Cheating~

Okay okay okay, I know that I set deadlines for myself. I promised I'd only wok on three at a time. But this is something, well, special.

I'm talking about the latest Prince of Tennis OVA, Prince of Tennis: Another Story. Basically, it's all a bunch of stories and blurbs about some of the teams and their adventures, past and present. I'll combine both episodes into one, to save space.

I should warn anyone who is not a fan, the series has dissolved into crack. The anime was always a bit strange, and was, well, a little different from its older brother, the manga. The animation was so-so, with a lot of glaring anatomy errors, and a lot of the colors looked sun-drenched, a usual sign that the target audience is trying to appeal to the younger, uneducated crowd. This backfired, however, because I don't think anyone told these guys that light pastel colors and sweaty young boys attracts girls.

Yes, Prince of Tennis has been absolutely ravished by fangirls. Not the manga, no the manga is most definitely a Shonen, most specifically a Sports Manga. The anime has a bit of a different style than the main artist's though, which makes things a bit softer, a little more realistic, and, frankly, a lot cuter. It should be noted that the name Prince of Tennis is a translation of テニスの王子様,, or Tenisu no Ōjisama. It should also also be noted that the common acronym for Prince of Tennis is not PT, as normal, but PoT. Pot. Drugs. This should tell you something riiiiiiight away.

(By the way, this is also a subject of focus at CrackPoT, an amazing sight, sadly in a bit of disrepair, but treasurable nonetheless. It has avatars, journals, better episode reviews that I could ever do [with pictures!] and a beautiful two week long analysis of my favorite fanon(canon), Golden Pair.

Pairings?! You don't mean, slash, do you?
Whai yesh I do!
Alright, quit your stating, this is where we get down to the facts.
The anime is a harem. A bishonen harem. Heaven for fangirls. Each opponent the main team faces is fully fleshed out, with each school having a distinct personality, style, and full eight man team. Quite an accomplishment, really. There's about eight or so schools, and, in addition to extras, that's about 80 characters. I think I'll let this page do the talking:

Out of over 80 characters in Prince of Tennis, there are approximately 6320 pairings.
If you take uke and seme roles into consideration, that makes around 12640. (CrackPoT Crack Pairings Generator)

Yes dearies, that many.
It's a show about boys tennis teams, and there are a grand total of six girls in the series. A couple of them are only alluded to, and mos are oneshot characters. No, wait, none of them are actually pivotal to the story, they're all side characters.
Now tell me how many of those pairings are heterosexual.
And NOW maybe you see why the series is ridiculously popular. The manga is a shonen, the anime is a shojou. Surrounded by an infinite army of hot guys, of every type, kitch, and moe out there. Everyone has their favorites. Mine are Kikumaru, Fuji, Tezuka, Oshitari, and a couple others. There is an equally sizable army of Mary-sues and Original Characters parading around on fanfiction.net.
One unique thing about the fandom, though, is the name for all these pairings. Most are doubles teams, and easily the most famous is the Golden Pair, Kikumaru Eiji and Ooishi Syuichiro. For each pairing, however, there's another cute nickname. Other ones that come to mind are Pillar Pair, Dream Pair, Platinum Pair, Silver Pair, Bronze Pair, Tango Pair, Thrill Pair, Emerald Pair, Perfect Pair, Dirty Pair, and Rhythm Pair. And that's just the canon (Let's assume canon is doubles pairs. When fans refer to these, they're usually the ones with pairings.) If you don't include the manga, games, OVAs, and, yes, even the dating sims. If you want a complete list, please direct your attention to here. Yes, this is the Fan History Wiki page. Please note the actual amount dedicated to pairings. I'm sorry, but it's like they wanted this to happen. And the subbers and scanlation teams are in on it! If you have a free moment, go seatch youtube for Prince of Tennis: Truth Behind the Genius. Please note how seamlessly everything is; you believe the dialogue.

If you ever want to see the full extent, just go to fanfiction.net, go to anime, Prince of Tennis, and set the filters to accept anything, but only display things rated M+. The number is staggering. Don't even worry about filing to romance or drama or angst, because it's all there. At last count, 1013. 733 is just romance. This category is the reason FF.net needs to implement a smut category.

The funny part is, there is only one actual homosexual pairing. in the entire series. And they're used for comic relief.

It has an unusually unique fanbase, too. There are several popular people on deviantART who are alumni of PoT fangirlism. Several writers, too. It is the only series I can find so far with a massive Dream Novel system.
If you don't know already, a dream novel is kind of like a dating sim story mixed with a bit of mad libs. The reader picks a PoT character, enters a name and any names you might want to stick your friends (or rivals) in, and you have a nice little custom story. And no, these aren't just some more perversions from Japan, a lot of these are from The US or GB. If you want to look around, I suggest TeniYume, which could translate to Dreams of Tennis. Admittedly, they swallowed up a lot of the older sites, so they'll have the most stories. Look around in links if you want more.

And now, my own confessions.
Yes, I am a fangirl. I love both the manga, in every way I can, for its shonen-riffic storyline. I love the anime for its absolute absurdity, and the way it takes itself far too seriously. And all the funny noises that happen in a tennis match. I love the animated movie, especially for this:



Yes, Tezuka killed the dinosaurs. I love the OVAs for giving it the levels of seriousness and crack, leveling it out, and giving it the quality of animation it should have had all along. I love the musicals, the plays, the dramas, the live action movies, and everything else.

Anyways, I hope someone out there can enjoy these reviews, which'll be coming soon. Note I won't do the entire series, because it's essentially all arcs, but I may do a couple general reviews and reference it from time to time. But this OVA is the best so far and I hope that people see it.

By the way, want to hear the story of Jamie, an american artist on the Prince of Tennis manga team? Follow her blog here for a really sweet blog about Tokyo life! It'd one of my favorite feeds!