Tennis no Ouji-sama - Anime - AniDB (2024)

Note: This review is based on all Prince of Tennis series, starting from this first installment to the last OVA of the nationals. Most of the episodes are based on A-O fansubs, which, unfortunately, are both low quality and translation wise. Though they do translate most of the stuff correctly, there are quite a few translation errors which don't go along with what the character is really saying whatsoever. However, since they are the only ones who managed to sub this long anime, I guess, there is little choice, but to go with them. Beggars can't be choosers after all.

Originally written as manga by Konomi Takeshi and directed by Hamana Takayuki (Sisters of Wellber) Prince of Tennis is an anime about young tennis prodigy Ryoma Echizen. Having a father who is known as legendary tennis player who managed to conquer the world tennis scene, Ryoma's main goal in life is to beat and surpass his father, hence becoming the best tennis player in world's history. So starts this show, as twelve years old Ryoma Echizen, together with his teammates from Seishun academy, embarks on a quest to conquer Japan's middle school tennis scene.

Unfortunately, apart from the author's obvious love to tennis, I couldn't feel anything else from this show. We have tennis matches, we have a zillion of fillers and we have static characters who, at best, can do some stand-up comedy to lighten the mood. However, we have no philosophies, no ideas, even the most basic ones, like hard work and friendship, seemingly managed to avoid this show. Well, yes, there are some characters who work hard, but its always taken as an obvious fact without any real approach to the idea itself, not like I'm not tired from all that hard-work is beautiful stuff. Either way, this is a show about tennis, for people who are interested in tennis, well, and for children who have too much free time, so if you are neither, you might not want to touch Prince of Tennis.

Animation: 4/10

Meh, animation by Trans Arts Co. (Itazurana Kiss) seriously leaves a lot to be desired. Backgrounds are bland and boring, only the most important stuff like houses and streets are painted, so you will never have a chance to indulge in detailed art pleasures. The bright color palette when combined with overall bland backgrounds makes this show look somewhat cartoonish. Either way, during the matches, when characters run a lot, there are many cases when backgrounds disappear completely and you have you characters running on those weird one-color frames.

Character designs, though originally pretty well done, as everyone of the main cast looks distinctive and have a look that answers to their personality, you soon get disappointed by the damn deformations which linger around every corner. In one scene your characters look all cool and stuff, and in the next you see those deformed lumps of flesh which barely resemble them. On the other hand, the original design isn't detailed or overly cool either, but, well, good enough for tennis I guess.

Prince of Tennis can't brag for having vivid fluidity either. Characters look weird when they walk (especially at the beginning of the show), they look weird when they run, and, well, whatever, you can easily notice skipped frames all the time. Only the tennis ball moves pretty well, moving round objects is easier than humans after all. I just wish I understood how was that Eiji's playing style acrobatics, since all I could see were still frames of him hitting the ball in weird stances.

Finally, direction is not special either. You usually have everything show as given, characters are taken close-up when they talk, matches are shown in a realistic way, well, I guess its not easy to find artsy stuff in tennis. Though there are some cool animations of tennis techniques involving pillar of fires and hurricanes in the later episodes of the show and the OVAs.

Sound 4/10

Prince of Tennis falls into the same pit with sound as it does with animation. Sound effects are barely notable, though they do succeed in making tennis matches realistic. However, music by Watanabe Cheru, who is not known for any significant work in anime scene, is, well, unsatisfying. Background music is what makes half of the anime which concentrates on sport cool and Prince of Tennis fails at that half. You'd think there are many different themes in a show 178 episodes long and you'd be wrong. From episode one to the last episode of the nationals OVA you hear same below average tracks over and over. I'm not even talking about the bland music which is played during the fillers, as the music during matches is simplistic and gets extremely boring fast. Though there were a few themes which I found fun to listen to and they did lighten the matches a little when they were first played, I soon started to ignore them after being forced to listen to them for a hundred times in every single episode. Music is partly to blame why those long tennis matches get boring after awhile. Unlike in other sport shows like Hajime no Ippo or Initial D music doesn't make you observe the most boring repetitive scene while burning with passion and zeal. Music and direction made placing little stones on a board exciting in Hikaru no Go, but it failed to make tennis exciting here. Opening and ending songs follow the same path as background music and succeed at being just as boring and bland.

Seiyuu don't shine either. Though the overall cast is pretty good, for some reason, none of the main voice-actors are distinguishable. Minagawa Junko was probably the best with her role as Ryoma Echizen, but I didn't really find her voice too special. Also, most of the nameless characters in audience who work as a "wow this move is cool factor are voiced by the same few voice actors all the time, one of who Masaka Onosaya has one of the main characters roles as well, so I was always feeling weird when those nameless characters would speak using the voice of that main guy. Also, he is much better at doing comedy roles. Anyway, voice acting is average for the most part, little to commend, little to reprove.

Story: 3/10

Finally, the weakest part of Prince of Tennis - the plot. Unlike many sport anime which not only manage to make the sport they are about look awesome, but succeed at making 'training' episodes before the matches interesting, Prince of Tennis is only fun during tennis matches and mostly at the beginning. The problem lies with the tremendous amounts of fillers this show packs, and, believe me, those fillers are damn boring. It took me eighty episodes to finally start skipping those damn things completely as I really couldn't bear with all the pointless crap this show was throwing at me. Anyway, another problem is with the matches, most of them are long, they take three to four episodes, that wouldn't be that bad if those matches were distinctive from one another. After having watched around hundred of episodes I could already guess more than 90% of what is going to happen in the next match without watching. The good guys always win, it's always a comeback and besides a few cool impossible in reality shots all you get is them running hitting the damn ball and then crying in victory. Such slow pace and lack of dramatic moments seriously made this show hard to watch. Out of hundred or so, I've only managed to get emotional in two matches in this show and those were quite early, around episode fifty or something, a rare case when both opponents had a personality and the match wasn't just hitting the ball around. It got slightly better in the Nationals OVAs, when the characters started using all those anime techniques like tornado, hurricanes and big bangs, blowing the stage apart, but it was still boring most of the time.

Well, at least this show has an ending, so it was nice to see a sports anime to go to the very end for a change. However, if you are not a tennis fan I doubt you yourself will manage to go to the very end, as, darn, is it boring at times.

Characters: 4/10

At first sight characters look cool and with lots of potential and I did believe in them. Did believe in them until around episode sixty when I've finally noticed that none of them develops ever. Okay, sometimes it's cool to have static characters, as long as they kick ass and manage to be interesting without evolving it's good. Unfortunately, the cast of Prince of Tennis is not cool enough to remain interesting without growing a little bit for two hundred episodes. Arrogant Echizen is just as arrogant in the first episode as he is in the last episode of the nationals, same with all the others. Though Tezuka and Fuji did remain interesting for a longer time than other characters, due to their mysterious nature, I soon discarded them as well after realizing they are empty behind that mysteriousness. What's even worse is that all of the characters are completely one dimensional. Three words are more than enough to describe any of their personalities. They have no hidden face, they don't evolve, they are always the same, and even though at first they appear attractive, after dozens of episodes and no changes they become more and more boring, up until you start hating them. It sucks the author didn't put a single drop of effort into constructing his characters.

Side characters side is even worse than the main cast, there are those kids which comment on everything what is going on the match, but for the most part all they succeed at is being annoying. There are some girls, who up until the very end don't fulfill any useful purpose, not a speck of romance here. There are many tennis opponents, most of who are generic, without background. Those get discarded soon after they lose in the match. On the other hand there are some guys who are given a personality and a slightly distinctive character design. Those guys, though rarely invoking emotion, appear in fillers from time to time after losing their matches. Of course, just as the main cast, they never evolve or go behind one dimension personality. Finally, there are some characters, like that girl who lives with Echizen's father, the viewer never learns anything about. Who is she? Why does she live there? What is her purpose in this show? I don't understand why did they even put her into the show if they didn't bother to explain the reason behind her existence.

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:

Value: 2/10

I was skipping episodes the first time around, I can't imagine a case when I would want to re-watch this anime again. This show doesn't even have cool show offs, even though its the basic of basics in a sports anime. Bleh, sure wasted lots of time on this anime.

1. Conclusion: As long as you are not a Tennis fan, I'd recommend to completely ignore Prince of Tennis' existence, it's simply not good. If you want a cool sports anime, check Hajime no Ippo it might as well be the best sports anime ever. Other plausible sport shows I've watched are Initial D and Slam Dunk so pick those if you want. No matter how much do you like sports inspired anime, you will get bored with Prince of Tennis sooner or later.