List of The Prince of Tennis characters

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It has been suggested that Ryoma Echizen, Shusuke Fuji, Eiji Kikumaru, Shuichiro Oishi and Takashi Kawamura (fiction) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

The Prince of Tennis manga and anime series has a large cast of fictional characters created by Takeshi Konomi, many of whom have also appeared in the adaptations of the story such as the musicals and films. The cast of the series is largely made up of the members of the various tennis teams for the schools portrayed in the series, as well as their coaches and various family members and supporters.

The main character of the series is Ryoma Echizen, a 12 year old tennis prodigy who joins the Seishun Academy tennis team at the beginning of the series. The main cast is rounded out with the other 8 regular players for Seishun, all of whom have various special abilities at playing tennis. Beyond them, there are many rival schools whose players reappear during the course of the series.

Contents 1 Protagonists 1.1 Ryoma Echizen 1.2 Kunimitsu Tezuka 1.3 Shusuke Fuji 1.4 Shuichiro Oishi 1.5 Eiji Kikumaru 1.6 Takashi Kawamura 1.7 Sadaharu Inui 1.8 Takeshi Momoshiro 1.9 Kaoru Kaidoh 1.10 Sumire Ryuzaki 2 Opponents 2.1 Fudomine 2.2 St. Rudolph 2.3 Yamabuki 2.4 Hyotei Academy 2.5 Josei Shonan 2.6 Rokkaku 2.7 Rikkai 2.8 Shitenhoji 2.9 Higa 2.10 American team 3 Others 4 Reception 5 Merchandise 6 References

Protagonists

The protagonists of the series all attend Seishun Academy (青春学園, Seishun Gakuen^?), or Seigaku (青学^?) for short. It is a school famous for its talented tennis club, thus the series' leading protagonist, Ryoma Echizen, is enrolled into the school by his father, Nanjiro Echizen, a former professional tennis player and also a former student of Seigaku. Although Seigaku is well known for their tennis skills in the past, the absence of Nanjiro Echizen throws the team into somewhat of a slump, leaving them unable to make it to Nationals over the next several years until a first year, Tezuka, joins the Regulars. The team slowly reforms, and Seigaku manages to pull off its first National victory after Ryoma joins.

Ryoma Echizen

Ryoma Echizen (越前 リョーマ, Echizen Ryōma^?)

• Voiced by: Junko Minagawa (Japanese), David Neil Black (English)

The series protagonist and the only first year on the Seigaku tennis team. His play style is all rounder and his signature technique is the "Twist Serve", a variation on the standard topspin serve, where the ball is hit with a combination of both topspin and sidespin, allowing the ball to bounce high and curve toward the receiver's right. He creates several other techniques, along with being able to perform other's techniques due to learning "Muga no Kyōchi" (the "Samurai's Eye" is the anime's version of the technique). Ryoma never once loses an official match and at the end of the manga, Ryoma is shown to have gone back to the United States.

Kunimitsu Tezuka

Kunimitsu Tezuka (手塚 国光, Tezuka Kunimitsu^?)

• Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu (Japanese), Kirk Thornton (English)

He is the national-level captain of the Seigaku tennis team. His play style is all-rounder and his special shots include the "No-touch-ace Serve", which is a powerful serve with heavy topspin, making it difficult to return; "Tezuka Zone", which, using his exceptional racket control to put spin on the ball, allows all shots to return to Tezuka no matter where the opponent tries to hit; and the "Zero-Shiki (Degree) Drop Shot", which is a drop shot with a heavy backspin, which can make the ball roll towards the net rather than bouncing towards the opposing player. He was later able to adapt his Drop Shot into a serve.

Tezuka is noted for being rather distant during practices, and also never smiling. However, he does truly care about his team and always tries to elevate their tennis to the next level.

Shusuke Fuji

Shusuke Fuji (不二 周助, Fuji Shūsuke^?)

• Voiced by: Yuki Kaida (Japanese), Adam Lawson (English, episodes 1-30) and Johnny Yong Bosch (English episodes 31-onwards)

The genius of the Seigaku tennis team. His play style is counterpuncher and his special shots include the "Disappearing Cut Serve", an extreme underhanded sidespin serve, which Fuji spins the ball before dropping it, so when the ball is sliced, the sidespin is much more than usual; and his "Triple Counters", which are three specialized counter shots that usually help Fuji win the point. He later creates evolved versions of his counters, and three completely new counters for the Nationals.

Shuichiro Oishi

Shuichiro Oishi (大石 秀一郎, Ōishi Shūichirō^?)

• Voiced by: Takayuki Kondo (Japanese), Sam Riegel (English)

He is the vice-captain of the team. His play style is counterpuncher (human backboard) and his special shots include the "Moon Volley", a topspin-lob hit high into the air, landing directly on the baseline, and the "Drop Volley", a feint "Moon Volley" that is hit with the touch of a drop shot.

Eiji Kikumaru

Eiji Kikumaru (菊丸 英二, Kikumaru Eiji^?)

• Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi (Japanese), Steve Staley (English)

Eiji is part of the "Golden Pair" along with Oishi. He uses "Acrobatic Play", which takes advantage of his flexible body. Eiji is also known to have the sharpest vision on the team (though Ryoma is close), with an exceptional talent for seeing moving objects. Eiji's main weakness is a lack of stamina, which he overcomes through hard work and training later on in the series. Eiji is a friendly, sweet-tempered and outgoing character and the youngest of a large family.

Takashi Kawamura

Takashi Kawamura (河村 隆, Kawamura Takashi^?)

• Voiced by: Naru Kawamoto (Japanese), Richard Cansino (English)

Takashi is a soft-spoken person off the court, very gentle and shy. However, he becomes extremely aggressive and loud once he has a tennis racket in his hands. He often shouts "Burning!", "Great!", "Come on, baby!", "Shocking!", and "Its show time!" in English while playing. His goal is to become the #1 Power tennis player before he retires to become a sushi chef.

Sadaharu Inui

• Voiced by: Kenjirō Tsuda (Japanese), Jack Bauer (English)

Sadaharu Inui (乾 貞治, Inui Sadaharu^?) is a highly intelligent player, who uses "Data Tennis." He constantly collects and analyzes data while in and outside of the tennis court in order to determine statistics, weaknesses, and other factors, and he is able to calculate the probability of certain shots being made during matches. While he collects data pertaining to tennis, he also collects personal pieces of data, such as favorite things, personal habits, and where they have been, which makes others feel awkward. In addition to his data tennis, Inui's play style includes his extremely fast serves the Sonic Serve and later the Waterfall Serve. Inui's data tennis style dates back to his elementary school days, when he learned it from his doubles partner Renji Yanagi.

Inui was beaten by Ryoma, and then lost to Kaoru Kaidoh (who had also been beaten earlier by Echizen and was determined not to lose his spot) at the beginning of the series and became the team's manager. He uses his data to create exercise programs for the team. His most hated innovation would have to be his "Inui Juice" or "Penal Tea" (penalty), a disgusting health drink which is used as punishment. The contents of "Inui Juice" are unknown, but Inui is always coming up with new and "better" recipes. When the team went bowling, Inui's new invention "Aozu" first knocked out Kaidoh and even Fuji (who usually enjoyed drinking the "Inui Juice" or "Penal Tea") as well as the rest of the team. Even Inui himself falls victim to the "Aozu".

Eventually, Inui is able to make it back as a regular by using the data he obtained over the time he was manager, losing to Kunimitsu Tezuka but beating Takeshi Momoshiro. While he's a very good singles player, he usually plays doubles with various partners, most notably his protegé Kaoru Kaidoh. His doubling with Kaidoh helped Seigaku overcome their problems with doubles teams (which Ryuzaki considered weak with only the Golden Pair as an effective team).

Sadaharu Inui has had several notable matches throughout the series. During the First Ranking Tournament of the school year, Ryoma Echizen broke his data tennis using the one-footed Split Step. Later, after defeating Takeshi Momoshiro, Inui was waiting for a match with Kunimitsu Tezuka. The team had discovered that Inui trained 2.25 times the training menu he has given to the team during his manager role, pushing his abilities to another level, although Tezuka still won the match.

In the final match of the Kantou Tournament, between Seigaku and Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku, Inui and Renji Yanagi battle one another again. As the match starts, Yanagi's data seems to be too much for Inui's which forces Inui to abandon his data to the amazement of everyone. The two fight back and forth, reaching a score of 5-4, in Yanagi's favor. At that point, Inui reminds Yanagi that they had an unfinished match with the same score before. Yanagi then realizes that Inui bluffed abandoning his data. In the manga, this is apparently intentional, while in the anime, an idea is given that it was partly accidental and Inui only took advantage of the turn of events to convince Yanagi of his skills.^{[citation needed]} Inui continues to fight against Yanagi, forcing a tiebreaker where Inui manages to defeat his old friend and rival.

Later on in the National's Finals Match, Inui and Kaidoh play against Yanagi Renji and Kirihara Akaya of Rikaidai Fuzoku. Yanagi surprises Inui with his serve because it went against Inui's data, but Inui manages to return it causing Kirihara to go for the kill by returning it using Kaidoh's "Short Snake" technique wounding Kaidoh's face. As the match continues, Kirihara falls into his 'Bloodshot' state and wins four straight games. Being pressured, Kaidoh uses his "Tornado Snake", but surpringly Kirihara returns it with the same technique, only more powerful wounding the pair further. Kaidoh then becomes serious and uses his new technique "Gyro Laser" based on Yagyuu Hiroshi's "Laser Beam". Kirihara eventually gets hit by the new technique becoming "Demon Akaya" and hits Inui. When the score reaches 5-1, Inui says he has collected all the data from when he was injured by the ball, is forced to forefeit the doubles 2 match.

Inui is voiced by Kenjirō Tsuda in the Japanese media and by Jack Bauer in the English media. He is portrayed by Sota Aoyama, Hirofumi Araki, Masei Nakayama, Yuuta Takahashi and Yusuke Arai in the musicals, with Hirofumi Araki reprising the role in the film.

Takeshi Momoshiro

Takeshi Momoshiro (桃城 武, Momoshiro Takeshi^?)

• Voiced by: Masaya Onosaka (Japanese), Doug Erholtz (English)

Momo is known as Seigaku’s "number one rascal." As the player who is the most open and friendly with everyone, Momoshiro is connected to everyone on the team on some level. Momoshiro is the closest to a true friend to Ryoma Echizen, as the two spend much time together eating hamburgers or playing street tennis. Momoshiro and Kaoru Kaidoh are eternal rivals, and constantly try to out-do each other. Momoshiro's special play is called the "Dunk Smash", where he jumps very high and smashes the ball onto his opponent's court. He can also use the "Bullet Serve" and "Jack-Knife". During the Nationals, Momoshiro shows his skill of reading the wind movements, ball, and his opponent. Momoshiro is known to have the best insight on the court of Seigaku.

Kaoru Kaidoh

• Voiced by: Kōhei Kiyasu (Japanese), David Lodge (English)

Kaidou Kaoru (海堂 薫, Kaidō Kaoru^?) is known as "Viper" to his teammates. He is known for constantly making a "fshuuuu", sound, similar to a snake, while exhaling. Kaidoh trains rigorously, increasing the training program given to him by Inui to give him unbeatable endurance. He has a deep rivalry with Momoshiro, in which they constantly try to one-up each other. He normally plays singles, though he eventually pairs with Inui, who help Kaidoh train at first. Kaidoh's stamina is used to let him play the other team alone, while Inui collects data. After the national tournament, Kaidoh becomes the new captain of Seigaku.

He wears a bandana while playing tennis (in the anime, it is orange until episode 12 when it changes to green almost permentanly--only in a few, recreational episodes does it change color). Kaidoh does not like when his nickname isn't taken seriously, and often reacts badly when called that within earshot by someone he doesn't like, especially if the person uttering the nickname is Takeshi Momoshiro or Akira Kamio (he once even comes to try hitting Kamio during the Fudomine matches, placing Tezuka in a rather uncomfortable situation.) Kaidoh's play style involves wearing his opponent's down by hitting shots that make them run back and forth, and taking advantage of his own powerful stamina. His trademark shot is the Snake Shot, a modified version of the Buggy Whip Shot. Over the course of the series, Kaidoh develops several more significant variations of the shot, such as the Boomerang Snake, which is hit around the pole, the Short Snake, which he can use against a net player, and the Reverse Snake, which can be hit in the opposite direction. During the Nationals, he unveils his most powerful version, the Tornado Snake, which takes advantage of gyro spin. After learning the Laser Beam shot used by Hiroshi Yagyuu, he practices hitting it with the same motion and using gyro spin to keep the opponent from knowing which shot is coming. He has also shown the ability to hit the Jack Knife shot Momoshiro uses, and enter the Devil Mode used by Akaya Kirihara. In the anime, Kaidoh has another shot known as the Hadokyuu Boomerang, which uses the powerful Hadokyuu shot in combination with his Boomerang Snake.

Kaidoh and Inui also make an excellent doubles pair, mostly after beating Inui himself during the same line-up matches where Ryoma Echizen became a regular. Inui has seen Kaidoh's potential and kind side and has taken him under his wing. In the fandom, they are often known as the "Emerald Pair." This is presumably a pun based on the name of Seigaku's "Golden Pair" (Eiji Kikumaru and Shuichiro Oishi) and the several green items associated with the Emerald Pair, such as Kaidoh's bandana, Inui's notebook, Inui's special juices and pants he used when being the "training coach" of Seigaku after losing his regular place to Echizen.

Kaidoh lives with his mother Hozumi (40), father Shibuki (37), and younger brother Hazue (11). His father and younger brother are so similar in looks to him that they are practically just older and younger versions of Kaidoh, respectively. His mother is a sweet, calm, always smiling woman who looks younger than she really is and is famous for her excellent home-made meals. Kaidoh's school lunches are usually prepared by her, and to honor Hozumi's good cooking and dedication Kaidoh eats his home-made lunch in a highly ritualistic and solemn manner that weirds out his schoolmates. Hozumi is among the very few adults (aside from the coaches, that is) featured in the Prince of Tennis video games, too; the "Rush and Dream 2" one has her eavesdropping on Kaidoh and the main girl, Tomoe, as they prepare noodles.

In Genius 379, the last chapter of the manga, Kaidoh is seen as a third year and the new captain of Seigaku, with Momoshiro as his sub-captain. Their rivalry has, apparently, somewhat mellowed with time.[1]

Kaidoh is voiced by Kōhei Kiyasu in the Japanese media, and by David Lodge in the English media. He is portrayed by Naoya Gomoto, Kousuke Kujirai, Tomo Yanagishita, Yuichirou Hirata and Akihiro Hayashi in the musicals, with Kousuke Kujirai reprising the role for the live action film.

Sumire Ryuzaki

Sumire Ryuzaki (竜崎 スミレ, Ryūzaki Sumire^?) is the coach of Seigaku's tennis club, as well as one of the school's math teachers. It was thanks to her that Nanjiro Echizen was able to develop his skills. She is the grandmother of Sakuno. She also has a sort-of rivalry with her ex-mentor, Mikiya Banda a.k.a. Banji, who is the coach for Yamabuki. She is always there to yell, but is also considered to be a great and reliable coach. She has a good relationship with her regulars, and participates in their recreational group activities: the bowling reunion and the beach-volley mini-tournament with Rokkaku Middle School. For the Prince of Tennis live action movie, Ryuzaki's whole personality and back story was changed. Instead of being a middle-aged teacher and ex-coach to Nanjiro Echizen, she is a young, and more cheerful woman as well as Nanjiro's former classmate, who was her reason for playing tennis and becoming coach. She was played by the popular singer Hitomi Shimatani.Voiced by: Shizuka Okohira (Japanese), Barbara Goodson (English)

Opponents

Fudomine

Fudomine Middle School (市立不動峰中学校, Fudōmine Chūgakkō^?) is an unseeded, unknown public school that has rumors of violence. It is originally unknown due to an unreasonable coach and a lazy set of senior regulars. The freshmen at Fudomine are brutalized severely by the older tennis club members, while the coach ignores the mistreatment. Tachibana and the abused freshman attempt to rally together and form their own tennis club, but the coach and the other players find this idea absurd and go out of their way to stop this from happening. When the coach allows his older team members to attack Tachibana and the freshman, Tachibana snaps and attacks the coach. As a result, Fudomine is pulled out of the District Tournament that year. Tachibana and the others eventually reform the club, and surprise everyone at the tournament the following year by upsetting the Number two seed, Kakkinoki, before losing to Seigaku in the finals. They go on to make it all the way to the Quarterfinals of the Nationals, before ultimately losing to Shitenhouji. Fudomine's uniforms are black hooded jackets with the Fudomine logo, black shirts, white shorts, and black warm-up pants.

• Kippei Tachibana (橘 桔平, Tachibana Kippei^?) is the captain of Fudomine. He is originally from the Kyūshū region of Japan, where he attends Shishigaku Middle School. He and his close friend, Chitose, lead the team to the semi-finals of the Nationals as the top two players of the region. Tachibana is a very aggressive player, and during an intra-school ranking match with Chitose, he injures Chitose after deciding to try out his new move, the Wild Ball, which makes it look like there are numerous balls coming at one time. He cuts and stops bleaching his hair, moves with his father, and eventually starts with the Fudomine club in order to play Chitose again. He uses the "Wild Beast Aura", which draws out his natural style and increases his physical abilities, especially when using his "Wild Lion" forehand shot, as well as the "Wild Ball". In New Prince of Tennis he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U17 team. He is voiced by Yoshihisa Kawahara in Japanese media, and Doug Erholtz in English media. He is played by Takuma Sugawara, YOH, and Kitadi Takashi in the musicals.

• Akira Kamio (神尾 アキラ, Kamio Akira^?) is the team Vice-Captain, who normally plays singles or doubles with his long-time friend Shinji Ibu. His style focuses on speed and "rhythm", which focuses on moving his feet at a certain pace. He uses the "Sonic Bullet" shot, which seems to disappear, and the "Quick-Drop Serve", which is hit before it rises to the top, throwing off the opponents timing and slightly increasing the speed. He has feelings for An Tachibana, becoming jealous when she goes out with Momoshiro, and asking her to a concert. In New Prince of Tennis he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U17 team. He is voiced by Chihiro Suzuki in Japanese media, and by David Neil Black in English media. He is played by Matsui Yasuyuki and Yuki Fujiwara in the musicals, and Yuki Fujiwara reprises that role in the live action film.

• Shinji Ibu (伊武 深司, Ibu Shinji^?) normally plays singles, or doubles with his best friend Akira Kamio. He often mumbles and rambles without realizing other people can hear him. He utilizes the "Kick serve", which bounces upward to the right, similarly to the twist serve. He can also cause "Spot" by continuously alternating between topspin and slice shots, which causes his opponent's muscles to continuously contract and freeze up for an instant, stopping them from returning a shot. In New Prince of Tennis he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U17 team. He is voiced by Eiji Moriyama in Japanese media, and Kirk Thornton in English media. He is played by Ryōsei Konishi in the musicals, and Yasuka Saitoh in the live action film.

• Tetsu Ishida (石田 鉄, Ishida Tetsu^?) normally plays doubles with Masaya Sakurai (桜井 雅也, Sakurai Masaya^?), who has a special shot with a heavy topspin. He relies on the Hadokyuu, an extremely powerful flat groundstroke that can reach 120% of the user's strength from his elder brother Gin. It puts an extreme strain on his arm at first, which cause Tachibana to disallow him from using it until he masters it.

• Kyousuke Uchimura (内村 京介, Uchimura Kyōsuke^?), nicknamed the "The Front Killer" plays doubles with Tatsunori Mori (森 辰徳, Mori Tatsunori^?)

• An Tachibana (橘杏, Tachibana An^?) the younger sister of Kippei. She is a member of the girls tennis club, and often supports her brother's team. An cares very much for her brother and her friends from both the Seigaku and Fudomine teams, and tries to help them as much as possible. She is voiced by Akiko Kimura in the Japanese media, and Jennifer Sekiguchi in the English media.

St. Rudolph

St. Rudolph (私立聖ルドルフ学院中学校^?) is a team that first appears in the Tokyo Prefectural Tournament Arc and faces Seishun in the quarterfinals. The school itself only recruits students who are gifted at tennis and they only practice together once a week. The teams uniform is a white shirt with brown, brown shorts, and brown warm-up pants.

• Yoshirou Akazawa (赤沢 吉郎, Akazawa Yoshirō^?) is the captain of the team and the doubles partner of Kaneda Ichiro, a soft spoken player called a "prodigal doubles player." He is initially a singles player until being paired with Kaneda by Mizuki, which leaves him unable to properly play until Kaneda, who normally looks up to Akazawa, yells at him. The pair of Akazawa and Kaneda provide St. Rudolph's only victories in their losses to Seigaku and Hyoutei. Akazawa also defeated a Seigaku regular in the year prior to the manga's storyline. ^[1]He is able to hit a shot that causes rapid movement of the ball, causing it to appear as a mass of balls to people with exceptional eyesight. He is voiced by Masami Iwasaki in the Japanese anime, and played by Kenji Aoki in the musicals.

• Takuya Nomura (野村 拓也, Nomura Takuya^?) is the vice-captain, and the weakest member of the team according to Mizuki, though he often claims that he is the strongest. He is voiced by Takayuki Kondo in the Japanese media.

• Hajime Mizuki (観月 はじめ, Mizuki Hajime^?) is the manager of the team, who transfers from another school. He scouts talented players from around the country to join the tennis team in hopes of creating a team that would be "elite". He deeply observes other teams and their tendencies, allowing him to not only pick out the opposing players weak points, but to anticipate the team's line up and predict the ending scores. Mizuki is also shown to be very ruthless, teaching Yuta Fuji the Twist Spin Shot, despite the fact that it could cause severe damage to Yuta's underdeveloped arm. His arrogance also comes back to bite him when he believes that he has collected all the data on Shusuke Fuji, only to be humiliated by him. He is voiced by Akira Ishida in the Japanese media, and by Steve Staley in the English media. He is played Hidemasa Shiozawa in the musicals.

• Yuuta Fuji (不二 裕太, Fuji Yūta^?) is constantly overshadowed by his older brother, Shusuke Fuji. Originally a student at Seigaku, he declines to join the tennis team at all, and he is eventually scouted by Mizuki. He hits at difficult angles for left-handed players, causing him to be known as the "Lefty-Killer." He uses the Rising Shot, which hits the ball on the rise, giving the opponents less time to react. Mizuki teaches him the Twist Spin Shot, which puts a topspin on the ball, causing it to bounce upwards, though it puts a heavy strain on undeveloped shoulders. Yuta is voiced by Makoto Tomita in Japanese media and Tom Gibis in English media. He is played by KENN in the musicals.

• Ichirou Kaneda (金田 一郎, Kaneda Ichirō^?) is a relatively quiet doubles player for St. Rudolph. Aside from Akazawa, Kaneda is the only other member of the team who was initially from St. Rudolph, prior to Mizuki's arrival and subsequent recruiting of other skilled players. Although he has a great deal of respect for his Captain, he lashes out at him during their match against Oishi and Kikumaru. Although Akazawa initially attacks him and tells him to shut up, he then calms his head and begins listening to Kaneda, who guides the pair to victory. He is voiced by Yoshihisa Kawahara in the Japanese media, and played by Yuki Ohtake in the musicals.

• Shinya Yanagisawa (柳沢 慎也, Yanagisawa Shinya^?) is a doubles player, who frequently partners with Atsushi. He is very comical in his personality and playstyle.. He is voiced by Norihisa Mori in the Japanese media, and by Darell Guilbeau in the English media. He is played by Mitsuyoshi Shinoda in the musicals.

• Atsushi Kisarazu (木更津 淳, Kisarazu Atsushi^?), the twin brother of Rokkaku's Ryou. Mizuki mistakenly scounts Atsushi instead of his brother, so he forces Atsushi to distinguish himself by cutting his hair and wearing a headband. Atsushi's signature shot is a fake smash, which he then turns into a volley, catching his opponents off guard. He is voiced by Satoshi Tsuruoka in the Japanese media, and by Peter Doyle in the English media. He is played by Ryosuke Kato in the musicals.

Yamabuki

Yamabuki Middle School (私立山吹中学校^?) is a national caliber team that bases their strategy on two strong doubles teams, supported by the National caliber Singles player Sengoku, and they aim to use those three weapons to defeat opponents before the matches get drawn out. When their strategy was foiled in the previous year by Seigaku's Tezuka defeating Sengoku, they recruited a second dominant singles player in Jin Akutsu, with the aim to eliminate that weakness. Yamabuki's uniforms are green jackets with yellow stripes with hoods, shirts also of the same design, white shorts, and green warm-up pants.

• Kentarou Minami (南 健太郎, Minami Kentarō^?) is the captain of the team. He is a doubles player who typically plays with the vice captain of the team, Higashikata Masami. They are strong in the basics and use a strategy to pressure opponents. Together, he and Higashikata are known as the Jimmies, referring to jimi (地味^?), the Japanese word for plain or dull. Kentarou is voiced by Masaki Ishikawa in the Japanese media and played by Hiroshi Yazaki in the musicals.

• Masami Higashikata (東方 雅美, Higashikata Masami^?) is a 3rd year student and the vice-captain of the team.^[2] He is the doubles partner of Captain Kentarou Minami. He is voiced by Yoshikazu Nagano in the Japanese media, and played by Iori Hayashi in the musicals.

• Kiyosumi Sengoku (千石 清純, Sengoku Kiyosumi^?), known as Lucky Sengoku, is a 3rd year student, and is one of the keys to Yamabuki's strategy of finishing opposing teams off quickly. He is a happy-go-lucky guy with a strong tennis sense and extremely sharp eyes able to discern fast moving balls. His strongest weapon is his jumping serve, known as "Kohou (Tiger Cannon)". He is also praised as a National caliber player, and was invited to the Senbatsu training camp in the previous season. In spite of this, he suffers losses to both Momoshiro and Kamio. In the anime, he leaves the Yamabuki team for a short while after his losses to Momoshiro and Kamio. He throws away his old style of tennis, trains in boxing, and forms "Boxing Tennis", which focuses on the three minute limit in a boxing round. When he comes back to go to the camp to be chosen for the Goodwill Games between Japan and America, his new style, "Boxing Tennis", becomes a turning point in his style of play. He is voiced by Kōsuke Toriumi in the Japanese media and played by Masato Wada in the musicals.

• Jin Akutsu (亜久津 仁, Akutsu Jin^?) is a punk, who is called a once-per-decade tennis player. He is very violent and attempts to cause conflict constantly, and also smokes in the manga^[3]. He uses an unusual flexibility of his body to put high speeds on his shots and hit balls in unnatural positions, which allows him to hit his opponents if he desires. He is trained in tennis at young age, but gives up due to finding it boring, until being recruited by Mikiya Banda under the promise of being able to hurt others. Akutsu is raised alone by his mother, Yuuki, and has been a friend of Takashi Kawamura since taking karate together. After hurting Ryoma and his friends at Seigaku while looking to have fun, he loses to Ryoma, gives up tennis, and becomes more content with people. He returns during the National Semifinals, catching Kawamura when he is sent flying into the stadium, and gives him advice to carry on.^[4] Akutsu is also among the former rivals of Ryoma who play matches with him after he loses his memory to help him regain his memories of tennis. ^[5] In the anime, he also helps Ryoma regain confidence after a loss to Sanada. He reappears as a candidate for the Japanese U-17 team. He is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in the Japanese media, and played by JURI in the musicals.

• Ichiuma Kita (喜多 一馬, Kita Ichiuma^?), a 2nd year, and Inakichi Nitobe (新渡米 稲吉, Nitobe Inakichi^?), a third year, are two cynical doubles partners.

• Touji Muromachi (室町 十次, Muromachi Tōji^?) is a 2nd year student, referred to as Yamabuki's eternal secret weapon. He always wears sun glasses, and thinks highly of Sengoku.

• Tsubasa Nishikiori (錦織 翼, Nishikiori Tsubasa^?) is the replacement for Akutsu after he quits tennis.

• Taichi Dan (壇 太一, Dan Taichi^?) is a 1st year student and the manager of the team. He believes he is worthless because of his size and looks up to Akustsu because of his strength. Akutsu tells him to become stronger, which leads to him joining the team as a player. He is also inspired by seeing Ryoma play, realizing that even someone who is short can excel in tennis. He wears a headband that was given to him by Akutsu.^[6] After Yamabuki loses in the Nationals, Sengoku tells him that it will be up to him in the following season. In the anime, he copies Ryoma's style and techniques, such as "Twist Serve" and "Drive B", and challenges him to a match, which he loses badly. He is voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi in Japanese media and played by Yuki Kawakubo in the musicals.

Hyotei Academy

Hyotei Academy Secondary Department (氷帝学園中等部, Hyōtei Gakuen Chūtō Bu^?) is a team that uses a strict stratification and merit system, which prioritizes ability only rather than emotion. If any regular loses a match, they are removed from their spot and only given a second chance in very rare conditions. With Keigo Atobe as their leader, Hyotei's tennis club is over two hundred members strong. They suffer setbacks early in the story, losing to Fudomine during the Prefectural Tournament, and then they are defeated by Seigaku during the first round of the tournament before the nationals, leaving them ineligible. They are all depressed until they receive a special invite due to the host city, Tokyo, getting to invite one extra team. According to Takeshi Konomi, Hyotei's popularity was much higher than he expected, and it was for that reason that he chose to bring them back into the story.^[2] The Hyotei team is one of the most popular teams in the entire series. In the official school popularity poll, they came in second only to Seigaku.^[7]

Atobe Keigo
The Prince of Tennis character
First appearance	Manga chapter 45 Anime episode 22
Last appearance	Manga chapter
Created by	Takeshi Konomi
Voiced by	Japanese Junichi Suwabe English Yuri Lowenthal
Profile
Nicknames	King of Tennis, Monkey King
Age	14[8]
Date of birth	October 4[8]
Class	3rd year
Known relatives	father, mother, grandfather, grandmother
School	Hyoutei
Style	All-Rounder, right-handed

• Keigo Atobe (跡部 景吾, Atobe Keigo^?) is the captain of Hyotei, having defeated all of the members of the team during his first year. He is the son of a very rich family. Atobe is severely narcissistic and arrogant, often using the quote "Be awed at the sight of my prowess!" (俺様の美技に酔いな, Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na^?). He is very wealthy, and he owns various chateaus, mansions, and vehicles, which are often used to benefit his team. Despite his personality, he trains constantly and takes pride in his team. He has rivalries with Tezuka, who he defeats in the Kantō Tournament, Sanada, who he comes close to defeating in a practice match before it is called off, and Ryoma, who defeats Atobe in the nationals. After losing to Ryoma in the nationals, he cuts his hair due to a bet, despite taking great pride in it, and later uses a wig to cover it.^[2] He is voiced by Junichi Suwabe in Japanese media, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal in English media. He is played by Kazuki Kato, Yuki Kubota, and Masahiro Inoue in the musicals and by Ryuuji Sainei in The Prince of Tennis live action film.

Along with Kunimitsu Tezuka of Seigaku, Kippei Tachibana of Fudomine, and Genichirou Sanada and Seiichi Yukimura of Rikkaidai, Atobe is a "Zenkoku ku" (全国区^?), which means a national level player. He defeated Seigaku's captain in his second year, a favor returned when Tezuka then beat Hyotei's captain at the time. Hyotei is one of the few schools in the series without a vice-captain, an indication of both Atobe's skill and leadership. His tennis abilities are centered around his superior insight, which allows him to perceive his opponent's weaknesses and attack them. He later evolves this ability into World of Ice (氷の世界, Koori no Sekai^?), an ability which allows him to hit all of his shots to the opponent's blind spots. His Rondo Towards Destruction (破滅への輪舞曲, Hametsu e no rondo^?) is one of his signature techniques, a two part smash in which the first part loosens the opponent's grip on the racket. Later in the series he also develops a special serve, the Tannhauser Serve, which emulates Ryoma Echizen's COOL Drive by not bouncing.

Severely narcissistic and arrogant, his favorite quote is "Be awed at the sight of my prowess!" (俺様の美技に酔いな, "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na"^?) used first after knocking out Tezuka's racket with his drive volley. It is revealed that many people started calling him "Atobe-sama" after this line. This quote has been used and adapted by the seiyū, Junichi Suwabe, in almost every situation Atobe appears outside the main story, and has since then become a long-running joke.

Atobe is considered the example of a perfect and complete all rounder as stated by Yamabuki's Sengoku showing Atobe's skills as a player. It is also revealed that his extremely defensive style is one he chose for himself, while his natural playing style is described as "ultra-offensive". Only Ryoma Echizen has managed to make him use his original style.

One mountain estate is the setting of the Seigaku training arc shown only in the anime, in which Hyotei helps Seigaku prepare for its Kantō finals match with Rikkaidai. It is likely that the anime exaggerated his wealth, as he was shown to be progressively wealthier as the series goes on, to the extent that by the release of the mini-movie, he owns a huge blimp with a chibi replica of his own face on it, and enough funds to hold a convention in a gigantic, downtown stadium. However, the manga does depict him to own a helicopter.

This doesn't mean, however, that Atobe is just a pampered, self-centered diva without real qualities backing him up. He's very proud of being on top of the Hyotei team, and has earned his position through very hard work and real talent. He also truly appreciates the worth of both his teammates and rivals; this is shown when he stands up for fellow Hyotei regular Ryo Shishido's plight in front of coach Sakaki, when he recognizes Tezuka's might after their duel (even lifting Tezuka's hand to show him as someone who had fought hard and also deserved praising), and when he speaks to Echizen after his fight with Tezuka in the American arc. Atobe also mentions that while he doesn't mind going easy on an opponent, he hates it when opponents go easy on him. He is rather generous and uses his allowance to buy things for his teammates. Furthermore, the aforementioned mini-movie (named "Atobe kara no Okurimono", roughly translated as "Atobe's mighty gift") shows that one of the reasons he had to hold the convention was to cheer up his childhood friend and partner Munehiro Kabaji, who was very depressed after the announcement of his beloved older sister's future marriage. He also claimed the date coincided with Kabaji's birthday, which Kabaji revealed to be a lie.

The only character to have blue eyes in the manga, there are several facts that may suggest Atobe is not entirely Japanese. He apparently grew up overseas, attending primary school in Britain^[9] along with Kabaji.

Even the games have portrayed Atobe as more noble than one would expect; in the dating sim Gakuensai no Ōjisama, Atobe is enraged when the main character (default name, Shizuka Hirose) is attacked by his most rabid fangirls, and not only lectures the player for NOT telling him about the incidents, but he also protects her from such fans and, if certain in-game circumstances are met, in the end he announces that Shizuka will be his girlfriend in front of the whole school. In another dating sim, Doki Doki Survival - Umibe no Secret, Atobe is shocked when he's bitten by a poisonous snake and the main girl (default name, Ayaka Tsujimoto) attempts to help him by directly sucking out the toxins from his injury, scolding her as well for taking such a risk after they're taken to safety.

Aside from his tennis club captaincy, Atobe is also student body president. He enjoys all subjects, especially Greek, and is a fan of the poetry of Goethe and Homer. It is also implied that he has an appreciation for classical composers such as Richard Wagner.

One of Atobe's characteristic is the mole below his right eye, known as a "tear-mole". He has a character song about the mole being his charm-point called "The charm-point is the tear-mole" (チャームポイントは泣きホクロ, "Chāmu Pointo ha Naki Hokuro"^?), and coincidentally, the seiyū Junichi Suwabe also has a mole in the exact same position.

Due to a bet Atobe made with Ryoma, in which the loser had to shave his own hair, he supposedly had his head shaved by Ryoma after losing consciousness (in the anime, Atobe chooses to shave his own hair after losing, taking the razor from Ryoma's hands). However, it is later revealed that Atobe did not get his head fully shaved, but rather just a short haircut. Shortly after, right before the National Finals, Atobe is shown with his normal haircut, which, according to Takeshi Konomi, is just a wig.^[9]

Despite having lost to Seigaku twice, Atobe seems to accept his losses gracefully, not too bitter to aid his former opponents by going to search for the missing Ryoma with his own helicopter as Seigaku faces Rikkai in the Nationals finals.

• Notable matches

Kunimitsu Tezuka

Atobe goes against Tezuka in the Singles 1 slot at the 1st round of the Kantō regional tournament. When Atobe first appears, he is arrogant, self-assured, and generally flippant about the entire deal. After discovering Tezuka's weakness to drive, he formulates a plan to ruin Tezuka's shoulder. The point of ruin comes - Tezuka collapses in pain and falls to his knees, clutching the offending body part in obvious agony. However, he refuses to give up at that point and continues the rally, much to Atobe's surprise. The tone of the game changes after that point, and Atobe becomes completely serious, wondering what compelled Tezuka to such insanity and realizing that it is his loyalty to his team. Atobe then seeks to play to his potential and beat Tezuka no matter what.

After a tedious tie-breaker going into the 30s, Tezuka hits a net ball, which Atobe dives to return. Lying upon the ground, helpless at the net, he then realizes in horror that most of the court is free for Tezuka to attack. In a twist of fate, however, Tezuka is so broken down by now that his ball hits the net, ending the game with Atobe victorious.

The captains share a long handshake after the match, and Atobe raises Tezuka's arm in air as the crowd roars in cheer for both players.

Genichirou Sanada (anime)

Atobe fights bitterly against Sanada, Rikkaidai's vice-captain, to settle which of them will first get to challenge their mutual "eternal rival", Tezuka (as the three of them hold a three-way rivalry). However, he is overwhelmed by Sanada's Invisible Swing. Just as observers decide that Atobe will lose, however, he shows off his swanky new Tannhauser serve. The match is then ended by Sakaki-sensei, who announces that both boys have now earned their positions on the team. More notable is his doubles pairing with Sanada. While initially not getting along at all and playing as two separate units, the need quickly arises for teamwork. However, since they are both probably among the top five players in the entire series, they argue about their combination, specifically Atobe's petulance over missing balls. An almost accidental act of coordination, however, compels Atobe to remember a tango concert he saw with Sanada, and they finally get in coordination, executing the Hametsu e no tango and generally exhibiting decent teamwork. At the end of their victorious match, Atobe chooses to double his catch phrase - "Oresama-TACHI no bigi ni yoi na", translating more or less to "Be Awed At The Sight Of Our Prowess!".

Genichiro Sanada (manga)

Atobe and Sanada have played twice in the manga continuity. The first time, in a match played prior to the start of the series, Sanada crushed Atobe using the Zan(Mountain) technique of his FuuRinKaZan. Although the time period of this match has never been said, the most logical time for it to have taken place would be at the previous years Kantō Tournament, where Sanada's Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku defeated Atobe's Hyotei team in the finals.

The second time they faced was rather different. After the current year's Kantō Tournament, but prior to the Nationals, Atobe arrived at Rikkaidai, and challenged Sanada to a match. Sanada got up to a 4-0 lead using his Zan shot, however when Atobe perfected his new technique (Ice World), Sanada couldn't cope with it. Rikkaidai's captain, Seiichi Yukimura, stopped the match and told Atobe they will play in the National Tournament. As Atobe asked "What?", Yukimura answered "You'll soon understand". When Sanada asked why, Yukimura told him he would have lost the match.

Ryoma Echizen

In the quarterfinals of the Nationals, Seigaku and Hyotei meet once again. In Singles 1, with the two teams tied 2 to 2, Atobe faces off against Ryoma Echizen. Atobe starts off strong with his Tannhauser Serve (the first time it is seen in manga continuity). While Ryoma tries to fight back using the State of Self Actualization, Atobe reveals his World of Ice technique and easily gets to a 4-0 lead. At that point, Ryoma manages to use his father's version of the Tezuka Zone, and the match becomes much more even. The two go to a tiebreak, but eventually, Atobe's body could not keep going, and Ryoma wins the tiebreak 119 to 117.

After the match, Ryoma shaves Atobe's head when the latter was unconscious due to the bet Atobe makes with Ryoma before the match: the loser of the match gets his head shaved (in the anime, Atobe chooses to shave his own hair after losing, despite Taki's pleas to have Ryoma shave Taki's head instead). Though, it is later revealed that Atobe's head did not get fully shaved, but he did receive a short haircut.

Actors

In the anime series, Atobe's seiyū (or voice actor) is Junichi Suwabe. In the English version of The Prince of Tennis, Atobe is played by Yuri Lowenthal. In The Prince of Tennis Musicals, Atobe is portrayed by actor Kazuki Kato (2005-2006). Following Kato's departure from the musicals, Yuki Kubota and Masahiro Inoue both have portrayed Atobe in the The Imperial Presence Hyotei Gakuen performances.

For the live-action adaptation film of The Prince of Tennis, actor Ryuuji Sainei portrays Atobe. All live action versions of Atobe have been in a tokusatsu production: Ryuuji Sainei was Ban/DekaRed in Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, Kazuki Kato portrayed Daisuke Kazama/Kamen Rider Drake in Kamen Rider Kabuto and Shiro Kazami/Kamen Rider V3 in Kamen Rider The Next. Yuki Kubota had a small part in Kamen Rider The Next, and most recently Masahiro Inoue had been cast in the lead role of Kamen Rider Decade as Tsukasa Kadoya/Kamen Rider Decade.

• Munehiro Kabaji (樺地 崇弘, Kabaji Munehiro^?) is a powerful hitter with a pure mind much like a baby. He rarely speaks and answers Atobe's questions only with "yeah." Due to his personality, he can instantly copy the moves of anyone he faces. The techniques often are too much for him to use, which can lead to a strain on his body. Kabaji has appeared in every single character popularity poll for the series run by Shonen Jump. He came in 31st in the first poll^[10], and 33rd in the second poll^[11]. He fell to 41st in the third poll ^[7], but he posted his highest ranking in the fourth poll, coming in 28th ^[12]. He is voiced by Satoshi Tsuruoka in the anime, and played by Ryo Washimi and Jouji Kawada in the musicals, and by Kazutoshi Yamakawa in the live action film.

• Jiro Akutagawa (芥川 慈郎, Akutagawa Jirō^?) is called the "magic volleyer" of Hyotei Academy. His play style, which focuses on returning balls directly from the net using his very flexible wrists, is inspired by Rikkai's Bunta Marui, who defeats him in a match two years earlier. He constantly sleeps, and he is very excitable. Takeshi Konomi originally intended Jiro to be a lazy genius character, but he went off course, ultimately becoming a more lighthearted character.^[2] Jiro has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump character popularity polls since his introduction into the story. In the second poll, he came in 25th place.^[11] In both the third and fourth polls, he came in 13th place. ^[7][12] He is voiced by Ueda Yuuji in the anime, and played by Takuya and Taiki Naitou in the musicals, and by Genki Ishii in the live action film.

• Yushi Oshitari (忍足 侑士, Oshitari Yūshi^?) is the genius of Hyotei Academy. He is called "Oshitari of the one thousand skills" due to his ability to copy moves such as Shusuke Fuji's Bear Drop and Atobe's Tannhauser Serve. He also has several of his own unique shots, which he refers to by acronyms such as "F & D", "FAS" and "SSAS". He is initially the doubles partner of Gakuto Mukahi, but moves up to Singles during the Nationals Tournament. During the two matches with Seigaku, Oshitari forms a rivalry with Momoshiro, and comes to respect his skill. He wears glasses without a prescription just to look smarter. Oshitari has been consistently popular since his introduction in the series, and has done well on all of the Prince of Tennis character popularity polls run by Weekly Shonen Jump since then. In the second poll, he debuted in 9th place. ^[11] He moved up to 5th place in the third poll^[7], and came in 7th place in the fourth poll^[12]. He is voiced by Kiuchi Hidenobu in the anime, and played by Takumi Saito and Shintarou Akiyama in the musicals, and by Daiki Nakae in the live action film.

• Gakuto Mukahi (向日 岳人, Mukahi Gakuto^?) is Yushi Oshitari's doubles partner. He has acrobatic skills rivaling those of Seigaku's Eiji, but his stamina is extremely low. He has a respectful friendship with Oshitari, which leads him to train his stamina in order to keep from holding Oshitari back. His special technique is the "Moonsault", which requires Gakuto to jump extremely high into the air, somersaulting, and returning the ball at a difficult angle. Gakuto came in 6th place in the series fourth popularity poll.^[12] He is voiced by Hoshi Souichirou in the anime, and played by Ruito Aoyagi and Seiji Fukuyama in the musicals, and by Tokio Emoto in the live action film.

• Ryo Shishido (宍戸 亮, Shishido Ryō^?) is known as Hyotei's "dash specialist" due to his speed and ability to return almost any ball. He is initially dropped from the regulars after being defeated by Kippei Tachibana, but he soon cuts his precious long hair and makes a return to the team. He join in doubles with Chotarou Ohtori, and they become very close. After hard training, he develops the "Rising Counter", which hits the ball directly after it bounces, which is strengthened by his dashing. Shishido has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump character popularity polls since his introduction into the story. In the second poll, he came in 20th place.^[11] In both the third and fourth polls, he came in 12th place. ^[7][12] He is voiced by Kusuda Toshiyuki in the anime, and played by Kenta Kamakari and Ryouta Murai in the musicals, and by Junpei Suzuki in the live action film.

• Chotaro Ohtori (鳳 長太郎, Ōtori Chōtarō^?) is Ryo Shishido's doubles partner and close friend. He helps Shishido get back on the team, which makes the two very close. Chotaro has a very fast serve called the "Scud Serve", which can go up to 200 km/h, though it is limited in accuracy until he masters it. He later renames it the "Neo Scud Serve", which goes up to 215 km/h. He recites "one shot with all my soul" (一球入魂, Ikyuunyuukon^?) while serving. He has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump popularity polls since his introduction. In the second poll, he came in 19th place. ^[11] In the third he came in 20th place ^[7], while he moved up to 16th place in the fourth poll^[12]. He is voiced by Namikawa Daisuke in the anime, and played by Koji Date, Seto Yuusuke and Li Yong En in the musicals, with Koji Date reprising the role in the live action film.

• Wakashi Hiyoshi (日吉 若, Hiyoshi Wakashi^?) uses an unorthodox style of tennis he dubs "Enbu Tennis", which combines martial arts with standard tennis. It is developed after the coach tells him to hit in his most natural form. Hiyoshi's motto is "gekokujou"(下克上) meaning "to defeat the greater and take his place". In the English manga 'gekokujou' is translated as 'overthrow'. Hiyoshi is expected to be the next Hyotei captain after Atobe graduates. In the fourth popularity poll for the series conducted by Shonen Jump, Hiyoshi came in 10th place.^[12] He is voiced by Iwasaki Masami in the anime, and played by Ryunosuke Kawai and Kei Hosogai in the musicals.

• Haginosuke Taki (滝 萩之介, Taki Haginosuke^?) is a regular until Shishido defeats him in an intraschool match. Afterward, he often supports the team from the sidelines. He is voiced by Kouhei Kiyasu.

• Taro Sakaki (榊 太郎, Sakaki Tarō^?) is the coach of the team and a music teacher, who is very polite and elegant. He doesn't tolerate losses and knows how to motivate and push his players to the top. A joke has been made about who he is, and Sakaki tries to pass it off as he is 'just' a music teacher, although everyone doubts the 'just.'

Josei Shonan

Josei Shonan (城成湘南中学校, Jōsei Shōnan Chūgakkō^?) resides in the Kanagawa Prefecture of the Tokyo region. Though they are mentioned in the manga, they only appear in the anime, where they replace Midoriyama as Seigaku's opponents in the second round of the Kantō Tournament.

• Aoi Hanamura is the coach of the team, who refers to her students as masterpieces and constantly tries to recruit new students, especially Ryoma. She is often proud of her own prowess and of her pupils', but she is otherwise very calm and professional.
• Takahisa Kajimoto (梶本 貴久, Kajimoto Takahisa^?) is the serious and soft-spoken captain. His flexibility is used in his serve, the L-drive Serve, where he bends his entire body back and releases it like a catapult.
• Hiroshi Wakato is the vice-captain, who can copy any famous professional tennis player's playing style using his Change Over technique, even copying their smallest habits. With this move, he can change his play style easily and when his opponent finally gets used to his style, he changes over again. Though he passes it off as just copying, he spends countless hours practicing. He is very popular, even having his own fanclub.
• Reiji Shinjou is known as Hanamura's greatest "masterpiece", with his techniques involving very powerful shots known as Mirage. The powerful shots are indistinguishable from a regular return or serve, leaving opponents confused. Another technique he has is the Deep Impulse, which is a powerful shot that also can be used as a serve that will injure the opponent, and consecutive attempts to return the Deep Impulse may injure the player to the point of unable to play tennis anymore.
• Youhei Tanaka plays doubles with his younger, twin brother, Kouhei Tanaka. He is often mistaken for a girl due to his short, dark pink hair. He has very good hearing, which, together with his brother's good eyesight, allows them to predict their opponents, moves.
• Shou Ota is the doubles partner of Daichi Kiriyama. His small body, combined with his partner's large body, forms the Thunderbolt, where Shou jumps off Daichi's shoulders and returns high shots. Daichi uses a powerful volleyshot, Cannon Volley, which is often the set up for Thunderbolt.

Rokkaku

Rokkaku Middle School (市立六角中学校, Rokkaku Chūgakkō^?) is a team based in the Chiba Prefecuture, which focuses on training local children in tennis from an early age. They have a large playground, which is often used to train, with a tennis court nearby. They make the Kantō Tournament semi-finals, where they lose to Seigaku. They advance to the National Tournament, but they are upset by a dark horse team, Higa.

• Oji is the coach of the team. He is an elderly man who manufactures creates special wooden rackets for his players, taking into consideration their skills and personality.

• Kentaro Aoi is the freshman captain of the team due to his skill. He is cheerful and talkative, having been playing tennis under the guidance of Oji for years. Oji creates a special hexagonal racquet with the strings crossed in hexagons, which allows for better control. The racquet combined with his training regement allows him to always hit to the same spot on his opponents side regardless of placement, which frustrates his opponents. He also uses his control to hit cord balls at any point. Aoi enjoys playing under pressure, so he frequently loses the first 4-5 games of his matches on purpose, in order to make them more exciting. He also will set conditions for himself, such as saying that he will only date ugly girls if he can't make a certain shot. In the manga he has a match with Kaoru Kaidoh in the Kantou Tournament, while in the anime he has a match with Ryoma Echizen. He is voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga in Japanese media, and is played Kazumi Kawahara in the musicals and by Daiki Sano in the live action film.

• Kojiro Saeki (佐伯虎次郎^?)is Rokkaku's vice-captain, and is a very stern and confident player. He is a childhood friend of the Fuji brothers. Saeki excels in doubles with his outstanding game reading capabilities, being able to read where an opponent is going to run or hit the ball by watching the contractions of their muscles prior to their action. He is voiced by Katsuaki Arima in Japanese media, and played by Kanata Irei in the musicals.

• Hikaru "Davide" Amane uses a custom racquet that is the maximum legal length, which allows him to have a large range and disperse strong shots easily. He often creates various puns that are only funny to himself, and he is often hurt by his doubles partner, Harukaze, after saying them. He is voiced by Kosuke Takeuchi in Japanese media, and played by Airu Shiozaki in the musicals, and by JURI in the live action film.

• Harukaze "Bane" Kurobane is very popular amongst the kids that often stand on Rokkaku's playgrounds. Like David, Bane's tennis also uses the opponent's power to generate strong shots of his own; however, Bane focuses on the baseline, whereas David plays at the net. He is voiced by Kazehiro Oguro in Japanese media, and played by Gaku Shindo in the musicals.

• Marehiko Itsuki is a very curious player who never stops asking about everything that happens around him, sometimes going to the extreme of chasing a person around if he doesn't satisfy his curiosity. He is skilled in hitting balls without a spin and reaching balls close to the ground. He is voiced by Takehiro Hasu in Japanese media, and is played by Shoma Ikegami in the musicals.

• Ryou Kisarazu is the older twin brother of Atsushi Kisarazu. Mizuki attempts to scout Ryou, but ends up with his brother. He is voiced by Hiroki Takahashi in Japanese media, and played by Ryosuke Kato in the musicals.
• Satoshi Shudo is made fun of for being a minor member of the regulars.

Rikkai

Rikkai Junior High School (私立立海大附属中学校, Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku^?) is located in the Kanagawa prefecture and is considered to be the best team, having won the Japanese National Tournament for the last two years. They aim for perfect wins in the matches and attempt to win for the third year in a row. They are introduced fully during the Kantō Tournament, where they easily crush Fudomine in the semi-finals. In the finals, however, they suffer a loss to Seigaku, and return to the Nationals as underdogs. They make their way all the way through to the finals of the Nationals, but they are once again defeated by Seigaku, ending their hopes of winning a third straight title. Takeshi Konomi mentioned in an interview that he had originally not been sure who would be in the finals between Nagoya Seitoku and Rikkai, but he ultimately decided on Rikkai because he felt they were more interesting.^[2]

• Seiichi Yukimura (幸村 精市, Yukimura Seiichi^?) is the captain of Rikkai Dai, known as one of the Three Demons, who has a strong willpower and a rather stern, brutally honest attitude on court. He is called "The Child of God" due to his strength in the tennis court. He returns the opponent's every shot, which takes away their main senses as playing subconsciously leaves them "no longer wanting to even cross the net." Despite his strength, he has a very frail and feminine appearance, and he is very friendly to others outside of the court. However, he is very strict with his team when he is acting as their Captain, and while he is playing, he refuses to lose. He is hospitalized for much of the series due a neurological disease, which leaves him with a fifty percent rate of living during a procedure to cure it. His play style is counterpuncher. He is voiced by Sachiko Nagai in Japanese media, and played by Ren Yagami in the musicals
• Genichiro Sanada (真田 弦一郎, Sanada Gen'ichirō^?), known as the "Emperor", is the vice-captain, who fills for Yukimura during his hospitalization. One of Rikkai's Three Demons. He comes from a very traditional family, is stern and noble, plays with honor, and expects the best from himself and his teammates. When his teammates don't live up to his expectations, or act in a way that brings shame to their team, Sanada will smack them. Sanada practices kendo and combines it with his tennis techniques. He has a three way rivialry with Atobe and Tezuka that extends from their freshman years. He uses a family of techniques called "Wind, Forest, Fire, Shadow, Mountain, Lightning" (Fuu Rin Ka In Zan Rai^?), though he initially seals off Shadow and Lightning to prepare for the match with Tezuka. Wind, based on the drawing of a sword, leaves the ball nearly invisible to the eye. Forest neutralizes the spin of a ball. Fire is a powerful shot that can be hit as a smash, forehand, or backhand. Shadow hides his weaknesses and makes him unreadable, particularly against the Saiki Kinpatsu no Kiwami. Lightning is an extremely fast strike that comes from anywhere on the court and goes at a difficult angle to hit. Beyond all these shots, Sanada can further enhance his play style by using Muga no Kyouchi. In the anime, Sanada possesses two different shots he does not have in the manga, the "Invisible Swing" and "Invisible Serve". These shots involve Sanada moving his racket extremely quickly, and making the exact path of the ball difficult to see with the naked eye though the shots may be based on Wind. He is voiced by Taiten Kusunoki in Japanese media, and is played by Kentarou Kanesaki in the musicals, and by Eiji Moriyama in the live action film.
• Renji Yanagi (柳 蓮二, Yanagi Renji^?),known as the Data Master, is the third of Three Demons of Rikkai. Yanagi usually plays in singles, but he is still an excellent doubles player. He is the friend and former doubles partner of Sadaharu Inui, having been known as the "Professor." He keeps his eyes perpetually half-closed just as Inui hides his eyes behind his thick glasses. He is Inui's rival in using Data Tennis, having taught Inui in the first place. He possesses two special techniques, the "Kamaitachi", a high speed slice shot, and the "Utsusemi", a slice shot that does not bounce. He is voiced by Eiji Takemoto in Japanese media, and played by Kento Ono in the musicals, and by Mamoru Miyano in the live action film.
• Akaya Kirihara (切原 赤也, Kirihara Akaya^?) is the youngest and only second year student in the Rikkaidai line-up, thus earning him the title "Second Year Ace." He joined Rikkai because he heard the school had a very strong tennis team, but his hopes were quickly crushed by the Three Demons. He usually acts childish and friendly, though he is actually very violent on the court, often causing serious injuries that require hospitalization. He reforms in the anime after being beaten by Fuji, though he retains his nature in the manga; in the nationals in the anime, he returns to his violent playing style. While under high pressure or after sustaining injury, The whites of his eyes turn red, becoming bloodshot, and his power, skill, and speed increase. He becomes much more violent while in this state. Later, he develops a "Devil Mode", which turns his skin red and his hair white. His bloodlust and destructive power are greatly enhanced, and he solely focuses on crushing the opposing players using purely violent means. Kirihara's trademark shot is the "Knuckle Serve", a more powerful and extreme version of the Twist Serve, in which the serve goes straight for the opposing players body. As a player who can use "Muga no Kyouchi", Kirihara has also used many other shots originally belonging to other players. He is voiced by Showtaro Morikubo in Japanese media, and played by Genki Ookawa in the musicals. In the 3rd character popularity poll for the series, Kirihara came in 7th place.^[7]
• Hiroshi Yagyuu (柳生 比呂士, Yagyū Hiroshi^?), known as "the Gentleman" for his polite demeanor. In the anime, he uses a "Golf Swing" shot is an adaptation of a golf swing from his days in the golf club prior to his recruitment to the tennis team. In the manga, his special move is the "Laser Beam", an extremely high speed technique that is difficult to return. He and his doubles partner, Niou, pull off a switch where each impersonates the other in appearance, persona, and play style for half the game. He is voiced by Eisuke Tsuda, and played by Toru Baba in the musicals.
• Masaharu Niou (仁王 雅治, Niō Masaharu^?), known as "the Trickster", is able to completely copy the techniques and play style of other players, creating the illusion his opponent is facing another person. It isn't completely perfect, as there are moves that he cannot copy and he is limited by his own physical abilities. He often copies his doubles partner, Yagyuu, to confuse their opponents. He can predict the moves of his opponents up to ten steps ahead. He is voiced by Yūki Masuda in Japanese media, and played by Masataka Nakagauchi in the musicals.
• Bunta Marui (丸井 ブン太, Marui Bunta^?) volley specialist and doubles partner of Jackal. He has stamina issues, so he overdoses on sugar, and he is almost always seen blowing bubblegum, even when he plays tennis. He plays doubles with his friend Jackal Kuwahara. He is especially good at hitting cord balls and having the ball roll along the top of the net. Jirou Akutagawa of Hyotei idolizes Marui and bases his style off of Marui's style, following a game they played in the Newcomers Tournament when they were both first years. In his recent match against Kikumaru and Oishi, he still chewed gum during the match. Marui is a net specialist, and his trademark shots include "Tightrope Walking", a shot that rolls along the top of the net before dropping in, "Iron Pole Strike", a similar shot which runs to the end and bounces off the iron pole, and "Temporal Difference Hell", a smash feint where he catches the ball at a different angle at the last second, returning it in an unpredictable manner. He is voiced by Naozumi Takahashi in Japanese media, and played by Renn Kiriyama in the musicals.
• Jackal Kuwahara (ジャッカル 桑原, Jakkaru Kuwahara^?) is half-Brazilian, known as the "Iron Wall of Defense." He shaves his head as a tribute to his old coach in Brazil. At the Kanto conference, Jackal is shown to have the arm training Kaoru Kaidoh has to return a Boomerang Snake also around the net post. He wears 20 kg arm weights in order to train. He is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama in Japanese media, and played by Jutta Yuuki in the musicals.

Shitenhoji

Shitenhoji Middle School (四天宝寺中学校, Shitenhōji Chūgakkō^?) is one of the strongest teams in the Kansai region. Though the team loses to Rikkai in previous year's semi-finals, the members put up the strongest fight against Rikkai with more willpower than any other team's. During the course of the series, they defeat Fudomine in the National Quarterfinals, only to lose to Seigaku in the Semi-finals.

• Osamu Watanabe is the coach and adviser. He is voiced by Koji Yusa in Japanese media.
• Kuranosuke Shiraishi (白石 蔵ノ介^?) is the captain of Shitenhōji. He is heralded as having "Perfect Tennis", and is referred to as "The Bible of Shitenhōji." Due to Shiraishi's hard work, he masters the basic forms of tennis and gradually obtains the skill where he can perform strokes without mannerisms or habitual actions that can lessen the use of stamina, which has a great effect. Shiraishi himself believes that perfect tennis is silly notion and finds his own style boring, but he realized that only winning matters, so he continues to employ his style. He uses the "Entaku Shot" which uses a massive sidespin to cause the ball to fly in a ring formation until it hits the course without bouncing. He is the first person to ever beat Fuji in an official singles match, as well as defeating all of Fuji's counters. He is voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya in Japanese media, and played by Harukawa Kyousuke and Sasaki Yoshihide in the musicals.

• Kenjiro Koshikawa is the vice-captain, but has almost no role in the story. He was originally intended to play a larger role, but this was cut when Konomi had to move Chitose to Shitenhōji, and the team wound up with an extra player. ^[2]

• Senri Chitose (千歳千里, Chitose Senri^?) originally plays on the Shishigaku team with his close friend, Kippei Tachibana, and the two guided Shishigaku to the National semi-finals in the previous season. This is put to an end after the Nationals when Tachibana injures Chitose's eye during a practice match. They both leave tennis for a time, and Chitose eventually transfers to Shitenhōji, though at a lesser level due to blind spots in injured eye. Chitose and Tachibana eventually get reunited in the National Quarterfinals, where Chitose defeats his old friend in a close match. Although he intended to quit tennis after that match, he gets drawn back in to play Tezuka in the semi-finals, where he loses. Chitose discovers the State of Self Actualization, which allows him to copy techniques of other players perfectly, and through studying, finds the second of the "three door", the Pinnacle of Great Wisdom. The power is focused on the mind, which allows him some foresight during rallies, telling him exactly how many shots a rally will last and who will win the point. His own original technique is the "Divine Disappearance", which allows him to make the ball appear as if it has disappeared by applying a large amount of topspin. Chitose was originally intended to still be with Shishigaku, but when Takeshi Konomi chose to bring Hyoutei back, he had to cut out Shishigaku's match with Seigaku, so he decided to move Chitose to Shitenhōji.^[2] He is voiced by Jun Oosuka in Japanese media, and by Ryuuko Isogai and Masashi Ooyama in the musicals.

• Kenya Oshitari is known as Naniwa's Speed Star. He is the cousin to Hyoutei's Yuushi Oshitari. He is voiced by Jun Fukuyama in Japanese media, and played Takuya Uehara and Kouki Mizuta in the musicals.
• Hikaru Zaizen is considered to be a genius. He is voiced by Hirofumi Araki in Japanese media, Hisanori Satou and Kawasumi Bishin in the musicals.
• Gin Ishida is a very serious, honorable, and stern young man who is the older brother of Fudomine's Tetsu Ishida. Gin is the inventor of the powerful shot, Hadokyu, which is composed of 108 progressively stronger techniques. He can also nullify other's use of Hadokyu. He is thought to be the strongest power player in Japan, until he breaks his wrist in his match against Takashi Kawamura in the Nationals. Takeshi Konomi has stated that Gin is his favorite character from Shitenhouji.^[2] He is voiced by Masaya Takatsuka, and by Yuusuke Hirose and Yuuta Yoneyama in the musicals.
• Koharu Konjiki and Yuuji Hitōji are two homosexual doubles partners known for their "comedy tennis", which is used to disrupt the sycronization of the other team. Koharu uses data tennis, determining how to counter shots with his two hundred IQ, which allows him to store a large amount of data. Yuuji impersonates other players down to their voice after enough studying. They break up after they lose to Seishun. Koharu is voiced by Ryo Naitou in Japanese media, and played by Takeya Nishiyama and Gaku Iizumi in the musicals. Yuuji is voiced by Taku Kumabachi in Japanese media, and played by Ryo Hirano and Makoto Uenobori in the musicals.
• Kintaro Toyama (遠山 金太郎, Tōyama Kintarō^?) is the youngest member of Shitenhoji and the team's strongest player. He is very carefree and naive, and has trouble speaking, often messing up names and sayings. He forms a rivalry with Ryoma, though they only get to play a single point. He uses a "Wild" tennis style that takes advantage of his natural stamina and strength, being able to lift a scooter over his head and throw it with ease. His signature technique is the "Mountain Storm", during which he spins rapidly in the air, causing a massive amount of wind to stir, and delivers a powerful overhead smash stronger then Gin's strongest hit. He was also stated by Chitose to be the player closest to achieving Tenimuhō no Kawami. Kintaro is extremely afraid of Shiraishi, which comes from reading a manga about monsters with poison claws, and as such, his unbound imagination comes up with the peculiar idea of Kuranosuke having poison claws under the bandages that he always wears around his hands and arms (this is a reference to Konomi's previous manga series; Cool -Rental Body Guard-). This fear is used to keep him in line. Kintarō's knowledge of Japanese is also shown to be weak, and he believes that Ryoma's family name of 'Echizen' is 'Koshimae'. He is voiced by Yū Sugimoto in Japanese media, played by Yuuya Kido and Kouya Kawada, and by Masato Wada in the live action film.

Higa

Higa Middle School (比嘉中学校, Higa Chūgakkō^?) is the first team from the Okinawa Prefecture to make it past the Kyūshū tournament in twenty-six years. All its players are Okinawan martial artists, and they can incorporate their experience in their tennis style, such as with the "Shukuchihou" method of movement. They have a rather bad attitude, and are not afraid to use nasty methods in order to win. During the series, the team makes the Nationals for the first time, and defeat Rokkaku in he first round. However, they are defeated in straight sets by Seigaku in the second round of the tournament.

• Harumi Saotome is the coach, who directly encourages and on-court violence, especially towards the coach of the other team. When his team is defeated, he attempts to abandon them, but Kite slams a tennis ball in his stomach, and tells him to watch the remaining match.
• Eishirou Kite (木手永四郎^?) is the captain, whose nicknames are "Killer" and "the Hitman", as well as receiving a reputation for defeating the aces of many other teams. He has an aggressive play style and can quickly figure out and target the opponent's weaknesses. He scouts various players and teaches them "Shukuchihou", a technique based on martial arts that gives the opponent the impression that the user is able to approach the net or baseline in one step from anywhere on the court. He isthe only member that is able to use the "Shukuchihou" in any direction due to his amazing balance. He also teaches them their signature techniques. Kite remains composed and polite in front of other teams, yet extremely condescending towards them, and if physically attacked he won't hesitate to strike back. His tennis style combines the "Shukuchihou" with other techniques such as his powerful "Big Bang" serve, and his "Habu", a shot that curves randomly, making it extremely difficult to return. Kite is one of the middle schoolers invited to the Japanese U17 team in New Prince of Tennis. He is voiced by Tarusuke Shingaki in Japanese media, and is played by Luke C. in the musicals, and Yuichi Tsuchiya in the live action film.
• Yuujirou Kai (甲斐裕次郎^?) is the vice-captain who has a tendency to be brash and impulsive despite being the oldest member. He normally plays with his right hand, though he switches to his natural left-handed style while using a racket with a reverse grip to use his "Viking Horn" shot, which curves before reaching the opponent's side. he utilizes this attack by waiting for his opponents reaction and at the last second, strikes back to the opposite side of the reaction. He is voiced by Daisuke Nakamura in Japanese media, and played by Hijiri Shinotani in the musicals.
• Hiroshi Chinen (知念 寛^?) is the tallest player in Higa Chuu, who uses his size and looks to mock and intimidate his opponents. He is also very perceptive, noticing in the match with Tanishi and Ryoma that Ryoma's Drive B was enough for Ryoma to not let his racket get knocked away. He is voiced by Kazuya Sueyoshi in Japanese media, and played by Takeshi Hayashino in the musicals.
• Kei Tanishi (田仁志 慧^?) possesses a large body, which allows him to utilize his "Big Bang" serve that uses his weight and the gravity from falling in order to make a nearly unreternable serve. It takes a lot of stamina, which decreases its power over time, allowing it to be returned, which was taken advantage of by Ryoma. He is one of the former rivals of Ryoma who return to help him regain his memories. In New Prince of Tennis, he is among the 50 middle school players who are invited to the Japanese U17 team. He is voiced by Youji Ueda in Japanese media, and played by Yutaka Matsuzaki in the musicals.
• Rin Hirakoba (平古場凛^?) is the only member who likes fair play. He uses Habu, which has the stance of a smash, except that it curves wildly and unpredictable while in the air and bouncing, and Giant Habu, which curves immediately after leaving the racket, though it causes his hand to go numb, limiting it to one use per match. Hirakoba is a very formiddable player, being able to take out Fuji's triple counter and Takashi's Hadoukyuu. He is one of the only players to stand up to Coach Saotome, refusing an order to attack Seigaku's coach, because he felt the match was more interesting. Although, he does try to attack Coach Ryuzaki but Takashi is able to block it. He is voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino in Japanese media, and played by Yasuka Saito in the musicals.
• Tomoya Shiranui and Aragaki Kouichi are doubles partners, who, having grown up playing under an extremely hot sun, have extremely high endurance, which makes up for not being able to use the "Shukuchihou" technique.

American team

The American Team was part of the "Senbatsu Training Camp" and "Good Will Games" arc only seen in the anime of The Prince of Tennis.

• Richard Baker is the American team's extremely strict coach, who views tennis as a great show, and his pupils as the actors and pawns for success. He often expects his players to win or lose based on his idea of entertainment. He is later suspended from coaching after it was revealed he squandered funding on expensive advertising and promotion for his team, though he is also known to tell his players to intentionally lose and slapped Kevin during the Good Will Games.

• Kevin Smith is the captain of the team. He wishes to play Ryoma to settle a rival feud between his father, George Smith, and Ryoma's father, Nanjiro Echizen, who humiliated George. George becomes very strict with Kevin's training and turns to alcohol, which causes Kevin to view him as worthless. He plays a highly destructive form of tennis used to injure other players, and he copies Ryoma's style. When he and Ryoma meet up in the United States he shows a more cheerful and gentler side, without losing his competitiveness.

• Arnold Ignashov (アーノルド・イグニショフ, Ānorudo Igunishofu^?) is an immigrant from East Germany, who becomes disillusioned and turns to life as a street punk. He eventually finds a sports magazine, and becomes involved in tennis. Not wanting to return to his previous lifestyle, he practices and doesn't lose a single official match until playing Shusuke Fuji. Arnold is called a tennis machine because of his accuracy and the ability to figure out and counter his opponent's shots.

• Bobby Max (ボビー・マックス, Bobī Makkusu^?) is the tallest and most muscularly developed of his fellow teammates, earning him the nickname, "Beast Bulldozer." Bobby often struggles to control his temper and poor sportsmanship, which have gotten him banned from most sports in his school until being introduced to tennis. Previously, Bobby played basketball and American football.

• Tom Griffy (トム・グリフィー, Tomu Gurifī^?) is the older brother, as well as the doubles partner of Terry Griffy (テリー・グリフィー, Terī Gurifī^?). They are raised by their aunt following the death of their parents. They support themselves and their aunt by collecting items from the garbage and performing tennis tricks. Baker discovers them and "rescues" them from their aunt, which leaves them deeply indebted.

• Billy Cassidy (ビリー・キャシディ, Birī Kyashidi^?) is a boy who moves to Los Angeles after being on a ranch most of his life. He begins to play tennis to become a person worthy of attention of Stephanie, the daughter of one of Baker's sponsors.

• Michael Lee (マイケル・リー, Maikeru Rī^?) is the only son of a successful Chinese businessman, and is a United States immigrant. His father's personal philosophies of hard work and success shape Michael's personality and tennis play. He has also practiced kung fu for many years, enhancing his speed and reflexes when playing tennis.

Others

• Nanjiro Echizen (越前 南次郎, Echizen Nanjirō^?) is the father of Ryoma. Nanjiro is very outspoken, eccentric, a shameless flirt, brash, perverted, and almost childish at times. He is known as "Samurai Nanjiro" for his invincible tennis skills during his earlier years as a professional tennis player. Other than Ryoma, he is the only player to have reached the "Pinnacle of Perfection" (and master it). He is trained by Ryuzaki during middle school and eventually goes pro after leaving Japan. He remains undefeated and was only one more opponent away to earning a Grand Slam title before he unexpectedly decided to retire in order to teach Ryoma tennis. In the animated movie Tennis no Ōjisama - Futari no Samurai, it was revealed that he had briefly taken in a child named Ryoga Echizen. In addition to being one of the few players to ever achieve the "Pinnacle of Perfection", Nanjiro sports a tennis style that uses the "Nitoryuu" position of playing ambidextrously, and uses Samurai Zone to cause all of his opponents shots to return straight to him.Voiced by: Takashi Matsuyama (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English) He is played by Yukio Ueshima in the first musical, Goro Kishitani in the live action film.

• Sakuno Ryuzaki (竜崎 桜乃, Ryūzaki Sakuno^?) is the granddaughter of Sumire, and the first person in Japan who has direct contact with Ryoma Echizen. She is a kind, nice and quiet girl with very long hair kept in twin braids, who almost always seems to worry about Ryoma and the others. She starts playing tennis after watching Ryoma. She often hangs around and supports the Seigaku team, though she particularly admires Ryoma.Voiced by: Mikako Takahashi (Japanese), Cindy Robinson (English)

• Tomoka Osakada (小坂田 朋香, Osakada Tomoka^?) is outspoken, strong willed, and bossy. She develops great admiration for Ryoma, to the point of becoming his self-appointed "number one fangirl" and creating his fan club. She loudly and faithfully cheers for Ryoma and the Seigaku team, no matter how hard things get for them, and is also very protective of her friends.Voiced by: Fuyuka Oura (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)

• Satoshi Horio (堀尾 聡史, Horio Satoshi^?) is a first year student, who claims to know everything about tennis. He constantly brags about his "two years of tennis experience", but is, in fact, a less than average player. He often explains or tries to explain to his first year friends key words, rules, and techniques. He has an older cousin named Junpei, who has "two years of biking experience" and helps Kintarō Tooyama from Shitenhōji to reach Tokyo. He is portrayed by Yusuke Ishibashi, Masaki Hara, Ryo Yamada, and Shun Maruyama in the muicals.Voiced by: Shigenori Yamazaki (Japanese), Adam Lawson (English)

• Kachiro Kato (加藤 勝郎, Katō Kachirō^?) hangs around a lot with Satoshi Horio and Katsuo Mizuno. Although he is not very good at tennis he thoroughly supports the team. He has a father who coaches at an expensive tennis club. Though he is normally polite and meek, Kachiro believes strongly in justice and fights to the end to defend his beliefs. He is portrayed by Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Yuya Mori, Ryou Kawamoto, Tsubasa Itou and Hiroki Hirai in the musicals.Voiced by: Akira Nakagawa (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)

• Katsuo Mizuno (水野 カツオ, Mizuno Katsuo^?)is the third of the "freshman three." He bears a strong resemblance to Oishi, which is used to stall for time while Oishi is not present. He is portrayed by Masaru Hotta, Yuki Okamoto, Kouichi Eguchi, Masashi Watanabe and Rie Takahashi in the musicals.Voiced by: Kei Watanabe (Japanese), Yuri Lowenthal (English)

• Masashi Arai (荒井 将史, Arai Masashi^?) is a second year student, and the best reserve player on the team, who is the closest to becoming a regular, almost getting a shot to play in Kantō Tournament finals in the anime when Momoshiro and Kaido were nowhere to be seen. He is known for his hotheadedness and hazing of weaker players. He is as hard on himself as he is on the others during training. He is also later attacked in another episode by Yamabuki's Jin Akutsu. Although he had a very bitter relationship with Ryoma at first, he cheered him on during his match with Akutsu. He often hangs around Masaya Ikeda (池田 雅也, Ikeda Masaya^?) and Daisuke Hayashi (林 大介, Hayashi Daisuke^?). He is portrayed by Jiro Morikawa in the musicals.Voiced by: Norihisa Mori (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English)

• Yūdai Yamato (大和 祐大, Yamato Yūdai^?) is the captain during Tezuka's freshman year. He talks Tezuka into staying in the tennis club as Seigaku's pillar of support, calming him down when he was on the verge of quitting after being injured. Eccentric, insightful and gentle, Yamato has a unique "way" of explaining things that even Sumire Ryuzaki has trouble understanding him. He continued to help the tennis club after he graduated; in the anime, coach Ryuzaki asks him for his guidance when they go to a training camp to prepare for the Kantō conference final against Rikkai.Voiced by: Masanori Ikeda

• Mamoru Inoue (井上 守, Inoue Mamoru^?) is a journalist for the Monthly Tennis magazine. Inoue takes a special interest in the progress of Seigaku. He is also an amateur tennis player, as well as being a big fan of Nanjiro Echizen. Voiced by: Hozumi Gōda (Japanese), Jack Bauer (actor) (English)

• Saori Shiba (芝砂 織, Shiba Saori^?) is new photographer for the Monthly Tennis magazine. Along with Inoue, she takes a special interest in Seigaku. Voiced by: Noriko Namiki (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)

• Nanako Meino (菜々子, Meino Nanako^?) is a student at a local Tokyo college, who currently lives with her relatives, the Echizen family. She plays the role of an elder sibling figure to Ryoma, who is an only child, and she helps him and the other Echizens with their daily lives. She is sweet-tempered, very polite, loyal, and devoted. Voiced by: Risa Mizuno (Japanese), Jennifer Sekiguchi (English)

• Rinko Echizen is Ryoma's mother and Nanjiro's wife. Her maiden name is Rinko Takeuchi. She is sweet and compliant, but quite strong-willed as well. She works as an attorney, which has been her long-time dream. She meets Nanjiro while playing tennis. After Rinko gets hurt from saving a boy from an abusive tennis coach, Nanjiro avenges her by completely humiliating the coach in a match. Voiced by: Yuki Nakao

• Sasabe is a local bully, who occasionally encounters Ryoma and his friends. He is first introduced when he boasts about his knowledge of the different types of tennis grip, which is when Ryoma corrects his knowledge. He is also the first person in the series to play a match against Ryoma, whom he loses to. His father, who has an attitude similar to his son, also encounters Ryoma and his friends on a few occasions. He is portrayed by Katsuo in the first musical.Voiced by: Yoshiaki Matsumoto (Japanese), David Lodge (English)

Reception

A review of the manga by Spectrum Nexus praised the series for its cast of characters, saying that "the characters are very well developed", and listing the cast as one of the best aspects of the series.^[13]

Sadaharu Inui

In each of the official character popularity polls for the series run in Weekly Shonen Jump, Inui has appeared in the Top 10, with his rank steadily increasing. In the first two polls he came in 10th place each time,^[14][15] and he increased to 6th place in the third poll.^[16] In the fourth poll, Inui made it into the Top 5 for the first time, appearing in fifth place. ^[2]

Kaoru Kaido

Kaidou has placed on every single popularity poll taken for The Prince of Tennis. In the first poll taken, he came in 6th place^[17], and moved up to 5th place in the second poll taken.^[18] He fell to 18th in the third poll^[19], however he moved up slightly to 17th in the fourth poll^[20].

Anime on DVD praised Kaidoh for being unpredictable and borderline psychotic.^[21]

Keigo Atobe

Almost since Keigo Atobe's initial appearance, he has become one of the most popular characters in The Prince of Tennis series. In the 2006 Valentine Special, Atobe was the winner, being given over 1000 chocolates. In the third characters' popularity ranking, he came in third place, behind only Ryoma and Fuji. ^[22] In the 4th characters' popularity ranking, Atobe was voted first with a total of 12,913 votes, soundly beating Shusuke Fuji, who came in second with 6116 votes.^[23]

Atobe was also the first character to sing the song "Valentine Kiss" in 2004. Since then, the same song was released annually at Valentine's Day by different characters and featuring harmony by two other characters. In 2005 it was sung by Yuushi Oshitari, 2006 by Ryo Shishido, all of whom are Hyotei Gakuen players. In 2007, it was sung by Genichirou Sanada of Rikkai Dai, thus ending the Hyotei successions. The song appears for the second time in 2007 as a bonus track in the album of Shuichiro Oishi. In 2008, it was sung by Yuujirou Kai of Higa Middle School.

Merchandise

Keigo Atobe

Besides Ryoma Echizen, Atobe has released more character CDs than any other character in the series, and he is the only other character to have two full length albums. One of his singles reached top nine in the weekly charts, the best result for any Prince of Tennis character CDs. There have also been figures of Atobe released. ^[24]

References

v • d • e The Prince of Tennis Series media Manga chapters • Anime episodes (Seasons: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) • Animated movie • Live-action film • Tenimyu (musicals) Characters Ryoma Echizen • Kunimitsu Tezuka • Shuichiro Oishi • Shusuke Fuji • Eiji Kikumaru • Takashi Kawamura • Sadaharu Inui • Takeshi Momoshiro • Kaoru Kaido