Beat the cheats on the court

The Prince of Tennis (DVD)

Great news for The Prince of Tennis fans: a new 13-episode original video animation (OAV) mini-series is now available on DVD. The Japanese title is Tennis no Ohijisama - Zenkoku Taikai Hen and is produced by Marvelous Entertainment and Production I.G., who made the original 178-episode-long television series.

Every member of the Seigaku School tennis club is back - the ever-cool captain Tezuka, Inui and his awful tasting health drinks, Fuji and his triple counters, the basketball player like Momo with his dunk smash, Kaido with his boomerang snake return and, of course, our show's star, the prince of tennis, Echizen Ryoma.

The story picks up from where the television series ended with Seigaku School's tennis team attending the opening ceremony of the Japanese National High School Championships. Fifteen-year-old Echizen, who won the US Open against Lleyton Hewitt, has just made his surprise return.

In this first episode, we are introduced to Higa Middle School from Okinawa. These students are nasty and full of themselves. Their first match is against Rokkaku.

The Higa player, exposed for using martial arts techniques in his game, knocks a tennis ball into the Rokkaku coach's eye so hard, the elderly man falls off his bench. The Rokkaku team help their coach to hospital, leaving their last singles player on the court. He has to finish his match alone, without support.