The Prince of Tennis, Volume 2

by Takeshi Konomi, Takeshi Konomi (Artist)

Overview

A tennis prodigy leads his handsome tennis club to victory at the national tournament.

Four-time consecutive U.S. Junior tournament champ Ryoma Echizen comes to Seishun Academy to further his reign as The Prince of Tennis. His skill is matched only by his attitude—irking some but impressing all as he leads his team to the Nationals and beyond!

Ryoma Echizen, the Prince of Tennis, has just enrolled at Seishun Academy after spending several years in America winning 4 consecutive US Junior Tournaments. His cool confidence raises the hackles of a few older students on the tennis team, and they challenge him to a game—but none of them even comes close to his skill and level of play. Now intramural matches to determine the starting members of the team for the upcoming city tournament are about to begin, and even though the rules don't allow 7th graders to play in tournaments, the captain has arranged for Ryoma to enter the ranking matches. Does he have what it takes to truly deserve the title Prince of Tennis? Find out in this amazing tennis manga!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591164364
Publisher:	VIZ Media LLC
Publication date:	06/16/2004
Series:	Prince of Tennis Series , #2
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	479,021
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	12 - 15 Years

About the Author

Takeshi Konomi exploded onto the manga scene with the incredible The Prince of Tennis. His refined art style and sleek character designs proved popular with Weekly Shonen Jump readers, and The Prince of Tennis became the number one sports manga in Japan almost overnight. Its cast of fascinating male tennis players attracted legions of female readers even though it was originally intended to be a boys' comic. The manga continues to be a success in Japan and has inspired a hit anime series, as well as several video games and mountains of merchandise.

Editorial Reviews

This popular sports manga explores the difference between practiced technique and innate power. Ryoma is a former U.S. junior tennis champion who attends a Japanese academy, where his skill and natural talent make him nearly unbeatable. The younger students are inspired by him, but he's ruffling the feathers of the older tennis team members. Then the journalists appear, trying to discover the next champion, adding to the pressure. There's lots of tennis action, dramatically illustrated, and the characters, already pretty boys, are made even more attractive with their intensity. Stamina and strategy are significant, with occasional digressions from the story to teach particular moves. One of Ryoma's competitors succeeds with a scary special trick shot; another spends a lot of preparation time predicting his opponent's moves by watching tapes of his play. But Ryoma always manages to figure out his opponents' weaknesses and beat them. There's much more action than characterization, and without careful attention, it's hard to keep the different players straight. The sports manga genre is known for long sequences of sports action that can go on for hundreds of pages; here the matches are shorter, making this a better introduction. It's captivating in small doses, although Ryoma's battle to demonstrate his mastery drives another 20-plus volumes. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly