Forum - View topicREVIEW: Prince of Tennis
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lianncoop
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1705 Location: Indiana |
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I think it's slightly ridiculous that the reviewer makes such a big deal out of having knowledge of the sport. I'm a tennis player, I didn't care about the specific tennis lingo. The thing about Prince of Tennis is that Ryoma is already at the top of his game. He has to deal with the fact that he is probably already hated by lots of people because of the legacy that his father paved. Plus, this is the first volume...you can't expect readers to latch onto characters right off the bat. Most first volumes deal with laying out the foundation. I think that for being a sports manga, Prince of Tennis started out on a strong foot and whether or not you're familiar with tennis has no direct impact on your enjoyment of the series.
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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I used to play tennis, only saw the sample of POT in Jump, and just didn't like the kid, cus he came off too cocky. In terms of sports manga, Whistle! looks more appealing, but I'm still hoping Slam Dunk gets re-published one day, even though it took too many chapters for Inoue to finish just one game. Anyway, I just like Hikaru No Go, because of the characterization, although the game itself isn't my cup of tea. (I guess I'd have to personally play Go to appreciate it, because it comes off more confusing just being described.) As for POT's appeal here, I think the only way it'll sell is if Anna Kournikova is slapped on the cover.
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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You obviously don't know who the biggest fans of Prince of Tennis are then GATSU: The females. The main reason that PoT finally got licensed here was because Viz kept running into the obsessive fangirls. Other than that, PoT is actually the only sports manga I have enjoyed, and I hated tennis class in highschool. It really manages to drag the reader into the game. The game I find incredibly boring in real life. |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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A favorite con anecdote of mine is when my friend and I stopped by a doujinshi dealer at the Exhibit Hall. Somehow we came upon the yaoi section, to which she exclaimed "Dude! They have an entire box just for Prince of Tennis!" I also have another friend who has all 27(?) Japanese volumes of PoT and she maintains that the reason she follows the series is for the tennis. Just the tennis. Having played it at varsity level in high school. Yes. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15564 |
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I'm sure it has fangirl appeal, but unlike Japan, it's probably more of a niche appeal, than, say, the bishonen in Saiyuki or Fruits Basket. Soccer's a more popular sport among women in the U.S. nowadays.
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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The thing I find is true about the first two volume of PoT is the fact that they have no substance whatsoever. Despite this, I read them back to back (an achievement for my infintesimally small attention span) without stopping. The pacing is perfect and made me read all the way through despite having no interesting characters, as well as the fact that I can't stand tennis (I hate watching most sports except boxing/mixed martial arts, or baseball when the Sox get to the playoffs). Fun reads and very well written, but unless the author adds substance I'm not going to stick around for long.
But I do hope they bring the rest of Slam Dunk over here. It would also be great if they licenced REAL, Inoue's greatest baseketball manga. |
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kyuu
 Posts: 16 Location: Tampere, Finland |
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Just to correct the record, there are some avid male fans here too for PoT.
In my opinion, PoT is a well done work in the "not always about the end of the world, please" -category. It stays interesting without going overboard. There's a bit of humor too. The main character is obviously controversial, but he seems to have a well planned background, a certain character type, and he actually evolves slowly. I'll grant that PoT won't appeal to majorities. But it's still something of a really nice change. If a big time shoujo fan like me can enjoy it, that has to mean something. In my opinion, the revier writer didn't quite stay on track. |
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ChrisBeveridge
Posts: 162 |
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Just like with a lot of sports manga and shows, it's not necessarily the sport that has the fans interested in it but the characters and the situations. I'm no fan of basketball but I love slam dunk. I like tennis well enough and played for enough years but it's the characters that keep me reading the manga.
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Prince of Tennis (like DNAngel) is adore by mostly female. Sure there are male fan too. I don't know what is, either the cutely drawn guys or the tennis it self that attract the female audience. I read it and it didn't appeal to me. But come on, "real" guy playing tennis? Most of the guys that played tennis back in my high school were dorks.
Sure it's enjoyable but I bet you appreciate it more if you knew the aspect of the sport. That's why Slam dunk was enjoyable but it was overexaggerated. I think it's rare to see a guy slam dunk in Japan so they have to make a big deal out of it. |
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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It's all the possible yaoi pairings that makes the girls go crazy over it. They see the slightest "hint" of a guy liking another, and they swoon. |
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manafairy
 Posts: 113 Location: My own tweaked world.... |
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If that was the only reason, I doubt it would have nearly as many fans as it does. I'm sure that's why some girls like it but being the show is far from even being shounen-ai I'm willing to bet it wouldn't hold the interest of someone just in it for the fanservice for very long (Let alone for 150 or so episodes of anime and 20 something volumes of manga). Regardless of gender, provided that it suits their taste to some extent, anyone can enjoy a story as well written as PoT.... |
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lianncoop
Past ANN Contributor
Posts: 1705 Location: Indiana |
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Just proof that there is a larger world outside of yours. Tennis team & soccer team were the popular, hot guy sports at my high school.
Actually, I think it's the opposite. Usually when you're familiar with a particular topic, sport, hobby, whatever--you find yourself being overly critical of how that particular thing is portrayed. That was one of my problems with this review. The reviewer made such a big deal about how reader's familiarity with the sport would impact how much you enjoyed the manga. Really, sure it's about tennis, but like Chris B. is saying...it's the characters that are the driving force. |
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Domasai
 Posts: 4 |
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I think the reviewer of this manga makes a mistake in painting it with very stereotypical ideas, such as the concepts of 'growing along with the character," which he / she consistently refers back to as being a prototype for getting readers to empathize with the main protagonist. Well, that's not what this manga is about, though it does feature that as well as time goes on. What does it do? It shows a cocky but highly skilled young man stepping into a forum that he seems overly prepared for but really isn't.
Yes, Ryoma makes people look like imbeciles a lot of the time. That's because, in most cases, they are. I can think of other characters that are highly popular that didn't start out as total newbies and were able to kick ass quite handedly -- i.e., Inu-Yasha. Who, like Ryoma, was a jerk at the beginning and continues to be a jerk, on and off, throughout the entirety of the manga and anime. As for character growth: It's in there. Maybe not all compacted into the first volume but hey, POT is a long manga and anime series. As it goes on, I think the reviewer and its readers will find there's a lot more to it than just following Ryoma around. They haven't even properly introduced the entire cast of the series yet, have some patience. There are few manga and anime that I have seen recently that have immediately made me think, "This is the greatest thing ever -- I must, must, must have the next volume as soon as possible." (For example, I feel Get Backers gets off to a slow start but picks up considerably after keeping with it for a while. Meanwhile, Monster pretty much had me from the first episode and volume on. But Monster is a rare case, IMO.) |
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Osaka
 Posts: 127 Location: A-stray-ya |
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I think there's truth to the fact that if you don't know much about the sport it's more fun to watch that way. Like lianncoop sama said before when you know a lot about that particular sport you really do become overly critical for any mistakes that seep in. Most of the time you're exclaiming over what is wrong rather than what you are supposed to be enjoying.
Then again it usually comes down to personal preference in many instances, because some may not be swayed by whatever light it is shown in. 
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babysyusuke
 Posts: 1 Location: Singapore |
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I must say...the person who review this manga had definately never seen the remaining volumes of Konomi sensei's work.
Ok, the tennis moves might seems exaggeration but hey, tennis players in Japan still manage to master those moves like Tsubame Gaeshi, Zero Shinki drop shot and all so do u still call that exxagerating??? Ok here's another part I wanna comment on Non-tennis players and beginners at the sport will also find difficulty in relating to any of the characters introduced in the first volume Well I've read the manga from book one to e current book. Seriously, I am not into tennis either but hey, I still manage to relate the characters so dun assume. And yes, Ryoma enter the story as a very strong player but as the story goes on, he realize that there are still people, like his dad and his captain, whom he can never defeat them. And as the story goes on, Ryoma's skills slowly upgrades so I seriously don't think there ain't no room for imporvement. It's not just Ryoma. The whole of Seigaku tennis club improves their skills and evolve as the story goes on. If there ain't any room for improvement, why is Konomi sensei sitting in his office and thinking about what to draw for the matches??? Also, Tennis no Ojisama is a shonen manga and focusing on boys tennis thus there will of course, be less female charecter. You probably forget that there is another Tomo chan, Sakuno's friend and later, Ann chan, sister of Tachibana Kippei, the captain of Fudomine who will also be coming up in the story. And well Ryoma is a little arragont in the beiginning, if you wanna use the world toy, well there are times when Ryoma does takes matches seriously and regard his opponets with a great deal of respect. All in all, Prince of Tennis is not as bad as the review came. I mean hey, it succeeded in making many non tennis people into tennis loving freaks. I am one of them. To e person who did this review...you probably need to read up more of Konomi's sensei's works...and here's a word from Ryoma to you...mada mada dane. |
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