Theory Parallels in New Prince of Tennis

[Kaoz]

If I were to ask someone about parallels between Prince of Tennis and New Prince of Tennis, I'm sure everyone would be able to come up with at least some examples, however, today I want to focus on a specific set of parallels involving the pros and what that could mean for the WC tournament.

To start with, as some of you may or may not know, Seigaku's opponents in the nationals weren't always going to be Higa, Hyoutei, Shitenhouji and Rikkai. Unfortunately I don't have the primary source for this, so we'll have to make do with the following:

According to Takeshi Konomi, Hyoutei's popularity was much higher than he expected, and it was for that reason that he chose to bring them back into the story.

Chitose was originally intended to still be with Shishigaku, but when Takeshi Konomi chose to bring Hyoutei back, he had to cut out Shishigaku's match with Seigaku, so he decided to move Chitose to Shitenhōji.

Takeshi Konomi mentioned in an interview that he was not sure who would be in the finals between Nagoya Seitoku and Rikkadai, but he decided on Rikkaidai finding them were more interesting.

In other words, Seigaku's road to the national championship could've just as well been Higa, Shishigaku, Shitenhouji, Nagoya instead. To see how that's relevant for us right now, let's examine the nations in NPoT for a moment.

Germany

• 9 consecutive championships, aiming for their 10th one. Rikkai had two consecutive championships looking for the hat-trick.
• 3 pros mirroring Rikkai's Big 3.
• The 2nd year ace being present in both teams in Kirihara and QP respectively. QP isn't directly called this, but it's clear that he has a big reputation from how the audience reacts to him.
• Seigaku faced Rikkai in the Kanto finals where Ryoma defeats Sanada, the stoic captain, in the final match. In NPoT we get Japan facing Rikkai in the Pre-WC with Tokugawa ultimately losing to Volk, who shares both role and personality with the Sanada from back then.

Switzerland

• World no. 2 when Hyoutei was considered the second best team in Kanto before Seigaku's run this year.
• They boast great team strength which could be compared to Hyoutei's squad of over 200 members. Since all WC teams have a set amount of players, citing the level of each individual player on the team could be a way to create a parallel here.
• They lost a supposedly easy match against Australia, presumably because they were careless, just like how Hyoutei lost to Fudomine. Because of this, Japan/Seigaku likely have to face them at full strength much earlier than expected.
• Amadeus' outstanding trait is his charisma. I reckon I don't have to explain this one.

France

• Top 4. Shishigaku was a semifinalist in the previous nationals.
• QP describes Camus as a "creative tactician", just like how Ryuuzaki described Chitose in his match against Tezuka.
• France was the only Big 4 member who we saw watching the Pre-WC matches between Japan and Germany whereas Chitose was the only national spectator of the Kanto finals.
• Similarly to how Camus is apparently one of two outstanding players in recent French history (the other one being Duke of course), Chitose and Tachibana formed the 2 Wings of Kyuushu. And just like Tachibana, Duke also left his old team, although for a different reason.

Spain

• Top 4. Shitenhouji was a semifinalist in the previous nationals.
• Connection to the no. 1: Shitenhouji got taken out by Rikkai, Medanore's strength rivals Volk's.
• Medanore and Shiraishi are described in a similar manner:
  "But we must not overlook that Shiraishi fellow. Last year, Shitenhouji was swept by Rikkai in 3 straight matches. At that time he was only in his 2nd year and as the captain of the team, he did not get to play in the singles 1 match. In other words, this man is still wrapped in a veil of mystery."
  "Finally, Medanore of the veterans, Spain, is a phenomenon that would have surpassed even Volk had he not been injured a few years ago. After his major surgery last year, he's entered the tournament this time and will finally lift the veil on his recovery."
  Basically, both are players of unknown strength due to not playing in the previous year. Due to the surgery it would also be possible to compare Medanore to Yukimura, but the way it's utilized here that's less likely in my eyes.

USA

• Finally, America represents Nagoya Seitoku. While they don't have a bunch of foreigners playing for them, the way Rhinehart describes the team still gives a similar impression: "The number of different ethnicities and talent here is just like the number of stars in the sky."

So as you can see, there are quite a lot of similarities between the top nations in NPoT and some of the teams in PoT. By itself that doesn't mean anything, but considering Konomi had an alternate scenario for the nationals tournament and the main actors are represent in a way that matches it, I can't help but wonder if Konomi isn't going to utilize it for the World Cup here. If he does, Japan's opponents would likely be:

R1 Some dark horse.
R2 France
R3 Spain
R4 USA

If we want to liken Australia to Yamabuki, they might get defeated by America in the first or second round of the main tournament whereas Germany should presumably face the US in the second semifinals.

 

[Hardy]

You think there will be a team that will end up being Japan's Rokkaku or Fudomine? The friend team that gets absolutely wrecked later to hype another team?

 

[Kaoz]

You think there will be a team that will end up being Japan's Rokkaku or Fudomine? The friend team that gets absolutely wrecked later to hype another team?

England I guess? But not really since Greece likely won't pass the group league.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 7, 2017, Original Post Date: Oct 21, 2016 ---

You think there will be a team that will end up being Japan's Rokkaku or Fudomine? The friend team that gets absolutely wrecked later to hype another team?

Reviving this thread because I can actually answer this question now.

As I already argued here, Greece may indeed be inspired by Fudomine. To quickly sum it up:

• Heracles - Tetsu
• Evangelus - Sakurai
• Stephanoploss - Uchimura
• Hermes - Kamio
• Vulcan - Ibu
• Zeus - Tachibana

But it doesn't stop there. Let's talk about Australia. Most of us have already picked up on Noah and J. J. being similar to Mizuki and Akutsu, but what about the others? Are they inspired by anyone from St. Rudolph or Yamabuki? Long story short: no. In fact, I would argue that Jean, Chris, Milky and Mac aren't inspired by anyone, however, since their matches were rather similar to Seigaku vs St. Rudolph (D2: opponent has a strategy to counter the main team's special moves; D1: endurance battle, although the sides were reversed) I would essentially describe them as Noah's pawns.

The guys that are more interesting to think about are Hill and Ramos. At first I was thinking maybe Hill could be inspired by Sengoku somehow, but it didn't fit particularly well and more importantly, I couldn't think of anyone from either St. Rudolph or Yamabuki who could work for Ramos. Someone who is not all that energetic. So thinking about which PoT character could fit that at all, I eventually arrived at Kiraku. I'm not sure if you guys agree, but they kind of give off a similar vibe in my eyes.

If we assume that's correct, we have representatives from St. Rudolph, Yamabuki and Midoriyama in addition to Rikkai, Hyoutei, Shitenhouji, Shishigaku and Nagoya. This means out of all the important PoT schools we're missing only two. The first one is Higa, but the dark horse of the tournament could face Japan in the first KO round. The other is Rokkaku and there just so happens to be someone very enthusiastic with bright eyes and a wide grin on that team: Aoi.

In short, I think that Australia is a gathering of the key figures of the other teams Seigaku faced on their way to the championship:

• Noah - Mizuki
• J. J. - Akutsu
• Ramos - Kiraku
• Hill - Aoi

 

[Anera]

Actually, it makes sense, not like I have any argument against that, the similarities are almost obvious when you explain them. But a question still comes to my mind : if the foreign teams are the counterparts of the Japanese middle schools' teams, does that mean the results are going to be the same ? I mean, I don't really want Switzerland to lose already, I already explained that it would be a waste if such a team loses now. Besides, that would mean a complete victory of Japan in these rounds and it's not even necessary...

I'm just complaining because I don't want this scenario to happen. But you're probably right for the similarities, I just wonder at which point Konomi is going to make them look alike...

 

[Kaoz]

But a question still comes to my mind : if the foreign teams are the counterparts of the Japanese middle schools' teams, does that mean the results are going to be the same ? I mean, I don't really want Switzerland to lose already, I already explained that it would be a waste if such a team loses now. Besides, that would mean a complete victory of Japan in these rounds and it's not even necessary...

Well, Australia and Switzerland are the only two that can realistically still be different since Japan would be out of the cup otherwise. That aside, I don't think Australia is going to advance to the main tournament if they lose here, there's not much of a point to it anymore. I'd expect them to lose to Greece in the last round and either Switzerland beats Japan in which case they advance automatically or we get into some weird tiebreaker business.

Also, depending on the rules for the main tournament, Japan beating Switzerland might not be completely necessary, but potentially preferable.

 

[Artsci]

Not sure if it is considered as parallel or not. But Konomi admitted in an interview that he originally planned to have Fuji transferred to Rikaidai and become the final boss of Royma instead of Yukimura. However, this plan was dropped due to Fuji's overwhelming popularity in Seigaku. Now we have Tezuka leaving the Japanese team and transfer to the German team and I wonder if it means that Konomi plans to have Tezuka being the final boss of Royma in the NPOT series just like how he originally planned to have Fuji being the final boss of the POT series.

 

[Kaoz]

I would definitely consider that a parallel either way, nice catch. Still feel like Ryoga's the more likely final boss, but it could well be Tezuka.

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 4, 2017, Original Post Date: Apr 3, 2017 ---

Although, two things that didn't occur to me yesterday:

1. In the original, Konomi presumably wanted to use that practice match between Ryoma and Fuji to kind of set up for the idea of having them face off in the finals, what with it remaining unfinished and all. But he hasn't had Ryoma play a single point against Tezuka in NPoT. Of course you could easily argue that the match they had under the bridge at the beginning of the original series still counts.
2. Ryoma is already set to face Tezuka when the latter graduates and there would be only a month or two in between, presumably without any on-screen development. So I'm not sure if that wouldn't be too little of a time difference.

 

[Artsci]

Since you guys were discussing whether Switzerland would make it to the knockout stage, here is some of my thoughts and reference from the POT series.
So seems like Konomi always give bad endings to the "presumably" second strongest team. Here are the examples:
- Fudomine defeating the No.2 seed Kakinoki in the District tournament.
- In the Prefectural tournament, Fodomine defeated No. 1 seed Hyotei (yea I know Hyotei was the first seed, just showing examples of a dark horse defeating a traditional strong team)
- In the Kanto tournament, Hyotei, being the runner up of the previous year and most people would consider it to be the second strongest team in the tournament, got defeated by Seigaku in the first round.
- In the National tournament, the last year runner up Makinofuji is defeated by Fudomine.

Considering that the "presumably second strongest team" always got eliminated in early stages, I am actually not surprise that Switzerland would be eliminated by Australia and Japan, the two dark horses in the tournament.

BTW, for some reason I have a crazy idea that eventually, Japan, Switzerland and Australia would all proceed to the next round. Maybe a team from other group forfeit or maybe because of some weird 2nd runner up rule. I know it doesn't make sense and I don't want it to happen, but I am just pointing out another possibility.

 

[Kaoz]

BTW, for some reason I have a crazy idea that eventually, Japan, Switzerland and Australia would all proceed to the next round. Maybe a team from other group forfeit or maybe because of some weird 2nd runner up rule. I know it doesn't make sense and I don't want it to happen, but I am just pointing out another possibility.

Yeah, this has crossed my mind a couple times. Like there could even be a chance for half the 3rd place teams to advance. It just seems really pointless though, both in the sense of only 8 teams getting eliminated (in this scenario) and because we don't really need that many spare teams in the final tournament. It's also different from Hyoutei's situation in PoT where they had become just that popular by the end of the Kanto tournament. So ultimately not very likely in my eyes.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 2, 2017, Original Post Date: Apr 5, 2017 ---

You know, functionally, Byoudouin is to Tokugawa as Nanjirou and Tezuka were to Ryoma:

• Ryoma's goal at the beginning of PoT is only to defeat Nanjrou.
• At that time, his playstyle is also a carbon copy of Nanjirou's.
• Tezuka plays a match against Ryoma. He forces Ryoma to deviate from his copied style and also makes him focus on other players besides Nanjirou.
• After his initial defeat, Tokugawa's only goal is to defeat Byoudouin - he even goes so far as to stay on the 2nd string when he most certainly could've gotten a spot on the 1st string if he had wanted.
• A number of Tokugawa's moves resemble Byoudouin's. AnS is implied and of course the glowing shot is a direct copy. The main difference is that Tokugawa can open black holes, a move that Oni and Irie taught him. (This does make me wonder though how Tokugawa would've turned out if those two hadn't stuck around to help him - would he have changed like Byoudouin did?)
• After the match, Tokugawa puts his personal issues with Byoudouin aside, accepts his position on the 1st string and is ready to take on the world.

Another similarity is of course that Tezuka let Ryoma play against Sanada in Kanto and Byoudouin allowed Tokugawa to go up against Volk in the Pre-WC, even though the outcome of the two matches was different. Not just that, during that match Ryoma properly used of Muga for the first time while Tokugawa re-unlocked AnS.