Ryoma Echizen, whose father could have been one of Japans greatest tennis player except for his unfortunate injury returns to Japan and enrols in the Seishun Academy, a school well known for its focus on athletic prowess, the return is not without its problems as the prodigy Ryoma must prove his tennis qualities against all comer. Having played against seniors and beaten them the captain of the tennis team enters Ryoma into the intramural matches, which, will determine who goes forward into the upcoming City tournament...

The Prince of Tennis: Volume Two, story and art by Takeshi Konomi, continues this highly successful sport based manga. You can tell it’s a sports manga as the first sixty-two pages consisted of a tennis match and its accompanied banter. Forget plot, forget character development, were talking wall to wall tennis people. You then get a small pause before you’re back into the tennis. Tennis junkies’ line up now as this is the manga for you.

This sort of thing is the bane of any critic, when nothing happens, there’s nothing to comment on. All the characters stand around and spout such deep and meaningful drivel like “... There’s no ball that can’t be returned” - I’m pretty sure that those were my first wife’s parting words - and “I lose everyday” which is the retort I wished I’d used at the time.

Be that as it may the art work remains good and the matches are depicted dynamically, but I can’t help but admit that unless you’re really into tennis, this manga is as interesting as watching paint dry.

3

Charles Packer