My Stage

TITLE Tennis no Ouji-sama (Prince of Tennis)
ORIGINAL WORK Konomi Takeshi
RUNNING DATE April 30-May 5, 2003

A not-so-brief history of how my interest landed into this amazing masterpiece:

I started watching Prince of Tennis anime in 2005 and I fell in love with it instantly. Actually, it's all because of TeniPuri that I met my best friend in 2007, and we've been the biggest TeniPuri nerds in our school back then.

Because of my growing curiosity about this particular anime, I started researching about everything related to TeniPuri--from voice actors up to the live action movie. That was in 2008. Since I found Hongo Kanata to be a handsome young man and almost a spitting image of Echizen Ryoma, I decided to watch the live action. Again, I researched about the actors and I was confused because there were a lot of actors' names that came up (Yanagi Kotarou and Endo Yuuya, especially). That was when I found out that there's actually a musical for TeniPuri.

BUT! I didn't watch it yet since one, I was still addicted to the movie adaptation and two, I thought that it was weird for a sports anime to have a stage play version. I had several questions like "How are they supposed to play tennis in that small space?!", "Are those actors real-life tennis players?", and "How about the ball? What if one of the viewers got hit?". I immediately lost interest. But then, since I have lots of friends in Facebook who are also addicted to Prince of Tennis, I would read several posts about TeniMyu. One friend of mine actually stated that TeniMyu graduations make her cry. I had no idea I'd experience the same.

ANYWAY! Finally in 2012, I suddenly had the urge to watch TeniMyu for a reason I can't remember. And I knew that I made a great decision in watching this musical.

So, here's my first impression as far as I remember.


The line that started it all



It was a little overwhelming to see the regulars in 2.5 dimension. I never would have thought that I'd see them in this form. During this time, I still had some doubts if these actors would be able to play their characters well. But the problem about the ball was solved immediately. :)


Ichinen Trio's entrance!

Even the ichinen trio were so amazing! While they carry a little role (maybe a bit big in terms of cheering XD) in the anime/manga, I think Ishibashi Yuusuke, Hotta Masaru, and Toyonaga Toshiyuki were able to give an outstanding aura off a minor character's role. I was surprised that these three carried Horio, Kachirou, and Katsuo very well.

Aaaand, the introduction of first cast Seigaku regulars!


Gomoto Naoya as Kaidou Kaoru


Aoyama Souta as Inui Sadaharu


Moriyama Eiji as Momoshiro Takeshi


Yamazaki Ichitarou as Kikumaru Eiji


Abe Yoshitsugu as Kawamura Takashi


Kimeru as Fuji Syuusuke


Tsuchiya Yuuichi as Ooishi Shuuichirou


Takigawa Eiji as Kunimitsu Tezuka



Sadly, this part of TeniPuri has never been repeated in the history of TeniMyu. Arai's character would have made a lot of gags in the play. Er, actually, unlike in the last two seasons, this very first musical of TeniMyu focused on Ryoma's match with Kaidou and Inui, or how Ryoma was able to snatch a position of a regular.

And yes, I miss Arai a little. :D His actor was really great at portraying him, too!



And once again, the mystery of the ball!

Actually, as part of my thesis, I included TeniMyu in my essays, and some of my classmates were pretty surprised when I told them (rather, shared) that the lights were used as an effect for tennis balls. I guess I'm not the only one. But really, clever way of using lights to show that any sports anime however impossible to present the primary materials present in the anime sports (I'm looking at you, YowaPeda) can be on stage as well. :D



And by this, I was intrigued by Moriyama Eiji. He can do acrobatics too, and was very good excellent at playing Momo. Soooo, I looked at his profile and was really surprised when I found out that he is Ibu Shinji's voice actor.

There was one time when I was watching TeniPuri Perfect Live (a seiyuu event for TeniPuri), I noticed this guy who's the most handsome among the other seiyuu(s). And yep, it turns out that the "guy who's the most handsome among the other seiyuu(s)" is none other than MoriEi.

Maybe, being able to witness how Onosaka Masaya voiced Momo was one of the key factors why until this day, in my opinion, no one can beat Moriyama Eiji as the best Momo in season one.



And there goes one of my favorite actors in TeniMyu.

At first, I noticed his voice. Among the others, Kimeru sang properly and he had this aura like Fuji. Turns out Kimeru-sama is a singer and sang "You Got Game" as TeniPuri's first ending theme.

Also, the song he sang here is "The Regulars", one of my favorite TeniMyu songs. It's all because of him why I fell in love with this composition.



Aaaaaand finally, one of the main events: Ryoma's match with Kaidou!

It was short and sweet, maybe because the play's real highlight is the match with other teams. :D


Intermission songs before Ryoma's match with Inui

To lower the tension, these refreshing songs were really good, especially "Kimi to Nakama de Yokatta".



Aaaaand, the match with Inui. Like with Kaidou, this match was short and only showed the most important scenes and realizations from both characters.

My own realization is that I think that first cast Seigaku is the best among the rest. In terms of acting, almost everyone nailed their own characters.

BONUS:


Kimeru's live performance of "You Got Game" that had the fans screaming