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Viz Streams Prince of Tennis on Amazon Instant Video
posted on by Gia Manry
The North American manga and anime distributor Viz Media announced on Thursday that it will add the first season of the television anime series The Prince of Tennis to Amazon's Instant Video online streaming service on Monday, May 18. Each episode (of 13 total available) will cost US$1.99.
The anime is an adaptation of Takeshi Konomi's manga of the same name. The original manga followed Ryoma Echizen and his tennis team as they rose through Japan's local and national tournaments. The manga ran for 379 installments between July of 1999 and March of 2008, and the 42 compiled volumes have sold over 40 million copies. Konomi has since launched a manga sequel called Shin Tennis no Ouji-sama (The New Prince of Tennis) in Jump Square in March of 2009. (The fourth compiled book volume of the new series is shipping this month.)
Viz Media will publish the 42nd and final manga volume in North America this July. In addition to the television anime series, the manga has inspired a string of original video anime projects, two earlier double-billed theatrical anime films, and a live-action film. Most recently, a new video anime project and anime film have been in production.
