Tennis no oujisama

Based on a comic by Takashi Konomi, Prince of Tennis is a story about Ryoma Echizen who's a child prodigy tennis player returning home to Japan from USA.

The story is comic all the way. It's not comical, but it's filled with impossible "shots" fired by the tennis players. The ball moves as if they had a life of their own, supposedly "controlled" by the players. Japanese comic has tradition of super athletes like this beginning with Tetsuya Chiba's base ball saga "Chikai No Makyu" in the '60s. This is yet another version of super athlete that can transform the ball into a magic "bullet".

The movie is a good translation from the comic, and each of the players are presented in a believable fashion. It seems that they were expecting to make a sequel from the way the movie ended, but maybe the movie didn't perform well at the box office, and the idea was canned.

Sayuri Iwata and Yu Shirota puts in a good performance. Sayuri Iwata's role is one invented for this movie, and does not appear in the original comic.

The story is bit weak, but the action between the players are entertaining to watch. It's a good intro movie for the Prince of Tennis saga.

I know this is a popular anime or comic in Japan or maybe other places too but when watching the anime, I felt it was quite slow, with slow moving hits. I never read the comic too. So when watching this live-action movie, I had no idea what I am for. I enjoyed the movie, I like the effects the movie used when hitting the tennis ball. I had fun! I had no idea that this would be interesting, now I know why it is popular in Japan. I heard some people say that the live-action movie did not follow the anime or the comic, hard to say but you try watching some live-action movies adapted from the comic or either the anime, they cannot follow exactly the story or the looks of the characters. I always watch live-action movies adapted, it is great fun. After watching this, I am hoping for a part two, I never read the comic but I know that the director still have a lot of things to film. Maybe they are working on it or the ratings were low so they decided not to make another one.

Either you are a fan of prince of tennis or a newcomer, you should watch it and from the effects, it totally blast me off by the way they are playing. Now the Japanese are making almost all their comic into live-action. Some live-action movies are coming and they look great. Should they make a part two? Depending on the appeal of fans. I had great time watching this so it may suit up to your taste. You can catch the DVD in Singapore.