I am a huge fan of Prince of Tennis (the anime) which actually made me want to play tennis too. Just in case I haven’t shared it to you, during my early college years, I played tennis. I just had to quit because of back problems.

Anyway, since I am a huge fan of Prince of Tennis, I became interested with the new Prince of Tennis live action. It was released in 2019 but I got to watch it early 2020 through Netflix. I do not have high expectations with it since the first live-action was really not that good.

Title: Prince of Tennis (2019)

Episodes: 40 episodes (around 40 minutes each)

Casts:

Lu Xia played by Peng Yu Change
Mu Si Yang played by Xie Bin Bin
Zhuo Zhi played by Zhange Yi Jie
Chi Da Yong  played by Zhu Zi Ling
Tiang Jia Le played by Xu Ke
Yan Zhi Ming played by Herman Li
He Xin Long played by Fan Lin Feng
Qiao Chen played by Dong Li
Zhang Bai Yang played by Wu Xu Dong

Plot: Lu Xia, a tennis prodigy, has always been in the shadow of his father. His reason why he wanted to play tennis is because he wanted to defeat his father. He then joined a tennis club in his school and was able to meet different kinds of players. Aside from having a goal of winning first place on the national league, Lu Xia also found out the importance of friends and why he plays tennis.

One of the things I appreciate in this series is that the casts seemed to have trained and know the basic of tennis. They have the proper posture, how to serve, and even hit the ball. It makes me want to think that they are really pro in terms of tennis.

If you will watch this, take note on how they swing their rackets. Not all, but most of them know the basics of tennis which made me really impressed. Some of them are even better than knowing the basics like Lu Xia.

On the first episode, I immediately recognized who’s who in the series. They really made a great effort looking for actors who can really portray the anime characters. From the simple mannerisms of the character to how they move in the court, they definitely got it! I can say that I was really impressed.

Not only do they portray it well, but they also look like the anime. Look at the similarities of the characters to their anime counterpart.

Although there may be some tweaks on the series, the whole series still goes with the anime and the manga. The important enemies, friends, and people can be seen in this series. After watching it, I wanted to check on the anime again (for the nth time lol).

Well aside from the main team, there were other good-looking actors here. They may have fewer scenes, but they already caught my attention. I’m suddenly looking forward to see more of these actors on other dramas.

Wang Yan Yang, he plays the role of Ya Juxin (or Jin Akutsu in the anime). I was really surprised with his visuals. At first look I really knew that he is playing the role of Jin in the anime but I did not imagine him to be this good looking.

Next, Ren Yunjie, he plays the role of Bai Shiting (Rikkaidai Yukimura in the anime). At first, I was thinking on who he is. Suddenly, when I saw him wearing the jacket, the face of Yukimura suddenly appeared. Although he only had few scenes in this series, he has already caught my attention because of his looks. Hoping to see him more on Season 2 (praying for season 2!)

Chen Shang Ze, he plays the role of Xu Ziping (Fudomine Tachibana in the anime). Although his hair was a bit different from the anime, I can immediately recognize him because of his other features.

The series has tweaked the anime and it added a little bit of a love story between Lu Xia and Qi Ying. Because this series is a sports series and not a love story, I do not want to see some cute romantic scenes. I don’t know why, but if I’m watching a sports series, I just want it to be sports. If I’m watching a love story, then of course there will be lots of romantic scenes.

Of course, they are not really playing tennis while shooting so it means they need to make a computer version of the ball. There will be times where you can see the errors on the ball. Well, it’s just a minor issue but I have strict eyes with those scenes.

I may have some disappointments with the series, but I will still recommend it. In fact, I want to watch it over and over again. If you’re a fan of the anime and manga, you can try watching it and I promise, you will definitely like it. It’s way better than the first live action.

I’m still looking forward for the next season of Prince of Tennis because the story isn’t finished yet! They have only won the regional and will just start to play on the nationals. I want to see more of the characters. There are no news yet if there will be season 2, but I’m really hoping!