Otanjoubi Omedetou, Icchan!

Today is Itsuki Marehiko's (Icchan) birthday but sad to say, I don't have a decent picture of him and can only find a small shot of him breaking Fuji's Tsubame Gaeshi with the Sinker. Anyway, Icchan only appeared during the Rokkaku arc when he doesn't speak even though his image appeared at times. If he was at the Senbatsu training, he might have driven people crazy with his persistent questions which got Eiji quite fed up.

Actually, there are quite a few interesting figures in Rokkaku and Icchan is one of those. Besides Amane who drives people nuts with his lousy jokes, Icchan drives people crazy too especially when he keeps asking why. His other trademark is breathing through his nose which is as if he's a bull which gets angry. Well, among the various handsome and cool characters, he's one of those memorable characters who stands out not because of looks but due to his character traits. I saw him in the Rokkaku-Seigaku camp after the Kantou Tournament via the manga but too bad Rokkaku was beaten so easily in the early stages of the Nationals. Now, I doubt Icchan will make another appearance again when the focus of the Rokkaku match in the Nationals was more on Saeki fighting alone in the singles match.

Tenipuri DVD Vol 43

Received the DVDs for this month on Friday. I was quite surprised to see that I got a first press edition for Vol 20 too given that it was released some time ago. Anyway, this month's release features Hyotei on the cover so it could be the main reason for it being sold out so quickly. I am keeping a lookout for the cover of next month's DVD which I strongly suspect to be the Rikkai team. I can't think of any characters besides them now that Hyotei is on Vol 43 and Seigaku is on the last volume no. 45.

I cancelled 2 of the Rajipuri CDs I ordered i.e. the Inui & Tezuka and the Tezuka & Echizen ones. Cash strapped...Might probably buy it in future provided it doesn't get out of stock soon. Anyway, I'm still getting the Sanada & Tezuka and Tezuka & Atobe titles so I'm looking forward to the release on next Wed. Wonder when I will be able to get it? I've seen the Tezuka & Atobe cover so the Sanada & Tezuka cover will be an added surprise element when next week comes.

Next month will be the release of the long-awaited Vol 44 of the DVD and Sanada's second single will be released too. As usual, the cover is still not up on NEC Interchannel yet (even Sengoku's single which has been released still doesn't have a picture there). It's been a long wait and I'm looking forward to receiving the 1st and 2nd singles next month.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Kamio-kun!

Today's the birthday of Kamio Akira from Fudoumine. Otanjoubi Omedetou!

Well, he's not one of my top favourite characters in the ranks of Genichirou, Atobe or Tezuka but I like his constant "clashes" with Momo when it comes to tennis and An. That is very entertaining in my opinion. Of course, Momo is not that sharp enough to know that Kamio likes An and regards him as a rival for her affections so it's usually a case of Kamio getting angry for nothing. In addition, I tend to think that An seems to feel something different for Momo as compared to Kamio. Besides that, he is also not on very good terms with Kirihara ever since he got Tachibana-san injured during the Kantou semi-finals but things got settled after the Senbatsu camp so I guess the bad blood between them is no longer present.

Initially, when I first saw Kamio, I got pretty irritated with the catchphrase, "Rhythmn ni norize" or "Rhythmn ni high". In addition, his fringe covering half of his face got on my nerves. Now, I've learned to get used to these unique features of Kamio-kun. And his partner, Ibu is so laidback and naggy most of the time and I really wonder how someone like Kamio who places a lot of emphasis on speed can stand him. Maybe opposites do attract.

Kamio's voice actor is Suzuki Chihiro whom I've also heard as Arima Soichiro in Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou. His birthday is 17 Feb 1977, his hometown is in Yamagata and his agency is Arts Vision. He has also formed an unit named P.K.O with Toriumi Kosuke and Saeki Tomo. By the way, Toriumi plays the part of Sengoku Kiyosumi from Yamabuki and the two had played before in the Kantou competition before. I've also found a picture of him but it's a side view photo.

First anniversary of Tenipuri no Sekai

It's been one year since I started this blog. Well, I should have posted more than I really did since 50 entries in 365 calendar days is not anything to boast about. Anyway, this blog details my obsession with Tenipuri and I'm still very enthusiastic over this even though the anime has ended and there's only the manga and CDs to follow. Even the DVDs release will end in Oct.

It all began one fine day when a friend told me about this anime and I gave it a try. Wow, I was hooked from day one and downloaded all the fan sub episodes. Until it came to a stage when I couldn't wait for the fansubs, I actually downloaded the raws to watch first. In a way, this helped to improve my Japanese as it trains my listening abilities so I have Tenipuri to thank in that sense.

I'm still not done with collecting all the DVDs. There are 45 of them and I would still have about 17 volumes (the earlier ones) to buy even though I've bought or reserved the later ones. As for character CDs, I've got the Tezuka album, Genichirou's singles will arrive next month, the movie and anime soundtrack vol 2 and 3. I'll probably get more after I complete the purchase of the DVDs. The more pressing problem is where to store them since I'm running out of space.

News has it that fanbook 30.5 would be out soon. Vol 29 of the manga is already out so vol 30 should be out by Oct. In that case, 30.5 might be published before the end of the year or latest early next year. I guess this will include a lot of info about the teams in the Nationals. Somehow, in my opinion, I don't really like the new rivals especially that Okinawa school which Seigaku is facing. I can't find a single guy who is more pleasing to my eye. The teams prior to the Nationals looked a bit "evil" during the matches but once you got to know them better, you would grow to like them especially Atobe whom I really detested when Tezuka lost to him but now, I'm simply obsessed with him. The teams in the Nationals so far don't seem that "nice" and it's hard to remember them in the manga since animated visuals tend to be easier to remember than still images. Maybe that's why there is this difference in my acceptance of the new characters. However, Chitose and Oshitari's cousin seem quite cool. Oh, I think Oshitari's cousin's name should be Kenya but I'll check again.

Anyway, here's to many returns of the year and hope that I'll continue this for as long as I can. Well, even if Tenipuri ends, I doubt that I'll stop working on this blog since I have lots of things to say.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Tachibana-san!

Today is Fudoumine's bucchou, Tachibana Kippei's birthday! Otanjoubi omedetou!

Well, Tachibana-san seems to be as "ill-fated" as our Tezuka-bucchou because they rarely play in matches. That's because they are usually not required to play since their teammates have won the earlier matches. However, Tachibana-san is worse-off than Tezuka in a sense because the latter had 3.5 episodes to himself when he played Atobe in the Kantou first round match but Tachibana-san only appeared for a while when he played Shishido in the Tokyo round and when he was thrashed by Kirihara during the Kantou semi-finals. Well, I don't think he's that lousy since he is the one of the Top 2 in Kyushu but the anime didn't give him too much "face" and he seems to be very low-profile as the captain cum coach cum player of the team. And it would have been interesting if he wasn't injured and could join the Senbatsu team.

If we look at the manga, there is a clear explanation why he came to Kantou because he used to be like Kirihara i.e. adopting a rough playing style and caused someone to be seriously injured. That is why he shaved his head and came to Fudoumine. Honestly speaking, the shaved head image makes him look like Buddha especially with that mole on his forehead. ^__^ Before that, his hairstyle made him look rough and resembled a gangster. However, in the manga when Fuji went to him and asked him to play seriously before the start of the Nationals, Tachibana looked very fired-up and extremely intimidating which means that he wasn't playing that seriously in the past? Anyway, the manga will probably give him more chances to appear in future.

Rajipuri CD covers

NEC Interchannel has finally uploaded the covers of the Rajipuri CD releases at the end of this month but 6 of them including the most anticipated one for me, Tezuka & Sanada are not up yet. Anyway, I've put up covers of 3 out of the 4 CDs I ordered here and I'm getting tempted by some of the rest whereby the covers seem so nice. One of them is the Echizen & Atobe version (Apr 2003) but I must control myself or I may end up buying too much and of course spending too much on this series. Since this is a limited release, I must make my decision soon whether to click that purchase button again. ^__^

Actually, the basis of how I make my decision on which to buy lies primarily with the characters who are the personalities for that month and according to my memory of how interesting that month's Rajipuri is. Well, most of them are quite interesting but Onosaka-san gets too loud or too lethargic at times so I'm sparing myself from those which include him. I'm not sure how they are editing 4 or 5 episodes of Rajipuri into one single CD since each episode is about 20 minutes plus but I hope that they can include some freebies or nice pictures of the personalities. An interview of the seiyuus concerned may also be interesting.

The offer I see on the Interchannel website is to send in two official coupons from any 2 CDs in this series. Well, I can come up with the coupons but I doubt that there would be any chance of me winning the special CD containing Seigaku's school song apparently sung by the Seigaku seiyuus. I might as well keep the coupons as memorabilia since I don't think foreign buyers can get such freebies. Now, my next question is, when will the CD cover of Tezuka & Sanada be shown? I'm really looking forward to seeing them on the same picture.

Talking about Rajipuri, this month's personalities are Kaida Yuki (Fuji Shusuke) and Nagai Sachiko (Yukimura Seiichi). It's the bishonen combi but there's no way I can get hold of this to listen to...Opening song for this month is Tachibana An's single, Natsu no Ojousan which got No 79 on Oricon and ending theme is Sengoku Kiyosumi's Everyday due to be released next week but Interchannel has not uploaded its picture yet.

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Ryuuzaki-sensei!

8th Aug is Ryuuzaki-sensei's birthday so I'm doing a small feature of her in advance.

Well, among all the coaches featured in Tenipuri, Ryuuzaki-sensei can be considered to be one of the senior citizens' trio i.e. Oji from Rokkaku, Banji from Yamabuki plus Ryuuzaki-sensei. Then we have 2 other iro-kei sensei i.e. Sakaki Taro and Hanamura Aoi who seems to be the youngest among them.

Anyway, Ryuuzaki-sensei is somewhat similar to Hanamura when she was younger if her sexy picture at the time when she saw Nanjiro off at the airport is to be believed. The only thing I cannot comprehend is that if Nanjiro was in his late teens when he went to US and given that Ryoma is only 12 going on 13, the change in Ryuuzaki-sensei seems so drastic from a hot lady to a kuso-baba as what Nanjiro keeps saying. ^__^

Ryuuzaki-sensei trusts the guys to do what is right although some of them disobeyed her instructions just to win like Taka-san who insisted on using Hadokyuu against Kabaji. She's not like Sakaki who places a lot of emphasis on winning or Hanamura who keeps a tight rein on her players. She's more like the type who allows her students to develop freely while keeping an eye from the sidelines.

Too bad I do not know the birthdays of the other teachers or I can also do a feature on them. Maybe I can attempt that soon...

Tezuka Kunimitsu's birthday single on 7 Oct

Tezuka Kunimitsu (well, actually Okiayu-san) will be releasing his first birthday single on 7 Oct which is still unnamed. The HMV Japan website did not provide further details so I didn't know that the CD is released by Tezuka until I checked the NEC Interchannel website. OK, so now I know it and I'm ordering it NOW. ^__^

Funny thing is, Atobe's birthday is just 3 days earlier and he's not releasing anything even though his "arch rival" is doing so? His last single was the 100th release under the Tenipuri series and that was in June. I wonder when we can hear another Atobe-sama song. And too bad I can't buy Riyuu anymore since it's out of print.

From the Interchannel website, it seems like they are giving away special items for the On The Radio CD releases. They separated the releases into 2 groups and for one group, they are giving a CD which contains the Seigaku school song and this was previously released before under the Seigaku player series. The other group is giving away a Tenipuri Wars On The Radio Special CD for 777 people who buy at least 2 from this group. I guess they won't be giving away to an overseas buyer like me. Besides, the two CDs I ordered (one is Tezuka & Atobe, the other Tezuka & Sanada) belong to different groups so I won't be meeting the minimum criteria of 2 from each group. Zannen desu ne...

Even though it's been 4 months since the anime ended, as long as the manga is continuing and On The Radio is still running, I'm sure we will see more character single/album releases since it's a lucrative business not to be missed by Interchannel. ^__^ When will I ever see a Genichirou album?!

Compatability Test

This is one of the Tenipuri compatability tests around on the Net and I got Oshitari Yuushi which I'm fine with it. Besides, some of the points about not sharing how we feel deep down and it's hard to find someone we really like are rather accurate. I'm too lazy to translate the text so I'm just pasting the original text in Japanese below. The link of the site is http://u-maker.com/139628.html .

Chiakiさんは 忍足侑士 です！

忍足侑士さんは、何事も器用にこなせる天才肌の人です。貴方の周りには、いつも人が集まって賑やか。とても人気がある人です。しかし内面は結構オタクで暗い。自分の心の中も、めったに他者に見せることはありません。もっと心をオープンにして、人付き合いすると楽になれます。また、何でも器用にこなせるのが災いして、ひとつのものを極めることが出来ません。時間はかかってもコツコツと一つのものに取り組む努力を心がけましよう。恋愛面は、人当たりの良いあなたは大変もてるでしょう。ただ、本当に好きだと思って付き合える人は極僅かです。大切な人だと思える人に出会えたなら、真摯に向き合って本当の恋をしましょう。

And I decided to play around with the test and got a few other results which I'll post here...

手塚国光さんは、プライドが高く、常に高みを目指しているタイプです。自分をより価値のある存在にしていくために、日々の努力を怠りません。リーダーシップを取るのも得意で、いったんグループの中心になったら、周囲の人々に細やかな配慮を示します。リーダーの座に納まってワガママを言うのではなく、リーダーとしての責任を十分に果たし、グループ全体をさらに良い状態へと導いていける人なのです。こういった性格は職場でも良く生かされ、あなたはどんな困難にも負けず、着実にキャリアを積み重ねていくことでしょう。恋愛面でも、主導権はあなたのほうに。自分たちがもっと親しくなれるように、みずから二人の関係をリードしていくはずです。

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乾貞治さんは、人には変わり者に見られがちですが、誠実で大変真面目な性格です。一度心を許すと、生涯に渡って変わらぬ友情や愛情を持ち続け、一方的に裏切ることはまずありません。直観力に優れ、聡明で正義感が強いのも特徴です。その分、ちょっぴり融通の効かない部分もありそう。特に周囲から反対されると、妙に頑なになり、内側に閉じこもってしまいがちなので、ある程度の柔軟性を身に付けたいところです。もともとの誠実な人柄に柔軟性が加われば、もっと大きな幸せに恵まれるでしょう。恋愛面ではややオクテですが、友情から次第に恋心を深め、好きな人と満ち足りた関係を築いていけるはず。相手もあなたの良さを理解し、温かく包み込んでくれるでしょう。

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跡部景吾さんは、ズバリ先見の明があるタイプです。人よりも一歩進んだ考え方を持ち、なおかつ何事に対しても計画的。予想外のトラブルに見舞われても、スムーズに対処できてしまうので、物事はあなたの思い通りに進んでいくことでしょう。特に仕事面などでは、先を見通す力があるので、自然とみんなのまとめ役になりそう。また、時代の波に敏感なので、おしゃれも上手です。しかも最新のファッションに自分なりのアレンジを効かせられるので、周囲からはとてもセンスの良い人として、一種の憧れを抱かれているようです。そのせいか、身なりのだらしない人に対する態度は結構冷ややか。時にはその人の服装に、細かい口出しをしてしまいそうです。

It seems like Genichirou's name will not appear at all after trying various combinations...And the answers keep repeating itself in a similar pattern...

Cover for Vol 45 of DVD (final release in Oct)

Well, just as what I had guessed, the final DVD's cover is the picture of Seigaku's 9 members. However, what I find amazing is that Bandai Visual showed Vol 45's cover and did not do the same for Vol 44 which is to be released next month. Shouldn't Vol 44's cover be shown first than the final cover? I am almost 90% sure that they will use Rikkaidai for Vol 44 but I certainly hope that they won't suprise me since I cannot forsee them using characters other than Rikkaidai. Besides, Hyotei is already on Vol 43's cover.

Talking about Vol 43, it seems that Hyotei's pulling power is so great that CD Japan has almost sold out its first press copies by now and it's still at least more than 3 weeks before the release date. I doubt it's really because of the four episodes it contains i.e. those about Echizen deciding whether to go for the US Open and his departure but rather the fact that it's the first time that Hyotei members are assembled on the same cover. This makes a great collector's item. Luckily, I placed my order in April...I know I was too excited over it but when I pre-ordered it at the first sight of it being listed on HMV Japan, I wasn't even aware that Hyotei is on the cover. Anyway, even I knew, I wouldn't go to the extent of buying 2 units. I have still have 17 volumes of DVD from the past releases to buy so I still have some way to go before completing my DVD collection of Tenipuri.

Tenipuri 2006 Manga Calendar

Ordered a copy of this calendar from CD Japan yesterday. I didn't buy the manga calendar last year and bought both versions of the anime calendar instead. How fast time flies and it's time to buy calendars again! Actually, I don't buy Japanese calendars but Tenipuri made me break the exception last year. Well, the manga calendar is released in Oct which is slightly earlier than the anime calendars if last year's schedule is applicable this year However, the anime ended in Mar this year, I'm not sure whether there will be the anime version calendar from TV Tokyo. Anyway, the manga calendar can be hung on the wall or put on the table and is a weekly one where there are the classic lines from the various characters on each week. I think it costs much more to have it shipped by Amazon Japan and after that horrendous wait for the books last year, I'm still worried about trying their service again. As such, I decided to go back to my trusted CD Japan again for this. Besides, HMV Japan does not sell the manga calendar. It will be till Oct before I can see the calendar but I just hope that it wouldn't take as long what HMV Japan did last year where it took close to one month from the release date before I received it.

Tenipuri CDs I bought recently

The single sung by the Senbatsu team which includes Atobe, Sanada, Oshitari, Kikumaru, Sengoku, Fuji, Kirihara and Echizen. Too bad besides the cover picture, there are no more photos of the team. Anyway, the song is the ouen song for the movie and it's quite nice. Actually, I bought this because of the members so the song isn't that important to me ^__^ but I know for sure that if the song sucks, I won't probably buy it anyway.

The soundtrack for the movie but I've not finished listening to this yet. I only ran the theme songs sung by SCRIPT and Aozu & Cap to Bin to test the CD and the booklets in this 2-CD set feature some scenes of the movie.

I've more or less finished listening to this album and am kicking myself for not buying this earlier. I would have managed to get the first press gift if I bought it at the beginning of the year. Anyway, it's all thanks to Rajipuri that I actually got the motivation to buy Tezuka's album and it sounds much better than I expected. Now, should I buy his past singles too or even Atobe's album? And will Genichirou release one album since Taka-san is releasing his soon?

DVDs Vol 21 and 42

Received the DVDs last night and this time round, they didn't ask me for the declaration. Can't they just do without the declaration since I'm a regular customer? It makes my life extremely difficult to bother with that declaration process.

I'm very pleasantly surprised to get the first press for Vol 21 since it comes with the photos! When buying the past volumes, I do get some first press editions at time but Vol 21 was released way back in Oct 03 and HMV Japan still has the first press. What does this say? They sold too little units of Vol 21? However, most of the volumes have the first press sold out so this could be one of the few which didn't. This volume contains episodes of Wakato vs Kaidou and Shinjou vs Echizen so it's entirely about Jousei Shonan. I only browsed through it last night since I was more hyped up over finishing Spiral.

As for Vol 42, the cover features Rokkaku and St Rudolph. Episodes include the chibi episode in Hawaii and Christmas as well as the beginning of the school ranking matches between Taka-san vs Oishi, Momo vs Kaidou and Eiji vs Inui. Since next month's cover is Hyotei, I have a strong hunch that Vol 44 would be Rikkaidai before the final volume shows Seigaku. Hopefully, this wish would come true.

And I am seriously running out of space to store the DVDs, CDs and CDRs of the subbed episodes in the same drawer. And I still have more than 15 DVDs to buy in order to complete the collection. To make things worse, the space holding the manga is almost full so there's no way I'm going to put the stuff there. I've got to think of a way soon since the Rajipuri CDs (Sanada & Tezuka, Atobe & Tezuka) and next month's DVDs will be here in a flash...

Vol 29 of the manga and anime DVD covers

I ordered this more than 2 weeks ago and yet HMV Japan has not sent it to me. I got so frustrated that I cancelled the order so I'm probably going to get it directly from Kinokuniya Singapore. Amazon Japan is too expensive just to get one volume of manga and I'm not too interested in buying other stuff from them.

Seeing the anime DVD covers, I see that Vol 43 is Hyotei's picture so if my hunch is correct, Vol 44 should be Rikkaidai while Vol 45, the final should be Seigaku. And the whole anime DVD series will be released by Oct. I still have more than 15 volumes of DVD to buy from the earlier releases.

And I still have the Gather single to buy. Genichirou's new single will be released in Sep!!! Lots of things to buy but not enough money...

Sanada Genichirou (Kusunoki Taiten)

Name: Kusunoki Taiten (楠大典)
Date of Birth: 18 Mar 1967
Hometown: Tokyo
Blood Group: B
Height: 173 cm
Weight: 62 kg

I'll be doing a series of features on my favourite seiyuus/characters from Tenipuri.

I have to admit because of the fact that I simply adore Sanada Genichirou, I am featuring Kusunoki-san first but I will feature Okiayu-san later since Tezuka and Sanada are both important to me. ^__^

Noted some similarities between me and Kusunoki-san:
-We are both of blood type B
-We are born in the same month

According to his official website http://www.sawas.co.jp/prof_kusunoki_daiten.html, he does take on a lot of seiyuu and narration projects but I have not seen his projects before. That is why I am not familiar with his name or picture until Gen-chan came along.

And there will be a new single from Sanada i.e. Kusunoki-san on 14 Sep. I've already pre-ordered it and am looking forward to receiving this with Gen-chan's first single.

Theatrical Feature Prince of Tennis Memorial Edition

Wow, I got this premium edition yesterday and I'm simply bowled over by what I'm getting. I'm extremely satisfied with the contents even though I paid so much for it.

First of all, I was SO SUPRISED to see a Hyotei handphone strap as one of the freebies!!! This is what the fans could buy at the screening of the movie and I never thought I could own one of this. Although I would have gone delirious with joy if I had got a Rikkai strap, I'm already jumping for joy at the sight of Hyotei's strap.

Secondly, the extremely refined and beautiful packaging of the box and the cases which hold the DVD! Well, I think it's quite difficult to get the DVD out of the packaging but the box's cover is simply cool. We have the faces of the Seigaku regulars and Ryoga on the main feature while on Atobe's feature, we have him, Oshitari and Mukahi on the front while Kabaji and some of the other schools' members are on the back. Why isn't Genichirou on the cover?! And in each case is a pretty thick booklet featuring a detailed explanation of the plot with pictures. There's also another booklet separate from the cases which has info on the movie on the whole plus interviews with some of the seiyuus.

Thirdly, the reflective board on the back of the box which shows Ryoma or Ryoga depending on the direction you view it from. They look so similar that it's quite hard to get a distinct view of the two. Somehow, I think Ryoga is the Ryoma a few years later and he really looks more like it. In fact, Konomi-sensei said that he had plans to put Ryoga into the manga but the anime beat him to it but Ryoga will appear in the manga in the near future. Maybe we will get to see who he really is.

Last but not least, the additional contents in the DVD itself. Well, the making clips differ since there's the premiere party and seiyuu meeting at the cinemas which are not in the single DVD editions I posted earlier. HOWEVER, the main highlight is the commentary by the seiyuus where you turn off the main track and hear their comments. I heard the double bucchou commentary on the Atobe feature by Okiayu Ryutaro-san and Suwabe Junichi-san and they were so funny! I'm going to watch the main feature which has two sets of comments i.e. by Aozu (Echizen, Fuji, Oishi and Tezuka) and Cap to Bin (Kaidou, Momoshiro, Kawamura, Inui and Kikumaru) before I make further comments.

I'm really glad that I got this special edition. Although it's extremely expensive, it's definitely worth it. ^__^

Futari no Samurai

I'm at a loss for words. Really.

It's extremely exaggerated especially that part when Tezuka Zone was at work. I know it's a magnificient trick but to the extent of an explosion on Earth seems to be overdone. And when the ship was sinking, what on earth are Ryoma and Ryoga thinking? Playing tennis while submerged in water? And why must Ryoma's clothes disintegrate and do a smash in that state? It is good for laughs and I do enjoy it but they could have toned down with regards to this aspect.

Ryoga seems like an older version of Ryoma and in the end, I still don't get to know what is his identity. I don't think Nanjirou has another son and he seems to be like a tennis student of Nanjirou who lived with his family for a while. And according to the childhood flashbacks, it seemed that he was on good terms with Ryoma. Besides, he was picked up by Sakurabuki to join the team to play fake matches so his family background needs more probing...

In the end, I'm not sure whether Atobe was the one who initiated the rescue operation since he found out that Sakurabuki is not a rich man. He's that resourceful to know those in the same social status...Sugoii ne, Atobe!

Generally, this main feature was fine but please, if they do another movie, maybe they can do something about the exaggerated storyline. I want to see more tennis scenes and the private lives of those characters...

Atobe kara no okuri mono ~ Kimi ni sasageru Tenipuri Matsuri

It's been some time since I updated the Tenipuri blog. Well, new found motivation since I received the movie DVDs yesterday. I didn't have time to watch the longer part about Seigaku and watched the Atobe short film first. I'm still waiting for the deluxe edition which I got from CD Japan. What is taking them so long?!

All I can say that it was hillarious at various points and it's truly a fan service feature where we see all characters appearing regardless of whether they speak. It was quite obvious to see that Atobe's motive for holding the event was for Kabaji. However, I thought that the girl he was eyeing would have been the girl of his dreams but who knows it turned out to be his elder sister who is getting married soon? ^__^ And Atobe actually got Kabaji's birthday wrong since he meant to hold the event on his birthday. Well, I do remember that Kabaji's birthday is in Jan and yet everyone was in summer wear so I was trying to reconcile these two contradicting facts. Until Atobe knew he got the wrong day, it was funny to see how he reacted to save himself face. However, that plane concept was so exaggerated. Is Atobe really that rich?!

Some of the other interesting points in the short feature film:

-Atobe saving Tezuka at the end of the race when the signboard fell down. Oh my god, are they trying to provide more material for the yaoi fans? Oh please...

-Sanada and Yukimura finally standing together in a place other than the hospital ^__^ Oh my Genichirou in a singlet...

-The haunted house scene where Yanagi was hanging upside down to scare Marui while Shinji was going on and on about being arranged to play a ghost in the well. And I think Yagyuu was scared stiff but still pretended to be fine so as to maintain his image.

-The game where they had a group of guys and girls with the ladies asking questions and picking the guy they liked best. It was such a big surprise to see Shishido winning all the votes and Sengoku dissed him by saying that the outcome was due to the system's problem and the computer did crash after that. Haha! Shinjou and Hanamura-sensei...those two are ayashii...

As what Suwabe Junichi-san says, this is something which all Tenipuri fans should enjoy since we get to see so many characters at one sitting.

By the way, this version's DVD has a series of stickers which looks like a film negative plus an insert on the story's plot. Inside, we have pictures of all the characters in the anime.

Will go home and watch the long feature film of Seigaku tonight...

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Genichirou!

Today is my darling, Sanada Genichirou's birthday! Otanjoubi Omedetou!



Well, I can't say for sure when I started liking him but I guess after his appearance slightly before the Kantou finals when Inoue went to interview Rikkaidai, I was struck by his power, his charisma and the awe he commands...I could go on and on about why I like him. ^__^ I seem to have a penchance for guys who look stern but may actually be very gentle and kind on the inside. He rarely smiles but I can feel that he's a very nice guy. My perfect type of guy? ^__^ Anyway, he's ranked as No.1 in my personal ranking together with Tezuka and I can't seem to decide to date whom I like more.

I find that he looks more handsome in the anime where in the manga, he does not look too nice sometimes. Is it due to different people drawing him? Anyway, I look forward to seeing him play again in the Nationals but that has to be realised through the manga which is only at Vol 28...A long wait ahead?

Now, I'm trying to find the apparrel that he's using i.e. the Babolat racket and the Yonex shoes. Hopefully, they are not too expensive or not out of stock like those belonging to Tezuka...

Once again, otanjoubi omedetou, Gen-chan!

Otanjoubi Omedetou, Jiro!

Today (5th May) is the birthday of Jiro, the sleeping bishonen from Hyotei. Is this a wrong word to describe the kawaii Jiro? Well, he doesn't appear a lot in the anime and he was easily beaten by Fuji. Even though he seems such a dangerous fellow in the beginning when Atobe called Sakaki to get Jiro to take part in the consolation match for the Tokyo round, his play style and character doesn't fit that description. Although he seems to be rather casual about playing, he derives great joy from playing with strong people like Atobe, Fuji and his source of inspiration is Marui who is also a volley specialist. Too bad he was not in the Senbatsu arc but then if he was in, he would have ended up sleeping his way through. ^__^ One of the funniest scenes I remembered from Jiro was when he poked fun at Kaidou for being rude to him at Karuizawa even though Jiro is older by one year. Kaidou was pissed off by Jiro's nonchalant attitude towards the practice match. Apparently, he was sleeping right to the final moment before that match and didn't seem to have done any warming up. That's why, to a player like Kaidou who takes tennis seriously, he would be happy with Jiro's way of doing things. Anyway, Jiro got knocked out by Kaidou with his boomerang snake so it was hillarious to see such an end to that match.

Now that Hyotei is through to the Nationals, I hope to see Jiro again in the manga and hopefully, he can play against Marui to see who's the better volley specialist. ^__^ I doubt so since Marui seems to be doing doubles most of the time but I'm still hopeful.