Track List & Guest Lineup for "Sho" ~ Sanada Genichirou

The full track list and guest lineup as follows:

Title: Sho
Artist: Sanada Genichirou
Release Date: 21 May 2006
Catalog Number: NECA-30167
Price: 3000 yen

Track List

1) Fuurin Kaazan - Instrumental -
2) Fly to Tomorrow
3) Ginmaku no Bogii (The Screen Bogey)
4) Kirisame (Misty Rain)
5) No Surrender
6) ROLLING STARS *
7) Totsugeki! Gekkan Pro Tennis [Sanada Genichirou Hen] - Guest: Inoue Mamoru, Shiba Saori
8) Seishun no Kagetachi - Guest: Hanamura Aoi
9) OneWay Dream
10) SQUALL
11) Miraizu~Way to go~ (Map of the Future) - Guest: Yukimura Seiichi
12) Shinkirou (Mirage)
13) Pride

Bonus disc title: Sanada Genichirou to iu na no On The Radio
Guest: Okiayu Ryoutarou (Tezuka Kunimitsu)

I'm quite bewildered by the guest lineup for the album because Sanada doesn't seem to have any strong links with Inoue, Shiba or Hanamura. I would have thought that Atobe, Tezuka, Yanagi should be included. If they had even left out Yukimura, that would be so ridiculous!

Nevertheless, I'm happy to see Okiayu Ryoutarou as the guest for the bonus disc since that will mean a reunion of Tezuka and Sanada. Wonderful! ^__^

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Kaidou Kaoru!

Today's the birthday of Mr Mamushi, Kaidou Kaoru from Seigaku! Besides his trademark habit of making the "fushuu" sound which is similar to a snake hissing, I guess his eyes which look fierce contribute to why he is being named Mr Snake. In addition, his special techniques i.e. the Snake and the subsequent upgraded version Boomerang Snake are all related to his nickname so that's why he can't run away from being called Mamushi. Come to think of it, only his "biggest rival" Momo calls him Mamushi on a frequent basis and of course, Kaidou isn't happy to hear this. Although he may seem like someone who's hard to get along with, Kaidou is actually a very kind guy who loves animals especially evident from how he interacts with Echizen's pet, Karupin. And he's someone who places a lot of emphasis on respect for the elderly and those older than him so he tends to get angry at people who don't do the same. Last but not least, Kaidou is someone who refuses to give up and has a lot of perserverance thus everyone respects him for his never-say-die spirit.

Name: Kaidou Kaoru
School: Seishun Gakuen Chuutobu Year 2 Class 7
Date of birth: 11 May
Zodiac Sign: Taurus
Height: 173cm
Weight: 57kg
Blood Type: B
Play Style: Counter Puncher (Right-handed)
Favourite Shoes: Puma
Favourite Racket: HEAD Ti.S7
Special Techniques: Snake, Boomerang Snake
Favourite Food: Tororo Soba, Yoghurt and 100% Fruit Juice
Hobbies: Marathon and collection of bandanas
Family: Parents and younger brother
Father's occupation: Bank Employee
Favourite Subject: English
Favourite Colour: Green
Traits he likes in a girl: One who enjoys eating

Updates on upcoming events for Sanada's album launch

According to NEC Interchannel, the remaining three events will be held in Osaka and Hiroshima. The difference is that these three sessions are held in conjunction with Animate instead of Gamers which is organising the Tokyo events.

Date: 24 June 06 (Saturday)
Time: 1300
Venue: Astal Brother Hall (Hiroshima)
Guest: Kusunoki Taiten

Date: 25 June 06 (Sunday)
1st session: 1130
2nd session: 1500
Venue: Yoyogi Animation Gakuin Osaka Campus (Osaka City, Kita-ku)
Guest: Kusunoki Taiten

Animate stores involved: Hiroshima, Okayama, Matsuyama, Takamatsu, Ogura, Tenouji, Nihonbashi

Upcoming events for Sanada Genichirou's album launch

Information about the upcoming events held in conjunction with Sanada Genichirou's album launch from NEC Interchannel. Since this involves the Tokyo area only, there will be further announcements on events held at other places since the producer said that there will be 5 events in three cities:

Date of event: 18 June 2006 (Sunday)
Session 1: 12 noon
Session 2: 3.30pm
Assembly place: Gamers HQ store in Akibahara
Event venue: Yoyogi Animation Gakuin Akiba Campus (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
Content: Talk session and handshaking event
Main cast: Kusunoki Taiten
Method to get tickets: Order the Sanada Genichirou album, "Sho" to be released on his birthday 21 May from Gamers HQ store and obtain the ticket from the counter at 11am onwards. Each customer is entitled to one ticket while stocks last. Seating arrangement will be decided on the day of the event according to first-come-first-served basis.

This finally solves the doubts I've been having about why the producer of NEC told fans not to pre-order the album first. Since they are having this event in conjunction with Gamers, it's no surprise that they want to direct the fans to this store. Come to think of it, I thought they've been working with Animate for some time so the switch may have to do with the changes within the company which has a new name. Anyway, this doesn't affect me since I'm not in Japan at the moment and won't be able to take part in this event although I would have loved to meet Taiten-san in person. ^__^

OVA Vol 3 Information

The 3rd volume of the OVA series (catalog number BCBA-2463) will be released on 28 July and it consists of 2 episodes i.e. Ep 4 and 5. Ep 4 is about Kikumaru's debut in an official singles match against Kai from Higa while Ep 5 is about the Doubles 1 match featuring Inui and Kaidou.

Actually, this came as a surprise to me because the manga did not go into detail on the Doubles 1 match but the OVA series will devote 1 episode to it. From the synopsis, it seems like Ep 5 will incorporate parts from a side story before the Nationals involving Kaidou and Yagyuu from Rikkai. In that story, Kaidou and Yagyuu happened to meet each other while they were watching a tennis match. They overheard some guys from another school also taking part in the Nationals (I forgot the name of the school) mocking Rikkai and Seigaku who later challenged the two to a match. What happened was that Kaidou and Yagyuu did the identity-switching act which Yagyuu and Niou do frequently and they managed to defeat these guys easily even while imitating each other's specialty techniques. This was to prevent these guys from knowing their strengths ahead of the actual tournament. However, at the end of it, Yagyuu asked Kaidou what he would do if he could not use the Snake during a match. This led Kaidou to think of using other techniques so as not to be too reliant on the Snake and he raises this to Inui. As such, I think the bulk of Ep 5 will be on Yagyuu and Kaidou's interaction rather than the Doubles 1 match itself since there isn't much content to be explored from the manga.

If my initial guess was correct, the Higa arc would have been completed by Vol 3. Given that there's still the Tezuka vs Kite Singles 1 match, I can only hope for Vol 4 to get started with the Hyotei arc since there's too much content to be covered and 3 volumes won't be sufficient at all. Just the Atobe and Echizen Singles 1 match is enough to take up at least 2 episodes.

Last but not least, the audio commentary for Vol 3 will be done by Shishido and Ootori from Hyotei. Another famous combination which can be said to be the Hyotei version of the Golden Pair.

When the cover of Vol 3 is out, I will update it here accordingly.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Akutagawa Jirou!

Today's the birthday of the sleeping prince from Hyotei Gakuen, Akutagawa Jirou! Well, he deserves this title because he's usually asleep whenever he appears in the manga or anime with the exception when he's playing a match or watching one. My first impression of Jirou was formed when Atobe asked Sakaki to get Jirou to take part in the Tokyo 5th placing match against St.Rudolph. From the way Atobe spoke, it appeared as if Jirou was some menacing creature who could tear St.Rudolph apart. However, when Jirou was formally introduced during the Kantou Tournament 1st round against Seigaku, I'm sure many people are surprised just like me because he's too adorable to be scared of. He seems like a livewire to have on the team and it takes a bit of effort to keep him awake. Jirou relishes the excitement of playing tennis with a strong opponent thus it is not easy for him to get hyped up over most matches. So far, he's only behaved like this before Atobe, Fuji Shuusuke and Marui Bunta who is his idol. With someone like Jirou around, I don't think anyone would feel bored. One of his lines which got me quite amused was when he playfully chided Kaidou for being "disrespectful" since Jirou is one year older. At that time, Seigaku was having a training camp at Karuizawa and Tezuka asked Atobe to arrange a practice match. Kaidou didn't like Jirou's lack of seriousness since the latter was still feeling sleepy. I guess this made Kaidou flare up because he thought Jirou didn't put in effort and belittled him. The ending of that match was really funny as Kaidou accidentally knocked Jirou out with the tennis ball.

To date, Jirou has only released one character single and it's long overdue for him to do a second one. However, given that Jirou was a reserve for the Hyotei arc in the Nationals just like Fuji and Hyotei had already lost to Seigaku, this would probably mean that there is very little chance of seeing Jirou again in the manga. Hopefully, we can catch a glimpse of him in the OVA series although he's not playing. An album from Jirou may seem rather unlikely at the present stage but given that surprise characters like Kuki Kiichi can also release a single, anything may be possible. If there is a second single on the way, the only thing I ask for is a longer chat session since the first single's clip featured Jirou snoring most of the time.

Name: Akutagawa Jirou
School: Seishun Gakuen Chuutoubu Year 3
Date of birth: 5 May (Children's Day)
Zodiac Sign: Taurus
Height: 160 cm
Weight: 49 kg
Blood Group: AB
Play Style: Serve & Volley (Right-handed)
Favourite Shoes: Wilson SURGE DST 02 Mid (S1234W)
Favourite Racket: Wilson Hyper Pro Staff 7.6 with ROLLERS
Special Technique: Magic Volley
Favourite Food: Mutton, Moose Pocky
Hobbies: sleeping and comic magazine
Family Members: Parents, elder brother and younger sister
Father's occupation: operating a laundry shop
Favourite subjects: technical studies and physical education
Favourite colour: orange
Favourite traits in a girl: Cheerfulness

Tenipuri movie to be shown on TV Tokyo for first time

The Tenipuri movie shown in Jan and released on DVD in June last year will be aired on TV for the first time in Japan. However, viewers won't get to see the entire movie since they will only show the long feature i.e. Futari no Samurai The First Game. This is in conjunction with the Golden Week holidays and the O.A. date is 5 May which also happens to be Children's Day from 10am to 11.25am. Three TV stations including TV Tokyo, TV Aichi and TV Osaka will be showing it.

This means that the viewers won't get to see the short feature, "Atobe kara no Okuri mono" on TV but I guess given the long lapse between the movie screening and DVD release, most fans would have watched the movie so this probably won't cause much excitement. However, it's still good to be able to watch Tenipuri on TV since the OVAs are only released on DVD. In addition, to 'sweeten' the deal, the TV station has mentioned that they will include behind-the-scenes footage for the real-life movie plus some scenes from the upcoming OVA Vol 2 release. Spare me with regards to the real-life movie, the moment I see anything related to this, I run for my dear life. Don't remind me how horrid Tezuka and Atobe wannabes look in the real-life movie. *shivers*

Anyway, for those who are interested in the website for this, please go here for more information.

Updates to Sanada Genichirou's album, "Sho"

More updates related to Sanada Genichirou's first solo album release, "Sho" on his birthday i.e. 21 May (Sun) as announced via the Interchannel website:

- To mark the launch of the album, there will be 5 events held at 3 cities and this marks the first time events are planned for CD releases from Rikkai characters. More details are expected to be available at a later date.

- I wonder why the producer is still asking people not to pre-order the Sanada album since there's only three and a half weeks to the release. Seems like the issue could lie with the pre-order process or they might want to do something special for this album. Everything seems rather hazy at the moment but since I've ordered my copy last month, I'm not too concerned UNLESS any problem crops up to delay the receipt of this album from HMV Japan.

- The main personalities for May's Rajipuri are Kaida Yuki (Fuji Shuusuke) and Hiyama Nobuyuki (Jackal Kuwahara) while the OP is Fly to Tomorrow and the ED is Shinkirou (Mirage). Both songs are included in the upcoming Sanada album and they are tracks no. 2 and 12 respectively.

- There are a total of 13 tracks in the Sanada album while the content for the bonus disc has not been announced.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Ooishi Shuuichirou!

Today's the birthday of the fukubucchou of Seigaku who's also known as the Mother of Seigaku, Ooishi Shuuichirou! As Tezuka takes a long break from the team due to the injuries after the Hyotei match with Atobe, Ooishi has to contend with stiff competition from their rivals as well as hold the team together and keep them focused on the goal. The picture shown here features the famous line he told Sanada during the Kantou final which means that Seigaku has come to win the final. This is something which the usual humble and mild-mannered Ooishi would not dare to say but in order to stop him from thinking of the worst and keep his spirits up for the final, he had to say this which earned him the thumbs up from his teammates. As Ooishi is also referred to as the Mother of Seigaku, we can see that he cares for his teammates, sometimes to the extent of worrying too much though. ^__^

Name: Ooishi Shuuichirou
School: Seishun Gakuen Chuutoubu Year 3 Class 2
Birthday: 30 April
Zodiac Sign: Taurus
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 55 kg
Blood Group: O
Play Style: Counter Puncher, right-handed

Favourite Shoes: Nike
Favourite Racket: Wimbledon (Tour Merit)
Special Technique: Moon Volley
Favourite Food: pear, skewered Grill and hamaguri (a type of clam)
Hobbies: swimming and rearing fish in an aquarium
Family: Parents and a younger sister
Father's occupation: Taxation professional
Subject good at: English
Favourite colour: white
Favourite type of girls: Those who look good with spectacles

Upcoming Sanada, Atobe and Yanagi CDs update

Finally, detailed information on NEC Interchannel's website about the Sanada birthday album and Yanagi birthday single PLUS a long-awaited single release from Atobe-sama!

10th character album release and first from Rikkaidai ~ Sanada Genichirou
Title: Sho (General)
Artist: Sanada Genichirou (i.e. Kusunoki Taiten-san)
Release date: 21 May 2006 (Sanada's birthday)
Catalog number: NECA-30167
Price: 3000 yen (inclusive of tax)
Premium: Special bonus disc included in first press edition

Yanagi Renji's 2nd single release since 2 years 1 month & on his birthday
Title: ANSWER
Artist: Yanagi Renji
Release Date: 4 June 2006 (Sunday)
Catalog Number: NECM-10041
Price: 777 yen (inclusive of tax)

Atobe Keigo's new single in 1 year and 5 months
Title: Charm Point wa Nakibokuro (Charm Point is the mole beside the eye)
Artist: Atobe Keigo
Release Date: 2 Aug 2006
Catalog Number: NECM-13001
Price: 1300 yen (inclusive of tax)
Feature: In the size of a LP jacket
*As this item is made-to-order, fans who place their pre-orders through the shops will have to do so by 22 May 06.

Update to OVA Vol 2 Special Content

According to the Bandai Visual website, the two rival school characters appearing in the audio commentary for Vol 2 of the OVA will be Sanada Genichirou & Yanagi Renji from Rikkai! Oh yeah! I can't believe that this is really happening. First, the long-awaited solo album from Sanada and now his voice in the OVA even though Rikkai has yet to appear in the National arc against Seigaku! May is going to be a Sanada-ful month for me! ^__^ It would have been better if the Rikkai Top 3 (plus Yukimura) can appear together but I'm definitely not complaining since what matters most is whether the vice-captain is around. I'm guessing that this might be richer in terms of content given Yanagi's obsession with analysis as compared to the first OVA featuring Mizuki and Yuuta which was more on the humour side. Now, I'm just counting down to the days of the album and OVA release on 21st and 26th May...

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Marui Bunta!

Today's the birthday of Marui Bunta, the volley specialist from Rikkaidai! Although he has limited exposure in the manga and anime, Bunta is a well-known favourite among fans who find his gum-chewing and dessert-craving traits cute. By the way, he can also be considered as the "idol" of Akutagawa Jirou from Hyotei as shown during the Kantou final when Jirou was awake throughout Bunta's match. Jirou was practically exclaiming with joy whenever he saw Bunta show off his specialities. I wonder if the serve-and-volley players are deliberately set out to be the cute-guy type since Eiji, Jirou and Bunta happen to have similar character traits of being bubbly and child-like at times. Here's more information about Bunta according to the fanbook 20.5:

School: Rikkaidai Fuuzoku Chuugakkou Year 3
Birthday: 20 April
Zodiac Sign: Aries
Height: 164cm
Weight: 62kg
Blood Type: B
Play Style: Serve and Volley (Right-handed)

Favourite Shoes: Wilson Crossfire DST 02 (S1121X)

Favourite Racket: Wilson Triad 3 115
Special Techniques: Namiwatari (Crossing the net) and Tecchuu Ate (Hitting the pole)
Favourite Food: Everything
Hobbies: Biking
Family: Grandmother, parents, and two younger brothers
Father's occupation: Employee at a manufacturing company
Subjects good at: Japanese language, music
Favourite Colour: Red
Favourite Type of Girl: Those who give him food

Update on OVA website

The Tenipuri OVA official website has been updated with the synopsis of Ep 2 and 3 to be included in Vol 2. Essentially, Ep 2 is about the Singles 3 match betweeen Echizen and Tanishi while Ep 3 is about the Doubles 2 match between Fuji/Taka-san and Hiragoba/Chinen. Going by this pattern and assuming that each volume of the OVA contains at least 2 episodes, I assume the Higa arc will be finished by Vol 3 since there's only the Singles 2 match between Kikumaru & Kai and the Singles 1 match between Tezuka and Kite to be featured. The Doubles 1 match where Inui and Kaidou took part in wasn't described in detail for the manga version so I doubt it will be covered extensively in the OVA. Hopefully, my guess will be correct since I can't wait to see the Hyotei arc soon.

TV Tokyo OVA Official Website

TV Tokyo has opened an official website for the OVA series released in DVD format although it will not be showing them on TV. Apparently, this has been up since 15 March but I only came to know about it when I popped by the TV Tokyo Tenipuri website today. At the moment, it has a summary of the storyline for Ep 1 from Vol 1's DVD as well as details on the premiums given away, the cast and staff. It is not clear from this site too as to how many episodes there will be for the OVA series since its classification is based on the number of volumes. There are also some screen captures plus the covers of the DVDs available for viewing. I did a check on the official website for the OVA DVDs and found that the synopsis is the exactly the same as the TV Tokyo version so don't expect additional details from this.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Nagai Sachiko!

Today's the birthday of Nagai Sachiko who plays Yukimura Seiichi from Rikkai! Nagai-san maintains her own blog titled Sachin Blog. She belongs to the theatre group Bulldog Headlog which also counts fellow Tenipuri seiyuu, Kiyasu Kohei as one of the members. As Nagai-san is active mainly in stage productions, her participation in Tenipuri marked her debut as a voice actor. Under Yukimura's name, Nagai-san had released a CD single Shinjitsu on 19 May 2004. She also dabbles in illustration work where she counts i-mode's content site and its year 2000 information site in her portfolio. According to Bulldog Headlog's official website, Nagai-san is 163cm tall and comes from Kagoshima Prefecture. Her latest stage appearance listed on the site was in Otsumami "Tsumande Tataite Hippatte" written and produced by Kiyasu Kohei last Dec.

Cover of the OVA Vol 2

Here is the OVA Vol 2's cover which features Fuji and Taka-san together with Higa's Chinen and Hiragoba who are playing in the doubles 2 match. In this volume, there will be 2 episodes where Singles 3 and Doubles 2 matches are featured. I'm glad that Bandai Visual decided to put the Doubles 2 lineup on the cover instead of letting Echizen hog the attention again. Besides, Echizen's opponent, Tanishi is not really of pin-up guy-type material so I guess for visual appeal, it would be better to choose the Higa duo. Frankly speaking, I don't like the sight of Chinen but since Hiragoba is to be featured, I guess I don't have a choice. I wonder why the Higa guys are seriously lacking in the looks department (maybe Konomi-sensei was not too interested in drawing these guys?) and even some of the past rival school players who didn't look that good now seem much better when compared to these Higa guys. I just hope to get this Higa arc over soon hopefully by Vol 3 so that we can move on to the Hyotei guys without further delay.

By the way, the usual freebies for the OVA will apply to this volume too i.e. the two 3R colour photos and an audio commentary but I'm not sure who is going to speak in this volume though. Most probably, it will be rival school players.

Tenipuri Original Drawing on Mekke

News about a new Tenipuri-merchandise on Mekke! An original drawing of Tenipuri characters which was first published in Vol 32 of the manga will be available for sale in the full-colour digital format and it will be framed before sent to the buyer. The characters appearing in this drawing include Echizen, Tezuka, Fuji, Inui, Atobe, Oshitari and Kirihara. As this is a limited item from the 2006 Jump Festa, orders have to be received first before the item is sent in two or three months' time. The period of sale for this item is from 1pm 4 April to 7 May only so this would be the only time when you can place the order. By the way, Konomi-sensei will also sign on it. For your information, the price of this item is 29,000 yen with another charge of 210 yen for the wrapping so as to prevent damage to this fragile item.

I would have considered buying this if not for three main concerns. First of all, the high price tag which translates to more than SGD 400. Secondly, there's no Sanada Genichirou to ogle at and lastly, I don't have a place to hang this up in my room.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Namikawa Daisuke-san!

Last but not least, we have Namikawa Daisuke-san who plays Ootori Choutarou from Hyotei celebrating his 30th birthday today! Well, although he may be only 30, he actually started out as a voice actor from the age of 9 when he joined the theatre group Gekidan Komadori. Besides being a seiyuu, he also does dubbing work for foreign language movies especially Hollywood productions. As seen from the Wikipedia profile, he has such a long list of works to his name that it would be impossible for me to list everything. However, I'll just mention some of his anime works which includes Okusama wa Joushikousei, Garasu no Kamen, Kyou kara Maou, Saiyuki RELOAD, NARUTO, Hachimitsu to Clover, BECK, Boukaku no Sora, Black Lagoon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Sailormoon, Tsubasa Chronicle, GANTZ, Gundam, Utawareru Mono, Fullmetal Panic and he will appear in the upcoming spring anime, RAY THE ANIMATION. Currently, he is in Haikyo which he joined in 2003 and his fellow colleagues who also appear in Tenipuri include Suwabe Junichi and Minagawa Junko.

Namikawa-san has the nickname of "Oscar seiyuu" because many of the films he has done dubbing for won many titles in the Academy Awards. If you are interested to hear a voice sample of him, you can access his official website which has a voice sample facility. It also appears as if Namikawa-san does not think he has good vocals so he tries very hard to reject singing assignments. There was once when his manager accepted one such project for him and he got so angry about it. Well, personally, I think he sings pretty well judging from his duet with Kusuda Toshiyuki in the single of Shishido & Ootori.

As for his personal details, his height is 173cm and weight is 60.5kg. He comes from Tokyo and has a 10-year-older brother and a 8-year-older sister. His hobbies include Japanese chess, table tennis and snowboarding. Namikawa-san had attained titles like the Best 8 title for the national table-tennis tournament, elementary level for aikido and took part in the national contest for handball. Last but not least, he is already married.

For those who are interested in finding out more on Namikawa-san, you can visit the following fansite.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Matsuyama Takashi-san!

We have quite a number of Tenipuri-related personnel celebrating their birthdays today and the second to be featured is Matsuyama Takashi-san who plays Echizen Nanjirou!

Matsuyama-san was born in 1960 at Tokyo and also works as an actor besides being a seiyuu. Some of his anime works include Eyeshield 21, Kyou kara Maou, Kochikame, SAMURAI DEEPER KYO, HUNTERxHUNTER, Mushishi and PEACEMAKER. As for his movie and drama projects, Matsuyama-san can be seen in projects like KILLERS [CANDY], Talking Pet, Keruberosu Jigoku no Banken, Abunai Deka, Aibo, Hana no Ran, Juon, Kamen Rider Cougar and Tokugawa Yoshinobu. According to the profile on Yahoo Japan, Matsuyama-san's height and weight are 173cm and 65kg respectively and his blood type is B. It is also said that he is good at volleyball. He was previously from Meiji University's Faculty of Political Economics but left before graduation. For more detailed information on Matsuyama-san, you may also visit the following website.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Akutsu Jin!

Today's the birthday of Akutsu Jin from Yamabuki! Although he has only played one official match against Echizen, I'm sure many people will remember his fierce facial expressions and unique image which stands out from the majority of bishonen characters in Tenipuri. To me, he is like the mascot of Yamabuki together with Sengoku Kiyosumi. If Sengoku is the ladies' man, Akutsu should be the one who scares people away. ^__^ At the same time, his childhood buddy Kawamura Takashi is of the gentle type which is yet another example of extremes exhibited in his life. Although Akutsu has near-perfect attributes to be a top-class player, his lack of interest in tennis as well as the seemingly lack of challenges in the sport (perceived by him) had spurred him to leave the Yamabuki team after he lost to Echizen. It's not so much of disappointment but rather he is convinced that there is nobody who can give him as much satisfaction on the courts so he chooses to abandon this sport. Personally, I feel that it's a pity because there ARE indeed better players around but it's certain that he won't appear as a player in the National Arc.

Frankly speaking, I didn't really like Akutsu initially before he played the Tokyo final match with Echizen. He gave the impression that he was just a gangster-like character who behaved rashly but as I got to know his past and why he put on such an expression to the people around him, I accepted him for who he is and soon came to find him very cool and unique. Actually, he's not that bad after all because he has been looked down on by others since young for not conforming to standards and uses his bad-tempered behaviour to appear tough as retalliation. Besides, there is a strange affinity with Akutsu personally because we are of the same zodiac sign and blood type thus explaining why we are the "my-pace" sort who do not really care for how others perceive us.

For those who are interested in reading more about Akutsu Jin's seiyuu, Sasaki Nozomu, please click here for my previous feature during Sasaki-san's birthday.