English Dub Review: The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup “Pre-World Cup Kicks Off!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Teams from all over the world competing in the U-17 World Cup gather to start things off with the Pre-World Cup exhibition matches.

Our Take: 

The tournament has officially begun, along with the temporary match-up between Ryoma and his fellow pals from Japan. While I’m not a huge fan of the franchise, the first episode of its sequel series got me curious to see Ryoma rise to the top in the World Cup. So at least that’s something.

Following the introductions of the teams and their specific key characters, the second episode has them going head-to-head in the exhibition matches. Personally, I would call them the calm before the storm since they’re more of a warm-up for the real excitement. One of the matches depicted in the episode has Team Japan battling against the reigning champions from Germany. This means the Japan team is facing its main boss earlier than expected.

There’s also another match happening between Team USA and Tupai. However, the episode’s eyes are set on Japan and Germany as they fight to avoid elimination. I don’t usually watch tennis since there’s nothing exciting about two or four people hitting the ball across the net. But I will credit this episode for making this simple sport exhilarating with the players’ power moves.

This well-paced chapter in U-17 World Cup showcased the match’s intensity through its animation, stakes, and a tiny bit of comedy, with Siegfried getting his face smashed by his opposing team’s ball return. More importantly, it represents the character motivations further amid the exhibition match, mainly Fuji. The flashback has Fuji seeing Tezuka as the main reason for his determination to keep playing the sport. After Tezuka leaves to train in Germany, Fuji is determined to keep going so he can eventually play against him.

Since I haven’t watched the previous Prince of Tennis installments, it was challenging for me to grow attached to the character growths in this series. However, that doesn’t make it even less interesting, as the episode did its job of making the characters easier for specific newcomers like me to understand. Additionally, it offers an enticing start to the tournament’s first exhibition match, with Japan and Germany tied with one win each. Next week’s episode sees Volk from Germany playing in the third match, so I’m curious to see what this pro-level captain has up his sleeve for the next round.