Film Review: Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis <Decide>

By J.D. Kelly

​Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis is the newest film entry in The Prince of Tennis franchise overseen by series creator Takeshi Konomi. It will be coming to theaters beginning on May 12 as the first title in the "AX Cinema Nights" series of theatrical releases by way of Eleven Arts, in partnership with Iconic Events Releasing and Anime Expo. We caught it ahead of the release to let you know if you should go check it out!

For the uninitiated, The Prince of Tennis is a story about Ryoma Echizen, tennis prodigy and son of former pro player “Samuari” Nanjiro Echizen. At the start of the series, he joins the Seishun Academy (Seigaku) tennis team. The manga starts somewhat realistic for a sports manga that has middle schoolers playing at professional levels but by the end of the original manga, the series becomes something closer to Tennis Ball Z with one player having a serve so powerful that it launches his opponent into the stands.  If you enjoy that level of silliness, I think you’ll enjoy this film like I did.

This movie takes place between the ending of The Prince of Tennis manga and the start of The New Price of Tennis sequel manga. Ryoma Echizen is in America to perfect his skills and thanks to a set of coincidences, gets caught up in a plot to rig a tennis tournament. The plot is fairly thin, leaving a lot of questions unanswered, and mostly serves to move the characters from tennis match to tennis match with the occasional song in between if not during the match.

For the uninitiated, The Prince of Tennis is a story about Ryoma Echizen, tennis prodigy and son of former pro player “Samuari” Nanjiro Echizen. At the start of the series, he joins the Seishun Academy (Seigaku) tennis team. The manga starts somewhat realistic for a sports manga that has middle schoolers playing at professional levels but by the end of the original manga, the series becomes something closer to Tennis Ball Z with one player having a serve so powerful that it launches his opponent into the stands.  If you enjoy that level of silliness, I think you’ll enjoy this film like I did.

This movie takes place between the ending of The Prince of Tennis manga and the start of The New Price of Tennis sequel manga. Ryoma Echizen is in America to perfect his skills and thanks to a set of coincidences, gets caught up in a plot to rig a tennis tournament. The plot is fairly thin, leaving a lot of questions unanswered, and mostly serves to move the characters from tennis match to tennis match with the occasional song in between if not during the match.

Did I forget to mention that this is a musical? It is. Like with the stage musicals, every big tennis match is accompanied by a musical number. From the first number covering Ryoma’s final match of the original series to the final match of the movie, I found all of the songs and the accompanying sequences to be very catchy and well animated. They do contribute to the inherent silliness of the movie I mentioned earlier but in a charming way giving us chances to see the usually coolheaded Ryoma at the most excited I ever remember seeing him.

This is the first 3D animated installment in the series handled by The Monk Studios and Keica. The Monk Studios has previous work assisting with 3D animation and simulations on movies like Rango and Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild but this seems to be their first film as a lead studio. The overall style is serviceable. All of the characters are recognizable in 3D and give the tennis matches a great sense of energy and motion. It’s not as good as Lupin III: The First but it’s also not as bad Berserk (2016) at its worst.

The new additions to the cast do a great job. Romi Park plays Emerald, the daughter of a mafia head involved with the scandal. Her performance gives Emerald the right amount of toughness, fairness and a passion for tennis. Her song with Ryoma during their tennis match is one of if not the catchiest in the film. In addition, Tomokazu Sugita delivers another excellent comedic performance as Wolf, one of Emerald’s three lackies who serve as comic relief.

Sadly, I have yet to watch the dub of the film but from what I can tell, it is dubbed with the same cast as the newest Sound Cadence dub available on Crunchyroll rather than the old Viz dub cast, or an entirely new one. So, if you enjoy the new dub of the series, you will likely enjoy the dub of the film as well.

It seems there is supposed to be another cut of the film to accompany this. This cut is called “<Decide>” and focuses on the Seigaku team captain Tezuka and the Rikkai captain Yuimkura as support for Ryoma while the other cut “<Glory>” seems to focus on the captains of the Hyoutei and Shitenhouji teams Atobe and Shiraishi, respectively. I wonder if any of the questions I still have would be answered by watching the other cut.

The plot is thin leaving a lot of unanswered questions that I can’t really discuss without going into spoiler territory and serving just as a way to keep things moving up to the final match. But, the catchy songs and the classic, somewhat ridiculous Prince of Tennis tennis survives the leap to 3D. In conclusion, this is a good film but it may not be good for new fans of the series especially ones that are looking for a grounded tennis anime.

TL;DR: An enjoyable movie but might not be suited for people new to the series.

Overall Rating: B

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Ryoma: The Prince of Tennis <Decide> is coming to theaters beginning May 12 as part of "AX Cinema Nights" in both subbed and dubbed versions. Tickets can be reserved via the link below. (Dates vary by city and theatre.)

Ticketing Link: https://princeoftennismovie.com

You can view both the subbed and dubbed trailers below.

Sub Trailer

Dub Trailer