Theory Are we currently reading Prince of Tennis 6?

[Kaoz]

Occasionally, New Prince of Tennis is referred to as Prince of Tennis 2 and in terms of titles, that obviously makes sense. But what if we dig a little deeper? It feels like you can make an argument that we're already on the fifth or sixth story.

Note that, as the thread prefix indicates, this is 100% theory. There might be some interview out there that completely contradicts what I'm about to say.

But leaving that aside, let's start with the original Prince of Tennis. In my eyes, Prince of Tennis consists of three stories:

• Making the Team
• Conquering Kanto
• Conquering Nationals

And when I say story, I mean that you could've ended the series in a clean way at the end.

Making the Team

As a lot of you are probably aware, when a new series starts in Jump, it's only guaranteed to be included for a short amount of time and then it's decided whether the series is allowed to continue or gets cancelled. I think that in the case of Prince of Tennis, this decision was made around the end of volume 2. The end of volume 2 marks the end of the ranking matches, with all eight regulars lined up, and you could've stopped there. It would've been a short story, but there wouldn't have been any loose ends.

Conquering Kanto

With the ranking tournament winding down, Konomi was probably told by the editors that he'd be allowed to continue for a longer period of time, and it shows with both Kirihara's introduction before the prefecture tournament and Sanada's and Yanagi's after, who ended up being the guys to beat in the Kanto finals. Notably, Yukimura isn't mentioned yet and Sanada isn't introduced as vice-captain, meaning this really only extends to Kanto and not Nationals. Unlike before, you also can't end the story after Fudomine or Yamabuki without these characters being left hanging.

Fast-forwaring to the Kanto finals, let's have a look at character arcs, starting with Ryoma's. I'm going to refer to an observation @Waterlinkedgirl made during the last community reread for starters:

Ryoma using the techniques of the guys he's played against truly is a powerful flow-- that this is pulled at the Kanto finals is odd, though, don't you think?

It feels a bit early to play the "it's because of my rivals and friends that I've come so far" card, is what I'd say. Which is how muga reads to me, in terms of storytelling.

If you think about Kanto as its own story, it suddenly makes a lot of sense for this power-up to be used in Ryoma vs Sanada, because it actually is the finale of this story. And there's quite a bit more to it:

• I've noted this elsewhere, but between Ibu and Sanada, there's a progression of how the opposing coaches are involved in Ryoma's matches. Tachibana stayed out of it against Ibu. Mizuki tried to give Yuta tactical advice, but Yuta rejected it. Banda gave Akutsu tactical advice and Akutsu accepted it. Sakaki gave technical advice to Hiyoshi. Kiraku did the same for his son, but from a pro's perspective. Sanada is the culmination of both tactics and technique while also being Rikkai's bench coach. This progression stops during Nationals.
• Against Sanada was the first time Ryoma played S1.
• One of the match's chapters is literally titled "Seigaku's Pillar of Support", concluding the quest Tezuka gave Ryoma after their match.
• It marks the appearance of the Samurai image, which is noticably absent from the Nationals finals. Konomi said before that Ten'imuhou was a concept he had in mind from the start, and it's mentioned in the chapter 105 title, but that doesn't mean it was always an aura that extended Muga. Instead, it was used to refer to Nanjirou in the Akutsu match, who also embodies the Samurai image. It doesn't seem farfetched to me that the Samurai was the original Ten'imuhou.

This kind of progression doesn't only apply to Ryoma. Him, Fuji and Inui all surpassed Tezuka during the finals in some sense, and Kikumaru surpassed Oishi by the latter's judgement. In the same vein, Momoshiro and Kaidou turned into rivals that fully cooperate with each other in their match.

In other words, Prince of Tennis could've ended after chapter 235 with a slightly different epilogue and it would've made for a fine story.

Conquering Nationals

I guess it's pretty obvious that there's a cut after Nationals, since the original series actually did end at that point. But it's still interesting to look at some consequences of the decisions made in Kanto.

First, as @Hardy noted earlier this month, there was a shift in character roles.

Same with Tezuka, up until the last re read I just saw him as a big stick in the mud (and my opinion only changed on the nationals, where he basically becomes the second main character so all that focus makes it hard to dislike him).

This didn't only affect Tezuka, who turned from a supporting character into a main character, but also Oishi/Kikumaru and Inui. As pointed out above, Kikumaru's development as an individual character more or less ended in the Kanto finals. In contrast, Nationals focused more strongly on the Golden Pair as a doubles combination, ultimately cumulating in Synchronization. Inui shifted much more into a supporting role.

We also saw a bit of a reset in circumstances beyond that. Ryoma lost his pillar status again, as implied by his conversation with Tezuka after the Higa matches and Atobe's observations in the Hyoutei matches. He essentially re-earned it during the finals. For Oishi, his wrist injury returned and had a big impact on three of the rounds, forcing him to sit on the bench against Higa and Shitenhouji while also costing GP the match against Hyoutei. This may have come as a surprise at the time since there was no indication of his wrist still being a problem during the Kanto finals.

With Nationals approaching, we were also introduced to a heap of new opponents. This parallels the post-Fudomine environment in Kanto. There, Yamabuki and Hyoutei were introduced quite early on. Leading up to Nationals, we saw the second wing of Kyushu, Murigaoka, Tsubakikawa and Shitenhouji. In both cases, the first major opponent (St. Rudolph and Higa respectively) was close to when Seigaku faced them.

The above line-up of teams isn't very interesting in itself, considering that Seigaku ended up only facing Shitenhouji, but allegedly the original outline put them against Shishigaku instead of Hyoutei and Nagoya Seitoku (who were defeated by Murigaoka in the regionals) instead of Rikkai. There's two takeaways here in my eyes:

1. It explains the awkward transition around Chitose. Konomi had locked himself into Kyushu because of the trivia he had decided on for Tachibana during the Kanto story and by wanting to introduce Chitose first thing after getting the green light for the Nationals story. But, in the weeks after implementing this initial outline, he or his editor decided to bring Hyoutei back, which forced Konomi to move Chitose to a different team as well.
2. If Nagoya had remained the final opponent instead of Rikkai, I think we might've seen Rikkai lose to Murigaoka in the second round of the tournament. Murigaoka would've then been the fake-out final opponent before succumbing to Nagoya's foreigners in a rematch of the Toukai finals.

---

I have much less to say about New Prince of Tennis, but you can do a similar thought experiment there. It's also a bit more messy since it feels like Konomi did more editing on the finales of the previous stories. That might've been because of the monthly publication cycle and him having more time to plan ahead. But I think a reasonable end point would've been the end of the selection camp. If the series had ended there, maybe Ryoma would've taken over the match from Tokugawa and faced Byoudouin.

Since 140 or so chapters seems like a pretty long time for a "new" series, even from an established author, I could imagine another potential end point when the losers returned from the mountain. In this scenario, Ryoma might've taken on Tokugawa in a rematch as the finale.

Lastly, either of these stories could've had an epilogue similar to the one at the end of Prince of Tennis vol. 42, with Ryoma taking on Tezuka in a pro tournament or something along those lines.

---

While not the focus of this theory, it might inform discussions surrouding the questions if there's going to be anything after the World Cup. Going by the points made above, the answer seems to be a clear "maybe", but regardless of whether there is or not, we can expect a finale of the current story that allows it to stand as its own work.

 

[mathematicianrcg]

Occasionally, New Prince of Tennis is referred to as Prince of Tennis 2 and in terms of titles, that obviously makes sense. But what if we dig a little deeper? It feels like you can make an argument that we're already on the fifth or sixth story.

Note that, as the thread prefix indicates, this is 100% theory. There might be some interview out there that completely contradicts what I'm about to say.

But leaving that aside, let's start with the original Prince of Tennis. In my eyes, Prince of Tennis consists of three stories:

• Making the Team
• Conquering Kanto
• Conquering Nationals

And when I say story, I mean that you could've ended the series in a clean way at the end.

Making the Team

As a lot of you are probably aware, when a new series starts in Jump, it's only guaranteed to be included for a short amount of time and then it's decided whether the series is allowed to continue or gets cancelled. I think that in the case of Prince of Tennis, this decision was made around the end of volume 2. The end of volume 2 marks the end of the ranking matches, with all eight regulars lined up, and you could've stopped there. It would've been a short story, but there wouldn't have been any loose ends.

Conquering Kanto

With the ranking tournament winding down, Konomi was probably told by the editors that he'd be allowed to continue for a longer period of time, and it shows with both Kirihara's introduction before the prefecture tournament and Sanada's and Yanagi's after, who ended up being the guys to beat in the Kanto finals. Notably, Yukimura isn't mentioned yet and Sanada isn't introduced as vice-captain, meaning this really only extends to Kanto and not Nationals. Unlike before, you also can't end the story after Fudomine or Yamabuki without these characters being left hanging.

Fast-forwaring to the Kanto finals, let's have a look at character arcs, starting with Ryoma's. I'm going to refer to an observation @Waterlinkedgirl made during the last community reread for starters:





If you think about Kanto as its own story, it suddenly makes a lot of sense for this power-up to be used in Ryoma vs Sanada, because it actually is the finale of this story. And there's quite a bit more to it:

• I've noted this elsewhere, but between Ibu and Sanada, there's a progression of how the opposing coaches are involved in Ryoma's matches. Tachibana stayed out of it against Ibu. Mizuki tried to give Yuta tactical advice, but Yuta rejected it. Banda gave Akutsu tactical advice and Akutsu accepted it. Sakaki gave technical advice to Hiyoshi. Kiraku did the same for his son, but from a pro's perspective. Sanada is the culmination of both tactics and technique while also being Rikkai's bench coach. This progression stops during Nationals.
• Against Sanada was the first time Ryoma played S1.
• One of the match's chapters is literally titled "Seigaku's Pillar of Support", concluding the quest Tezuka gave Ryoma after their match.
• It marks the appearance of the Samurai image, which is noticably absent from the Nationals finals. Konomi said before that Ten'imuhou was a concept he had in mind from the start, and it's mentioned in the chapter 105 title, but that doesn't mean it was always an aura that extended Muga. Instead, it was used to refer to Nanjirou in the Akutsu match, who also embodies the Samurai image. It doesn't seem farfetched to me that the Samurai was the original Ten'imuhou.

This kind of progression doesn't only apply to Ryoma. Him, Fuji and Inui all surpassed Tezuka during the finals in some sense, and Kikumaru surpassed Oishi by the latter's judgement. In the same vein, Momoshiro and Kaidou turned into rivals that fully cooperate with each other in their match.

In other words, Prince of Tennis could've ended after chapter 235 with a slightly different epilogue and it would've made for a fine story.

Conquering Nationals

I guess it's pretty obvious that there's a cut after Nationals, since the original series actually did end at that point. But it's still interesting to look at some consequences of the decisions made in Kanto.

First, as @Hardy noted earlier this month, there was a shift in character roles.



This didn't only affect Tezuka, who turned from a supporting character into a main character, but also Oishi/Kikumaru and Inui. As pointed out above, Kikumaru's development as an individual character more or less ended in the Kanto finals. In contrast, Nationals focused more strongly on the Golden Pair as a doubles combination, ultimately cumulating in Synchronization. Inui shifted much more into a supporting role.

We also saw a bit of a reset in circumstances beyond that. Ryoma lost his pillar status again, as implied by his conversation with Tezuka after the Higa matches and Atobe's observations in the Hyoutei matches. He essentially re-earned it during the finals. For Oishi, his wrist injury returned and had a big impact on three of the rounds, forcing him to sit on the bench against Higa and Shitenhouji while also costing GP the match against Hyoutei. This may have come as a surprise at the time since there was no indication of his wrist still being a problem during the Kanto finals.

With Nationals approaching, we were also introduced to a heap of new opponents. This parallels the post-Fudomine environment in Kanto. There, Yamabuki and Hyoutei were introduced quite early on. Leading up to Nationals, we saw the second wing of Kyushu, Murigaoka, Tsubakikawa and Shitenhouji. In both cases, the first major opponent (St. Rudolph and Higa respectively) was close to when Seigaku faced them.

The above line-up of teams isn't very interesting in itself, considering that Seigaku ended up only facing Shitenhouji, but allegedly the original outline put them against Shishigaku instead of Hyoutei and Nagoya Seitoku (who were defeated by Murigaoka in the regionals) instead of Rikkai. There's two takeaways here in my eyes:

1. It explains the awkward transition around Chitose. Konomi had locked himself into Kyushu because of the trivia he had decided on for Tachibana during the Kanto story and by wanting to introduce Chitose first thing after getting the green light for the Nationals story. But, in the weeks after implementing this initial outline, he or his editor decided to bring Hyoutei back, which forced Konomi to move Chitose to a different team as well.
2. If Nagoya had remained the final opponent instead of Rikkai, I think we might've seen Rikkai lose to Murigaoka in the second round of the tournament. Murigaoka would've then been the fake-out final opponent before succumbing to Nagoya's foreigners in a rematch of the Toukai finals.

---

I have much less to say about New Prince of Tennis, but you can do a similar thought experiment there. It's also a bit more messy since it feels like Konomi did more editing on the finales of the previous stories. That might've been because of the monthly publication cycle and him having more time to plan ahead. But I think a reasonable end point would've been the end of the selection camp. If the series had ended there, maybe Ryoma would've taken over the match from Tokugawa and faced Byoudouin.

Since 140 or so chapters seems like a pretty long time for a "new" series, even from an established author, I could imagine another potential end point when the losers returned from the mountain. In this scenario, Ryoma might've taken on Tokugawa in a rematch as the finale.

Lastly, either of these stories could've had an epilogue similar to the one at the end of Prince of Tennis vol. 42, with Ryoma taking on Tezuka in a pro tournament or something along those lines.

---

While not the focus of this theory, it might inform discussions surrouding the questions if there's going to be anything after the World Cup. Going by the points made above, the answer seems to be a clear "maybe", but regardless of whether there is or not, we can expect a finale of the current story that allows it to stand as its own work.

Wow. Mostly agree with you sir.

I just want to say this things/observations in your observations.

Kantou
1. Ryoma plays S1 against Sanada because Tezuka is not around. When Tezuka was not around, Fuji and Ryoma is the one who is alternating S1.(Sometimes Inui, if Fuji play doubles).

2. As far as I know, Kikumaru is always has been stronger than Oishi. I forgot but I read somewhere that Oishi is the weakest among the Seigaku regulars.

3. For me, Rikkai has a terrible lineup. They are rushing to win the match asap. That is why Sanada put Renji in S3 instead of S2. (Sanada put akaya in S2). That Cause Rikkai the championship. (Akaya could easily beat Inui). Sanada should have put himself in S2 for insurance especially they know tezuka is not around. But of course the story will not fit that.

Nationals

1. Shinten has a poor performance against seigaku. Even Hyotei has better perf against seigaku. And we know Shinten is stronger than Hyotei.

2. Nagoya would be a terrible final opponent. Rikkai has better characters with a lot of development. Nagoya's characters/players does not have the same vibe of Rikkai's. As konomi said "Rikkai Vs Seigaku will be more interesting" which also means "Seigaku vs Nagoya is boring" which I agree with. (AND YUKIMURA WILL BE LEFT HANGING WHICH IS NOT GOOD).

AFTER WORLD CUP

OF COURSE, If konomi will be given a chance to continue the story, he will make it. And it will largely depends on sales. And right now, NPOT has good sales.

"Baby Steps" is stopped because of poor sales. But Author said that he wanted to continue the story.

After Rikkai Vs Seigaku in Kantou. Oishi and Sanada has a conversation.

Sanada: Next time, we will beat you in nationals, we will have Yukimura
Oishi: And we will have Tezuka.

If the series was stopped after Kantou, that convo will be left hanging

 

[Kaoz]

2. As far as I know, Kikumaru is always has been stronger than Oishi. I forgot but I read somewhere that Oishi is the weakest among the Seigaku regulars.

There's a flashback at the beginning of the Kanto finals D1 match that states the opposite. When they first entered Seigaku, Oishi was stronger than Kikumaru. During the flashback (chapter 203), Kikumaru says that he'll team up with Oishi until he's surpassed him. After the flashback is over, Oishi notes that Kikumaru has already become the better player (chapter 204).

After Rikkai Vs Seigaku in Kantou. Oishi and Sanada has a conversation.

Sanada: Next time, we will beat you in nationals, we will have Yukimura
Oishi: And we will have Tezuka.

If the series was stopped after Kantou, that convo will be left hanging

This didn't happen. Sanada and Oishi didn't have any exchange at all after the finals.

 

[mathematicianrcg]

There's a flashback at the beginning of the Kanto finals D1 match that states the opposite. When they first entered Seigaku, Oishi was stronger than Kikumaru. During the flashback (chapter 203), Kikumaru says that he'll team up with Oishi until he's surpassed him. After the flashback is over, Oishi notes that Kikumaru has already become the better player (chapter 204).



This didn't happen. Sanada and Oishi didn't have any exchange at all after the finals.

Oh I see. Looks like I mixed up Anime and Manga again.

Anyway, I lke your theory. Hope there will be an arc after NPOT

 

[Kaoz]

I want to add a couple more theories to how the Nationals changes might've impacted things:

1. Since Tachibana vs Chitose surely would've still happened, even if Seigaku had faced Chitose in the quarterfinals rather than the semis, an opponent other than Fudomine would've been used to set up Shitenhouji. I wonder if Konomi had Tsubakikawa in mind here.
   
   First, assuming Murigaoka would've been used to hype Nagoya in the semis, Tsubakikawa would be the only school that appeared in the setup chapters without any significance during the tournament. Second, in the final bracket, Hyoutei defeated Tsubakikawa and Shishigaku in rounds 1 and 2, so it doesn't seem too farfetched to think that Hyoutei essentially beat the two schools it pushed out of significance.
   
   If Tsubakikawa had been Shiten's QF opponent, I think there might've been a contrast to Ryoma hiding his data from Kotoha. I could imagine Kintarou just telling her all about Shitenhouji's players (just because he's not the most insightful person around) and Shitenhouji still winning despite their opponents having all their data.
2. Assuming Nagoya had been Seigaku's final opponent, I reckon Ryoma would've played against Krauser. I don't think Krauser's style was necessarily changed in the transition though, meaning Ryoma would've been crucified instead of yipped. Given this and my other theory about the Samurai being the original Ten'imuhou, I wonder if we would've already gotten the match between Samurai and Knight here that was later explored in Ryoma vs Ludovic. This might be reaching a bit, but Krauser's crucification could've been inspired by the Crusader Cross and you'd get to the Knight from there.

 

[Ganonslayer101]

The Krauser bit makes sense. Not only symbolically, but the fact that he's also a foreign super rookie and the fact that he's the most fleshed out and developed of the team means that Konomi was likely near complete in designing him ans I imagine he'd design Ryoma's opponent first. Plus given that Muga was first developed when Kirihara beat him up, Ryoma unlocking TNK when his opponent tries to literally Crusify him makes sense.

 

[Kaoz]

Not only symbolically, but the fact that he's also a foreign super rookie and the fact that he's the most fleshed out and developed of the team means that Konomi was likely near complete in designing him ans I imagine he'd design Ryoma's opponent first.

This bit made me look at the Krauser vs Nakagauchi match again, and I wonder if there's not actually some parallels to Ryoma in there. Not a lot of course since it only spans a couple chapters, but the way Krauser keeps using Southern Cross over and over feels reminiscent of Ryoma insisting on Drive B throughout his Kanto matches.

In particular, Nakagauchi's surprise at Krauser's power increasing as the match went on is similar to Sanada realizing how the speed of Ryoma's shots increased during their match (cf. PoT 231 & NPoT 31). You can also see similarilities in the ways Ryoma and Krauser are pushed on defense prior to those points. I guess the difference is that Krauser didn't have Ryoma's amazing recover ability.

It might also be worth looking at Hopping Ball and COOL Drive in this context. The latter hits the ground and then skids along, whereas the former hovers just above the ground and then rises, making the trajectories pretty much opposites of each other.