Manga Review: The Prince of Tennis Volume 9

Manga review of The Prince of Tennis volume 9: "Take Aim!" by Takeshi Konomi. Translated by Joe Yamazaki. Adapted by Gerard Jones. Originally published in Japan by Shueisha. Published in US by Viz Shonen Jump, $7.95, Rated A for All Ages.

The City Tournament is in full swing as Seishun finds itself all tied up 1-1 after its doubles matches with St. Rudolph. Seishun's "Golden Pair" of Eiji and Shuichiro were supposed to have a cakewalk through the tournament but ended up losing. Kaoru and Momo had to take the team's fate on their shoulders and squeak out a win. Now it's on to the singles matches. First up is Ryoma vs. Yuta, who just happens to be gunning for his older brother and Ryoma's teammate, Shusuke. Yuta originally was a student at Seishun but always felt overshadowed by his "genius" older brother. So when Hajime, the scheming and sly captain of St. Rudolph came to recruit him for the tennis team, Yuta was all ears. The unseeded Fudmoine has its hands full as they have to face last years City Tournament defending champs, Hyotei.

Reading a volume of The Prince of Tennis when it gets into tournament mode is like watching a heavyweight boxing title match. In a word, exciting. You have all these disparate characters with their contrasting styles and attitudes and you just wonder how its gonna play out, literally. I guess you could say there are some "kinda" badguys in the series, like Hajime, for instance. He tells Yuta to aim for Ryoma's injured eye. But that's just because, to these characters, winning is everything and losing is nothing. I've yet to see any legitimate player try to cheat, but I'm sure that's in the offing somewhere down the line.

My Grade: A