Ryoma sets out on a mission to surpass his father in his own way. During this we see him challenge members of his own tennis club to rival members from other clubs to tournaments and such. What stands out of the series is that it stays somewhat true to tennis by using real rules and some real techniques well to a certain extent. That is until we see characters manipulate their energy or elements when using their tennis techniques. In a nutshell, think Dragon Ball Z battles but on a tennis court with tennis rules.

This movie has two versions: Decide and glory. We had the chance to review the Decide version and we had two different views, one who knows of Prince of Tennis and one who is somewhat new to the series. So the new movie is set in the post-Prince of Tennis universe and we reconnect with Ryoma after he left Japan to go to the US and try to improve his skills. We start in LA during the US open or AA open depending on if you are watching the dubbed or subbed version of this movie. We had two of our writers Ken Dubois and Salvador Mateos discuss their take on the movie.

Salvador: I am familiar with Prince of Tennis and since I first saw it I was captivated since I played tennis in High School and seeing how they talk about some fundamentals of tennis in an accurate way I gave it a chance. What really got me to stick around was the different techniques each player showed and how they described them in detail, also the fact that at one point Ryoma reveals that he was playing with his right hand and his dominant hand is his left that is what sealed it for me. Since tennis is played with your dominant hand so you have the most power, control, and stamina, saying you are playing with your other hand is like you are playing with a handicap.

Ken: I am not very familiar with the series as a whole. The 3DCG seemed like it was done pretty well and the characters were nicely animated and the action during the tennis scenes was top notch. The story at times seemed to have improper pacing and I did occasionally get lost in what was going on. I did enjoy most of the characters' personalities and that alone kept me engaged throughout the movie. Overall I was hoping they would have shown more tennis scenes.

Salvador: Having a chance to watch the new movie was exciting for me but knowing it was a 3DCG movie I was on the fence. I don’t really gravitate to movies that are 3DCG but since this movie is a sports movie I thought it might be ok since they can present the action scenes and tennis techniques in a different way especially if they utilize the 3D animation. At first, the art did take me a while to adjust to but I kept saying it will pay off just wait, but that time never came. Instead, the worst part was the musical numbers that they put in the movie. I didn’t know if I was watching an anime movie or when I hit my head and was now watching the anime version of the High School Musical. The first one where he takes on the LA street gang with golden rackets at a game of gamble tennis and then all of sudden it turns into a musical number especially since Ryoma raps I cringed but I kept going hoping the tennis battles would be better and hoping for the 3D art to pay off, yet I did not see any new technique from Ryoma but we did see one or two from other characters.

The story was not developing enough to keep me interested especially since they kept adding musical numbers. I wanted more stories between Ryoma and Nanjirou his father, something that would be a shocker or change what we knew about him already. It just felt that they used the same reveals from the anime such as Ryoma being left-handed but beating the opponent with his right. In the end, I lost faith in the art style and went back to hating 3DCG movies. I wanted to break a racket just like Nanjirou’s opponent but in anger that they sort of fooled us into a musical movie disguised as a Prince of Tennis movie where they could have had more action and story development but instead it had Ryoma dealing with a tennis gang from LA that challenge people into tennis matches to steal their money which transitions into a rap battle.

Ken: The whole premise seems pretty straightforward but tends to have improper pacing at times. If this is a story about the prince of tennis, shouldn’t there be more scenes with actual tennis? More often the characters were running around being chased by the antagonists and I felt that really took me out of the action. While the whole music bits were nice they also did not seem to follow a coherent part of the plot so I was a little confused at times. I do appreciate that it is available to watch in English and Japanese.

Salvador: Overall I felt this movie felt as if it was a fever dream where different styles come together and must mix into something you can’t explain. The length is 1hr and 40m but even that felt long for a movie that doesn’t know what it is. The main characters did not add anything to the story; they were just there to progress the plot. The art was like watching a long game cutscene. There is a small montage at the end of the film that highlights some characters and pays tribute to the manga from 1999-to 2008 but even that doesn’t make up for the movie.

I give Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis: DECIDE a score of 3/10.

Ken: As a first viewer, it was a little hard for me to understand parts of the movie at times. There were a few scenes of the movie that did feature actual tennis and were very engaging and full of action and well animated. I do wish they showed more character development rather than the movie feels like the characters were just running around all the time with little to no direct motive. Overall it was a pretty entertaining movie. However, it might be a little hard for me to recommend this movie to people who have not watched The Prince of Tennis series.

I give Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis: DECIDE a score of 6/10.

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