Crack.

Part Four: the Fandom.

*Note. The Crack gets its own section because I don’t think most people realise until they get into the fandom just how huge Prince of Tennis really is. The only anime fandoms which contain more actual stuff to go with them are arguably Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z. There’s enough stuff on the side on Tenipuri to comprise their own individual huge fandoms. And they do. It ain’t no Harry Potter, but this fandom? This fandom is immense.

And the reason I lump it all together under the moniker “The Crack” is because, well. There just is no real way to convey just how crazy it all is.

Prince of Tennis is on Crack.
I. The Chibi Eps (Chibipuri)
II. The Musicals (Tenimuyo)
III. The Music (soundtracks + bands)
IV. The Movies
V. The Radio Shows (Rajipuri)
VI. The Video Games.

I. Chibipuri.
Chibipuri refers to the Tenipuri episodes which are done entirely in Chibi. They begin at episode 64, and continue to pop up sporadically through the remainder of the series. While most anime series frequently use chibi drawing throughout the series in the regular continuing storylines, the Prince of Tennis chibi eps devote entirely standalone, completely bizarre episodes to chibi art, which makes the insane plotlines that occur within that much more cracktastic.

The Chibipuri eps are often called Tenipuri Family, because in many of them the Seigaku tennis team becomes a literal family, in which the roles are as follows:
Grandfather & Grandmother – Tezuka & Fuji
Mother & Father – Oishi & Inui
Little Brother / Little Sister – Ryoma / Momo
Tenipuri Baby – Kaidoh (complete with RATTLE, OF COURSE *_*)
Family pet – Kitty! Eiji

There are other episodes in which the Seigaku members are alternately lumberjacks, neanderthals, and baseball players; there is a chibipuri ep in which Fuji is a bride looking for her groom (who else but Tezuka!), and another in which Atobe creates a bomb which blows up the world. There is an episode in which Horio turns into Horiozilla and can only be defeated by a mighty tennis ball full of exploding Inui Juice, and another in which Ryoma appears in a giant can of Ponta floating downstream in the river towards Ryuzaki-sensei, Seigaku coach.

It’s absolutely impossible to sum up the madness of Chibipuri. They are hilarious. They are bizarre. They are insane. I have included a whole host of chibi screencaps in the final post in this series, so, if you wish, you can see for yourself.

II. Tenimyu.

A. Yes. Musicals.

I asked soundczech to write this section, because there’s a LOT to talk about with the musicals. She has done a fabulous job.

First of all, the Tenimyu musicals are not musical episodes of the animated series, but live stage shows with real actors, singing and choreography. Each musical follows one canonical arc, except for the two ‘Dream Live’ musicals, which are basically plotless variety shows performed in character. While the singing and dancing is not always perfect, the performers are incredibly lovable and the performances are full of slash material. And the music gets better. Unfortunately most of the musicals, while downloadable, have yet to be subtitled. However, if you have seen the anime or read the manga they are still incredibly easy to follow.

Despite the fact that it was the third musical to be performed, Dream Live 1st is a good place to start as there is a subtitled version available and provides a good introduction to the first cast, upon whom your love of the musicals probably depends.

B. The Casts
There are three main tenimyu casts, referred to as the first cast, second cast, and third cast. The first cast performed in the first five musicals, with some cast changes – notably the role of Echizen Ryoma shifted was temporarily shared between actors after the original actor, Yanagi Kotaroh was involved in an accident. Yanagi returned to share the role with his replacement Endo Yuuya in Side: Fudomine, a second run of the first musical he missed. This, in addition to the ‘graduation’ of the first cast at the end of the performance, make that musical pretty emotional viewing. The actors cry. The audience cry. I cry.

The second cast retains Yanagi Kotaroh and (temporarily) Endo Yuuya in the role of Echizen Ryoma but replaces all the other characters with younger performers. They are still completely lovable. And some of them are really hot. And so are the rival schools.

updated info, August 2007: The third cast replaced almost everyone except for, I believe, Aiba as Fuji? This cast came together for the Rikkai arc, beginning with the Rokkaku musical in late 2006. There are currently twelve musicals in all, and Dream Live Fourth is in production.

There is a healthy RPS fandom attached to the musicals. If you’re into that kind of thing, don’t miss the backstage specials that accompany each musical. Don’t miss those in general, really, as they’re all completely dorky and adorable–a highlight of the musicals experience.

III. The Music.
A. The soundtracks.

In addition to all the music within the show itself, instrumental and opening/ending theme songs (there are, I believe, 12 theme songs total), the Tenipuri “characters” themselves have released an immense selection of albums. These character albums range from major characters like the Seigaku regulars to minor characters, like the Hyotei coach, wtf. Many of the characters, from all schools, have more than one album plus a wide selection of singles.

Among the more memorable offerings out there are Fuji’s English arrangements like “Amazing Grace,” Tezuka and Ryoma singing love songs to each other “Dedicate to E” and “Return to T” respectively, Eiji’s trademark “Tonde! Mawatte! Mata Raishuu!” and group songs like “We Love Seigaku” and one in which <shipper bias> Ryoma asks Tezuka if it’s true he’s really wearing nothing under his jersey. </shipper bias>

But probably by far the most memorable of the very memorable Tenipuri offerings is Inui’s track (from his solo album E=MC^2) “Pi,” an eight-minute long single (with an additional reprise single!!!!) which consists of him breathily reciting the digits of Pi, to a soft slow jams background. One more tiny but lingering example of the myriad ways in which Tenipuri is Utter Crack.

Also, you really have not experienced full and real perversion until you have heard Ryoma sing. God help me.

B. The bands:

Aozu – Aozu!!!! There are 2 bands made up of the Seigaku members; one is Aozu and the other is Cap to Bin. (Aozu, incidentally, is the name of one of Inui’s remixes of Inui Juice.) Aozu is made up of Tezuka, Fuji, Oishi, and Ryoma. Among other things Aozu performs one of the ending theme songs, “White Line,” which is one of the best songs from the show. (Ryoma and Fuji also do wonderful solo covers. Eee.)

Cap to Bin – the other half of Seigaku! Inui, Kaidoh, Momo, Taka, and Eiji.

Pull-tab to Can – This group features some of the most popular non-Seigaku Tenipuri characters: specifically Atobe, Oshitari, Kirihara, Shinji, Kamio, and Sengoku. Most memorably, Pull-tab guested in an actual Tenipuri ep (ep 140-141) and sang a very special serenade for Tezuka, “Wonderful Days,” in one of the show’s more memorable moments. (♥)

Ao to Bin to Can – just as you’d expect, this is a combination of all three groups – actually a specific grouping of players from the Senbatsu arc near the end of the series). Uh. They get together and sing…. songs.

Meganes — Meganes means “glasses” in Japanese. Magane is made up of three Tenipuri characters who, memorably, are endowed with four eyes: Tezuka, Inui, and Oshitari (Hyotei).

3 Guava Trio – I… have no idea what this is. Oh! It is Jiroh (Hyotei), Bunta (Rikkai), and Kentarou (The Annoying Freshman Captain From That Annoying School, Rokkaku). SEE HOW RANDOM THIS IS. WTF TENIPURI.I think those are the main concentration of bands, but undoubtedly I have forgotten some. Aozu has released the most singles/albums, followed by Cap to Bin.C. Band of Princes:

In addition to using Aozu for one of their theme songs and featuring Pull Tab in a major ep, canon goes one step further: just like with the chibi episodes, it pulls out all the stops for a special standalone ep: Band of Princes. This is exactly what it sounds like: an AU ep that is all Music Video, featuring the members of Seigaku as a rock band.

Crack PoT (the name for this website is making so much more sense now, isn’t it?) has a hilarious summary with screencaps of Band of Princes.

Really. No words.

IV. The Movies.
A. INSANE BOAT MOVIE. In which there are GAY BOAT RIDES, members of the YAKUZA, many phallic references involving ORANGES, Ryoma has an ADOPTED OLDER BROTHER who inexplicably LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE HIM, who apparently ran away to join the gay cruise line JAPANESE MAFIA. In which Ryoma and his brother play tennis UNDERWATER, THROUGH A TIDAL WAVE, IN MIDAIR, AND ALSO IN THE MIDDLE OF A RAINBOW. In which Tezuka hits a tennis ball which becomes a Flaming Meteor which wipes out the Population of Earth. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/lizstarsky/11434.html) That’s right. Tezuka killed the Dinosaurs. And Atobe wears a velvet smoking jacket. You can read an absolutely hysterical full summary, full of spoilers (which don’t matter, trust me), on dilettantka’s livejournal. There’s also what can only be called a crack Atobe Gayfest animated short.

B. CENIPURI.
This live-action Prince of Tennis movie features several of the actors from the second musical cast, including Shirota as Tezuka. It debuted in Japan in May 2006. The promos for this movie looked like airbrushed TezuRyo wallpapers, and then the movie itself turned out to be an airbrushed TezuRyo fic. No, I’m not joking. Here is the Prince of Tennis live action movie, summed up photographically:

Tezuka and Ryoma silently staring at each other for two hours. That’s pretty much the plot of this movie. There may be a solar eclipse as well, but it was a bit hard to tell 0-I was too busy trying to shield my eyes from the blinding sun of my ship.

C. THE OVAs.

The OVAs are the Tenipuri jackpot. In the OVAs, the anime creators returned to the point at which the anime diverged from the manga, and started over again as if the last arc of the anime never happened. In a series of 15 OVAs or stand-alone episodes, usually an hour long each, they have resumed following the manga arc. They were actually quite creative in their resolution of canonical continuity, and the OVAs, while at times erratically animated, have been an utter joy to follow, and have stayed true to the manga. In addition, OVA #7 is a purely crack OVA which takes the overall insanity offered up by the Prince of Tennis creators to an entirely new height.

There are 15 OVAs and counting.

V. Rajipuri.

Note: I asked the lovely achiasa to guest-write this section, because she actually knows what she’s talking about!

Tenisu no Oujisama On The Radio (generally known as Rajipuri) has been running since 2003. It’s a weekly half-hour show that’s presented by the character voice actors; the usual format is two presenting personalities, rotated monthly, and one or more guests per week. The choice of presenters is fairly random, and the actual content of the show is crazy insane. In any one show it can range from talking about what it’s like making the anime episodes to making puns out of character catchphrases.

Rajipuri features lots of fan letters, as well as the actors doing such things as running ten laps round the studio, imitating each other’s characters, and making jokes about each other while dropping in and out of character. Kondou Takayuki (Oishi) is the butt of a lot of jokes, Onosaka Masaya (Momo) is known for refusing to have anything to do with a lot of the regular activities, and Okiayu Ryoutarou (Tezuka) breaks character on a regular and hilarious basis, even in dramas.

Some Rajipuri highlights:

Tenipuri Dream Match: Two of the cast go head-to-head in some kind of contest, with Inui Juice as the punishment.

Mini dramas: short in-character pieces that run the gamut from normal (or as normal as this series ever gets) to WTF-inducing insanity. The Kikumaru Beam turns Karupin into a lion, Inui stalks Atobe in the bath, Oshitari gives Kansai dialect lessons about UFOs…

Tenipuri CD Daisakusen: Word clips from character songs are used as the ‘answers’ to questions from the presenters. Sometimes they turn into cracked-out mini-dramas and running jokes.

VI. VIDEO GAMES.
In addition to the regular wealth of Prince of Tennis video games available for purchase in Japan, there is also Gakuensai no Oujisama. Whereas the PoT sports videogames are clearly directed at the male Tenipuri fandom, this videogame is clearly directed at the female Tenipuri fandom. The object of Gakuensai no Oujisama is to wind up as the girlfriend of the Prince of Tennis character of your choice. And we do mean, of your choice, because they are ALL in here.

In Gakuensai no Oujisama, Ryoma crossdresses. There are watersports, swordfighting, and people running around in crowns and tights.

Gakuensai screenshots (which are seriously hot): Part One (http://www.livejournal.com/community/_tenipuri/711358.html); Part Two (http://www.livejournal.com/community/_tenipuri/711544.html).

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Part Five: Where to Find the Series + Fandom Resources