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Mada mada dane!

The Prince of Tennis is a long-running sports manga series, and has spawned an anime, live-action movie, video games, and over a dozen musicals. What's it about? Well, "boys playing tennis".

Okay, but seriously, folks... the story's about this kid named Ryoma Echizen, a pre-teen tennis prodigy who transfers to Seishun Academy (nicknamed "Seigaku" by everyone, a portmanteau of Seishun Gakuen), a school renowned for its rich tennis tradition. In the intra-school ranking tournament, he beats some of the best players in the school and secures himself a spot on the team's starting lineup. From then on, the series follows the Seigaku tennis club's progress towards the middle-school National Championship, facing a new rival team in each new story arc. The characters develop their own styles of play (complete with increasingly bizarre and complex shots). Even the sometimes hard-to-approach Echizen eventually learns what the sport means to him as time goes on.

The manga, written and illustrated by Takeshi Konomi, was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1999 to 2008, with a total of 42 volumes and over 40 million copies of said volumes sold in Japan alone. It was later adapted to an anime, which aired on TV Tokyo from 2001 to 2005 for seven seasons. The sequel, Shin Prince of Tennis, began in 2009 in Jump Square and also has numerous anime adaptations.

A Live-Action Adaptation Movie was also made, as well as two live action TV dramas. Two animated movies have also been released in cinemas: The Two Samurai: The First Game, co-released with short movie A Gift from Atobe (2005) and The Battle of the British City (2011). A 3D film, Ryoma! Rebirth Movie The Prince of Tennis, covers the 3-month time period in between the original manga and Shin, to be released in 2021. Funimation announced in April 2021 that it has licensed the majority of the anime installments with a new English dub to come in the future.

Also! The character sheet has been added. PLEASE, if you've got new tropes for the characters of the series, add them there.

Also, there is the Musical Series page, so you can add tropes related to the stage plays and actors.


This manga provides examples of:

  • Adaptation Distillation:
    • Each installment of Tenimyu does a great job of condensing an entire arc of the manga into a two hour musical.
    • The OVAs have been praised by lots of fans for re-telling situations from the manga in quite a better light and portraying some characters more sympathetically. A clear example is the resolution of the Atobe vs. Ryoma match in the Nationals, where Ryoma's borderline Jerkass-ish behavior is quite toned down and Atobe even gets to cut his hair himself.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The anime pretty much completes characterization of secondary characters (gives the rival schools more spotlight and extras like Sakuno or the Freshmen Trio have more roles) and gives more context for many of the mini-arcs.
  • Adapted Out: All the female characters are not included in the Musicals. Partially averted in the Shitenhouji Musical, where Sakuno does appear... played by one of the actors in drag.
  • Aerith and Bob: In the 2011 movie, most of the Clack Team have suitably Western sounding names like Keith and Peter... apart from Xiu. Though in his defense, he is implied to hail from a different foreign country.
  • Against the Setting Sun: Oishi and Eiji, Chitose and Shiraishi. Also Ryoma and Tezuka, who always end up playing by the sunset, or staring at each other in the beach volleyball episode.
    • Even Ryoma and Sakuno get one in the anime, walking home as the sun sets.
    • The setting for Fuji and Kite's Back-to-Back Badasses moment in the 2011 movie.
  • All There in the Manual: Some of the most interesting, funny, and quirky data bits on the characters are in the fanbooks, especially the 40.5 one, which are later exploited in official anime material or Houkago no Oujisama, such as Ryoma wanting a Nintendo DS, or Kirihara Akaya still believing in old St. Nick.
  • Always Someone Better: With each arc, the new team that's introduced is always perceived to be a bigger challenge than the last. Shitenhouji, for example, is introduced by having them wipe the floor with Fudoumine. Word of God enforces this, stating that Gin and Kenya were created specifically to be more powerful than Tetsu and even quicker than Kamio.
    • And then there's the sequel series, where some of the high schoolers outclass the middle schoolers by far. One of them plays — almost literally — like he's from another dimension.
  • And This Is for...: Ryoma dedicates the last few points he scores against Akutsu to Arai, Kachirou, and Kawamura.
  • Artistic Age: The age of the teams' members get lampshaded more than once. The viewer wouldn't believe that these kids are middle-schoolers, especially comparing the 3rd Year guys' designs with those of the U-17 high schoolers.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Most of the time, the Captains of the team are one of, if not the best players on the team.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: The 2011 movie gives us Tezuka and Shiraishi as well as Fuji and Kite.
  • Badass Bookworm: The Data Tennis players (Inui, Yanagi). Mizuki, Koharu and Dan also use their data like this sometimes.
  • Badass Normal: Whereas the likes of Tezuka, Ryoma, Chitose, Kirihara and others like them can use the "Muga no Kyouchi" (The State of Self-Actualization), Inui, Atobe, and Fuji rely on pure skill.
  • Batman Gambit: A vital part of the tennis strategies. Some notable users are Inui, Yanagi, Tezuka, Yukimura, Kawamura, Fuji, and Atobe.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: Actually tennis amongst the flames. But still. Happened in the movie between some underwater tennis and tennis in the sky.
  • Battle Aura: Goes hand in hand with the physics-defying tennis moves.
    • Sanada's "Black Aura" has been hinted in The New Prince of Tennis as part of a new move.
  • Beach Episode: Episode 90, when Seigaku and Rokkaku play beach volleyball. A whole OVA is also dedicated to this. And it's bloody hilarious.
  • Bested at Bowling: The coach suggests a round of bowling on their day off. It turns out that both the coach and Team Mom Oishi are frequent bowlers, and Inui decides to force those who gutter to drink his newest health drink, with the losing team having to guzzle the whole thing. This same gag again in the beach volleyball episode, in which the coaches outplay everybody. Of course, one has to wonder why Seigaku's players are bowling when at least three of them, including Oishi, are suffering from arm injuries.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Fuji, Kawamura, Taichi, Yukimura, and sometimes Oishi.
  • Big Eater: Momoshiro, Echizen, Tanishi and Kabaji.
  • Big Fancy Castle: Clack's hideout in the 2011 movie, which was previously one of Atobe's mansions.
  • Big Fancy House: Atobe's mansion. Tezuka and Echizen's Japanese-styled homes.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Taken to ridiculous levels for the effect of Fanservice.
  • Bland-Name Product: Echizen drinks Ponta, however, the Viz translation of the series, averts it by going with "Fanta".
  • Blatant Lies: Higa's excuses for being in England in the 2011 movie, which include mastering Chinese martial arts and rescuing a princess from a demon lord. Actually, they somehow managed to get lost while returning to Okinawa and ended up in England instead. Never mind that the two places are on different sides of the planet...
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Bane and Davide's trademark. Oshitari did NOT appreciate Davide trying to rope him into them, though.
  • Bookends: Seigaku's first and last tournament both involve having to pass Horio off as Ryoma due to the latter running late.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Yuudai Yamato, Seigaku's ex-Captain: He looks and acts like a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, but has a razor-sharp intuition and can give you really good advice if you're willing to listen to him. Eiji Kikumaru acts child-like and happy, but has an extremely sharp vision that not even Ryoma can keep with AND scaringly good reflexes, on top of his flexibility and high jumps.
  • But Not Too Foreign:
    • Jackal is half-Brazilian, half-Japanese. Makes some sense as Brazil does have a rather large Japanese colony.
    • Atobe is hinted to be of mixed descent. It's more noticeable in the manga, as coloured pages depict him with blond hair and blue eyes while almost everyone else has brown, black or grey eyes.
  • Butt-Monkey: Kaidoh, during the "slice of life" episodes. Inui, whenever he tries to escape from punishments or challenges.
  • Calling Your Attacks: "KIKUMARU BEEEEEAM!", "JAAAACK KNIIIIIIFE!"
    • This is almost subverted in most cases, actually. After a move has had its dramatic debut, the character usually refrains from calling out his own move. Naturally, this does nothing to deter the random people standing around watching the match from wildly belting it out each and every time its used.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Earlier in the series, when the Emerald Pair first forms, Inui tells Kaidoh that his Data Tennis started out in his first year of middle school as trying to get more info about Tezuka in order to beat him. But, later on, it turns out that his friend from elementary, Yanagi, was the one who taught him Data Tennis.
  • Canon Foreigner: The American Team and other minor characters in the anime.
    • Subverted with Jousei Shounan. In the manga, Seigaku beats Midoriyama Gakuen instead, while the anime made Jousei Shounan take their place instead. The team members, however, are anime originals, since they never appeared in the manga. Their coach Hanamura Aoi is stated to be the team coach in the manga, despite not appearing herself there.
  • Canon Immigrant: Ryoga Echizen, originally created for the film, makes his canon debut later on The New Prince of Tennis manga. His background story is retconned to be Ryoma's older half-brother.
  • Can't Catch Up: The Fudomine and Rokkaku tennis clubs.
    • To a certain degree Yamabuki as well. Apparently, they're useless without Akutsu.
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: And how! One of the first implementations of Bishōnen Jump Syndrome, in fact.
  • Cast Herd: It's easier to remember the characters by their schools. Just see the Character page.
  • Catchphrase: A loooot. Some teams field multiple characters with them.
    • Echizen's "Mada mada da ne!" Konomi renders it in English as "You still have lots more to work on."
    • Tezuka: "Yudan sezu ni ikou." (Let's not let our guard down)
    • Atobe: "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na!" (Stand in awe of my prowess!)
    • Shishido: "Gekidasa daze!" (Super lame!)
    • Sanada: "Tarundoru!" (You're slacking off!)
    • Kawamura: "BUUUURRRRNIIIING!"
    • Kikumaru: "Zannen munen mata raishuu!" (Too bad, no regrets, see you next week!)
    • Hiyoshi: "Gekokujou." ("I'll overthrow" whoever)
    • Mukahi: "Motto Tonde Miso!" (Jump higher!)
    • Jackal: "Fire!"
    • Yagyuu: "Adieu!"
  • Censor Steam: While the camera lovingly pans up Atobe Keigo's body while he takes a shower.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: The series starts off within plausibility, with real life moves like the Twist Serve, Buggy Whip, and Jackknife. Towards the end it moves straight into fantasy land with auras, Improbable Aiming Skills, teleportation, sense-dampening, and other moves with no physical explanation. The anime takes even less time getting into fantasy.
    • Instead of returning to normality, The New Prince of Tennis series wastes no time on physical limits with X-ray vision, ball-duplication, and other-dimensional shots.
  • Chick Magnet: Echizen (who barely notices), Atobe and Wakato (who do and utterly LOVE it), and Oishi (who hates it).
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Yuushi Oshitari, but very slightly (it's more played up in the dating sims, no matter what Fanon says).
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Tomoka, in regards to Ryoma.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Jirou, when not playing. Shinji, when mumbling. Yamato seems to be one of these, but it's just a cover.
  • Coat Cape: Yukimura, when we see him after he gets out of the hospital. In fact, the last match makes a point of noting that Ryoma is able to knock his jacket off while playing. Atobe is also guilty of this.
  • The Coats Are Off: In the 2011 movie, Sanada, Tezuka and Shiraishi make a point of flinging their uniform jackets off before getting down to business.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: The users of Pinnacle of Great Wisdom get this.
  • Combat Commentator. Come ON, what's a sports manga without them? Main culprits are: The captains and coaches of each team, Inoue, Shiba, the first year Seigaku students, Nanjirou, and Inui.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Parodied with Shinji Ibu's long, odd mumbling rounds. The voice messages in his single CD's are all composed of random mumbling about practically anything.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The 2011 movie has a lot. Clack's Big Fancy Castle hideout turning out to be an old home of Atobe's and Higa appearing out of nowhere to offer a boat rental service are prime examples.
  • Cooking Duel: More like eating duel.
  • Cool Big Sis: Yumiko Fuji, Nanako Meino, Saori Shiba.
  • Cool Old Guy: Ojii of Rokkaku, Banji of Yamabuki.
  • Cool Old Lady: You don't get them cooler than Sumire Ryuuzaki.
  • Cool Versus Awesome: Game of the Future is a blatant excuse to pit two of the series' most popular teams, Hyotei and Rikkai, against each other. This is lampshaded when everyone realises that Atobe and Yukimura are going to be squaring up for singles 2.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Yuuji Hitouji, in regards to his partner Koharu Konjiki ("That's adultery!")
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Kawamura, again.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Chitose's defeat at Tezuka's hands, after the former was established as one of the very best players in Japan.
    • Fuji allows Mizuki a 5–0 lead before wiping the floor with him. Never mess with the people Fuji cares about.
    • Tezuka/QP versus Atobe/Irie at the U-17 World Cup Pre-Exhibition matches.
    • Irie is up 5-0 against Atobe in the placement matches for Japan vs Spain until their match is interrupted.
  • Dating Sim: The series has spawned several of those games with the player in the role of a normal schoolgirl who gets to interact with the Tennis Boys. Some are official and can count as sort-of spin-offs or Alternate Universes (Gakuensai no Oujisama, Rush and Dream, the two Doki Doki Survival), others are fan made (Orange Heart, a Hyoutei-only one made in Flash).
  • Deadly Upgrade: Kawamura and the Ishida's Hadoukyuu, the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot, and Yuuta's Twist Spin Shot.
    • Ryoma and all the other middle schoolers learning how to rally 5+ at once in The New Prince of Tennis.
    • Byodoin's Deadly Upgrade after losing to Oni sent many players around the world into retirement.
    • Ryoma's upgrades from N Po T are 'monstrous. He ends up learning the Shining Shot from his brother, cue a double-page spread with fallen trees and craters all over the surrounding area. And then, he's learning how to rally FIFTEEN balls with ease, in addition to mastering inter-dimensional tennis.
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: Echizen vs. Yukimura in the original series. Everyone vs. the N-17 guys in the new series.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: The Seigaku and Fudomine tennis teams become friends after their match. The Rokkaku tennis team sort of counts as well, except they become friends with Seigaku before ever playing against them. It certainly helps that their vice-captain, Saeki, is Fuji's Forgotten Childhood Friend.
  • Ditto Fighter: In spades.
    • For the Hyoutei team, Kabaji's playstyle is the Dittomediate variant, by default simply mirroring the moves of whoever he is playing against.
    • For the Jousei Shonan team (in the anime), Hiroshi Wakato appears to be a Tsungxpert variation, but it's later subverted when it's revealed he just copied known pro players from an early age until he perfected their moves through years of practice (and later he proves unable to mimic Kaido's Boomerang Snake).
    • Rikkai Dai's resident trickster, Masaharu Niou. He doesn't limit himself to copying other player's techniques or playstyle — he even imitates their mannerisms and demeanor, to the point he causes the illusion of being the mimicked player when rivals look at him.
    • Many other players, such as Oshitari or Atobe, are talented and skilled enough to copy other players' techniques, although it's not the usual thing to do for them. Oshitari did imitate Fuji's Higuma Otoshi and used it against Fuji himself just to screw with him (but it ultimately backfired on Oshitari). Yagyuu and Kaidoh imitated each other while playing together as a doubles team, with interesting results — they tried to mimic each other's signature technique, only to come up with new, original moves in the process.
    • Ultimately, anyone who achieves the Muga no Kyochi ("State of Self-Actualization") can become this, instantly imitating any technique seen, perfectly, although this is more of Power Copying and less of being a Ditto Fighter per se.
  • Do You Trust Me?: Inverted. At the U-17 camp, during their doubles match against Kimijima and Tohno, Kite betrays Marui, but later recommits to playing as Marui's partner for good. Naturally, Marui has to ask if he can trust Kite.
  • Double Standard: Sakuno and Tomoka are vilified by the Estrogen Brigade for being fangirls, but Jirou and Dan's fanboyishness is seen as adorable and sweet.
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap: Seigaku's players are all insanely good, but they only have one strong doubles pair. Everyone else is specialized to be a one man show, and a lot of drama is mined from the coach trying to figure which square pegs she can force into that round hole for this competition.
  • Dramatic Wind: Fuji Shuusuke's third counter, Hakugei. Also, Yanagi's Kamaitachi serve.
  • Eagleland:
    • Let's count all the stereotypes used in the American arc of the anime!
    • Also at the start of The New Prince of Tennis anime, not one, but two enormous American flags hang in the metro station. Just to make absolutely sure you remember where Echizen is.
  • Engrish: Nanjirou does this at times, saying things along the lines of "Me no Nanjirou," or "Sorry, no speak the English!"
  • Evil Laugh: The 2011 movie gives us Peter of the Clack Team.
  • Evil Teacher: Harumi Saotome from Higa.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Yanagi, Fuji, sometimes Koharu.
  • Eye Scream: Chitose, Ryoma, Fuji.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Ryoma gets kicked out of the N-17 camp for protecting another player. So he gets an offer from Ryoga, his half-brother, to join him in the American N-17 team and face the Japanese team.
  • Fake Band: In Meta-example. The anime has released several singles, which also served as Openings and Endings of "Aozu" (Ryoma, Tezuka, Fuji and Oishi) and "Cap-to-Bin" (Momoshiro, Kaidoh, Eiji, Kawamura and Inui), all performed by the seiyuus singing in character. This is also depicted and played with in the special MV of Birthday ~Aruki Hajimeta hi~ and Rock 54!? ~Rock na Hito wo Sagashitemiyou~, where Tezuka returns and the nine of them form a big Boy Band, where they play up an entire story around it: with Ryuzaki-sensei as their manager, Tomoka and Sakuno as their groupies, the Ichinen Trio as staff members, rehearsals, tours, fangirls, a big concert and the prominent rivals joining them playing instruments along with Seigaku.
    • The trend continues to date, with several singles from the seiyuus singing in character and a lot of ensembles. Some notable examples are "Pull Tab to Can" (Atobe, Sanada, Sengoku, Kamio, Ibu, Kirihara and Oshitari, which can be considered canon in the anime, since they did a number during the Talent show in the Senbatsu Training Camp filler), "Megane" (or "Glasses": Tezuka, Inui and Oshitari), "Ikemen Samurai" (or "Handsome Samurais": Ryoma, Tezuka, Atobe, Yukimura, Sanada, Kite and Shiraishi), and so on...
  • Fangirl: Tomoka Osakada and Sakuno Ryuzaki in Seigaku, An Tachibana in Fudomine. Subverted with Kotoha Kitazono from Tsubakikawa: she pretended to be a fangirl to spy on Echizen and Atobe, but they weren't fooled and either ignored her, or called her out on it.
  • Fanservice: Mostly for the ladies, though.
  • Filler: An interesting case. The anime has quite a bit of filler throughout, but much of it results in Funny Moments.
  • Five-Man Band Concert: This is the premise behind the OAV named "Band of Princes". In an Alternate Universe, the Seigaku regulars didn't pursue professional tennis but a music career as a rock band. The special episode is mostly comprised of flashbacks of the band's rise to fame interspersed in a concert.
  • Flung Clothing: Atobe Keigo first snaps his fingers to stop his supporters' cheers, then flings off his uniform's jacket as part of his dramatic first entrance onto the tennis court.
  • Fun Size: The various chibi episodes.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Tezuka, Tachibana and Oishi are victims of this Trope while Kirihara is a proud user. Also, Chitose, in his backstory. Who gets one of these from Tachibana and almost loses sight in one of his eyes.
    • Subverted when Shuusuke sustains a concussion while playing against Kirihara, causing him to be stricken with temporary blindness. He plays BETTER!
  • Gargle Blaster: Inui's juices are not alcoholic, but pretty much everyone on the team breaks out in a cold sweat at the thought of them, and even Fuji, who otherwise happily drinks anything Inui makes, passed out upon imbibing the "Aozu".
  • Gender Reveal: Tezuka mistakes Miyuki for a guy at first. Then, she drops her nice hat...
  • Generation Xerox: Kaidoh looks a lot like his father, Shibuki. So does his little brother Hazue. Hilarity Ensues when the three have breakfast together.
  • Genius Bruiser: Sadaharu Inui, Renji Yanagi, Genichirou Sanada, Choutarou Ohtori, Yuushi Oshitari, Munehiro Kabaji, Tetsu Ishida, Gin Ishida, Senri Chitose, Hiroshi Chinen. All of these guys are excellent tennis players... and over 180 cm tall. In fact, Kabaji is 193 cm tall.
  • Genius Ditz: Jirou Akutagawa.
  • Genki Girl: An, Tomoka, Kurumi
  • Girlish Pigtails: Tomoka and Miyuki.
  • Gratuitous English:
    • Ryoma's "Mada mada dane" is rendered on his speech bubbles as "You still have lots more to work on...".
    • Many characters frequently use English phrases as well. Some have named their tennis moves in English, e.g., "Moon Volley," "Laser Beam," and "Speed Bullet." Others use them regularly. For instance, Kawamura's BUUUUUUURNIIIING, BABYYYY!!!, and Sengoku's "Lucky."
    • Sengoku's Gratuitous English use is actually interesting. While he often says "lucky", he also uses minor phrases like "thank you". His pronunciation is slightly better than most others in the series, but he still claims that he is no good at English.
    • During the Invitational Members Arc, and even though the American players are supposed to be "Americans", they speak a very deformed version of English to both their opponents and to their fangirls, paparazzi, and coach, perhaps just to keep their "foreign" status for the viewers.
  • Handsome Lech: Kiyosumi Sengoku; his first apparition has him ogling the Seigaku female tennis team, and in the manga, that scares the crap out of them at first. Nanjirou also counted in his younger days, right before he hooked up with Rinko; he's more of a Lovable Sex Maniac now.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Jirou. Also Akaya Kirihara, in his very first appearance (he fell asleep on the bus while going to school and woke up near Seigaku). This is notable because Seigaku is in Tokyo, and Kirihara doesn't even live in Tokyo.
  • Heroic Resolve: In the middle of an informal tennis match that he was losing against a member of the Shishigaku tennis club, Tezuka finally overcomes his shoulder injury when his opponent aims a direct shot at his protegé, Miyuki, who is barely recovering from an Heroic BSoD.
  • Heroic RRoD: Tezuka.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Parodied during the yakiniku battle. Poor Shishido.
  • Hero Stole My Bike: Takeshi Momoshiro stole a bike to catch a purse-napper on roller skates. Problem is: the owner of the bike, his quick-as-lightning rival Akira Kamio, sees Momoshiro doing this and starts chasing him because he believes he has stolen his bike. The two then race to see who's the fastest, forgetting the purse-napper in the process. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Oishi and Eiji, Momoshiro and Echizen, Fuji and Tezuka (Ho Yay ahoy, some say). On the female side, Sakuno and Tomoka.
    • Shishido and Chotaro from Hyotei.
    • Yukimura and Sanada from Rikkaidai (goes hand in hand with Childhood Friends), as well as Nioh and Yagyuu.
  • Hippie Teacher: To a degree, Osamu Watanabe from Shitenhouji.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Mizuki, who was defeated in a very humiliating manner by Fuji after he treated his beloved younger brother Yuuta like an expendable pawn.
  • Horseback Heroism: Fuji's Big Damn Heroes moment in the 2011 movie has him leaping over a closed drawbridge on horseback in order to provide backup to Kite. Kite immediately lampshades the effect of such an entrance.
    Kite: "That was a sickeningly magnificent arrival, Fuji-kun."
  • Hot-Blooded: Kawamura when in Burning Mode, Momoshiro, Tomoka. Outside of Seigaku: Shishido and Mukahi (Hyoutei), Kirihara (Rikkaidai, mixing it with Blood Knight), Kamio (Fudomine) and Kintarou (Shitenhouji).
  • Hot for Teacher: Played with in Reiji Shinjou's obsessive loyalty to his coach, Aoi Hanamura. Hanamura herself practically ogles and fangirls her own pupils when she's in really high spirits, both in the Jousei and the Senbatsu arcs, though that's more of a Running Gag than anything.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: Atobe berates Tezuka for sacrificing his arm in his latest match against Yamato. Ahem, what was his plan during their first match?
  • Hypnotic Eyes: The New Prince of Tennis introduces Tsukimitsu Ochi, nicknamed "The Mental Assassin," who has an ability where he can control his opponents with his eyes. His eyes shake up Atobe so much that he begins to fault uncontrollably.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed:
    • Ryoma sometimes uses his left hand to play, when in fact he can use both. In this case it's I am not right-handed; Ryoma's a lefty who can play with either hand.
    • For some reason, it's a common trait for the players to be left-handed. Still, the opposing characters always have the same "Gasp!! He's left handed!!" reaction. Almost half of the cast is left handed, while approximately one quarter of the real-life population is, and some of them happen to be the best players besides Ryoma, such as Tezuka, Shiraishi, Chitose, Niou, Saeki, Zaizen, Fuji Yuuta, Mukahi Gakuto, Kite and Kai. While some have to be ambidextrous to a certain degree, in order to hit their backhand properly.
    • Similarly to Ryoma, Kai from Higa Chuu actually has one of these moments; up to a certain point of the game, he uses his right hand. Then he changes not only to his left, but also with a reversed "stabbing" grip!
  • The Idiot from Osaka: Kintarou (who's naive and seems to have problems when reading kanji, as well as having a very... *special* imagination), parodied/subverted by Hitouji and Konjiki (who play up the dumb stereotype to their advantage in the courts). Hilarity Ensues when they try it with Momoshiro and Kaidou.
  • Image Song: Literally hundreds of them, that keep being released ever since.
  • Important Haircut: Shishido, Tachibana. Atobe, later (although it can be considered subverted in this case, because the haircut doesn't change him and he has a wig made to look exactly like his old hair in a day or two, and Kabaji.
  • Improbable Age: These kids are good for a bunch of junior high schoolers, and the second and third years don't really look their age. This is actually a running joke within the series.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Common amongst many characters. Atobe's signature move is to knock the racquet out of other players' hands with the ball and have it return to him for a smash. Tezuka is able to hit a can with the ball, and have both of them ricochet to hit two more separated cans. Fuji can hit net balls with his eyes closed.
  • Inaction Sequence: During tennis matches.
  • Instant Fanclub: Subverted. Tomoka and Sakuno are the only stable members of the "Ryoma-sama Fan Club" and played straight with Atobe's, Wakato's, Oishi's and the Rikkai team's cheerleaders.
  • I Was Quite a Looker:
  • Jerkass: Akutsu, though he evolves into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold after the Yamabuki matches.
  • Jerk Jock: The Rikkaidai team skirts the line (though they're also made quite sympathetic), the Higa team crosses it per orders of their Evil Teacher.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Several characters—more specifically Ryoma, Atobe, post Yamabuki matches Akutsu, Shishido, Mukahi, anime!Kirihara (as well as Shin Tenipuri), Kevin and Kaidoh (though the latter can be argued to be a male Tsundere).
  • Keet: Jirou Akutagawa, Eiji Kikumaru (partially; he's taller, heavier and more mature than the usual Keet), Taichi Dan, Kintarou Tooyama, Mukahi Gakuto.
  • Knight Templar: The Rikkaidai players, who will stop at practically nothing to win.
  • Lampshade Hanging: During a The New Prince of Tennis chapter, Yamato comments on Tezuka's constant need to sacrifice himself for his team, complete with a montage of all the incidents. It's about time someone actually convinced him of his recklessness.
  • Large and in Charge: Played with. With the exception of Sanada from Rikkaidai, the captains and/or sub-captains rarely are the tallest in their teams. In fact, Kevin is both the shortest player and the captain of the American team.
    • Only partially. Akazawa of St. Rudolph is actually the tallest on his team, and still their captain. Though, when that is said, it's Mizuki who is their de facto leader.
    • Yamabuki and Fudomine also has questionable heights on their respective captains.
    • The main reason for this is probably those large power players every team so conveniently happens to have at least one of.
  • Lethal Chef: Sadaharu Inui. Subverted because it's voluntary (Inui Juice, anyone?).
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Nanjirou and Sengoku.
  • Master of Disguise: Hiroshi Yagyuu and Masaharu Niou. More the former than the latter, though (unexpectedly, since Niou is known as a trickster, but it's later revealed to be something Yagyuu does with at least one other character).
    • During Niou's match against Fuji during the Nationals arc, it is shown that his ability to impersonate others far exceeds those of any other copy player in the series, including Yagyuu. The OVA "Another Story" also shows that he can impersonate his team members perfectly, and independent of anyone else.
  • The Mentor: Tezuka's grandfather towards his grandson. Tezuka himself towards Echizen because he's always telling him to become Seigaku's pillar of support (particularly dramatic after his potentially career-ending injury in the match against Atobe, which forced him to temporarily leave his team to get treatment. Also, Tezuka towards Miyuki, and possibly the Rikkai Troika (Sanada, Yukimura, Yanagi—specially the latter) towards Kirihara.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Hilariously subverted with the Comedy Tennis that is the trademark of Koharu and Yuuji from Shitenhouji.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Comes with the Fanservice.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Yes, they exist! Aoi Hanamura is the biggest example, and so is Yumiko Fuji.
  • Mundane Made Awesome:
    • Tennis didn't look so awesome in real life.
    • Atobe's method of getting to school is by base jumping off a stealth bomber.
  • The Musical: Collectively referred to as "Tenimyu" by fans. The musicals focus on various arcs in the manga, but have differences. Female characters are omitted from the musicals and certain changes have been made to the stories.
  • My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: A lot of the characters, what with this being a sports series. Seigaku is often seen training, specially Kaidou, Momo and Kawamura. Fuji secretly develops his fourth and final counter when he realizes his "Triple Counter" won't be strong enough to win at Nationals. Hyoutei's Shishido's initial story arc was all about training to become stronger after being humiliated in a match against Fudomine's Tachibana. Atobe develops Koori no Sekai after Hyoutei's loss at the regional tournament.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Kirihara, during the match against Nagoya Seitoku.
  • No Sense of Direction: Sakuno, Kintarou.
  • Not a Morning Person: Ryoma.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity:
    • Nanjirou, who looks like a perverted, lazy monk with a stubble... until you ask him for a tennis match, where you can see that despite being retired for more than a decade, he's STILL a badass tennis player.
    • Mikiya Banda aka Banji from Yamabuki, who under his always smiling face, has a razor-sharp mind and admirable wits which STILL make Ryuzaki and Nanjirou mad after 25 years and have helped him outsmart Akutsu to make him join the team without getting a punch to the face.
  • Opposing Sports Team: Comes with the territory.
  • Parental Abandonment: Very curious case-by-case examples. See the entry for more info.
  • Pet the Dog: Kalpin, Echizen's cat, serves to humanize Echizen as he's shown to genuinely care for the animal. Kaidou, who's got the In-Universe nickname "The Viper", is the one who finds Kalpin when it wanders off and can be seen playing with it.
  • Playing Cyrano: Subverted. Momoshiro attempts more or less to have Ryoma notice Sakuno a bit more, but always fails.
  • Plucky Girl: Tomoka, An, Miyuki, Narumi.
  • Power of Trust: Zig-Zagged in a doubles match in The New Prince of Tennis. Marui is betrayed by Kite during their doubles match against Kimijima and Tohno, turning the match into a 3-on-1 situation. Then, it's revealed that the betrayal is a ruse set up at the suggestion of Kimijima to create an opening for Kite to put Tohno out of commission by attacking his right knee when the chance presents itself. Confused yet?
  • Power Trio: The Three Demons of Rikkai: Yukimura (Ego), Sanada (Id), Yanagi (Superego).
  • Pride Before a Fall: Shishido, Ryoma in the anime.
  • Recycled Premise: For all the Mini-arc competitions, as they have the basic structure (competition with a Gargle Blaster made by Inui, Ryoma is among the final survivors and most of them end up taking the penal-tea) with some differences:
    • The first one was the training chapter, where most of the regulars drank an Inui juice and most of them passed out (with only Fuji and Tezuka surviving it).
    • Then we got the Bowling Tournament, where everyone who failed would take a zip of Aozu (wich makes Fuji faint) and the losing team would drink an entire jug.
    • In the anime-only, the same happens, but with billiards. The only difference is that Fuji survives because he wanted revenge for the Aozu.
    • In the Beach-Volley Tournament, it happens again. The only difference is that Rokkaku joins the game.
    • Then we have the Yakiniku eating contest, where the table with the most eaters would win. Differences: There are four schools participating (Seigaku, Shitenhouji, Higa and Hyoutei).
    • And theeeen New Prince of Tennis gives us a "Pick-Up Girls competition", where the High schoolers and the Middle schoolers would compete to see wich group can flirt successfully. Each loser would have to eat onigiris made by Inui, Renji and Akuto.
  • Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Eiji and Oishi appear to have them when they "synchronize" in the courts. It gets parodied when Koharu and Yuuji appear to do it as well... only to end with their "synchro swimming" joke.
  • Rescue Romance: Parodied at the beginning. Ryoma didn't even know he was rescuing Sakuno from Sasabe: He's a Heavy Sleeper who, right then, only wanted his nap back.
    • His parents play it straight: Their relationship starts as Love at First Punch, only developing some more and going into Slap-Slap-Kiss when Nanjirou rescues Rinko from her abusive coach.
    • Averted with An and either Momo or Kamio. The guys rescue her from having to date Atobe, but there's no Relationship Upgrade with any of them.
  • Retired Badass: Nanjirou, despite being younger than the standard. In fact, Nanjirou was only a match away from winning Wimbledon and earning a Grand Slam when he decided to retire to be able to teach Ryoma tennis.
  • Rule of Cool: Was always present in Po T, but come New Prince of Tennis, no one knows how to act. Lets see, there's torture techniques, players that rally 10 balls at once, a guy that uses TWO RACKETS, and that's just scratching the surface.
  • Running Gag: A regular running late whenever Seigaku is under a deadline to sign up for a tournament, which is lampshaded by Eiji and Momo during the signups for the Kanto tournament.
    • Lampshading the fact that all of the main cast are supposed to be middle schoolers.
  • Say My Name: "Echizen!" "Echizen!!" "Echizen!" "Ryoma-kun!" "Echizen!" "Ochibi!" "ECHIZEEEEN!"
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Inui, Yagyuu, sometimes also Tezuka and Oshitari.
  • Screen-to-Stage Adaptation: The first installment of Tenimyu back in 2003 was the first of a ridiculously popular series of musical adaptations of the manga. Each consecutive musical focuses on the matches against each of the rival teams that Seigaku faces, and is surprisingly faithful to the original story. To date, Tenimyu has had over a dozen different installments, several Dream Lives (concerts that are outside the sequence of the story), and has helped launch the careers of a plethora of Japanese pop-culture idols.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Played with, inverted, played straight, etc. in a case by case situation with the doubles teams.
  • Serial Escalation: The special tennis moves become increasingly more improbable as the series progresses.
    • Then there's this. It's so over the top the creator of the manga laughed his ass off at the scene.
  • Serious Business: Who knew the world of Japanese middle-school tennis was so competitive? Taken to even more serious extremes in the sequel, New Prince of Tennis, where the strongest of the strongest players use what is called "Inter-Dimensional Tennis," a surreal, unexplainable style of play which revolves around shots that can literally shatter walls, summoning illusionary creatures such as pirate demons, creating black holes, and using an infinite number of tennis balls. And all this in a series where, at one time, the most dangerous thing to worry about was a kid who can take away your five senses.
  • Shorttank: Tomoka and Kurumi in the anime. Rinko was one when she was younger.
  • She's a Man in Japan: The So Bad, It's Good Latin-American dub flips the gender of Jousei Shounan's Tanaka twins. Yeah, both of them are very girly looking, but...
  • Ship Tease: And how. Played up more in the anime and side materials. They certainly know their current fanbase.
  • Shout-Out: In The New Prince of Tennis, Marui nicknames Kite "Kiteretsu."
  • Shrinking Violet: Sakuno, in the anime.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Kite and Rin, on Saotome-sensei.
  • Sixth Ranger: Chitose for Shitenhouji, Hiyoshi for Hyoutei, Kirihara for Rikkai and Ryoma for Seigaku (although both Kirihara and Ryoma are completely assimilated, with Ryoma obviously being the Designated Hero).
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss: Tomoka and Horio seem to be a pre-teen, G-rated version of this trope. Before they got married, Rinko and Nanjirou's relationship also was like this.
  • Smug Snake: Mizuki, Kite, Saotome-sensei
  • Snow Means Love: Invoked for Ho Yay value. Tezuka finds Fuji once waiting for him outside an hospital, and so as they speak about the upcoming tournaments, snow starts falling down on them, so Fuji covers both of them with his red umbrella as they go home. Needless to say, the Tezuka/Fuji fans had a field day.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Syuichirou, Shuuichirou, Syuitirou... Let's just settle with Oishi, mmmmmkay?
    • Don't even get me started on Syusuke. Or would that be spelled Shusuke? Shuusuke? Syuusuke? HMM.
  • Stern Teacher: Ryuuzaki, Hanamura (when she's not in fangirl mode), and Sakaki from Hyoutei.
  • The Stoic: Tezuka (there's a reason why the infamous Robo Zuka doujinshi series exists). Sanada tries to be stoic, but loses his temper far too often to really qualify.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Ryoma and Yanagi, in the anime.
  • Super-Deformed: The chibi episodes.
  • Tag Along Kid: All the First-Year students that are not Ryoma or Aoi Kentaro.
  • Team Dad: Ojii. Tezuka and Sanada counts as much younger versions.
  • Team Mom: Again, Oishi. You don't get the "Mother of Seigaku" nickname in canon for anything, don't you? And he's not the only one: Jackal Kuwahara from Rikkaidai is also Team Mom for his team, having to frequently take care of Kirihara.
    • Also, Ryuuzaki-sensei sometimes acted like a surrogate mother for her pupils.
  • Three Plus Two/Two Girls to a Team: The Seigaku First-Year Tagalong Kids, consisting of Horio, Kachiro and Katsuo and Tomoka and Sakuno.
  • Tiger Versus Dragon: In the anime episode 176, Tezuka vs Fuji match. Tezuka's shot is briefly compared visually to a dragon, while Fuji's return is compared to a tiger. Blink and you'll miss it.
  • Token Trio: In New Prince of Tennis, we get the new Ichinen Trio, composed of Horio (Seigaku), Dan (Yamabuki) and Urayama (Rikkaidai), the last two replacing Kachiro and Katsuo.
  • Tournament Arc: Nationals, pre-Nationals.
  • Training from Hell: Parodied with the methods devised by Ryuuzaki-sensei and Inui; the training itself is normal, but if one or more of the players fail to accomplish it, they're forced to drink revulsive concoctions prepared by Inui as punishment. These "juices" are so infamous that the whole Seigaku team (except for Fuji, but then again he's got *interesting* tastes) is terrified of failure because of them.
  • Troubled, but Cute: Echizen and Kirihara.
    • Kevin Smith in the Anime fillers.
  • Tsundere: Tomoka "Tomo-chan" Osakada. Gushy and fangirly towards Ryoma, sweet and protective towards Sakuno, spunky and straightforward towards everyone else, and Slap-Slap-Kiss-y towards Horio.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: An, Momo and Kamio.
  • Tyke-Bomb: Kirihara and to some degree Kevin.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: In canon, Akira Kamio in regards to his crush on An Tachibana. In yaoi fanfics, either Yanagi or Saeki.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Kirihara (more exactly, his Devil Mode) and formerly Tachibana. Subverted in the latter's case since Tachibana doesn't use violence anymore after he almost caused Chitose to lose an eye.
  • Victory by Endurance: The bout between Kaoru vs. Ryoma. Kaoru's tennis style is to force his opponent to run from one side of the court to the other, making them too tired to return his volleys. Ryoma turns this around on him by forcing him to keep his knees bent during the whole game, using up twice as much endurance, instead.
    • Kaidou himself often wins matches by outlasting his opponents, specially when playing doubles with Inui; he often plays the opponent pair on his own, while Inui collects data on them. One notable example of this strategy achieving victory was against Hyoutei's Mukahi & Hiyoshi team in the Nationals.
    • A favorite tactic of Atobe. His match with Tezuka ends up in a 37–35 point tiebreak (tiebreaks usually are to 7 points), and his match with Ryoma later in the series goes to 117–119. This tactic gets reversed on him by Irie in Shin Prince of Tennis, where their tiebreak goes to 187–187.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Mizuki has a spectacular one in the Saint Rudolph arc.
  • Wax On, Wax Off: In The New Prince of Tennis, Mifune sends Tanishi, Kenya, and Ryoma on a "special mission" to get more sake for him, which Kenya twice lampshades as being completely irrelevant to tennis. Despite this, he later reflects that navigating the cave and maneuvering through the laser tripwires during the errand actually helped improve his terrible balance.
  • We Meet Again: When Seigaku run into Higa Chuu in Osaka, as the latter are stuck there because they have no money to get back home.
  • Wild Card Excuse: Ryoma's excuse for being late: "I was helping a pregnant woman to the hospital." Later in the story, Oishi makes the same excuse, but he is actually telling the truth.
  • The Worf Effect: There are at least a few characters that designated for defeats.
    • The Golden Pair is touted as one of the best doubles pairs in the series, but has had some critical losses against more determined opponents.
    • The Fudomine team starts out as one of Seigaku's first formidable rivals in series (and an underdog to boot), but loses to Rikkaidai and Shitenhouji when things get rolling.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: See what happens when either Sakuno, Miyuki, or An are threatened by bullies.

Alternative Title(s): The Prince Of Tennis

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