Prince of Tennis

[M'k'n'zy]

As a show I actually enjoy Prince of Tennis. I have a lot of fun watching it.

[Don]

Well Prince of Tennis certainly has its entertainment value since it's basically Dragonball with tennis. But most fans of the series see it far beyond as a silly show about people who have DBZ-like powers while playing tennis.

[M'k'n'zy]

I just enjoy it because there are a ton of major characters that all get at least some degree of development. Also because most of the shots that get hit are actually real shots that you can hit in tennis.

[Don]

Errr, Ryoma's Cool Drive? The laser serve? The battou serve (Wind) or the Fire smash? Or how about the latest one, the Big Bang serve? There's this return that paralyzes the opponent too! The whole null state thing that Ryoma does is basically Super Saiyan.

[M'k'n'zy]

I am not saying that EVERY move is real, but a lot of them, like the Twist Serve, the Snake, Tezuka's Drop Shot, Spot, and several others, are all real moves you see in tennis. Also I dont understand Japanese well enough to watch the episodes raw, so I am only on episode 132 if I remember correctly.

[Don]

The series gets increasing out of touch with reality as it goes on. Of course, it's not like the draw of the series ever had anything to do with realism. When they start playing against the Japanese championship team you'll start seeing some really crazy things. Anime is a bit different from the manga, since the final match wasn't done in manga when the anime got there so they invented their own moves, like the invisible serve and the tornado smash, but both are equally unrealistic.

[M'k'n'zy]

I have seen that match. I thought it was fun to watch myself. As I said though, for me the main draw of the series is the characters themselves. I think they are interesting and its neat seeing them all getting development. I just wish that Jin Akatsu (sp?) would come back again ^_^

Sience you seem to know more about the manga side however, I would like to ask, is this whole International Junior Tournament actually in the manga? Or is it just filler to let the manga get ahead again?

[Don]

Just filler stuff, in the manga they're now moving to the Japanese national tournament. Presumably Souchiro (vice captain who lost to Ryoma) or whatever his name was is going to power up more than just on the match point. I started reading right around when they were playing the Japanese championship team, and if you reverse extrapolate it, it'd make sense that back in the past things probably weren't as crazy as they are now.

[M'k'n'zy]

That is defidently true. Oh well, for filler it's not been a bad story arc so far. It lets us see some match ups that we would never have seen otherwise.

[Agent 57]

I know this is kind of random, but all the talk about this "Prince of Tennis" show reminds me of "The Ping Pong Club".

Which had virtually nothing to do with actual ping-pong, but it was hilarious nonetheless.

[M'k'n'zy]

Hehe I have heard of that show, but haven't had to actually sit through it yet. What i have seen of it in AMV's has scared me badly tho ^_^

[Don]

Most sports manga/anime have very little to do with the sport they're talking about in the first place. Most sports stuff is more like Dragonball than anything else really (train harder to fight even better players).

Slam Dunk is the only one I've seen where not only stuff people do is actually pretty realistic, but not every game is decided on the last shot!

[Agent 57]

Oh, it's scarring. Warped. Perverted. Completely out of its goddamned mind.

And thus, no true anime fan should miss it.

Plus, it had a really catchy theme song.

[M'k'n'zy]

OK, I guess I will have to try to get my hands on it, it cant be worse than Colorful.

Don I agree with you about the sports manga/anime not really being about their respective sports. In reality then big draw for a lot of them are the varied characters. I mean granted, tennis fans are more likely to enjoy Prince of Tennis, racing fans more likely to enjoy Inital D, and basketball fans more likely to like Slam Dunk. However by making interesting characters they broaden the appeal to people who dont really like the sport in question.