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The Prince of Tennis manga and anime series has a large cast of fictional characters created by Takeshi Konomi; many have appeared in the musical and film adaptations. The cast of the series is largely made up of the members of the various tennis teams for the schools portrayed in the series, their coaches, and various family members and supporters.

The main character of the series is Ryoma Echizen, a 12-year-old tennis prodigy who joins the Seishun Academy tennis team. The main cast is rounded out with the other eight regular players for Seishun, all of whom have various special abilities at playing tennis. Beyond them, there are many rival schools whose players reappear during the course of the series.

Protagonists

The protagonists of the series all attend Seishun Academy (青春学園, Seishun Gakuen), or Seigaku (青学) for short. The school is famous for its talented tennis club in which the series' leading protagonist, Ryoma Echizen, is enrolled in the school by his father, Nanjiro Echizen, a former professional tennis player and Seigaku alumni. Although Seigaku has long been known for its tennis club, the void created by Nanjiro's departure years earlier throws the team into somewhat of a slump, leaving them unable to make it to Nationals over the next several years until a first year, Tezuka, joins the team. The story picks up two years later, with Tezuka now in his third year. The team slowly reforms, and Seigaku pulls off its first National victory with Ryoma's addition to the team.

Ryoma Echizen

Ryoma is the series protagonist and the only first year on the Seigaku tennis team. His play style is all rounder, and his signature serve is the "Twist serve", a variation on the standard topspin serve where the ball is hit with a combination of both topspin and sidespin, allowing the ball to bounce high and curve toward the receivers' face. His arsenal of skills also include the Drive A, B, C, and D, the Cool Drive, the Samurai Drive, and Cyclone Smash. His strengths include his ability to analyze his opponents' abilities during the match and adapt his own play accordingly to take advantage of their weaknesses. He is left-handed, but he often starts matches playing right-handed. Though often playing Singles 2 or 3, he begins to take Singles 1 by the end of the Kantou tournament, with the fate of the team's overall success riding on his game; the pressure often seems to be helpful towards his performance, bringing out the best in him — depending on the skill level of the opponent. His bored and cocky demeanor masks his underlying affection and respect for his teammates, especially his close friend Momoshiro and team captain Tezuka. By the time of The Prince of Tennis II, all of middle schoolers are shown to have developed great respect for Ryoma to the point where even some of the best high schoolers at the U-17 camp find him impressive. However, Ryoma ultimately ends up getting kicked out of the U-17 camp after interfering with a match to protect a friend. This expulsion is rescinded, however, but not before Ryoma joins the All-American representative team instead.

In The Prince of Tennis live-action film, Ryoma was portrayed by Kanata Hongo. In the musicals, Echizen has been portrayed by actors Kotaro Yanagi (2003–2006), Yuya Endo (2004–2005), Dori Sakurada (2006–2007), Shogo Sakamoto (2007–2009), Ryuki Takahashi (2008–2010), Yuki Ogoe (2010–2014), Kazuki Furuta (2015–2016), Nichika Akutsu (2016-2020) and currently Hikaru Imamaki (2020-).

Kunimitsu Tezuka

Tezuka is the national-level captain of the Seigaku tennis team. Like Ryoma, he is an all-rounder, and his special shots include the "Tezuka Zone," which uses his exceptional racket control to put spin on the ball to allow all shots to return to Tezuka no matter where the opponent tries to hit, and the "Zero-Shiki (Degree) Drop Shot", which is a drop shot with heavy backspin that can make the ball roll towards the net rather than bounce towards the opposing player. He was later able to adapt his drop Shot into a serve.

Tezuka is noted for being rather distant during practices and never smiling. However, he truly cares about his team and always tries to help them improve. At the nationals match against Sanada of Rikkaidai, Tezuka uses another special technique opposite to "Tezuka Zone" called "Tezuka Phantom" which forces the ball out of the cour, but the side effect injures his left arm.

At the end of The Prince of Tennis II Chapter 37, Tezuka is noted to have unlocked the last door of Muga No Kyouchi and has stepped off the training camp to become a Pro in Germany, where he receives tutelage under the 17-year old pro player Volk, and subsequently joins the All-German Representatives. During exhibition match against Japan, he teamed up with Q.P and decimated Atobe Keigo and Kirei Kanata pair in a 6-0 match.

In The Prince of Tennis live-action film, Tezuka was portrayed by Yu Shirota. In Musical: The Prince of Tennis, Tezuka has been portrayed by actors Eiji Takigawa (2003–2005), Kengo Ohkuchi, who stood as Tezuka in the place of Eiji Takigawa in the More Than Limit St. Rudolph Gakuen musical, Yu Shirota (2005–2006), Keisuke Minami (2006–2007), Daisuke Watanabe (2007–2009), Baba Ryoma (2008–2010), Takuma Wada (2010–2012), Hideya Tawada (2012–2014), Takuma Zaiki (2015–2016), Yuya Uno (2016-2018), Ryo Aoki (2018-2020), and Kento Yamada (2020-). Tezuka is the captain of the Seigaku tennis team and its number one player, and has an unbeaten tennis record. The word "stoic" doesn't even begin to describe him. He doesn't smile, doesn't laugh, and has a very no-nonsense type of personality.

Later on, it comes out that Tezuka is indeed a very passionate person who will never surrender in his pursuit of his ideals. What are they? Why, the success of his tennis team. His determination and stubbornness are nearly unmatched. He will lead through example if it kills him - or forever destroys his ability to play.

Tezuka is aloof from his teammates but highly regarded. He is a good student (he has been known to correct the teachers and terrify them while doing so simply through his presence), president of the student council, and is popular.

His catch phrase, "let's not be careless!" was painfully learned in his first year. As a new player, he was stronger than his seniors, and tried not to embarrass them by playing with his right hand (he is left-handed). However, this was discovered and an enraged senpai struck him in the left arm. This injury comes back to haunt him, and eventually causes him to leave for Germany for treatment.

Tezuka's goal is to become the "pillar of Seigaku." He was challenged by the captain in his first year to become the "pillar" the team could rely on. This is how he eventually ruins his arm - he plays past the point of reason to exist as an example to his teammates.

Shuichiro Oishi

Voiced by: Takayuki Kondō (Japanese); Sam Riegel (Viz Media dub), Jacob Hopkins (Funimation dub) (English)

Shuichiro Oishi (大石 秀一郎, Ōishi Shūichirō) is the vice-captain of the club. Oishi and Kikumaru Eiji make up Seigaku's national level doubles team, known as the "Golden Pair". Oishi is known as the 'Mother Hen of Seigaku', because he constantly worries and frets for the team's well-being. He remains calm and rational in a match, allowing him to form strategies quickly. He uses the Moon Volley, a topspin lob that travels very high over the court and lands just in bounds. He can also use the "Drop Volley", a feint hit with the power of a drop shot, making the trajectory much closer to the net. He is portrayed by Hiroki Suzuki in the live-action film.

He and Eiji often use the "Australian Formation", where they stand directly on the center line to confuse the opponents as to which way each player will move when the ball is placed into the opposing court. The "I-Formation" is a variation where Eiji stays below the net and Oishi serves the ball down the center. They also develop "Oishi Territory", which has Oishi focus on the net while Eiji stays in the back. It takes advantage of Oishi's ability to read the opponent while passing information to Eiji in the back. They later develop the "Synchronization" ability, which lets them play and move as if they are one person.

Despite his worrywart nature, Oishi is actually an extremely strict and disciplined leader, and a brilliant tactician on the court. His competitive nature is a stark contrast to his more timid public personality. He seems to easily become embarrassed as Kaido, but is also seen practicing proper etiquette more so than anyone else in the series because of his consideration for others.

Oishi plays the mother in the tenipuri episodes. Inui is her husband; Ryoma Echizen, Kaoru Kaido, and Takeshi Momoshiro (Momoko) are her children.

In The Prince of Tennis II, Oishi earns the No. 16 badge for the U-17 first string. He is also one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. Despite the fact that he's not the captain of the middle school representatives, Oishi represents the Japanese U-17 team as a whole on the world stage, drawing lottery slots to determine the team's initial positions for the tournament.

In Musical: The Prince of Tennis, Oishi has been portrayed by Yuichi Tsuchiya (2003–2005), Hiroki Suzuki (2005–2006), Yukihiro Takiguchi (2006–2007), Yuya Toyoda (2007–2009), Yuki Tsujimoto (2008–2010), Jin Hiramaki (2010–2012), Ikkei Yamamoto (2012–2014), Shun Ishida (2015–2016), Yu Matsumura (2016-2018), Takanori Ezoe (2018-2020), and Takakazu Hara (2021-).

Shusuke Fuji

Voiced by: Yuki Kaida (Japanese) (Japanese); Adam Lawson (Viz Media dub, episodes 1–30) and Johnny Yong Bosch (Viz Media dub, episodes 31–50), Stephen Fu (Funimation dub) (English)

Shusuke Fuji (不二 周助, Fuji Shūsuke) is a third year student at Seishun Academy. The middle child of three, he has an older sister, Yumiko, who is very attractive and admired by his friends; his younger brother is Yuta, who was a student at Seigaku, but transferred to St. Rudolph. Fuji is a leap year baby, only getting to properly celebrate his birthday properly every 4 years. He is given the title "tensai", or genius, due to his tactical skill on the tennis court. Fuji's most famous moves are known as the Triple Counters: Higuma Ootoshi ("Bear Drop") for returning smashes; Tsubame Gaeshi ("Swallow Return") which runs on the ground without bouncing, effective against players at the baseline; and Hakugei ("White Whale"), a shot that uses the wind to hop straight into the air and return to Fuji on the bounce, effective against players at the net. During the nationals, he creates more effective versions of his Triple Counters; three more original counters to deal with complex spin shots, low spin shots, and net balls; and even masters how to play with his eyes closed. In addition, Fuji has an underhand serve that seems to disappear when the opponent is about to hit it. A running gag in the series is that Fuji has interest in or else near-immunity to strange foods and drinks that others would find revolting to the point of fainting. Should he ever pass out from consuming any of the strange concoctions Inui or other data tennis characters come up with, the item in question is deemed a true terror.

He is generally very relaxed and in control, often seen with a calm and content expression on his face with his eyes seemingly closed from lightly smiling, and rarely plays at full power. He only seems to do so when he witnesses some form of injustice or wins on the behalf of others who placed their personal health at risk playing tennis. For this reason, data-driven players like Inui and Mizuki cannot predict his movements at all. Fuji later admits to Tezuka that this is due to the fact that he has zero motivation to win, at least prior to the Nationals. There are a few people that can "wake" the true player in Fuji and force him to play seriously, and these few are either nationally ranked or extremely talented tennis players. Seigaku teammates Kunimitsu Tezuka and Ryoma Echizen, Shitenhōji captain Kuranosuke Shiraishi, Hyotei Gakuen Chuto Bu regular Yushi Oshitari and Rikkaidai Fuzoku regular Akaya Kirihara have been acknowledged by Fuji to be actual challenges. When he is excited, provoked, or serious, Fuji reveals his sharp eyes: light brown in the manga and blue in the anime.

In The Prince of Tennis II, Fuji laments over how he longer has Tezuka to help drive him to keep improving at tennis after the latter leaves for Germany. Fuji recreates his tennis to be more offensive (as opposed to his more defensive, passive approach of past matches) in order to be more competitive at the U-17 world cup, at which he is one of the 14 middle schoolers representing Japan. His first new counter, Hollyhock Blizzard, reflects this by replacing the Higuma Ootoshi (which is functionally a lob) altogether, as this new counter returns opponents' smashes with a smash of his own.

Fuji is one of the few male characters in the anime who is voiced by a female voice actor, others being Ryoma Echizen, Kintarou Tooyama of Shitenhouji, Taichi Dan of Yamabuki, Youhei and Kouhei Tanaka of Jyosei Shonan (the latter two being anime only characters), and Seiichi Yukimura of Rikkaidai Fuzoku. However, Ryoma, Kintarō and Taichi are first years, thus younger and more naturally voiced by a voice actress. Despite Fuji and Yukimura being third years, they are also voiced by voice actresses.

In the anime series, Fuji's voice actress is Yuki Kaida who also voices Fuji's sister, Yumiko. For the live-action adaptation film of The Prince of Tennis, Tenimyu actor Hiroki Aiba portrays Fuji.

In Musical: The Prince of Tennis, Fuji has been portrayed by actors Kimeru (2003–2005), Takashi Nagayama, who stood in during Remarkable 1st Match Fudomine due to a cast change, Hiroki Aiba (2005–2007, 2008), Yūta Furukawa (2007–2009), Taito Hashimoto (2008–2010), Ryo Mitsuya (2010–2012), Yusuke Yata (2012–2014), Yuki Kamisato (2015–2016), Fuma Sadamoto (2016-2018), Ibu Minaki (2018-2020), and Haruki Mochida (2021-).

Sadaharu Inui

Voiced by: Kenjirō Tsuda (Japanese); Erik Davies (Viz Media dub), Stephen Kelly (Funimation dub) (English)

Sadaharu Inui (乾 貞治, Inui Sadaharu) is a highly intelligent player, who uses Data Tennis. He constantly collects and analyzes data of other players in order to predict where they hit to next and how. While he collects data pertaining to tennis, he also collects personal pieces of data, such as favorite things, personal habits, and where they have been. This, combined with his almost robotic analytical nature the fact that his eyes are rarely seen (appearing only once at the end of Chapter 211), creating no shortage of awkwardness in social situations outside the court. His style originates from his close friend, Renji of Rikkai, who played doubles with Inui before moving. He is temporarily removed from the regulars after losing to Ryoma and Kaido, and he becomes the team manager. He uses his data to create exercise programs for the team and creates a series of disgusting "Inui Juice" health drinks that are able to knock a person out or send them running to the restrooms, which motivates the team to train harder as the drinks are used as punishments. The negative effects of the drinks are resisted by a few, namely Fuji. He is portrayed by Hirofumi Araki in The Prince of Tennis live-action film.

Inui's data tennis allows him to predict the probability of a shot taking place although other factors can disrupt the probability. Though he relies on data, he still trains excessively to keep up with his teammates, taking on a training load 2.25x more than Kaido's, which is already 3x ahead of the rest of the team. This allows him to reclaim his spot as a regular by beating Momoshiro. He pairs with Kaido in doubles to help Kaido train, and Kaido's massive amount of stamina is used to let him play alone while Inui gathers data. Though Inui is good at predicting his opponent's movements, he can still be defeated by those who either have never shown him all of their techniques or simply surpass him on the physical level. He also has one of the fastest serves in the series. His Sonic Serve can reach 192 km/h (120 mph), though it would later be replaced by the Waterfall Serve. Its arc and descent resembles that of a waterfall engulfing the opponent, and can reach 212 km/h (~132 mph).

In The Prince of Tennis II, he helps Renji take the No. 17 spot on the U-17 first string. He and Renji both later join the intel support team for the All-Japan Representatives.

In the musicals, Inui has been portrayed by Sota Aoyama (2003–2005), Hirofumi Araki (2005–2006), Masei Nakayama (2006–2007), Yuuta Takahashi (2007–2009), Yusuke Arai (2008–2010), Teruma (2010–2012), Seiya Inagaki (2012–2014), and Ryosei Tanaka (2015–2016), Sho Kato (2016-2018), Daisuke Takenouchi (2018-2020), and Ichigo Shiota (2021-).

Eiji Kikumaru

Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi (Japanese); Steve Staley (Viz Media dub), Derick Snow (Funimation dub) (English)

Eiji Kikumaru (菊丸 英二, Kikumaru Eiji) is part of Seigaku's "Golden Pair" along with Oishi. Even so, he sometimes does doubles with Fuji and they are then called the "Dream Pair". Eiji uses "Acrobatic Play" which takes advantage of his flexible body. Eiji is also known to have the sharpest vision on the team with an exceptional talent for seeing moving objects. His main weakness is his lack of stamina which he finally overcomes through hard work and training later in the series. Though the Golden Pair seldom play without each other, certain circumstances, such as their temporary breakup when Oishi gives his spot to Ryoma, forces him to play in singles. Eiji is a friendly, sweet-tempered, and outgoing character and the youngest of a large family. He is portrayed by Osamu Adachi in the live-action film.

Eiji's flexible body allows him to reach balls with a touch of flair that few can replicate. His dives and flips often astonish the spectators and often gets grudging praise from his opponents helping Eiji focus. He focuses on the net with his "Kikumaru Beam", a sharp volley that is hit with his hand reaching around his back, and his "Kikumaru Bazooka", a smash hit upside-down. While playing doubles, Eiji follows the lead of Oishi. The two rely on and know each other thoroughly, which allows them to predict each other's moves without any signals. They further develop this by achieving "Synchronization", letting them act together as if they were only one person. He can also play well in singles by using his "Seal Step", which uses his speed to move from one location to a new one the moment the opponents eyes leave his first location. This gives the opponent the impression that there are two of him for a doppelganger type effect, though the anime gives him the ability to hug and high five his after image, making it slightly unrealistic.

Eiji's favorite color is red; he enjoys brushing his teeth, wandering around pet shops, omelette rice, fried shrimp, and shaved ice. He was born November 28 at 6:28 am and is a Sagittarius. He has grandparents, a mother, a father, two older sisters, and two older brothers, and therefore is the youngest of a very large family, something that gives him attributes of being fun-loving and easy-going. His father is a news reporter. His favorite subject is Japanese history. He has declared that he might want to become a stunt double in the future with Oishi being his personal trainer, doctor, and still best friend. His favorite date spot is the amusement park; he loves anime/fantasy, idol magazines, and JPOP. He also looks for someone who is cheerful and someone whom he can share a laugh with in a friend. He most wants a new knitted hat. Outside of tennis, he excels in fly swatting, bug collecting, cooking, and can often be found in the gymnasium when not at the tennis courts.

In the Tenipuri Family episodes, Eiji plays the family's pet, a pink cat named Kikumaru.

In the musicals, Eiji has been portrayed by Yamazaki Ichitaro (2003–2004), Takashi Nagayama (2003–2005), Adachi Osamu (2005–2006), Koji Seto (2006–2007), Kyousuke Hamao (2007–2009), Takasaki Shouta (2008–2010), Koseki Yuta (2010–2012), Mario Kuroba (2012–2014), and Honda Reo (2015–2016), Seiichiro Nagata (2016-2018), Tsukasa Taguchi (2018-2020), and Sosho Tomimoto (2021-).

Takeshi Momoshiro

Voiced by: Masaya Onosaka (Japanese); Doug Erholtz (Viz Media dub), Alejandro Saab (Funimation dub) (English)

Takeshi Momoshiro (桃城 武, Momoshiro Takeshi) is known as Seigaku's "number one rascal." As the player who is the most open and friendly with everyone, Momoshiro is connected to everyone on the team on some level. Momoshiro is the closest to a true friend Ryoma Echizen can claim; the two spend much time together eating hamburgers or playing street tennis. Momoshiro and Kaido Kaoru are eternal rivals, and constantly try to out-do each other. This makes them efficient as a doubles pair, because the two rivals know each other so well. Momoshiro develops an affinity for playing doubles and even masters it, despite expressing a preference for singles. He loses his position as a regular after losing to Inui in the ranking matches. When Oishi injures his wrist before the match against Hyotei, Momoshiro takes his place to form a makeshift Golden Pair with Kikumaru. After that, he keeps his regular spot when Tezuka leaves for rehabilitation. He becomes the Vice-captain of Seigaku the following year. He is portrayed by Masaki Kaji in The Prince of Tennis live-action film.

Momoshiro's signature move is the Dunk Smash, a very powerful smash performed as he jumps several feet into the air. His catchphrase is "Don", which he often says upon hitting a winner. He later develops the Jack Knife, a pro-level powerful backhand. In the anime, he develops the Super Dunk, a Dunk Smash that spins for a long time on the court before bouncing, thus confusing the opponent as to when it will bounce up. Momoshiro is good at "faking out" his opponents and is just as excellent of a tactician as Oishi on the court. His ability to read the opponent's movements and to observe their viewpoints and expression allows Momoshiro to guess where the ball will go and use techniques that will confuse his opponents. He later improves upon this ability by training in the mountains, allowing him to be more in tune with nature to the point where he can even read and predict weather patterns.

In The Prince of Tennis II, his wrists suffer severe damage after being on the receiving end of a Black Jack Knife, which has twice the spin and power of his regular Jack Knife. However, he later learns the Black Jack Knife himself, and uses it to take the No. 19 position on the U-17 first string.

In the musicals, Momoshiro has been portrayed by Eiji Moriyama (2003–2005), Masaki Kaji (2005–2006), Shinpei Takagi (2006–2007), Tetsuya Makita (2007–2009), Toshihiro Nobuyama (2008–2010), Toru Kamitsuru (2010–2012), Mashu Ishiwatari (2012–2014), Shuto Mashima (2015–2016), Shunsaku Yoshimura (2016-2018), Tatsuki Ōkubo (2018-2020), and Shun Hojuyama (2020-).

Takashi Kawamura

Voiced by: Naru Kawamoto (Japanese); Richard Cansino (Viz Media dub), Anthony Sardinha (Funimation dub) (English)

Takashi Kawamura (河村 隆, Kawamura Takashi) has a shy personality without his tennis racket, but he becomes extremely aggressive and loud once he holds a tennis racket, referred to as Burning Mode. He often shouts various English words like "Burning!", "Great!", "Come on, baby!", "Shocking!", "Victory!", and "Delicious!" while in Burning Mode. During his first year, he had a lot of power, but lacked control to the point where most of his shots were outside the court fences. He was made fun of by his peers, but his close friends stayed by him and helped him develop his control. During his third year, he became a regular and eventually meets his goal of becoming the number one power player in Japan by beating Gin Ishida. He plans to quit playing tennis after the tournament and focus on working as a sushi chef under his father with the goal of being number one in the future. He is portrayed by Yoshikazu Kotani in The Prince of Tennis live-action film.

Kawamura mainly relies on the Hadoukyuu (ハドウキュウ), a very powerful maneuver that uses 120% of an arm's strength, but puts a lot of strain on his arm. He copies it from Fudomine's Tetsu Ishida, who learned it from his brother, Gin. Kawamura lowers the risk of the shot by using a Two-Handed Hadoukyuu (両手ハドウキュウ), which decreases the power. He can use either while jumping to make the Jump Hadoukyuu (ジャンプ　ハドウキュウ), which is hard to return. He later develops the Dash Hadoukyuu (ダッシュ　ハドウキュウ), which is a regular Hadoukyuu performed during an extremely fast dash. It strengthens the shot by focusing all the momentum on the wrist, but it can break the wrist if overused. During his match against Gin, he develops a "Final Hadoukyuu" that, because he accidentally hit with racket frame instead of the gut, the ball vibrates, and thus has power far exceeding Gin's strongest Hadoukyuu, breaking the latter's wrist.

He also reappears as a candidate in the U-17 selection camp, where he loses to Jin Akutsu, but comes back to take the No. 12 position in the first string.

In the musicals, Kawamura has been portrayed by Yoshitsugu Abe (2003–2005), Eiki Kitamura, who stood in for Abe in the More than St. Rudolph Gakuen Musical, Yoshikazu Kotani (2005–2006), Kouji Watanabe (2006–2007), Hiroaki Ogasawara (2007–2009, eventually replaced by Gong Teyu), Ikkou Chou (2008–2010), Sora Yaguchi (previously known as Tomohiro Tsurumi) (2010–2012), Shohei (2012–2014), Kodai Takikawa (2015–2016), Masaya Suzuki (2016-2018), Tomoki Iwata (2018-2020), and Kai Otomo (2021-).

Kaoru Kaido

Voiced by: Kōhei Kiyasu (Japanese); David Lodge (Viz Media dub), Jarrod Greene (Funimation dub) (English)

Kaoru Kaido (海堂 薫, Kaidō Kaoru) (sometimes spelled Kaidou) is known as "Viper" to his teammates for constantly making a "fshuuuu" sound similar to a snake while exhaling. Kaido trains rigorously, increasing the training program given to him by Inui to give him an abnormally high stamina, even against other characters who boast to have high stamina. He has a deep rivalry with Momoshiro, in which they constantly try to beat each other. Because they are rivals, they also know each other the best, and they can get along very well in times of need; this makes them an efficient doubles pair. He normally plays singles, though he eventually pairs with Inui, who helps Kaido train and develop new techniques. Kaido's stamina is used to let him play the other team alone, while Inui collects data. After the national tournament, Kaido becomes the new captain of Seigaku. He is portrayed by Kousuke Kujirai in the live-action The Prince of Tennis film.

His signature move is the Snake Shot, derived from the "Buggy Whip Shot", which is a curving forehand that keeps his opponents running. He later develops the Boomerang Snake, where the ball swerves around the net pole back in bounds. He develops the shot under Inui's advice and by working with him in doubles. He also develops the Short Snake, which goes directly behind the net player, the Reverse Snake, which is used to keep opponents guessing, and the Tornado Snake, which is a fast straight shot with a spin that cuts air resistance. He can also use Hiroshi Yagyu's "Laser Beam", calling his version the Gyro Laser, which is an extremely fast shot with the same spin as the Tornado Snake, allowing him to confuse opponents. He also develops the Hadoukyuu Boomerang in the anime, which is developed from the Hadoukyuu that has much more strength behind a regular Boomerang shot.

Although he has a tough exterior and is cold towards others, there is a softer side to Kaido. Unknown to many, Kaidou enjoys playing with small animals. He is often seen playing (or at least trying to play) with Ryoma's cat, Karupin, who wanders off on his own most of the time. Koharu notes that Kaido was often mistaken for a girl back in Kindergarten and was sometimes forced to wear a skirt, crying a lot as a result, implying that Kaido's tough demeanor is merely a front to hide his insecurities. This hidden vulnerability often puts Kaidou in many comedic situations as he tends to take himself way too seriously compared to his peers.

In the various TeniPuri Family episodes, Kaido is the young infant. Not being able to speak, he mainly just says "fssshhuuuu". Shuuko (Oishi) introduced infant – Kaido as "cutie-pie, Kaoru-chan". He is often bullied in some sorts by his older siblings, Ryoma and Momoko (Momoshiro).

In the musicals, Kaido has been portrayed by Naoya Gomoto (2003–2005), Kousuke Kujirai (2005–2006), Tomo Yanagishita (2006–2008), Yuuichirou Hirata (2007–2009), Akihiro Hayashi (2008–2010), Ryosuke Ikeoka (2010–2012), Tatsunari Kimura [ja] (2012–2014), Hiroki Sana (2015–2016), Hikaru Makishima (2016-2018), Takuto Nakajima (2018-2020), and Yuga Iwasaki (2021-).

Sumire Ryuzaki

Voiced by: Shizuka Okohira (Japanese); Barbara Goodson (Viz Media dub), Wendy Powell (Funimation dub) (English)

Sumire Ryuzaki (竜崎 スミレ, Ryūzaki Sumire) is the coach of Seigaku's tennis club and one of the school's math teachers. She helped Nanjiro Echizen develop his skills and become a professional tennis player. Her granddaughter Sakuno has a crush on Ryoma. Ryuzaki has a rivalry with her ex-mentor Mikiya Banda, a.k.a. Banji, who is the coach for Yamabuki. She constantly yells, but she is considered to be a great and reliable coach. She has a good relationship with her regulars and participates in their recreational group activities: the bowling reunion and the beach-volley mini-tournament with Rokkaku Middle School. For the Prince of Tennis live-action film, Ryuzaki's whole personality and back story was changed: she also had Ryoma's father in her tennis team a couple of years ago, and instead of being a middle-aged teacher and ex-coach to Nanjiro Echizen, she is portrayed as a young and more cheerful woman as well as a former classmate of Nanjiro's, who was her reason for playing tennis and becoming the coach. She is portrayed by the popular singer Hitomi Shimatani in the live-action film.

Opponents

Fudomine

Fudomine Junior High (市立不動峰中学校, Fudōmine Chūgakkō) is an unseeded and unknown public school with rumors of violence. It was originally unknown due to an unreasonable coach and a lazy set of senior regulars. The freshmen at Fudoumine were brutalized severely by the older tennis club members, while the coach ignored the mistreatment. Tachibana and the abused freshman attempted to rally together and form their own tennis club, but the coach and the other players find this idea absurd and try to stop this from happening. When the coach allows his older team members to attack Tachibana and the freshman, Tachibana snaps and attacks the coach. As a result, Fudoumine is pulled out of the District Matches that year. Tachibana and the others eventually reform the club, and in the series, upsets Kakinoki in the District Tournament semi-finals and Hyotei in the Prefectural quarterfinals. They go on to make it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Nationals before losing to Shitenhouji. Fudomine's uniforms are black hooded jackets with the Fudomine logo, black shirts, white shorts, and black warm-up pants.

Kippei Tachibana (橘 桔平, Tachibana Kippei)

Voiced by: Yoshihisa Kawahara (Japanese); Doug Erholtz (Viz Media dub), Kaiji Tang (Funimation dub) (English)

Tachibana is the captain of Fudomine. He was originally from the Kyūshū region of Japan, where he attended Shishigaku Middle School. He and his close friend, Chitose, led their team to the semifinals of the Nationals as the top two players of the region. Tachibana is a very aggressive player, and during an intra-school ranking match, he injured Chitose after deciding to try out his new move, the Wild Ball, which makes it look like there are numerous balls coming at one time. He cuts and stops bleaching his hair, moves with his father and sister, and eventually starts with the Fudoumine club in order to play Chitose again. He uses the "Moujuu Aura" (Wild Beast Aura), which draws out his natural style and increases his physical abilities, especially when using his "Abare Dama" frame of racket shot, as well as the "Abare Jishi". In The Prince of Tennis II, he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U17 team. He is portrayed by Takuma Sugawara, YOH, Takashi Kitadai, Yusuke Ueda (2nd season), Soramu Aoki (3rd season), and GAKU (4th season) in the musicals.

Akira Kamio (神尾 アキラ, Kamio Akira)

Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki (Japanese); David Neil Black (Viz Media dub), Zeno Robinson (Funimation dub) (English)

Akira is the vice-captain of Fudomine, who normally plays singles or doubles with his long-time friend Shinji Ibu. His style focuses on speed and "rhythm" of his feet; in other words, he's extremely fast. He uses the "Sonic Bullet" shot, which seems to disappear, and the "Quick-Drop Serve", which is hit before it rises to the top, throwing off the opponents timing and slightly increasing the speed. He has a crush on An, and is jealous when she goes out with Momoshiro. He later learns to use Tachibana's Wild Beast Aura to greatly increase his speed. In The Prince of Tennis II, he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U-17 team. He is portrayed by Matsui Yasuyuki, Yuki Fujiwara, Kinari Hirano (2nd Season), Ryujiro Izaki (3rd season), and Kosuke Maiguma (4th season) in the musicals, and Yuki Fujiwara reprises that role in the live-action film.

Shinji Ibu (伊武 深司, Ibu Shinji)

Voiced by: Eiji Moriyama (Japanese); Kirk Thornton (Viz Media dub), Adam Gibbs (Funimation dub) (English)

Shinji normally plays singles or doubles with his best friend Akira Kamio. He often mumbles and rambles without realizing other people can hear him, making him a moody person in general. He utilizes the "Kick Serve", which bounces upward to the right, similarly to the twist serve. However, his main ability is to sense muscle tension in others, allowing him to utilize a passive-offensive style of tennis (alternating between topspin and backspin shots) that forces his opponent's arm muscles to freeze briefly, forcing them to miss the point. In The Prince of Tennis II, he is one of the players invited to the Japanese U-17 team. He is portrayed by Ryōsei Konishi, Motohiro Ota, Kazuhiro Okazaki (2nd season), Kento (3rd season), and Naotake Tsuchiya (4th season) in the musicals, and Yasuka Saitoh in the live-action film.

Tetsu Ishida (石田 鉄, Ishida Tetsu)

Voiced by: Takeshi Maeda (Japanese); Devon Bowman (English)

Tetsu Ishida normally plays doubles with Masaya Sakurai (桜井 雅也, Sakurai Masaya), who has a special power shot known as the Hadokyuu, an extremely powerful flat groundstroke that uses 120% of the user's strength. He learned it from his elder brother Gin, who for some strange reason attends the much further away Shitenhoji Middle School. It puts an extreme strain on his arm at first, which cause Tachibana to disallow him from using it until he masters it. He later learns to use Tachibana's Wild Beast Aura, where he not only becomes more powerful, but also acquires the ability to perform a Hadokyuu off of a backhand without stepping forward. Tetsu Ishida is portrayed by Mamoru Miyano, Kyoushirou Takagi (2nd season), Taro Nakamura (3rd season), and Totaro (4th season) in the musicals, and Masaya Sakurai is portrayed by Shun Takagi, Fumiya Takahashi (2nd season), Ryotaro (3rd season), and Yuto Fukazawa (4th season) in the musicals.

Kyosuke Uchimura (内村 京介, Uchimura Kyōsuke)

Voiced by: Kōhei Kiyasu (Japanese); Steve Staley (English)

Kyosuke Uchimura, nicknamed "The Forward Net Killer" plays doubles with Tatsunori Mori (森 辰徳, Mori Tatsunori). Kyousuke Uchimura is portrayed by Mao Katou (2nd season), Masaki Takane (3rd season), and Hayato Kikuchi (4th season) in the musicals, and Tatsunori Mori is portrayed by Youichiro Omi (2nd season), Tatsuya Kobayashi (3rd season), and Rayshy (4th season) in the musicals.

Ann Tachibana (橘杏, Tachibana An)

Voiced by: Akiko Kimura (Japanese); Stephanie Sheh (English)

She is the cute younger sister of Kippei. She is a member of the girls tennis club, and often supports her brother's team. An cares very much for her brother and her friends from both the Seigaku and Fudomine teams and tries to help them as much as possible. She is often seen with either Momoshiro or Kamio.

St. Rudolph

St. Rudolph Academy (私立聖ルドルフ学院中学校, Shiritsu Sei RUDORUFU Gakuin Chūgakkō) is a team that first appears in the Tokyo Metropolitan Matches arc and faces Seigaku in the quarterfinals. The school itself only recruits students who are gifted at tennis and they only practice together once a week. The team uniform is a white shirt with brown, brown shorts, and brown warm-up pants.

Yoshiro Akazawa (赤沢 吉郎, Akazawa Yoshirō)

Voiced by: Masami Iwasaki (Japanese); Tom Fahn (English)

Akazawa is the captain of the team and the doubles partner of Ichiro Kaneda, a soft-spoken player called a "prodigal doubles player." He is initially a singles player until being paired with Kaneda by Mizuki, which leaves him unable to properly play until Kaneda, who normally looks up to Akazawa, yells at him. The pair of Akazawa and Kaneda provide St. Rudolph's only victories in their losses to Seigaku and Hyoutei. Akazawa also defeated a Seigaku regular in the year prior to the manga's storyline.^[1] He is able to hit a shot that causes rapid movement of the ball, causing it to appear as a mass of balls to people with exceptional eyesight. He is portrayed by Kenji Aoki, Kenta Izuka (2nd season), Kenya Nakao (3rd season), and Hitoshi Okumura (4th season) in the musicals.

Takuya Nomura (野村 拓也, Nomura Takuya)

Voiced by: Takayuki Kondo (Japanese); Sam Riegel (English)

Nomura is the vice-captain, and the weakest member of the team according to Mizuki, though he often claims that he is the strongest. He is portrayed by Daiki Sagawa (3rd season), and Shuto Yaezawa (4th season) in the musicals.

Hajime Mizuki (観月 はじめ, Mizuki Hajime)

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Japanese); Steve Staley (English)

Mizuki is the manager of the team who transfers from another school. He scouts talented players from around the country to join the tennis team in hopes of creating an elite team. He also uses data tennis like Inui, but unlike Inui's predictions, Mizuki's data tennis focuses on finding the opponent's weakness and targets them. This allows him to also create match up orders that are favorable to his team. Mizuki is also shown to be very ruthless, teaching Yuta Fuji the Twist Spin Shot, despite the fact that it could cause severe damage to Yuta's underdeveloped arm, and didn't inform him. His arrogance also comes back to bite him when he believes that he has collected all the data on Shusuke Fuji, only to be humiliated by him. In The Prince of Tennis II, he is one of the 50 middle schoolers to be invited to the U-17 camp, though he is rarely seen outside of occasional commentary on other players. He is portrayed by Hidemasa Shiozawa, Yutaka Kobayashi (2nd season), Kodai Miyagi (3rd season), and Junpei Mitsui (4th season) in the musicals.

Yuta Fuji (不二 裕太, Fuji Yūta)

Voiced by: Makoto Tomita (Japanese); Tom Gibis (Viz Media dub), Griffin Puatu (Funimation dub) (English)

Yuta is the younger brother of Shusuke Fuji who constantly overshadows him. Originally a student at Seigaku, he declines to join the tennis team and is eventually scouted by Mizuki. He hits at difficult angles for left-handed players, causing him to be known as the "Lefty-Killer." He uses the Rising Shot, which hits the ball on the rise, giving the opponents less time to react. Mizuki teaches him the Twist Spin Shot, which puts a topspin on the ball, causing it to bounce upwards, though it puts a heavy strain on undeveloped shoulders. Yuta is later made aware of this fact, but continues to use the move every now and then. In The Prince of Tennis II, he is one of the 50 middle schoolers to be invited to the U-17 camp. He is portrayed by KENN, Seiya Konishi (2nd season), Kaiki Ōhara (3rd season), and Yueto Ishihara (4th season) in the musicals.

Ichiro Kaneda (金田 一郎, Kaneda Ichirō)

Voiced by: Yoshihisa Kawahara (Japanese); Joshua Seth (English)

Kaneda is a relatively quiet doubles player for St. Rudolph. Aside from Akazawa, Kaneda is the only other member of the team who was initially from St. Rudolph, prior to Mizuki's arrival and subsequent recruiting of other skilled players. Although he has a great deal of respect for his Captain, he lashes out at him during their match against Oishi and Kikumaru. Although Akazawa initially attacks him and tells him to shut up, he then calms his head and begins listening to Kaneda, who guides the pair to victory. He is portrayed by Yuki Ohtake, Shotaro Ookubo (2nd season), Kaisei Kamimura (3rd season), and Raimu Ninomiya (4th season) in the musicals.

Shinya Yanagisawa (柳沢 慎也, Yanagisawa Shin'ya)

Voiced by: Norihisa Mori (Japanese); Darrel Guilbeau (English)

Shinya is a doubles player, who frequently partners with Atsushi. He is very comical in his personality and style, as he almost always ends his sentences with "dane" in the Japanese dub, whereas in English other characters refer to him as a duck, possibly because of the way his mouth protrudes. He is portrayed by Mitsuyoshi Shinoda, Sho Jinnai (2nd season), Riku Ozeki (3rd season), Yudai Kubo (4th season) in the musicals.

Atsushi Kisarazu (木更津 淳, Kisarazu Atsushi)

Voiced by: Satoshi Tsuruoka (Japanese); Peter Doyle (English)

Atsushi is the twin brother of Rokkaku Jr. High's Ryou. Mizuki mistakenly scouts Atsushi instead of his brother, so he forces Atsushi to distinguish himself by cutting his hair and wearing a headband. Atsushi's signature shot is a fake smash, which he then turns into a volley, catching his opponents off guard. He is portrayed by Ryosuke Kato, Daisuke Hirose (2nd season), Yugo Sato (3rd season), Rei Sato (4th season) in the musicals.

Yamabuki

Yamabuki Middle School (私立山吹中学校, Shiritsu Yamabuki Chūgakkō) is a national caliber team that bases their strategy on two National caliber doubles teams, supported by the National caliber Singles player Sengoku. They try to use those three weapons to defeat opponents before the matches get drawn out. When their strategy was foiled in the previous year by Seigaku's Tezuka defeating Sengoku, they recruited a second dominant singles player Jin Akutsu, with the aim to eliminate that weakness. Yamabuki's regular sports uniforms are green jackets with yellow stripes with hoods, shirts of the same design, white shorts, and green warm-up pants.

Kentaro Minami (南 健太郎, Minami Kentarō)

Voiced by: Masaki Ishikawa (Japanese); Johnny Yong Bosch (English)

Kentarou is the captain of the team. He is a doubles player who typically plays with the vice captain of the team, Higashikata Masami. They are strong in the basics and use a strategy to pressure opponents. Together, he and Higashikata are known as the Jimmies, referring to jimi (地味), the Japanese word for plain or dull. He is portrayed by Hiroshi Yazaki, Jouji Saotome (2nd season), Naoya Kitagawa (3rd season), and Sho Kuwahara (4th season) in the musicals.

Masami Higashikata (東方 雅美, Higashikata Masami)

Voiced by: Yoshikazu Nagano

Masami is a 3rd year student and the vice-captain of the team.^[2] He is the doubles partner of Captain Kentaro Minami. He is portrayed by Iori Hayashi, Takeshi Terayama (2nd season), Yoshiro Tsuji (3rd season), and Soushi Haitsuka (4th season) in the musicals.

Kiyosumi Sengoku (千石 清純, Sengoku Kiyosumi)

Voiced by: Kōsuke Toriumi (Japanese); Clifford Chapin (English)

Sengoku, known as Lucky Sengoku, is a third year student, and is one of the keys to Yamabuki's strategy of finishing opposing teams off quickly. He is a happy-go-lucky guy with a strong tennis sense and extremely sharp eyes able to discern fast moving balls. His stronger weapons are the jumping serve, known as "Kohou (Tiger Cannon)" and the "Dunk Smash". He is known as a National level player, and was invited to the Junior Senbatsu (Junior Selection) training camp in his second year after Tezuka declined. Despite those honors, he suffered losses to both Momoshiro in the Prefectural tournament and Kamio in the Kanto tournament. In the anime, he leaves the Yamabuki team for a short while after those losses. He throws away his old style of tennis, trains in boxing, and forms "Boxing Tennis", which focuses on the three-minute limit in a boxing round. When he comes back to go to the camp to be chosen for the Goodwill Games between Japan and America, his new style, "Boxing Tennis", becomes a turning point in his style of play. He is portrayed by Masato Wada, Seiya (2nd season), Touya Morita (3rd season), and TAISEI (4th season) in the musicals.

Jin Akutsu (亜久津 仁, Akutsu Jin)

Voiced by: Nozomu Sasaki (Japanese); Patrick Seitz (English)

Jin is a punk, who is called a once-per-decade tennis player and known as a monster. A very cynical person, he hates to be bossed around and physically punishes those who order him to do something. He is very violent, attempts to cause conflict constantly, and also smokes in the manga.^[3] His unusual flexibility allows him to hit balls in all sorts of unnatural positions. Combined with his naturally high speed, this allows him to play offensively almost non-stop. He was trained in tennis at young age, but gave up after finding it boring due to a lack of competition. Mikiya Banda was able to recruit him under the promise of being able to hurt others (legally) and that he may leave once he loses. Akutsu is raised alone by his mother, Yuuki (who is only 33 at the time of introduction, meaning that had him when she was 19), who is heavily implied to have a lot of trouble disciplining Akutsu. Akutsu has also been a friend of Takashi Kawamura since taking karate together. After hurting Ryoma and his friends at Seigaku for Ryoma spoiling his "fun" at Ginka, he suffers his first ever loss in a match against Ryoma in the Prefectural tournament. He gives up tennis, having finally lost, encourages his fan, Dan, to look up to Ryoma instead, and generally becoming more content with people. He returns during the National Semifinals, catching Kawamura when he is sent flying into the stadium, and gives him encouragement to not forfeit.^[4] Akutsu is also among the former rivals of Ryoma who play matches with him after he loses his memory to help him regain his memories of tennis.^[5] In the anime, he also helps Ryoma regain confidence after a loss to Sanada. He reappears as a candidate for the Japanese U-17 team where, despite his absence from tennis following the Prefecturals, had become even stronger. It is revealed that he was subtly convinced to play tennis again by Sengoku after the former was having a lot of internal conflict about a genuine desire to play tennis again. By this time, he learns to legitimately enjoy tennis and loses most of his violent tendencies, and becomes one of the 14 middle schoolers chosen for the All-Japan U-17 team, though he keeps insisting he's only playing tennis again so as to finally beat Ryoma. He is portrayed by JURI, Ryoutarou Shimizu, Takuya Kishimoto (2nd season), Shota Kawakami (3rd season), and Takumi Masunaga (4th season) in the musicals.

Ichiuma Kita and Inakichi Nitobe (喜多 一馬 & 新渡米 稲吉, Ichiuma Kita and Inakichi Nitobe)

Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu (Ichiuma), Kei Watanabe (Inakichi)

Kita, a 2nd year, and Nitobe, a third year, are two cynical doubles partners known for making silly puns. They are portrayed by Jin Aoki (3rd season, Ichiuma) and Yuma Tonishiro (3rd season, Inakichi), Futo Uchino (4th season, Ichiuma) and Rin Matsubara (4th season, Inakichi).

Toji Muromachi (室町 十次, Muromachi Tōji)

Voiced by: Takayuki Hirano (Japanese); Patrick Seitz (Viz Media dub), Daniel J. Edwards (Funimation dub) (English)

Toji is a 2nd year student, referred to as Yamabuki's eternal secret weapon. He always wears sunglasses to the point where he has a tan line under them, and thinks highly of Sengoku. He is portrayed by Takahiko Yanagisawa, Kenshō Ono (2nd season), Yuji Nishina (3rd season), and Leon Terashima (4th season) in the musicals.

Tsubasa Nishikiori (錦織 翼, Nishikiori Tsubasa)

Tsubasa is the replacement for Akutsu after he quits tennis.

Taichi Dan (壇 太一, Dan Taichi)

Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese); Wendee Lee (English)

Taichi is a 1st year student and the manager of the team. He believes he is worthless because of his size and looks up to Akutsu because of his strength. Akutsu tells him to become stronger, which leads to him joining the team as a player. He is also inspired by seeing Ryoma play, realizing that even someone who is short can excel in tennis. He wears a headband that was given to him by Akutsu.^[6] After Yamabuki loses in the Nationals, Sengoku tells him that it will be up to him in the following season. In the anime, he copies Ryoma's style and techniques, such as "Twist Serve" and "Drive B", and challenges him to a match, which he loses badly. In the Japanese dub, he ends almost all of his sentences with "desu". He is portrayed by Yuki Kawakubo, Reiya Masaki (2nd season), Mashiro Sano (3rd season), and Yuki Hashimoto (4th season) in the musicals.

Mikiya Banda (伴田幹也, Banda Mikaya)

Voiced by: Kazuhiko Nishimatsu (Japanese); Christopher Corey Smith (English)

Mikiya Banda or "Banji" for short, is Yamabuki's coach. He is an eccentric old man who understands his players well, understanding that the key to getting Akutsu to take tennis seriously was just a matter of finding a suitable challenge, and is good friends with Coach Ryuzaki.

Hyoutei Academy

Hyoutei Academy Secondary Department (氷帝学園中等部, Hyoutei Gakuen Chūtō Bu) is a team that uses a strict stratification and merit system, which prioritizes ability over emotion. If any regular loses a match, they are removed from their spot and only given a second chance in very rare conditions. With Keigo Atobe as their leader, the one who revolutionized the merit system on the team. Hyoutei's tennis club is composed of over two hundred members, far larger than any other tennis club in the series, which is likely the reason why they use a strict merit system for their regulars in the first place. Widely considered as the main contenders to Rikkai Dai, they instead suffered setbacks in the early tournaments, losing to Fudomine in the quarterfinals of the Prefectural Tournament, and then losing to Seigaku in the first round of the Kanto tournament, leaving them ineligible for the National tournament. They are all depressed until they receive a special invite due to the host city, Tokyo, getting to invite one extra team. 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.^[2] The Hyoutei team is one of the most popular teams in the entire series. In the official school popularity poll, they came in second losing only to Seigaku.^[7]

Keigo Atobe (跡部 景吾, Atobe Keigo)

Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe (Japanese); Yuri Lowenthal (Viz Media dub), Christopher Wehkamp (Funimation dub)^[8] (English)

Atobe is the captain of Hyoutei. As a former European junior champion, he was relatively unknown in Japan until he defeated all of the members of the team in his first year and the Seigaku captain in his second year. He is severely narcissistic and arrogant, often using the quote "Be awed at the sight of my prowess!" (Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na, 俺様の美技に酔いな). He comes from a very wealthy family, and owns multiple chateaus, mansions, and vehicles, which are often used to benefit the team. Despite his personality, he trains constantly and takes pride in the team. He has rivalries with Tezuka, Sanada, and Ryoma. Atobe, using his superior eyesight, is able to use "insight" to quickly determine another player's weakness, which he uses to his own advantage. He eventually develops it to the point where he is able to anticipate the spin of the tennis ball by looking at the way his opponent hits it and apply the proper counterspin. He evolves it even further into his "World of Ice" (氷の世界, Kōri no Sekai), which allows him to find dead angles a player is unable to reach and hit balls with pinpoint accuracy and timing towards these areas. He also uses the Rondo Towards Destruction (破滅への輪舞曲, Hametsu e no rondo), a powerful smash that knocks the opponent's racket away and allow Atobe to smash it once again, and the Tannhauser Serve, which spins rapidly down the court instead of bouncing on impact. In The Prince of Tennis II, he evolves his insight skill to the point where he can see his opponent's skeleton to determine their absolute dead zones, a technique he calls Atobe Kingdom. He and Nio wins their doubles match against the U-17 first string to earn the No. 9/10 position. He is also later named Captain of the U-17's Jr. Youth (Middle School) division for the World Cup. Since his initial appearance, Atobe has become one of the most popular characters in The Prince of Tennis series. According to Takeshi Konomi, fans initially didn't like Atobe when he was trying to destroy Tezuka's arm, but by the conclusion of the match, he had become one of their favorite characters.^[2] In the 4th characters' popularity ranking, Atobe was voted first with a total of 12,913 votes, soundly beating Shusuke Fuji, who came in second with 6116 votes.^[9] Besides Ryoma Echizen, Atobe has released more character CDs than any other character in the series, and is the only other character to have two full-length albums. One of his singles reached top nine in the weekly charts, the best result for any Prince of Tennis character CDs. He is portrayed by Kazuki Kato, Yuki Kubota, Masahiro Inoue, (2nd season) Tsunenori Aoki, (2nd season) Shota Onuma, (3rd season) Miura Hiroki, and (4th season) Ryoya Takahashi in the musicals, and by Ryuji Sainei in The Prince of Tennis live-action film.

Munehiro Kabaji (樺地 崇弘, Kabaji Munehiro)

Voiced by: Satoshi Tsuruoka (Japanese); Brent Mukai^[8] (English)

Kabaji is a powerful hitter with a pure mind much like a baby. He rarely speaks and answers Atobe's questions only with "usu" ("yes" or "yup"). Due to his personality, he can instantly copy the moves of anyone he faces. He's generally very efficient at copying techniques, but his results are sometimes inferior if the said technique requires a biological factor or considerable experience. In The Prince of Tennis II, he earns the No. 13 position from the U-17 first string, but subsequently gets kicked out of the selection camp when he interfered with Atobe's match to protect him. Kabaji has appeared in every single character popularity poll for the series run by Shonen Jump. He came in 31st in the first poll,^[10] and 33rd in the second poll.^[11] He fell to 41st in the third poll,^[7] but he reached his highest ranking in the fourth poll, coming in 28th.^[9] He is portrayed by Ryo Washimi, Jouji Kawada, (2nd season) Hiroyuki Furuie, (3rd season) Yamaki Takanori, and (4th season) Itsuki Kurihara in the musicals, and by Kazutoshi Yamakawa in the live-action film.

Jiro Akutagawa (芥川 慈郎, Akutagawa Jirō)

Voiced by: Yuji Ueda (Japanese); Caleb Yen^[8] (English)

Jiro is called the "magic volleyer" of Hyoutei Academy. His play style, which focuses on returning balls directly from the net using his very flexible wrists, is inspired by Rikkai's Bunta Marui, who defeated him in a match two years earlier. Once he's at the net, he can hit volleys from any position and they can land almost anywhere with very little bounce, making them very difficult to return. He constantly sleeps, and he is very excitable. Takeshi Konomi originally intended Jirou to be a lazy genius character, but he went off course, ultimately becoming a more lighthearted character.^[2] Jirou has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump character popularity polls since his introduction into the story. In the second poll, he came in 25th place.^[11] In both the third and fourth polls, he came in 13th place.^[7][9] He is portrayed by Konma Takuya, Taiki Naitou, (2nd season) Tomoru Akazawa, (3rd season) Tamura Shogo, and (4th season) Kazan Yokoyama in the musicals, and by Genki Ishii in the live-action film.

Yushi Oshitari (忍足 侑士, Oshitari Yūshi)

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese); Keith Silverstein^[8] (English)

Oshitari is the genius of Hyoutei Academy. Originally from Osaka, he is called "Oshitari of the one thousand skills" due to his ability to copy moves such as Shusuke Fuji's Bear Drop and Atobe's Tannhauser Serve. He also has several of his own unique shots, which he refers to by acronyms such as "FAS" and "SSAS". He is initially the doubles partner of Gakuto Mukahi, but moves up to Singles during the Nationals Tournament. During the two matches with Seigaku, Oshitari forms a rivalry with Momoshiro, and comes to respect his skill. He wears glasses without a prescription just to look smarter. Oshitari has been popular since his introduction in the series, and has done well on all of The Prince of Tennis character popularity polls run by Weekly Shonen Jump since then. In the second poll, he debuted in 9th place.^[11] He moved up to 5th place in the third poll,^[7] and came in 7th place in the fourth poll.^[9] He is portrayed by Takumi Saito, Shintarou Akiyama, (2nd season) Takuya Kikuchi, (3rd season) Isaka Ikumi, and (4th season) Ryono Kusachi in the musicals, and by Daiki Nakae in the live-action film.

Gakuto Mukahi (向日 岳人, Mukahi Gakuto)

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese); Kevin Thelwell^[8] (English)

Gakuto is Yushi Oshitari's doubles partner. He has acrobatic skills rivaling and even surpassing those of Seigaku's Eiji, but has low stamina, which he overcomes through practice (not seen in the manga). He has a respectful friendship with Oshitari, which leads him to train his stamina in order to keep from holding Oshitari back. His special technique is the Moon Salute, which requires Gakuto to jump extremely high into the air, somersaulting, and returning the ball at a difficult angle. Gakuto came in 6th place in the fourth popularity poll.^[9] He is portrayed by Ruito Aoyagi, Seiji Fukuyama, (2nd season) Jun Shison, (3rd season) Kitano Satsuki, and (4th season) Iori Kotsuji in the musicals, and by Tokio Emoto in the live-action film.

Ryo Shishido (宍戸 亮, Shishido Ryō)

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Kusuda (Japanese); Billy Kametz^[8] (English)

Ryo is known as Hyoutei's "dash specialist" due to his speed and ability to return almost any ball. He is initially dropped from the regulars after being humiliated 6–0 by Kippei Tachibana, but he soon cuts his precious long hair and makes a return to the team. He join with Chotarou Ohtori in doubles, and they become very close. After hard training, he develops the Rising Counter, which hits the ball directly after it bounces, which is strengthened by his dashing. Shishido has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump character popularity polls since his introduction into the story. In the second poll, he came in 20th place.^[11] In both the third and fourth polls, he came in 12th place.^[7][9] He is portrayed by Kenta Kamakari, Ryouta Murai, (2nd season) Kousuke Kuwano, (3rd season) Kobayakawa Shunsuke, and (4th season) Yuto Hiroi in the musicals, and by Junpei Suzuki in the live-action film.

Chotaro Ohtori (鳳 長太郎, Ōtori Chōtarō)

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese); Brandon McInnis^[8] (English)

Chotaro is Ryo Shishido's doubles partner and close friend. He helps Shishido get back on the team, which makes the two very close. Chotaro has a very fast serve called the Scud Serve, which can go up to 200 km/h, though it is limited in accuracy until he masters it. He later renames it the Neo Scud Serve, which goes up to 215 km/h. He recites "one shot with all my soul" (一球入魂, Ikyuunyuukon) while serving. Chotaro has appeared in all of the Shonen Jump popularity polls since his introduction. In the second poll, he came in 19th place.^[11] In the third he came in 20th place,^[7] and moved up to 16th place in the fourth poll.^[9] He is portrayed by Koji Date, Yuusuke Seto, Li Yong En, (2nd season) Jin Shirasu, (3rd season) Watanabe Aoto, and (4th season) Riku Akashi in the musicals, with Koji Date reprising the role in the live-action film.

Wakashi Hiyoshi (日吉 若, Hiyoshi Wakashi)

Voiced by: Masami Iwasaki (Japanese); David Matranga^[8] (English)

Hiyoshi uses an unorthodox style of tennis he dubs Embu Tennis, which combines martial arts with standard tennis, allowing him to hit fast shots that can easily land in corners. It was developed after the coach tells him to hit in his most natural form after noting that Hiyoshi's follow through was extremely slow in the conventional tennis stance. Hiyoshi's motto is "gekokujou"(下克上) meaning "to defeat the greater and take his place". In the English manga "gekokujou" is translated as 'overthrow'. Hiyoshi is expected to be the next Hyoutei captain after Atobe graduates. Like Mukahi, he has stamina issues, something he overcomes by The Prince of Tennis II. In the fourth popularity poll for the series conducted by Shonen Jump, Hiyoshi came in 10th place.^[9] He is portrayed by Ryunosuke Kawai, Kei Hosogai, (2nd season) Daiki Ise, (3rd season) Utsumi Akiyoshi, and (4th season) Futa Sakayori in the musicals.

Josei Shonan

Josei Shonan (城成湘南中学校, Jōsei Shōnan Chūgakkō) resides in the Kanagawa Prefecture of the Tokyo region. Though they are mentioned in the manga, they only appear in the anime, where they replace Midoriyama as Seigaku's opponents in the second round of the Kantō Tournament.

Aoi Hanamura (華村 葵, Hanamura Aoi)

Voiced by: Kaori Yamagata

Aoi Hanamura is the coach of the team, who refers to her students as masterpieces and constantly tries to recruit new students, especially Ryoma. She is often proud of her own prowess and of her pupils', but is otherwise very calm and professional.

Takahisa Kajimoto (梶本 貴久, Kajimoto Takahisa)

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi

Takahisa is the serious and soft-spoken captain. His flexibility is used in his serve, the L-drive Serve, where he bends his entire body back and releases it like a catapult.

Hiroshi Wakato (若人弘, Wakato Hiroshi)

Voiced by: Masami Kikuchi

Hiroshi is the vice-captain, who can copy any famous professional tennis player's playing style using his Change Over technique, even copying their smallest habits. With this move, he can change his play style easily and when his opponent finally gets used to his style, he changes over again. Though he passes it off as just copying, he spends countless hours practicing. He is very popular, even having his own fanclub, which follows him to his official matches.

Reiji Shinjo (神城玲治, Shinjo Reiji)

Voiced by: Ryuuji Kasahara

Reiji is known as Hanamura's greatest "masterpiece", with his techniques involving very powerful shots known as Mirage. The powerful shots are indistinguishable from a regular return or serve, leaving opponents confused. Another technique he has is the Deep Impulse, which is a powerful shot that also can be used as a serve that will injure the opponent, and consecutive attempts to return the Deep Impulse may injure the player to the point of unable to play tennis anymore.

Yohei Tanaka (田中洋平, Tanaka Yohei)

Voiced by: Chieko Higuchi

Yohei plays doubles with his younger, twin brother, Kouhei Tanaka (田中浩平, Tanaka Kouhei). He is often mistaken for a girl due to his short, dark pink hair. Kouhei is often in the same situation due to his long blue hair. He has very good hearing, which, together with his brother's good eyesight, allows them to predict their opponents moves.

Sho Ota (太田翔, Oota Shou)

Voiced by: Ryō Naitō

Ota is the doubles partner of Daichi Kiriyama (桐山大地, Kiriyama Daichi). His small body, combined with his partner's large body, forms the Thunderbolt, where Shou jumps off Daichi's shoulders and returns high shots. Daichi uses a powerful volleyshot, Cannon Volley, which is often the set up for Thunderbolt.

Rokkaku

Rokkaku Middle School (市立六角中学校, Rokkaku Chūgakkō) is a team based in the Chiba Prefecture, which focuses on training local children in tennis from an early age. They have a large playground and tennis court which is often used to train. They make the Kantō Tournament semi-finals, where they lose to Seigaku. They advance to the National Tournament, but they are upset by a dark horse team, Higa.

Oji (お爺, Ojī)

Oji is the coach of the team. He is an elderly man who manufactures creates special wooden rackets for his players, taking into consideration their skills and personality. A running gag in the series is his questionable age. Though he is old and it shows in his speech, he is extremely fast, and can easily defeat his own students in beach volleyball. Nanjirou comments that Oji was already an old man when he was in middle school (and mentioned a rumor of how Oji was already an old man in the 1850s), and was genuinely surprised to hear that he was still alive.

Kentaro Aoi (葵　剣太郎, Aōi Kentarō)

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga

Kentaro Aoi is the freshman captain of the team due to his skill. He is cheerful and talkative, having been playing tennis under the guidance of Oji for years. Oji creates a special hexagonal racquet with the strings crossed in hexagons, which allows for better control. The racquet combined with his training regiment allows him to always hit to the same spot on his opponents side regardless of placement, which frustrates his opponents. He also uses his control to hit cord balls at any point. Aoi enjoys playing under pressure, so he frequently loses the first 4–5 games of his matches on purpose, in order to make them more exciting. In the manga, he thrives on setting conditions for himself, such as saying that he will only date ugly girls if he can't make a certain shot. He plays against Kaoru Kaido in the manga, but plays against Ryoma Echizen in the anime. He is played Kazumi Kawahara, Taiki Yoshida (2nd season), and Takuya Yashiro (3rd season) in the musicals and by Daiki Sano in the live-action film.

Kojiro Saeki (佐伯 虎次郎, Saeki Kojirō)

Voiced by: Katsuaki Arima

Saeki is Rokkaku's stern and confident vice-captain. He is a childhood friend of the Fuji brothers. Saeki excels in doubles with his outstanding game reading capabilities, being able to read where an opponent is going to run or hit the ball by watching the contractions of their muscles prior to their action. He is portrayed by Kanata Irei, Daisuke Utsumi (2nd season), and Kaname Futaba (3rd season) in the musicals.

Hikaru Amane (天根 ヒカル, Amane Hikaru)

Voiced by: Kosuke Takeuchi

Hikaru "Davide" Amane uses a custom racket that is the maximum legal length, which allows him to have a large range and disperse strong shots easily. He's also known for frequently making ridiculous puns that often frustrates the people around him. He is portrayed by Airu Shiozaki, Atsushi Kimura (2nd season), and Reiji Sakagaki (3rd season) in the musicals, and by JURI in the live-action film.

Harukaze Kurobane (黒羽 春風, Kurobane Harukaze)

Voiced by: Kazehiro Oguro

'Harukaze "Bane" Kurobane is very popular amongst the kids that often stand on Rokkaku's playgrounds. Like Davide, Bane's tennis also uses the opponent's power to generate strong shots of his own; however, Bane focuses on the baseline, whereas Davide plays at the net. He is portrayed by Gaku Shindo, Shota Motokawa (2nd season), and Kento Hinata (3rd season) in the musicals.

Marehiko Itsuki (樹 希彦, Itsuki Marehiko)

Voiced by: Takehiro Hasu

Itsuki is a very curious player who never stops asking about everything that happens around him, sometimes going to the extreme of chasing a person around if he doesn't satisfy his curiosity. He often deeply breathes through his nose, which seems bull-like. He is skilled in hitting balls without a spin and reaching balls close to the ground, due to his experience with clam digging. Besides practicing for the tennis team, he enjoys spending a majority of his time on the beach. He is portrayed by Shoma Ikegami and Shinichi Hashimoto (2nd season), Shinnosuke Takagi (3rd season) in the musicals.

Ryo Kisarazu (木更津　亮, Kisarazu Ryō)

Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi

Ryo is the older twin brother of Atsushi Kisarazu. Mizuki attempts to scout Ryou, but ends up with his brother. He is never seen playing in the manga, and though he is seen playing only once in the anime, the official fanbook notes that he has a special move titled the "Sky High Volley". He is portrayed by Ryosuke Kato, Daisuke Hirose (2nd season), and Yugo Sato (3rd season) in the musicals.

Satoshi Shudo (首藤聪, Satoshi)

Voiced by: Takayuki Kondō (TV series), Toshiyuki Kusuda (OVA)

Satoshi is made fun of for being a minor member of the regulars. He is titled the team's "poison taster" and dreams of tasting America's fabled turkey flavored soda. He is portrayed by Kota Chiba (3rd season) in the musicals.

Rikkaidai

Rikkaidai Junior High School (私立立海大附属中学校, Shiritsu Rikkaidai Fuzoku Chūgakkō) is located in the Kanagawa prefecture and is considered to be the best middle school team, having won the Japanese National tournament the last two years. They aim for perfect wins in the matches winning the Nationals for the third year. They are fully introduced during the Kantō Tournament, where they easily crush Fudomine in the semi-finals. In the finals, however, they suffer a loss to Seigaku, and return to the Nationals to try to beat Seigaku to fulfill their 3rd win in the Nationals. They make their way all the way through to the finals of the Nationals, but they are once again defeated by Seigaku, ending their hopes of winning a third straight title. 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.^[2]

Seiichi Yukimura (幸村 精市, Yukimura Seiichi)

Voiced by: Sachiko Nagai (Japanese); Robbie Daymond^[8] (English)

Seiichi is the captain of Rikkaidai, and is known as one of the Big Three, who has a strong willpower, stern, brutally honest attitude on court. He is called "The Child of God"(demigod) due to his strength in the tennis court. He is one of the few who can activate Muga No Kyouchi, but is never seen using it. He can return any kind of shot with little effort, and his invincible appearance induces yips, a temporary mental condition that physically freezes up the sufferer due to a lack of self-confidence or fear of injury. Despite his strength, he has a very frail and feminine appearance, and he is very friendly to others outside of the court. He is hospitalized for much of the series due to some neurological disease resembling Guillain–Barré syndrome, which left him unlikely to ever play tennis again, but undergoes a successful surgery and rehabilitation during the Kanto tournament and was able to participate in the National tournament. In The Prince of Tennis II, his yips ability evolves further. He can now induce the illusion of victory in others, which allows him to hit a winning return while the opponent thinks the point is already over. He took the No. 11 position on the U-17 first string with little to no difficulty. He is also one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup, where he experiences yips himself for the first time but subsequently overcomes it. He teamed up with Tokugawa Kazuya for a doubles match with Germany's captain pro player Jurgen Valicevic Volk and middle schooler Frankensteiner. His skill resonates with Tokugawa and they developed "Sixth Sense" where they can instantaneously predict the path of the ball and return it effectively. They lost when Jurgen Valicevic Volk hit Whirlpool Baptism which forcibly spin's the racket out of the play's grip. He is portrayed by Ren Yagami, Toshiki Masuda (1st season), Keisuke Kaminaga (2nd season), and Toshiki Tateishi (3rd season) in the musicals.

Genichiro Sanada (真田 弦一郎, Sanada Gen'ichirō)

Voiced by: Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese); Ian Sinclair^[8] (English)

Sanada is the vice captain of Rikkaidai, known as the "Emperor", who fills in for Yukimura in Singles 1 during his hospitalization. The second of Rikkaidai's Three Demons, he comes from a very traditional family, is stern and noble, plays with honor (though condescendingly so), and expects the best from himself and his teammates. When his teammates don't live up to his expectations, or act in a way that brings shame to their team, Sanada will slap them across the face. Sanada practices kendo and combines it with his tennis techniques. His main rival is Tezuka, who he lost to despite being the runner-up to Yukimura in the Junior tournament, and vows to train and defeat him. He uses a family of techniques called "Wind, Forest, Fire, Shadow, Mountain, Lightning" (Fuu Rin Ka In Zan Rai), though he initially seals off Shadow and Lightning to prepare for the match with Tezuka. Wind, based on the drawing of a sword, is a high speed shot nearly invisible to the eye. Forest neutralizes the spin of a ball. Fire is a power shot that can be hit as a smash, forehand, or backhand. Shadow hides his weaknesses and makes him unreadable, particularly against the Saiki Kinpatsu no Kiwami. Mountain was never fully depicted, but Atobe has remarked he was always defeated by it before completing his World of Ice technique, and Sanada uses it to win stamina battles. Lightning allows Sanada to practically teleport to the ball and hit a shot that has so much spin it can burn through racket guts with ease. Beyond all these shots, Sanada can further enhance his play style by using Muga no Kyouchi. In the anime, Sanada possesses two different shots he does not have in the manga, the Invisible Swing and Invisible Serve. These shots involve Sanada moving his racket extremely quickly, and making the exact path of the ball difficult to see with the naked eye. The manga shots replace the Invisible Shot and Serve in the OVA of the Nationals. In The Prince of Tennis II, he acquires a new technique called Black Aura which allows him to change the direction of his shots after hitting them. He is one of the 14 middle schoolers to be chosen for the Japan U-17 team. For some reason, he now wears a bandaid over his left eye after training in the hidden U-17 camp but the cause of injury was never shown and he has yet to take it off. He is portrayed by Kentarou Kanesaki (1st season), Ken Ogasawara (2nd season), and Shougo Tazuru (3rd season) in the musicals, and by Eiji Moriyama in the live-action film.

Renji Yanagi (柳 蓮二, Yanagi Renji)

Voiced by: Eiji Takemoto (Japanese); Kieran Flitton^[8] (English)

Renji, known as the Data Master, is the third of the Three Demons of Rikkaidai. Yanagi usually plays in doubles. He is the friend and former doubles partner of Sadaharu Inui, who calls him "Professor." He keeps his eyes perpetually half-closed just as Inui hides his eyes behind his thick glasses. He is Inui's rival in using Data Tennis having taught Inui in the first place, which he himself learned from Akuto. Like Inui, Renji's data tennis focuses on predicting his opponents' movements, but he can also predict their thought patterns and what they'll say next, effectively breaking his opponents' confidence as he knows their next move before even they do. He possesses two special techniques, the Kamaitachi, a high speed slice shot, and the Utsusemi, a slice shot that does not bounce. In The Prince of Tennis II, he eventually takes the No. 17 position on the U-17 first string. He joins Inui as part of the All-Japan intel support team. He is portrayed by Kento Ono, Yuki Yamaoki (1st season), Atomu Mizuishi (2nd season), and Takuma Isawa (3rd season) in the musicals, and by Mamoru Miyano in the live-action film.

Akaya Kirihara (切原 赤也, Kirihara Akaya)

Voiced by: Showtaro Morikubo (Japanese); Austin Tindle^[8] (English)

Akaya is the youngest and only second year student in the Rikkaidai regulars, thus earning him the title "Second Year Ace". He is known for completing his official matches in under 15 minutes and his high level of concentration, which never seems of waver no matter how long he plays. Originally joining Rikkaidai because he thought he could be "the number one player at the number one school", Sanada eventually crushes him but convinces him to strive to someday defeat the Three Demons. He is quite friendly and talkative, but very violent and arrogant on the court, often causing serious injuries that require hospitalization. He reforms in the anime after being beaten by Fuji, (though he retains his nature in the manga) but in the nationals, he returns to his violent playing style, severely injuring Inui. While under high pressure or after sustaining injury, the whites of his eyes turn red, becoming bloodshot, and his power, skill, and speed increase. He becomes much more violent while in this state. Later, he develops a Devil Mode, which turns his skin red and his hair white. His bloodlust and destructive power are greatly enhanced, and he solely focuses on crushing the opposing players using violent means. Kirihara's trademark shot is the Knuckle Serve, a more powerful and extreme version of the Twist Serve, in which the serve can jump in any direction. As a player who can use "Muga no Kyouchi", Kirihara has also used many other shots originally belonging to other players. In The Prince of Tennis II, it is revealed that his Devil Mode has life-threatening consequences with continued use, implying that the ability is a form of self-induced vasodilation. With Shiraishi's help, he develops the much safer, equally powerful alternative Angel Mode, and loses his violent tendencies. He becomes one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is portrayed by Genki Okawa (1st season), Motohisa Harashima (2nd season), and Ryutarou Maeda (3rd season) in the musicals. In the 3rd character popularity poll for the series, Kirihara came in 7th place.^[7]

Hiroshi Yagyu (柳生 比呂士, Yagyū Hiroshi)

Voiced by: Eisuke Tsuda (Japanese); Josh Bangle^[8] (English)

Hiroshi is known as "the Gentleman" for his polite demeanor. In the anime, he uses a Golf Swing shot is an adaptation of a golf swing from his days in the golf club prior to his recruitment to the tennis team. In the manga, his special move is the Laser Beam, an extremely high speed technique that is difficult to return. He and his doubles partner, Nio, pull off a switch where each impersonates the other in appearance, personal, and play style for half the game. He is portrayed by Toru Baba (1st season), Ryosuke Mikata (2nd season), and Yuta Oosumi (3rd season) in the musicals.

Masaharu Nio (仁王 雅治, Niō Masaharu)

Voiced by: Yūki Masuda (Japanese); Wayne Grayson^[8] (English)

Nio, (sometimes spelled Niou) known as "the Trickster", is able to completely copy the techniques and play style of other players creating the illusion his opponent is facing another person. It isn't perfect, as there are moves that he cannot copy and he is limited by his own physical abilities. He often copies his doubles partner, Yagyu, to confuse their opponents. He can predict the moves of his opponents up to ten steps ahead. In The Prince of Tennis II, he takes the No. 15 position from the U-17 first string, and later moves up to No. 9/10, and later becomes one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is portrayed by Masataka Nakagauchi (1st season), Hidetoshi Kubota (2nd season), and Dai Goto (3rd season) in the musicals.

Bunta Marui (丸井 ブン太, Marui Bunta)

Voiced by: Naozumi Takahashi (Japanese); Mike Haimoto^[8] (English)

Marui volley specialist and doubles partner with his friend Jackal Kuwahara. Despite not moving much during matches, he has stamina issues (though this suggests his stamina use is mostly from focusing while waiting), so he overdoses on sugar by always eating cake before matches and chewing gum during matches. Jirou Akutagawa of Hyotei idolizes Marui and bases his style off of Marui's style, following a game they played in the Newcomers Tournament when they were both first years. Marui is a net specialist, and his trademark shots include Tightrope Walking, a shot that rolls along the top of the net before dropping in, Iron Pole Strike, a similar shot which runs to the end and bounces off the iron pole, and Temporal Difference Hell, a smash feint where he catches the ball at a different angle at the last second, returning it in an unpredictable manner. In The Prince of Tennis II, he develops a new technique, Perfect Fortress, that allows him to play defense at the net rather than just waiting for an opportunity for offense all the time. He is chosen as one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is portrayed by Renn Kiriyama, Mio Acaba (1st season), Junpei Yasukawa (2nd season), and Taka Ooyabu (3rd season) in the musicals.

Jackal Kuwahara (ジャッカル 桑原, Jakkaru Kuwahara)

Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese); Bill Butts^[8] (English)

Jackal is half-Brazilian, known as the "Iron Wall of Defense" and the "Man with Four Lungs" for his incredible stamina, on par with Kaido's. He shaves his head as a tribute to his old coach in Brazil. At the Kanto finals, Jackal is shown to have the arm training Kaido has to use the Boomerang Snake. He wears 20 kg (44 lbs) arm weights in order to train. Though he follows his team to the U-17 camp in The Prince of Tennis II, he feels that he has been superseded by Kite, who takes his place as Marui's partner during the match against the U-17 first string. He is portrayed by Jutta Yuuki, Shingo Toda (1st season), Kouhei Shiota (2nd season), and Yusaku Kawasaki (3rd season) in the musicals.

Shitenhoji

Shitenhoji Middle School (四天宝寺中学校, Shitenhōji Chūgakkō) is one of the strongest teams in the Kansai region. Though the team loses to Rikkai in previous year's semi-finals, the members puts up the strongest fight against Rikkai with more willpower than any other team's. During the course of the series, they defeat Fudomine in the National Quarterfinals, but once again lose in the semi-finals, this time to Seigaku.

Osamu Watanabe (渡邊 オサム, Watanabe Osamu)

Voiced by: Koji Yusa

Osamu is the coach and adviser, noted by his team for having a very loud voice. He is portrayed by Yuki Kimisawa (2nd season), and Masato Saki (3rd season) in the musicals.

Kuranosuke Shiraishi (白石 蔵ノ介, Shiraishi Kuranosuke)

Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (Japanese); Joshua Waters (English)

Kuranosuke is the captain of Shitenhōji. He is heralded as having "Perfect Tennis", and is referred to as "The Bible of Shitenhōji." Due to Shiraishi's hard work, he masters the basic forms of tennis and gradually obtains the skill where he can perform strokes without mannerisms or habitual actions that can lessen the use of stamina, which has a great effect. Shiraishi himself believes that perfect tennis is silly notion and finds his own style boring, but continues to employ it because of how effective it is for winning. He uses the "Entaku Shot" which uses a massive sidespin to cause the ball to fly in a ring formation until it hits the course without bouncing. He is the first person to ever beat Fuji in an official singles match, as well as defeating all of Fuji's counters (save for the later-developed 6th counter). He is portrayed by Kyousuke Harukawa, Yoshihide Sasaki, Shintaro Anzai (2nd season), and Atsuki Mashiko (3rd season) in the musicals. He is shown to be wearing a bandage in his left arm. On numerous occasions, he pretends to remove it in order to keep Kintarou in-line, as the latter fears that Shiraishi is hiding a poison arm. In The Prince of Tennis II, it is revealed that he actually wears a gold arm guard under the bandages, which acts as his version of the wrist weights many other players use, but heavier. He is one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is a perfectly balanced player having a score of 4.5 to all skill areas: speed, power, stamina, mental and technique. During U-17 match against Greece's captain, he froze and realized the difference in their strength which results to Shuji Tanegashima to play instead of him. With the help of the latter and inspiration from his teammates in Shintenhoji, he redeveloped his style and achieved "Star Bible" where he can instantaneously increase a certain skill area at a time to 7. And when doing so, he can hit his teammate's signature moves such as Hadokyu, Speed Star, and Mountain Storm.

Kenjiro Koishikawa (小石川 健二郎, Koishikawa Kenjirō)

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino

Kenjiro is the vice-captain, but has almost no role in the story. He was originally intended to play a larger role, but this was cut when Konomi had to move Chitose to Shitenhōji, and the team wound up with an extra player.^[2] He is portrayed by Shutaro Ando (3rd season) in the musicals.

Senri Chitose (千歳 千里, Chitose Senri)

Voiced by: Jun Osuka (Japanese); Nazeeh Tarsha (English)

Chitose originally played on the Shishigaku team with his close friend, Kippei Tachibana where the two guided Shishigaku to the National semi-finals in the previous season. This ended after the Nationals when Tachibana injures Chitose's eye during a practice match. They both leave tennis for a time, and Chitose eventually transfers to Shitenhōji, though at a lesser level due to blind spots in injured eye. Chitose and Tachibana eventually get reunited in the National Quarterfinals, where Chitose defeats his old friend in a close match. Although he intended to quit tennis after that match, he gets drawn back in to play Tezuka in the semi-finals, where he loses. Chitose discovers the State of Self Actualization, which allows him to copy techniques of other players perfectly, and through studying, finds the second of the "three doors", the Pinnacle of Great Wisdom. The power is focused on the mind, which allows him some foresight during rallies, giving him the ability to determine the fewest hits possible to win the point. His own original technique is the "Divine Disappearance", which allows him to make the ball appear as if it has disappeared by applying a large amount of topspin. 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.^[2] Chitose has a little sister named Miyuki, age 8, who is very close to Tezuka, whom she calls "racket stealer". He is portrayed by Ryuuko Isogai, Masashi Oyama, Keisuke Higashi (2nd season), and Koki Emoto (3rd season) in the musicals.

Kenya Oshitari (忍足 謙也, Oshitari Ken'ya)

Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama (Japanese); Aaron Dismuke (English)

Kenya is known as Naniwa's Speed Star for his unparalleled speed that is far superior to even Fudoumine's Kamio Akira. He is Hyoutei's Yuushi Oshitari's cousin. He plays doubles with Hikaru Zaizen and sometimes Ishida Gin, but he selflessly agreed to sit through the Nationals semifinals so that his teammate, Chitose, could play Tezuka in the Doubles match that Kenya should've been in. Zaizen calls him "hetare" sometimes, which refers to how he is clumsy and weak-brained, such as the scene in Another Story OVA where he effortlessly runs past the Seigaku team despite arriving late, and, as he is laughing, crashes into a signpost and trips, falling to the floor. It is revealed in The Prince of Tennis II that, despite his amazing speed, his balance is extremely poor, something he would later rectify by training with trip lasers. He later obtains the No. 18 position for the U-17 first string. He is portrayed by Takuya Uehara, Kouki Mizuta, Masato Saki (2nd season), and Chida Kouhei (3rd season) in the musicals.

Hikaru Zaizen (財前 光, Zaizen Hikaru)

Voiced by: Hirofumi Araki (Japanese); Aaron Campbell (English)

Hikaru is considered to be a genius, though he's never been seen playing a match. He is the doubles partner of Oshitari Kenya. Zaizen is not respectful to his senpai, often calling the Koharu and Yuuji "sick/gross" (and calling Kenya "weak-minded") as well as dissing Chitose after Chitose lost to Tezuka. He called Kawamura "Seigaku's extra baggage" and was reprimanded by Shiraishi. He is portrayed by Hisanori Satou, Bishin Kawasumi, Ryuji Satou (2nd season), and Ryota Hirono (3rd season) in the musicals.

Gin Ishida (石田 銀, Ishida Gin)

Voiced by: Masaya Takatsuka (Japanese); Mick Lauer (English)

Gin Ishida is a very serious, honorable, and stern player who is the older brother of Fudomine's Tetsu Ishida. Gin is the inventor of the powerful shot, Hadokyu, which is composed of 108 progressively stronger techniques. He can also nullify other's use of Hadokyu. He is the strongest middle school power player in Japan, until he loses his match against Takashi Kawamura in the Nationals after an extremely strong serve. Though incredibly strong already, his strength pales in comparison to the U-17's first string power player. Takeshi Konomi has stated that Gin is his favorite character from Shitenhouji.^[2] He is portrayed by Yuusuke Hirose, Yuuta Yoneyama, Keisuke Yamauchi (2nd season), and Ippei Mori (3rd season) in the musicals.

Koharu Konjiki and Yuuji Hitōji (金色 小春 & 一氏 ユウジ, Konjiki Koharu and Hitōji Yuuji)

Voiced by: Ryo Naitou (Koharu), Suguru Kumabuchi (Yuuji) (Japanese); Brendan Blaber (Koharu), Tom Laflin (Yuuji) (English)

Koharu Konjiki and Yuuji Hitōji are two homosexual doubles partners known for their "comedy tennis", which is used to disrupt the synchronization of the other team. Koharu uses data tennis, determining how to counter shots with his IQ of two hundred, allowing him to store a large amount of data without note-taking. Yuuji impersonates other players' voices after studying their behavior. They break up after they lose to Seigaku; while Yuuji is heartbroken and still chases after Koharu, Koharu assumes the typical "girl-bratty" personality, rejecting the boy and even tearing up some of the pictures he had of Yuuji in his bag (from fanbook 40.5, Shitenhouji bagchecks). Koharu is portrayed by Takeya Nishiyama, Manabu Iizumi, Kaita Fukushima (2nd season), and Rikito Morita (3rd season) in the musicals. Yuuji is portrayed by Ryo Hirano, Makoto Uenobori, Taishi Sugie (2nd season), and Tsubasa Yatsu (3rd season) in the musicals.

Kintaro Toyama (遠山 金太郎, Tōyama Kintarō)

Voiced by: Yū Sugimoto (Japanese); Caitlyn Elizabeth (English)

Kintaro is the youngest member of Shitenhoji and the team's strongest player, despite having only played tennis for less than a year to date. He is very carefree and naive, and appears to be an all-brawn-no-brains type of character despite being diminutive in size, often messing up names and sayings. He also has a strong sense of justice, with his motto being "pay back what you receive", which he inherited from a former pro tennis player who had briefly mentored him. He forms a rivalry with Ryoma, though they only get to play a single point. He uses a "Wild" tennis style that takes advantage of his near-limitless natural stamina and strength, being able to lift a scooter over his head and throw it with ease. His signature technique is the "Mountain Storm", during which he spins rapidly in the air, causing a massive amount of wind to stir, and delivers a powerful overhead smash stronger than Gin's strongest Hadokyuu. Chitose finds Kintaro as the player closest to achieving Tenimuhō no Kiwami (Pinnacle of Perfection), but the latter doesn't achieve it until The Prince of Tennis II. Kintaro has an extremely active imagination: after reading a manga about monsters with poison claws, he believes Shiraishi has poison claws under the bandages that he always wears around his left hand and arm, which the latter doesn't hesitate to exploit to keep the former well-behaved (this is a reference to Konomi's previous manga series; Cool -Rental Body Guard-). Kintarō's knowledge of Japanese is also shown to be weak, and he misreads the Kanji of Ryoma's family name 'Echizen' as 'Koshimae', which becomes a running gag among the other Shitenhoji regulars. In The Prince of Tennis II, he achieves the No. 14 position on the U-17 first string. He tries to take the No. 5 position, but loses, despite awakening the Pinnacle of Perfection during the latter match. He is one of the 14 middle schoolers to represent Japan at the U-17 world cup. He is portrayed by Yuuya Kido, Takuya Kawaharada, Kodai Matsuoka (2nd season), and Raima Hiramatsu (3rd season) in the musicals, and by Masato Wada in the live-action film.

Higa

Higa Middle School (比嘉中学校, Higa Chūgakkō) is the first team from the Okinawa Prefecture to make it past the Kyūshū tournament in twenty-six years. All its players are Okinawan martial artists, and incorporate their experience in their tennis style, such as with the "Shukuchihou" method of movement. They have poor sportsmanship, and are not afraid to use nasty methods in order to win. During the series, the team makes the Nationals for the first time, and defeat Rokkaku in the first round. However, they are defeated in straight sets by Seigaku in the second round.

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Eiji_Kikumaru
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