player. Tezuka mostly plays singles though he once he played doubles with Inui against Shintenhoji during Nationals.
Fuji Shusuke
Fuji Shusuke is a calm and cheerful player, known widely as a tennis prodigy and Seigaku's No.2. Fuji usually plays singles, though he will sometimes play doubles with Kawamura or Kikumaru. Apart from his tennis skills, Fuji also possesses unique tastebuds: he enjoys wasabi sushi and Inui's juice. Fuji is also considered sadistic by some fans because he sometimes likes to play tricks on people . He ususally has his eyes closed and wears a smile unless he becomes serious about something. Never angered on his own behalf, Fuji is highly protective of his friends and younger brother Yuta, and the times he opens his eyes are usually associated with such incidents.
Oishi Shuichiro
Oishi Shuichiro is a vice-captain of Seigaku and close friend of Tezuka. Oishi specialises in doubles, pairing with Kikumaru to form the "Golden Pair", being the only middle schoolers to achieve Synchro in the original Prince of Tennis. He plays singles at school against other teammates during ranking matches, but never in actual tournaments. During the Senbatsu Training Camp , he played a doubles game with Shishido from Hyotei against Kikumaru and Shishido's doubles partner, Ōtori . In New Prince of Tennis, at the beginning of the U-17 Camp, Oishi was forced to play a singles game against partner Eiji. He has also played doubles with Rikkai's Niō.
Kikumaru Eiji
Kikumaru Eiji is a highly agile and flexible player. Specialises in doubles, forming Seigaku's "Golden Pair" with Oishi as well as playing with other team members like Momoshiro and Fuji on occasion. He played doubles once with Ryoma, when he got in a fight with Oishi. He is also shown to be fairly skillful at singles, playing against Higa Chuu's Kai in the Nationals arc for example, and successfully playing against partner Oishi at the U-17 Camp. Nonetheless, Eiji has mentioned that he prefers playing Doubles, finding Singles "too lonely", and remains primarily a Doubles Player. He has also played doubles with Hyotei's Ōtori and Oshitari. With Oishi, he is among the few middle schoolers to have achieved Synchro.
Kawamura Takashi
Kawamura Takashi is a skilled singles player who plays with pure power, he occasionally plays doubles with Fuji or Momoshiro. Aiming to be Japan's No. 1 "Power Player". Normally meek and shy, his personality changes dramatically when he holds a racket, going into burning mode. The son of a sushi chef, he usually treats his team members to unlimited sushi at his family restaurant as a reward for winning.
Inui Sadaharu
Inui Sadaharu is a highly intelligent player, Inui is known for gathering data about the team and their opponents, and takes charge of the team's training. He is skilled at both doubles and singles. A doubles champion in elementary school with close friend Yanagi , he focuses on singles in his first two years of Middle School, and was Seigaku's No.3 before Echizen's arrival. Inui now primarily plays doubles with Kaido, though he played Singles 3 against his old partner Yanagi during the Kanto tournament and with Tezuka during the Nationals semi-finals. Apart from collecting data on everyone, Inui also enjoys creating a series of supposedly beneficial health drinks and using them to motivate the team to train harder. These drinks strike fear in all characters in the Prince of Tennis universe.
Momoshiro Takeshi
Momoshiro Takeshi is known as the Seigaku's number one rascal. His specialties include the Dunk Smash and power moves, as well as faking out the opponents in doubles. He plays doubles with Eiji,Taka, Kaido, and on a rare occasion, Ryoma. He's good at both doubles and singles. He,Eiji, and Oishi form the "Golden Trio", referring to the occasion he substituted for the injured Oishi to play a successful doubles game with Eiji.
Kaido Kaoru
Kaido Kaoru is is originally known as playing singles, but on occasion, he plays doubles with Momoshiro or Inui. Notable moves include the Snake Shot and the Boomerang Snake. He has a devil mode, which has only been shown once when he, and Inui were going against Yanagi and Kirihara in the Nationals. Despite his scary appearance, he has a large soft-spot for animals, showing his kind nature.
Freshmen Trio
Freshmen Trio is a supporter team of seigaku tennis club, the members are: Horio Satoshi, Kachiro Kato, Mizuno Katsuo.
Echizen Nanjiro
Echizen Nanjiro is Ryoma's father, and was known as Samurai Nanjiro due to his invincible tennis skills during his professional career. His specialties included the "Nanjiro Zone," which is the completed version of the current captain Tezuka's Tezuka Zone, as well as discovering ambidextry that he calls "Nitoryu" by himself.
- Fudomine:
Fudomine Middle School is an unseeded and unknown public school with rumors of violence. It was originally unknown due to an unreasonable coach and a lazy set of senior regulars. The freshmen at Fudoumine were brutalized severely by the older tennis club members, while the coach ignored the mistreatment. Tachibana and the abused freshman attempted to rally together and form their own tennis club, but the coach and the other players found this idea absurd and tried to stop this from happening. When the coach allowed his older club members to attack Tachibana and the freshman, Tachibana snaps and attacks the coach. As a result, Fudoumine is pulled out of the Newcomers Tournament that occurred six months prior to the current year's District Tournamet. Tachibana and the others eventually reform the club, and in the series, upsets Kakinoki in the District tournament semifinals and Hyotei in the Prefectural quarterfinals. They go on to make it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Nationals before losing to Shitenhōji. Fudoumine's uniforms are black hooded jackets with the Fudoumine logo, black shirts, white shorts, and black warm-up pants.
Tachibana Kippei
Kippei Tachibana is a character in Prince of Tennis and the rival school Fudomine Middle School's charismatic captain and coach. He was the one who rebuilt the tennis team together with the younger players. During the later part of the series, it was discovered that he is 'the legendary' Tachibana Kippei who was considered one of the strongest players in Kyūshū region and is known as one of the Two Wings of Kyushu along with best friend Chitose Senri.
Ibu Shinji
Ibu Shinji is the renowned genius of Fudomine. He was able to defeat the star players of Tokyo-based schools which helped Fudomine Middle School reach the district finals. His Spot was responsible for Ryoma Echizen's accident during the game.
Kamio Akira
Kamio Akira is the 'speed ace' of Fudomine and the team's vice-captain. After his heartbreaking lost against Seishun Gakuen's Kaoru Kaidō, he decided to train harder, which led to his triumph against Yamabuki Middle School's Kiyosumi Sengoku. He is on somewhat in bad terms with Momoshiro Takeshi after the latter broke his bike when Momoshiro tried to catch a thief. He is jealous about Momoshiro Takeshi's relationship with Tachibana An, who he has a crush on.
Ishida Tetsu
Ishida Tetsu is the tallest member of Fudomine Middle School, and probably one of the strongest. He plays doubles with Masaya Sakurai and went up against Seishun Academy's Shūsuke Fuji-Takashi Kawamura pair. Being Ishida Gin's younger brother, he learned the Hadokyū from him, which initially put a very heavy strain on his arm.
Sakurai Masaya
Sakurai Masaya is Fudomine Middle School's doubles specialist. He has very keen insight and judgment, which has proven quite invaluable during matches. His special shot is a heavy topspin. He plays doubles with Ishida Tetsu and went up against Seishun Academy's Shūsuke Fuji/Takashi Kawamura pair.
Mori Tatsunori
Mori Tatsunori was one of the younger members of the Fudomine tennis club who were looked down upon, but later started a new tennis team after Tachibana Kippei's arrival to the school. With Uchimura , he played against the team of Oishi-Kikumaru at the Tokyo district preliminary. He has black hair with brown eyes. He also has a fair skin color. Most of the time he is seen wearing his Fudomine tennis uniform.
Uchimura Kyosuke
Uchimura Kyosuke is known as the Vanguard Killer or "The Front Killer" because Uchimura aims his shots at the front/net person's face. He and his doubles partner faced the Oishi-Kikumaru team at the Tokyo district preliminary. Uchimura wears a black cap. He has fair skin and black hair. Along with his black hair is his black eyes. He is always seen wearing the Fudoumine tennis uniform.
- St. Rudolph
St. Rudolph is a team that first appears in the Tokyo Prefectural Tournament Arc and faces Seishun in the quarterfinals. The school itself only recruits students who are gifted at tennis and they only practice together once a week. The team uniform is a white shirt with brown, brown shorts, and brown warm-up pants.
Mizuki Hajime
Mizuki Hajime is a brilliant tennis player who can map out a winning tennis match in his head that could guarantee high success rate if followed after studying enemy players, as well as knowing his team's capabilities. He also recruits talented tennis players for St.Rudolph considering how weak the team was and the only decent players were Yūta Fuji and Atsushi Kisarazu.He has vivid purple hair which he often twirls around his finger and brown eyes. In the anime he has dark blue/black hair, and dark blue eyes.
Fuji Yuta
Fuji Yuta is a second year student from St. Rudolph. As young children, Yūta was very close to his older brother, Shūsuke, since he would often protect Yūta from bullies. However, as they got older and Shūsuke became well-known, he became upset that he was always referred to as "Shūsuke's younger brother" than by his name. This drove him to leave Seigaku, transfer to St. Rudolph and become obsessed to defeating his brother in a match. Yūta has short brown hair and grey eyes. He has a scar on the right side of his forehead in the shape of a cross.
Akazawa Yoshiro
Akazawa Yoshiro is known to be a powerful and talented singles player. Despite being St.Rudolph's team captain, he does not exert a lot of influence and he usually leave the decision making skills to the team's manager, Hajime Mizuki. Akazawa has brown hair and brown eyes. He also has dark skin. Akazawa has a terrible temper, but regains his cool once he gets out of his system.
Kaneda Ichiro
Kaneda Ichiro is a regular in the St. Rudolph Team. Of the current regulars, Kaneda and his captain Akazawa Yoshiro are the only original St. Rudolph students. It is for this reason that Mizuki Hajime paired them up for doubles. Kaneda looks up to Akazawa. Thus, it took Kaneda a lot of courage to stand up against Akazawa the first time they played together. Kaneda is quite perceptive and a natural doubles player, being able to break through the Golden Pair's Australian Formation.
Yanagisawa Shinya
Yanagisawa Shinya is a regular in the St.Rudolph team. He has a habit of saying "dane" at the end of his sentence which began when he was two years old. He is actually unaware of this habit of his. Although Yanagisawa likes to taunt Yūta Fuji by calling him little brother, they actually have a pretty good relationship, hanging out together at the Kantō Tournament.
Kisarazu Atsushi
Kisarazu Atsushi is the one who plays doubles with Yanagisawa Shinya and is also a very talented tennis player. He used his feint technique, where in he acts as if he is going to miss a ball but in fact he can spin in the air and thus enabling him to hit it back. Atsushi was Mizuki Hajime's first recruit to St. Rudolph and previously attended Chiba's Rokkaku, where his older twin brother is a regular member. Originally, Mizuki intended to recruit Ryō but mistook Atsushi for Ryō and invited Atsushi instead. Because of this confusion, Mizuki personally cut Atsushi's long hair short and demanded that he wear a red headband.
- Yamabuki
Yamabuki is a national caliber team that bases their strategy on two National caliber doubles teams, supported by the National caliber Singles player Sengoku. They try to use those three weapons to defeat opponents before the matches get drawn out. When their strategy was foiled in the previous year by Seigaku's Tezuka defeating Sengoku, they recruited a second dominant singles player Jin Akutsu, with the aim to eliminate that weakness. Yamabuki's regular sports uniforms are green jackets with yellow stripes with hoods, shirts of the same design, white shorts, and green warm-up pants.
Akutsu Jin
Akutsu Jin is a player from Yamabuki Junior High, he's natural at tennis, never having to practice to reach his current level. His greatest asset is the ability to change his movements instantaneously. Unfortunately for Yamabuki, Akutsu quit his school tennis club following his defeat to Echizen Ryoma because he felt satisfied with tennis after their match. Akutsu is a smoker and his 33-year-old mother Yuuki had him when she was in her teens. Akutsu develops a rivalry with Echizen Ryoma, but later helps him develop his skills. Akutsu its is notably tall and muscular for a Middle Schooler. He has grayish-silvery hair that is pushed back in a wavy style. His eyes are sharp with smaller pupils than a majority of the characters and they are of an amber color. His skin color is also considerably pale. When he wears his tennis uniform the short sleeves up to reveal his forearms.
Sengoku Kiyosumi
Sengoku Kiyosumi is the pride of Yamabuki Middle School boy's tennis team. His innate talent in tennis allows him to be considered as one of the strongest and best players in the country. Sengoku believes that he is also very lucky, thus having the nickname "Lucky Sengoku". However his "luck" doesn't seem to work out well with girls. Sengoku has bright red hair and green eyes. In the anime he has bright orange hair and blue eyes.
Minami Kentaro
Minami Kentaro is the captain of the Yamabuki tennis club. He is a doubles player who typically plays with the vice-captain, Masami Higashikata. Together, they are known as the Jimmies, referring to jimi, the Japanese word for plain or dull. He's a fairly plain and average-looking player, adding to the Jimmie persona as a whole. His spiky hair that sticks out in all directions is likely the most prominent and notable feature on him.
Higashikata Masami
Higashikata Minami is the vice-captain of the Yamabuki Middle School tennis club. He is a doubles player who typically plays with the captain, Kentarou Minami. Together, they are known as the Jimmies, referring to jimi, the Japanese word for plain or dull. Masami has black hair with dark green eyes. He is always seen wearing his Yamabuki Tennis uniform.
Muromachi Toji
Muromachi Toji is referred to as Yamabuki's eternal secret weapon. Muromachi's level of play is arbitrary since he hasn't had much action on the court. It is at least clear that he is weaker than Kiyosumi Sengoku and Akutsu Jin, as he has always been relegated to the latter singles position when Yamabuki played important teams. He always wears sun glasses. He has dark black hair and appears wearing his Yamabuki Regulars Tennis Uniform.
Dan Taichi
Dan Taichi is Yamabuki's manager, he's contribution to the team is very significant, since he first worked as Yamabuki's manager. After learning from Seigaku's Echizen Ryoma that height isn't important in tennis, he decided to learn more about his play style and started working as a member of the team. He is well-known for being a nice kid and always says "-dadadadan!" when he gets excited. Dan wears a green head band in a similar fashion to Yukimura Seiichi, which sometimes will come down of on his face. Dan has navy blue hair and brown eyes. Similar to Ryoma, He is short as he is just a 1st Year.
- Hyotei
Hyotei is a private school located in the Tokyo prefecture. It's tennis team, Hyōtei Academy Secondary Department applies a strict stratification and merit system, which prioritizes ability only rather than emotion. If any regular loses a match, they are removed from their spot and only given a second chance in very rare conditions. The Hyōtei Tennis Club has over two hundred members. The team itself consists of eight regulars led by Atobe Keigo.
Atobe Keigo
Atobe Keigo is the captain of Hyōtei Gakuen, having defeated all of the members of the team during his first year. Along with Tezuka Kunimitsu of Seigaku, Tachibana Kippei of Fudomine, Sanada Genichirō and Yukimura Seiichi of Rikkaidai, Atobe is a "Zenkoku ku", which means a national level player. He defeated Seigaku's captain in his second year, a favor returned when Tezuka then beat Hyōtei's captain at the time. He is the son of a very rich family. He has rivalries with Tezuka, who he defeats in the Kantō Tournament, Sanada, who he comes close to defeating in a practice match before it is called off, and Ryoma, who defeats Atobe in the nationals. Hyōtei is one of the few schools in the series without a vice-captain, an indication of both Atobe's skill and leadership. There are several facts that may suggest Atobe is not entirely Japanese. He grew up overseas, attending primary school in Britain along with Kabaji. Aside from his tennis club captaincy, Atobe is also student body president. He enjoys all subjects, especially Greek, and is a fan of the poetry of Goethe and Homer. He also has an appreciation for classical composers such as Richard Wagner. Atobe has light brown hair and blue eyes while in the anime he has purple-black hair and onyx eyes.
Kabaji Munehiro
Kabaji Munehiro is the stamina house of Hyōtei Academy. He is known for his great speed and adaptability. He rarely speaks and answers Atobe's questions with only a "usu". Kabaji is the perhaps the tallest member of the Hyotei tennis club. He has slightly dark skin compared to his teammates. He has black hair with small spikes. He, like Tezuka, usually puts on a stoic expression on his face. He rarely speaks and answers Atobe's questions with only a "usu". However, Inui Sadaharu was able to distinguish the different meanings to his various grunts in tennis during his match against Kawamura Takashi during the Regional tournament.
Oshitari Yushi
Oshitari Yushi is the genius of Hyotei Academy and also know as "Man of 1000 Techniques". He can perform Higuma Otoshi (one of Shusuke Fuji's Triple Counters: Bear Drop) perfectly. Oshitari is originally from Kansai. He is a skilled musician and plays the violin, as shown in the Nationals. Oshitari is the cousin of Oshitari Kenya, who plays for Shitenhōji. As Fuji is the resident tensai and second strongest from Seigaku, the same can be said about Yushi for Hyotei. Yushi has long blue hair and wears glasses despite not needing them because he thinks they make him look smarter. He is also tall, significantly taller than Atobe. He, like many other characters, has brown eyes which are made blue-violet in the anime.
Mukahi Gakuto
Mukahi Gakuto is a doubles player who is typically paired up with Yūshi Oshitari; however when facing Seishun Academy at the Nationals, he is paired with Hiyoshi. Like Eiji Kikumaru used to have, he has a stamina problem so he prefers quick matches in which he overwhelms he opponent with moon volleys. He is exceptionally talented at acrobatic play and his acrobatic skills even exceed Eiji Kikumaru. Mukahi has short dark red hair in a style of a sharp bob cut. He is very slender and is not as tall as some of his teammates. He has a slight feminine appearance like a few other characters in the show. He has brown eyes like a majority of other characters, however, in the anime his eyes are often seen to be an indigo purple color.
Shishido Ryo
Shishido Ryo is the overconfident player of Hyōtei Academy, a 3rd Year Middle Schooler who is predominantly a doubles player, who began the storyline with being utterly defeated by Kippei Tachibana. This forced him to recreate his tennis style which proved to be a massive improvement to his game which enabled to re-earn his regular place which he previously lost from losing to Tachibana. Shishido used to have long brown hair tied at the back. However, since he was kicked off the Hyotei regulars and had to work back up the ranks, he proved his devotion by cutting off most of his hair. Like Ryoma and Sanada, Shishido wears a cap while playing tennis. His cap colour is blue, and he wears it backwards. He has a round face with a pointy chin. He also has a band-aid above his left eye-brow. He has brown eyes like a majority of other characters; however, in the anime his eyes are sometimes also seen to be a dark purple.
Otori Chotaro
Otori Chotaro is the doubles one player for Hyotei Academy. His partner was originally Shishido Ryō, then switched to Taki Haginosuke, and back. He also plays the piano and has been best friends with Hiyoshi Wakashi since elementary school. Chotaro is very tall despite being a junior. He has short silvery-grey hair and brown eyes. His signature item is his silver cross necklace.
Akutagawa Jiro
Akutagawa Jiro is always seen napping, one should not be fooled by his appearance. At the Tokyo Prefectural Tournament, he defeated Fuji Yūta in less than 15 minutes. Jirō only perks up when he is playing against a challenging opponent. So far this has happened a few times, including matches with Atobe Keigo, Marui Bunta and Fuji Shūsuke. He is regularly awakened by Kabaji under Atobe's orders since he sleeps moments before his own match. Jiro is usually half asleep. He has messy blonde hair (orange in the anime) which goes past chin-length. He has brown eyes. He is Hyotei's No.2 player.
Hiyoshi Wakashi
Hiyoshi Wakashi is a 2nd year from Hyōtei Academy whose favorite saying is "Gekokujo," which means to out do and/or surpass a senpai or upperclassman. He proved to be capable of living the phrase to its fullest. He is a strong player who specializes in "Enbu Tennis". It is confirmed by Keigo Atobe that he is to be the new captain of the tennis team once the 3rd years have graduated during their match at the U-17 camp. His childhood friend is Chōtarō Ootori. Hiyoshi is the only character known to wear contact lenses. Hiyoshi has grey eyes and relatively layered orange-light brown hair. His hair covers most of his forehead. He, like Shishido, has a pointy chin.
Taki Haginosuke
Taki Haginosuke was a regular on Hyotei's tennis team until he lost to Shishido Ryō and was replaced by Hiyoshi Wakashi.Taki was Chōtarō Ōtori's former doubles partner. He was dismissed from the regular lineup by Advisor Taro Sakaki days before the Kantou Tournament after losing horribly to a much improved Shishido, who at that time had been dropped from the regular. Taki was present when the team paid an unofficial visit to the street tennis courts to taunt Momoshiro Takeshi and An Tachibana. Taki is always seen with his team during the Hyotei games. Taki has chestnut brown hair that reaches the bottom of his ears. He has a frail frame that, along with his hair, gives him an effeminate appearance.
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