I've watched this anime before but I've been rewatching it recently because I figured I’d watch the new series of it and overall I have nothing better to do (not like I have 7 classes in university and constantly have tons of stuff to do… *cough*). I've learned quite a few things while watching this anime.
1) Japanese kids are better at tennis than Federer. Also they have super powers that remind me of Dragon Ball Z. No, I’m not kidding. They start glowing yellow and become able to hit harder/faster, synchronize their minds with their doubles partners, able to copy techniques that their opponents use and predict the future. Some of them are able to see, get ready, the insides of their opponents as well as their skeletons and joints so they know where to hit shots so it’s physically impossible for their opponents to move their body in a way to catch the ball. Fuck yeah! 2) The laws of physics do not apply to Japanese middle schoolers. Here’s a short incomplete list of what to expect from this anime :
-Shots that hit the court, then bounce back towards the one that hit it (without being hit of course) as hard as it was hit. -Shots that almost hit the court but then suddenly fly upwards without hitting it. -Shots that disappear. -Shots that steal the receiver’s senses or temporarily paralyze them. -Shots that leave holes with huge cracks in cement walls. No I’m not kidding. One character in one of the most recent chapters of the new series randomly launches a few of these shots at the main character when he’s resting after a practice session and it leaves damage to the wall like you’d except a small cannon ball to. I can’t wait to see this dude play a match and kill someone (see further). -Being able to consistently and purposely make the ball “walk the rope” and land on your opponent’s side -Shots that send the receiver flying backwards into the air and into walls several meters behind them. -Shots that always break the receiver’s racquet. -But the most epic of all: playing with a racquet with only 2 strings is definitely possible. Fuck yeah! -And many, many more!
3) Trying to murder your opponents is a valid strategy. There are several characters in this anime that are terrible at tennis (in super-human terms anyway). They don’t even try to win with points. They just assume that if they hit their opponent often enough and hard enough they will win. And they do. One of them even has a “special” move where he first hits the railing behind his opponent several times, breaking it in the form of a cross with the railing spikes pointing outwards. Then he hits his opponent so hard that they fly back into the cross of spikes and get impaled. This show is so fucking violent. It seems like every other match they end up full of blood or lose by injury. And the refs are non-existent. As they say, “Not a single fuck was given” that these middle schoolers are trying to murder themselves with tennis.
I like to play a little game called “Could Federer do that?” when watching this anime. Up until like episode 30 it’s surprising that Federer can pull off pretty much all of those shots :
-Twist serve? Check (youtube that shit, kick serve; quite insane) -Around the pole shots (boomerang snake) : Check -Buggy whip shot (basically all of Nadal’s forehands) : Check -Insane dropshots that pretty much don’t bounce : Rarely but check (although Tezuka’s don’t bounce and they roll backwards but what the hell, I’m generous). -Acrobatic and net plays : Check. Worth youtubing those under the legs winners he pulled off. -I could list a few more but soon enough it becomes too intense even for the great Federer to follow pace. I think the first IMPOSSIBLE shot is the twist shot… a random hit that send a “kick-serve-like” shot in the middle of a rally (it’s not a smash).
So now there’s “New Prince of Tennis”. I don’t recommend reading the manga for this series as it’s half-impossible to follow. The anime is on episode 5 now and on a weekly schedule (the original is like 180 episodes). It’s pretty awful compared to the original. It’s just as ridiculous, but they pretty much cut the tennis for more exposition. Here’s the plot from how I imagined the author thought of it:
“Ok. I got this. So I’ll take 50 of these insanely overpowered middle schoolers I created in Prince of Tennis right? Then I’m going to throw them all together and have them say a ton of catch phrases and make tons of poses while being a tennis environment but conveniently cut out the actual tennis despite there being absolutely no other plot point. Seriously, I’m going to throw them in a U-17 National team camp, and there’s going to be way better than every high schooler there. There will not be a single scene (70 chapters and counting) outside of this place and nothing will happen beyond catchphrases and power ups (that make no sense). This is going to be FUCKING AWESOME! The money I will make I mean. LOL! Oh and it’s going to be monthly but with like 15 pages per chapter”
The original doesn’t have much plot beyond : tennis, getting better and super powers, main character’s dad being better than god at tennis and main character being oblivious about little girl that follows him around and wants his dick really hard (seriously she’s not even subtle about it).
And yet, it’s still my guilty pleasure. The first 100 or so episodes are pretty fun of the original. After that you just watch it because it’s hilarious. So what the fuck are you waiting for? Go watch it!
This is my favorite scene from the Prince of tennis lol. In regards to the OP, yeah you pretty much summed it all up. The new Prince of tennis is like some sort of Fanfic with all the best guys on the same team. The original anime was pretty fun even if it did use as little animation as possible.
Prince of Tennis was so amazing when I watched it. It's been a few years so I don't remember a lot of the specifics, like that impaling thing. I would watch it again if it wasn't so many damn episodes.
PoT kicks ass. The latter half wasn't as good as the beginning (it turned more into overpowered moves than character development and strategy and whatnot) but it's still quite mint. The first appearance of "Snake" is my favorite part.
Haha to be fair though, that's a clip from one of their OVAs/movies rather than from the actual anime show. I loved PoT and so far I like the 2nd season. I just love all the crazy moves and mind games they always throw at each other.
Shit, I forgot Tezuka killed the dinosaurs! So good in its ridiculousness, haha.
Prince of Tennis was awesome, plus the anime had those hilarious chibi-style filler episodes, aka BEST FILLERS EVER. Only sad thing was I ended up not liking Seigaku as a team very much which is kind of unfortunate since, y'know, they kept on beating everyone else...
Also, if you haven't watched the live action musicals, you should do yourself a favor and get on that. I think most of them are on youtube. Playing tennis! And SINGING about playing tennis! They're something special
On February 02 2012 12:11 Kurr wrote: 1) Japanese kids are better at tennis than Federer.
It gets better when the main character beats Lleyton Hewitt in the US Open grand final, and comes back to Japan and struggles to defeat his rival from high school.
Its best to just stick to the first arc and ignore it after that, because after that it gets into filler hell, and everyone knows that's when shit stops making sense.
The only thing I disliked about PoT was that as soon as a character learned how to do a technique correctly, they instantly won because they could pull it off perfectly and it automatically trumped every move the other player had. I'm taking about taking match point, 0-40 0-5 and winning the set just because they learned a new technique. Even though it took them half the game to figure it out, as soon as it clicks, they can perform it perfectly without stamina/nerves/messing up issues.
This is one of the reasons I liked Kaido because you saw that he had to earn his skill and techniques.
On February 02 2012 14:50 BLinD-RawR wrote: never liked prince of tennis sadly, it was interesting at first but then it went retard mode, come on its a sports anime for gods sake.
and that is why to this day and forever Slam Dunk will remain the best sports Anime/Manga.
It really sucks how every sports manga/anime eventually adapts the DBZ storyline after the 1st arc. You learn all these cool things you never knew about a niche sport. A while later the main character starts learning about some inner energy and learns that instead of outwitting your opponent or training, you can simply just wait till you're just about to lose and then suddenly gain the ability to do a kamehameha and win the game.
Very rarely do you get one that keeps it realistic and fresh at the same time.
Although not anime, you guys should really watch Shaolin Soccer. Its a great live-action satire of the DBZ style storyline, but soccer.
Prince of Tennis was fun I'll tell you though, every time Seigaku is playing early on against... I think it was Tachibana's team? When it's the guy with the Spot shot, and Echizen's going up to play him, and it's towards the end of the episode and there's this massive build up using the Opening song... I seriously just get chills down my spine thinking about that moment. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Reading this remind me that i need to make a thread about the godlike manga/anime Gintama Edit: Also talking about sport manga: Slam Dunk (basketball): One of the best sport manga i have ever seen, funny too. Jindo?(soccer): Not sure how to translate it from my languange but that manga is super funny. The first part is really good. The first half of the second part is SUPER SUPER FUNNY and then i don't know what happened but the manga starts to slip after that. Maybe because of the mangaka doesn't get enough money
Agh, curse you for reminding me of this. I remeber a friend talking about it to me, now I really wanna watch it. Except my internet is so terrible I cant >_>
On February 02 2012 14:50 BLinD-RawR wrote: never liked prince of tennis sadly, it was interesting at first but then it went retard mode, come on its a sports anime for gods sake.
and that is why to this day and forever Slam Dunk will remain the best sports Anime/Manga.
This is why I never got into PoT or any other sports manga/anime. I want them to be realistic but I know they will most likely never be >_>
I always see the the episodes of this uploaded but never watch it because... prince of tennis Oo??? but it seems like I have to watch it as soon as I get home :D
One of my fav sports anime. SOoooooooooooooooo awesome. Whos your fav players? (yes im asking that) Mine is Tezuka, your average anime tensai guy who the writer gave him a medical issue so he can't beat the shit out of everybody.
Can someone reccomend really good sports anime? I have seen slam dunk(basketball), eyeshield(handegg), overdrive (cycling), one outs(baseball and fucking awesome), major(baseball), giant killing(football), hikaru no go(go), densetsu shoot(football), whistle(football),hungry heart wild striker(football) and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple.
On February 02 2012 20:49 Steveling wrote: One of my fav sports anime. SOoooooooooooooooo awesome. Whos your fav players? (yes im asking that) Mine is Tezuka, your average anime tensai guy who the writer gave him a medical issue so he can't beat the shit out of everybody.
Can someone reccomend really good sports anime? I have seen slam dunk(basketball), eyeshield(handegg), overdrive (cycling), one outs(baseball and fucking awesome), major(baseball), giant killing(football), hikaru no go(go), densetsu shoot(football), whistle(football),hungry heart wild striker(football) and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple.
I love Prince of Tennis so much. I went to see Tenimyu's (Prince of Tennis musical) live viewing (It's a live broadcast in a massive cinema for fans who didn't get tickets to the actual myu venue.) by flying from Korea to Japan. I've read most of the manga, and seen some of the anime. I'm really enjoying Shinpuri too.
Here are some of my favorite myu performances. I'm a Rikkai fangirl at heart, but I love some of Hyoutei and Shitenhouji's songs too;
On February 02 2012 14:50 BLinD-RawR wrote: never liked prince of tennis sadly, it was interesting at first but then it went retard mode, come on its a sports anime for gods sake.
and that is why to this day and forever Slam Dunk will remain the best sports Anime/Manga.
This is why I never got into PoT or any other sports manga/anime. I want them to be realistic but I know they will most likely never be >_>
On February 02 2012 14:50 BLinD-RawR wrote: never liked prince of tennis sadly, it was interesting at first but then it went retard mode, come on its a sports anime for gods sake.
and that is why to this day and forever Slam Dunk will remain the best sports Anime/Manga.
This is why I never got into PoT or any other sports manga/anime. I want them to be realistic but I know they will most likely never be >_>
Hajime no Ippo was cool though.
read slam dunk, even watch the anime.
BEST SPORTS MANGA EVER!
yeah, i agree that slam dunk is THE best sport manga as well. It's so funny and emotional at times too. The result is still quite predictable but somehow the tense moment still got to me such as *Spoiler* + Show Spoiler +
the ending of the last game against the strongest team (can't remember the name) and the ending
On February 02 2012 20:49 Steveling wrote: One of my fav sports anime. SOoooooooooooooooo awesome. Whos your fav players? (yes im asking that) Mine is Tezuka, your average anime tensai guy who the writer gave him a medical issue so he can't beat the shit out of everybody.
Can someone reccomend really good sports anime? I have seen slam dunk(basketball), eyeshield(handegg), overdrive (cycling), one outs(baseball and fucking awesome), major(baseball), giant killing(football), hikaru no go(go), densetsu shoot(football), whistle(football),hungry heart wild striker(football) and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple.
On February 02 2012 20:49 Steveling wrote: One of my fav sports anime. SOoooooooooooooooo awesome. Whos your fav players? (yes im asking that) Mine is Tezuka, your average anime tensai guy who the writer gave him a medical issue so he can't beat the shit out of everybody.
Can someone reccomend really good sports anime? I have seen slam dunk(basketball), eyeshield(handegg), overdrive (cycling), one outs(baseball and fucking awesome), major(baseball), giant killing(football), hikaru no go(go), densetsu shoot(football), whistle(football),hungry heart wild striker(football) and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple.
Ookiku Furikabutte (Oofuri) is a really good baseball one.
On February 02 2012 20:49 Steveling wrote: One of my fav sports anime. SOoooooooooooooooo awesome. Whos your fav players? (yes im asking that) Mine is Tezuka, your average anime tensai guy who the writer gave him a medical issue so he can't beat the shit out of everybody.
Can someone reccomend really good sports anime? I have seen slam dunk(basketball), eyeshield(handegg), overdrive (cycling), one outs(baseball and fucking awesome), major(baseball), giant killing(football), hikaru no go(go), densetsu shoot(football), whistle(football),hungry heart wild striker(football) and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple.
Hajime no Ippo
you could kill a lot of time reading it, Its nearing what a 1000 chapters now?
On February 03 2012 23:00 UltimateHurl wrote: Looks insane, but some anime goes all out, have seen a baking-related one (name escapes me) that makes baking look like a marital art.
Yakitate!! Japan oh yeah I loved that one,mostly because it makes me feel hungry watching it..
On February 03 2012 23:00 UltimateHurl wrote: Looks insane, but some anime goes all out, have seen a baking-related one (name escapes me) that makes baking look like a marital art.
Yakitate!! Japan oh yeah I loved that one,mostly because it makes me feel hungry watching it..
One of the best animes for the first 30 or so episodes (until the part after the international competition). After that... bread monsters.
I think I just burn out on all the silliness by the time I reach that point. It's not worse than the rest otherwise.
EPT
I'll tell you though, every time Seigaku is playing early on against... I think it was Tachibana's team? When it's the guy with the Spot shot, and Echizen's going up to play him, and it's towards the end of the episode and there's this massive build up using the Opening song... I seriously just get chills down my spine thinking about that moment. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?
