Surprisingly, the “Prince of Tennis” franchise that started back in 1999 with the first manga volume, still continues, with the latest animated movie coming out in 2021, adding yet another notch to the anime series, musicals, OVAs, live-action movies, video games, dramas and radio shows that form the legacy of this iconic title. “Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis” is set between the end of The Prince of Tennis manga and the start of The New Prince of Tennis manga and is presented in 3DCG.
Los Angeles based film distribution and production company, Eleven Arts, has announced that tickets are now on sale for nationwide screenings of RYOMA! THE PRINCE OF TENNIS <DECIDE>, presented in partnership with Iconic Events Releasing and Anime Expo®, the nation’s premiere anime fan convention, for its inaugural AX Cinema Nights on May 12, 2022.
Eleven Arts also announced today their plans to release an original English dub of RYOMA! THE PRINCE OF TENNIS <DECIDE>. Fans of the long-established franchise can watch both versions of the film (original Japanese audio with English subtitles and original English audio) at more than 250 participating theaters in cities across the U.S.
This time, Ryoma finds himself in the US for training, provoked by the success of his father, Samurai Nanjirou, who had won the US tennis championship in the past. His classmate Sakumo also happens to travel to the same location with her parents, with the two eventually meeting up, although not exactly under favorable circumstances. See, Sakuno, as she was chasing Ryoma who had not gotten wind of her presence, stumbled upon some tennis street thugs, who bully her, considering her defenseless. Ryoma, however, appears at that moment and accepts a tennis match against the villains to save her. Through the intense battle, the shock of two ramming tennis balls results in a time vacuum, which ends up with Ryoma and Sakumo going back in time, decades ago, when Samurai Nanjirou played his last match in the US. As soon as they realize what happened, the two of them try to meet up with Ryoma’s father, in a series of events that ends up with them hanging out with his family, including his child version. However, the Americans are not willing to allow Nanjirou to win the game and to do so, decide to kidnap his child to blackmail him to lose. By mistake, though, they end up with Sakuno. Now Ryoma needs to save his friend in order to allow his father to play the game fair and square.
Allow me to start with some prerequisites about enjoying the movie. For starters, some knowledge about the whole franchise is needed, although it is not exactly a restrictive factor. Secondly, a knack for 3DCG is a necessity, as in the case with some recent releases like the new “Ghost in the Shell” series, since no part of the movie is hand-drawn, as most people have gotten used to watching their anime. Thirdly, the story and the overall aesthetics point towards a movie chiefly addressed to children, since, despite a number of action sequences, there are very few elements here that could appeal to adults, with the PG13 approach being quite evident, also in the overall story. Thirdly, a knack for J-pop and musicals will definitely help, since the movie includes a number of these moments throughout the 100 minutes of its duration.
Apart from these elements, there are some that could have a more universal appeal. To begin with, the way the tennis games are portrayed as battles works quite nicely, in a series of sequences that also highlight the job done in the animation by The Monk Studios and Keica with cooperation by Studio Kai. The enthusiasm of Ryoma for meeting his father in his prime is also another nice element within the narrative, with the same applying to his relationship with Sakumo, which starts transforming here. The coloring and the detail of the backgrounds are also on a high level, even more so in the music video scenes, which present a nice antithesis with a number of battles, which are darker and border on the noir. Lastly, Emerald emerges as a rather intriguing character, somewhere between the villain and the victim, and is also the most impressively drawn one.
On the other hand, the story is quite cliched on a number of levels, and chiefly addresses younger fans of action adventures, for the most part at least.
Not much more to say, if you fulfill the prerequisites mentioned, at least most of them, there is much fun to be found in “Ryoma! Prince of Tennis!” If not, you will find very few things to enjoy here.
