New Prince of Tennis

I've decided to review the second series for probably my favorite manga of all time. I have always loved Prince of Tennis, so I'm reviewing the second season which just came out last year around this time. New Prince of Tennis by Konomi Takeshi.

The story revolves around the U-17 camp that everyone goes to. Right after the Nationals, Ryoma Echizen went to America right away. The 9th graders are about to go to high school, but before they do they go to the U-17 camp. It trains middle and high schoolers from all over Japan. It trains them so that they can be on the All Japan Team. A tennis team for Japan that will compete with other countries all over the world. Most of the high schoolers already at the camp get booted out because with all of the middle schoolers there's no more room. So instead a helicopter drops about 250 tennis balls from the sky and anyone who doesn't get a tennis ball won't be in the camp anymore. The middle schoolers, instead of just taking one ball, gather a bunch of them, leaving zero for most of the high schoolers. Only the best high schoolers get the balls and the ones that did get them are about a million times better than the middle schoolers. Ryoma comes back from America to join in the camp. Everyone is told to pick a partner at the camp, and they all pick their friends thinking that it's a doubles thing, but they all learn that the partners they picked they'll be playing against, and the loser has to go home! After the matches, the losers, instead of going home, get taken to a mountain. They're told they have to climb that mountain if they want a second chance. Once they get there, they find the high schoolers that got booted out training under an old drunkard.

The storyline is pretty good considering this was the continuation of the first season. I like how they started off about a few months after Ryoma left. However, I would've liked to see what the Seigaku people would do when they were in high school already and I wondered if Ryoma would just appear back again. It's a good sports manga that would be great for anyone who was a fan of the first season. Also, it has some unexpected twists to it that will keep you wanting to come back since every chapter leaves off with a cliffhanger. Most people will like the main character's cockiness since he's so young instead of him being insecure. The manga is updated every month with two chapters since only two chapters do come out every month in Japan. The only problem is that the chapters are very short.