English Dub Review: The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup “Team USA, Ryoma Echizen”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After Ryoma is forced to withdraw from the Japan U-17 training camp, Ryoga invites him to play for the US team.

Our Take:  

It’s been a long time coming, but the wait is finally over. The popular anime franchise is back with another series depicting Ryoma Echizen’s quest to be the best of the best in tennis. This time, the prodigy is taking on a whole new ball game, as he’s competing in the big leagues via the U-17 World Cup. I hadn’t watched The Prince of Tennis when it first came out, mainly because I was growing attached to action-oriented anime at the time, like Pokemon. Plus, I’m not a huge tennis fan. However, after watching the latest Prince of Tennis film a couple of months ago, I gained the courage to check out the newest series in the growing franchise.

The first episode’s plot is precisely what the title suggested: Ryoma is trying out for Team USA following an incident that forced him to be removed from the U-17 training camp in Japan. With his big brother Ryoga by his side, Ryoma proved his worth in representing America in a typical fish-out-of-water fashion. But, unfortunately, it’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows from here on out.

For starters, the members of Team Japan were shocked by Ryoma’s decision to stay in Team USA despite him being chosen to represent his hometown. Even worse is that Kunimitsu Tezuka is playing for Team Germany, meaning that these former allies are now temporary adversaries in the most significant event in tennis history. There’s also Team Japan’s coach, who happens to be the reason for Ryoma’s withdrawal due to the prodigy saving one of the members from getting slaughtered by his serve. As it turns out, the coach is still holding on to that grudge as he plans to use the tournament as revenge against Ryoma.

As someone who didn’t watch the previous Prince of Tennis shows, I surprisingly found myself enjoying how U-17 World Cup introduces the events to come in the future. Unfortunately, it shows that the recent CG movie wasn’t enough for me to engage in the franchise’s world-building. However, the first episode also has enough interest for me to see what direction it’ll go from here. Regarding its impressive animation and decent characters, “Team USA, Ryoma Echizen” marks a solid comeback for the tennis-focused franchise, which will likely satisfy even the biggest fans of the source material.