New Prince of Tennis – First Impressions

HOT GUYS!!! …and tennis sometimes, kinda-sorta.

Wooooo, it’s finally here! Oh how I’ve waited for this new season to come XD You have no idea how excited I am for this series and you probably will never really know. I will try to control my inner fangirl when watching this…

Don’t like tennis? That’s okay, because this show will make you like tennis. Sports anime can be about something you have no interest in like Go or Football, and they can still end up amazing. After reading the first series, I forced all my friends on the tennis team to teach me to play tennis. Fun times. I’m sure tenipuri will convince you that tennis is fun too! Or at least distract you with hot guys so much that you’re tricked into thinking so!

Overcooled: After season 1, Ryoma goes to America to do some intense training while most of his former teammates remain in Japan. However, he’s returning to Japan, envelope in hand and swagger set to “max” for some sort of training camp. However, he seems to be rather late compared to his former teammates who arrive right on time. The training camp in question is a very prestigious facility that takes boys under the age of 17 (hence, U-17) and puts them through a grueling training regime. They never used to accept middle schoolers such as the Seigaku team, but this year they decided to take a chance and let them in.

Right away, the entire team is mocked by the high schoolers for trying to “play with the big boys.” They challenge them to hit tin cans on a court with only a limited number of serves. Now, this wouldn’t be a very good show if this was a legitimate challenge, would it? Obviously, they all breeze through the little challenge. For the audience and the creepy men watching them on surveillance camera (uh-oh), this is a good refresher course for everyone’s specific techniques as well as their personality. If you are to take away one thing from this display of skill, just know that Tezuka is so badass he makes physics and gravity his personal bitch.

Ugh, I hate this TV, it only shows one channel and it’s just sweaty dudes hitting balls. Hasn’t the repair man come yet?

Now that the trashy highschoolers are out of the way, Seigaku can admire the huge tennis court complex where hundreds of boys are playing. All of the highschoolers seem to enjoy gossiping about how the middle schoolers will drop out from the pressure of it all, but they don’t seem to realize just how skilled these kids are. After moping about how Ryoma isn’t there to join them, there is a sudden announcement that it wasn’t just Seigaku who was invited to U-17…but 50 other middle schoolers. The second surprise of the day is that they arranged for an airplane to drop 250 balls onto the courts, deciding that only those who survive the impact of a tennis ball plummeting from the stratosphere into their skulls can stay at the camp. If they survive the impact, they just have to grab onto a ball and their spot is secured. There’s 250 balls and over 300 boys, so things are going to get ugly.

Oh my God, I am writing about a writhing pit of bishies crawling over each other to try and grab balls, where has my blogging career taken me? (Lies, I’m enjoying this) Anyways, all of the middle schoolers must have also been pushed off that airplane because they suddenly all materialize and start grabbing balls. Remember that one character from season 1? Yeah, they’re probably here. Not only that, they all get a ball no problem. Even Ryoma who is the last one there gets a ball before the high schoolers do.

The older kids get pissed since they feel entitled to be there, so they try and challenge all the middle schoolers with tennis balls to a match. I don’t know why you’d bother risking your spot just to entertain some douche, but for some reason (IT’S A SHOUNEN ANIME! NEVER BACK DOWN! GUTS! BURNING!) they agree. Now it’s time to remind everyone the abilities of every single two-bit character ever encountered in this crazy, bishounen-filled franchise. In case you forgot, they are OP and destroy all the high schoolers without a hitch. Ryoma especially toys with a hot-headed high schooler by copying all of his volleys and then copying his special “Magnum Serve” to win the match by socking him in the face with the ball.

1…2..3…Say it with me! “Mada mada da ne.” Now one more time with more scorn and condescendance!

Three of the top tennis players in the U-17 training camp come by to stop the matches, since they’re pointless. The only matches allowed are the scheduled shuffle matches which determine who will move up a court number based on skills and who they win against. If you start off in a low court and beat someone higher than you…you’re promoted! Lose to someone in a lower court (or maybe just, in general, to anyone) and you’re demoted to a lower court. Obviously, you want to be in a high numbered court like the 3 new characters here: Fluffehgane, Rooste, and The Glare Machine. Ryoma is particularly intimidated by The Glare Machine, who is ranked number one in the camp. The match-ups start next week so everybody better get ready!

No More Bad Ball Jokes, I Promise:

EIJI, STOP FLIRTING WITH INANIMATE OBJECTS!

Yo, yo, check it out. The name’s Wispy Brows and this is my homie, TJ Stubble. We da pimps of tennis, fo real.

Awww, I missed you guys! Except the ugly ones. :3

One’s friendship is only as strong as a good chokehold and a chop to the head

End Thoughts:

First off, I’d like to say how much I failed at controlling my inner fangirl on this one. I think that I squealed a few times… or maybe a lot but you’ll never witness such events from me for reals. This is probably why I cannot blog this anime series. :3 But yeah, how about that show of events? The whole episode was so TeniPuri like. I mean, it’s so cool that this series will focus on the competition for who will be selected for the under 17 league. It’s also good to hear that the same seiyuu cast is being used in this one, like the seiyuu of Echizen Ryouma is still Minagawa Junko and man there’s a big cast to this.

The opening of things were just awesome itself. Seeing Ryouma smoothly make it on the train was just so like him because this kid is so full of himself but he has all the l33t skillz to back it up. As well, the Seigaku team being invited to the U17 training camp was not a surprise and being bullied/tested right away by idiotic high-schooler who underestimate those younger was bound to happen. But this whole training camp isn’t what it seems with the camera spy system installed around the place. As well, amusing addition of mysterious figures watching the test and hey! It’s a great chance to introduce the members of the team to those who forgot or have never seen the first series. When the team finally meets the man in charge of the camp, I get a bad feeling that there might be some sort of twist to this new series and that it won’t just be about competition. I was so happy to see that the other middle school players were invited too and oh how it was amusing that when the last tennis ball was on the ground… Ryouma makes his flashy appearance. I was waiting in anticipation on when Ryouma would appear and he just makes things even more exciting. I do love the jokes and tricks in this whole series in general. Especially when it has to do with Ryouma. So sneaky, amusing and such a BAMF of tennis.

Aside from the story, I’m sure we all can see the direction that it’s going in. There will be a bunch of competitions to see who makes the U17 team. The sad thing is that you already have a general idea of who will make it considering the opening and ending theme sequences. There’s bound to be good laughs but tennis drama as well. As for other things, the new animation is very nice on the eyes but I think it’s just a small upgrade from the OVA National Tournament which were the continuation of the first series. Though, damn! Ryouma is a bit taller than I remembered. As well, the ending of OVAs doesn’t match with this one because the senpais of Seigaku already graduated and Momo/Kaido were third years with Kaido being the new team captain. But I’m not gonna complain since Ryouma is back. XD Good and exciting stuff~

N-no…must not…let out fangirl side…Must maintain image of being the cool, onee-san type…GAAAHHH I CAN’T DO IT! SCREW EVERYTHING, I SQUEALED LIKE A PIGLET THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE 20-ISH MINUTES!!! I’M JUST AS BAD AS NESS, IF NOT WORSE! I’ve only had the pleasure of reading the manga, so I never got the chance to see everyone actually moving and hitting the ball. Don’t get me wrong, the manga art is fantastic and I preferred it to the quality of the anime – but sports anime just flows a lot better when it’s fully animated. Tenipuri also has a godly cast of seiyuu. I’ll bet it contains at least one of everyone’s top 5 seiyuu. Finally seeing everything in motion (aside from those musicals I watched at my friend’s house *cough*) was the first thing that really set me off into frothy, fangirl mode.

The second thing that got me going was the re-introduction of nearly every single character in the first series. I tend to have obscure tastes in favourite characters so I figured they’d be left out, but everyone was there! I don’t know what I’d do if Oshitari wasn’t in this anime, because man do I ever have it bad for kansai accents. Combine that with megane and…I’m done. I’M JUST DONE. Despite being nothing more than an introduction episode recapping each character’s skills and personality, it wasn’t boring. It was like being reunited with old friends and catching up on their lives. Technically, new fans could just jump in right now, but it wouldn’t be any fun at all without any prior knowledge of the characters. Even I forget half of the faces, so I can’t imagine the overload facing anyone who thought they’d give this a shot without watching season 1. This series focuses a lot on characters, so knowing who is who is a must. It’s characters and their relationships first and tennis second. In other words: hot guys > tennis. Hey, it keeps fangirls interested! It especially keeps us interested when there’s potential gay love involved! And boy…there is a lot of potential gay love involved in this show.

So am I excited for this series? DEAR GOD, YES! I’ll watch it every week religiously, both hands on my cheeks in an attempt to stop the blood from rushing to my face in glee. I’m hoping that there are some genuinely interesting match-ups and new techniques, otherwise this new series will be nothing but pandering to fans. Okay, well..moreso than usual. The way they make tennis so dramatic in the manga was what really kept me hooked – especially many of the crazy doubles matches. The manga is still ongoing, so we may be in for flashy matches and crazy character antics for quite a while! I say – bring it on! And please…change the horrible OP to something that suits a sports anime more. Just anything that sounds significantly less like opera than the current song. Other than that, it’s another solid season of tenipuri. Fans, you know what to expect. Non-fans, I really don’t recommend starting here despite the small recap, because the growing character dump will just mystify and alienate you.

Preview: The first shuffle match is underway! It’s Momo versus the baboon-faced rooster head man. We won’t be covering this at Metanorn, but rest assured we will secretly be watching and swooning in the shadows out of view.