If you’ve been following my reviews, you’ll know that I’m a fan of almost all anime and manga with a super-genius protagonist. Prince of Tennis, therefore, would logically be one of my fav. series. If you haven’t seen or read Prince of Tennis before, I suggest you read my review of the anime series before reading this one, because the Nationals Arc is a post-anime arc.

For those reading the manga, I think chapters 250+ (until chapter 293 so far) qualifies as the Nationals Arc. This is when all our favourite characters go into battle at the Nationals level. Besides the original schools, e.g. Seishun Gakuen and Hyoutei Gakuen, a few new schools enter the fray, e.g. Okinawa Higa Jr. High. This story arc is also when Prince of Tennis descends into ultimate Dragonball-style.

Judge for yourself:

The Giant Habu technique by a Higa Jr. High player. An unbelievable amount of spin is applied such that the ball spins and moves randomly and unpredictably. It is almost impossible to return.

Fuji’s Fourth Counter, Zagerou Zutsumi - Dragonfly Illusion. The manga translators explained this technique as “…pretty much an illusion of a non-moving ball that they (opponent players) can never reach…” How is this done? No idea, since they didn’t bother to explain it this time. But I think it is more likely that it was impossible to explain (in any sort of logical manner at least).

While prior techniques, like Fuji’s Triple Counters, were all somewhat rationalizable, these new techniques are stretching the boundaries of imagination. Fun yes, but I feel that they somehow cheapen the manga as a whole. For me, much of the fun that came with Prince of Tennis was how players would manage to defeat their opponents with genius-level techniques, but not crazy-level techniques. For example, Fuji’s Hakugei used the wind, while Atobe’s Rondo smash was just highly skilled aiming. These older techniques were somewhat logical.

Then there is the elegance factor of the new techniques. The new DBZ techniqes are class-less, and boring - as if they were created with little thought. Contrast them with Fuji’s Triple Counters, or even techniques in other anime series like Bleach. Kuchiki Byakuya’s Shikai and Bankai or Kuchiki Rukia’s Shikai are prime examples. The difference in class is as wide as heaven and earth.

Okay, so this turned out to be more of a rant against PoT rather than a proper review. But I really feel that the cheapening of PoT techniques in this Arc is the essence of its failure. And now that I’ve updated myself to the manga chapters, I actually feel thankful that the anime series ended before this arc even began. At least, you won’t have to bear the sight of totally unrealistic and completely unrationalizable techniques.

As was commented earlier, the Prince of Tennis parts hosted on iHud were dead. So here they are reuploaded on the Anime Field Download Server:

Format: .rar
Host: Anime Field Download Server

anime, animation, downloads, prince of tennis, video

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Sorry for the slow updates. My internet connection at home is seriously screwing up at the moment.

Anyway, here’s a couple more episodes. Actually, I wanted to fulfill requests for Kamichu and Hell’s Correspondence, but due to my connection, …

Again, please comment if any of these links are down. I will reupload ASAP.

There was a request for Prince of Tennis Episodes 161 onwards. Since I had already uploaded them before, here they are. But at that time, I mistakenly uploaded each episode into several parts. I think these two episodes each have 9 parts.

Please comment if any of these links are down. I will reupload as soon as I can.

anime, animation, downloads, prince of tennis, video

On to some more Prince of Tennis. Sorry about hosting it on Megaupload though since I posted it long before I started using FileFront. It happens to still work, so why not?

Now for more Prince of Tennis episodes.

Title: Prince of Tennis (or Tennis no Ojisama)
Year: 2001-2005
Total Episodes: 178
Categories: Sports, Comedy
Fansubbed Version Watched: Anime-Otakus, Anime-Revolution, Shinsen-Subs (in order)
Episodes I Watched So Far: 178
Episodes Available ATM: 178

The main character, Echizen Ryoma (a.k.a. The Prince of Tennis) is a tennis prodigy that has just returned from the US. His father, once a tennis great that retired upon the birth of Ryoma (and just before winning the very last of all the major tennis championships in the world too), decides to send him to Seigaku High School.

It is in this school where Ryoma’s talents will be developed as he battles for a place in the starting line up against top players, like the super-cool Seigaku Captain, Kunimitsu Tezuka and senior prodigy Shusuke Fuji.

But the story really begins when he starts challenging the best tennis players around the district, region and perhaps the world.

Personal Comments:
Prince of Tennis may be branded as the typical Sports Anime. And that’s not the only detractor from the series: The Dragonball-style unrealistic tennis moves probably come next.

But, some of the tennis moves are cool nonetheless. You’ll really have to watch the series to understand the coolness of Shusuke Fuji’s Triple Counters. It is ironic though that Ryoma’s personal techniques aren’t really that cool compared to some of the players (like Fuji, Tezuka, etc.)

However, while the first arc of the series can be said to be interesting, IMHO, it goes downhill from there. The ending of the series defintely felt rushed too. I’d really like to see what happens from there since I haven’t read the manga (Question: Does it go further than the anime?).

I’m looking forward to a subbed version (or the DVD) of the Prince of Tennis movie, which will probably take quite some time.

So, I recommend giving Prince of Tennis a try. If you’re the type that likes the action + super moves concept (which many do, e.g. Bleach, Naruto, DBZ fans), you’ll probably warm up to it. I did, lol.

A few eps. of Prince of Tennis (BTW, the anime series is finished for now)

Format: .avi

Ep. 170

Ep. 171

Ep. 172