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Dec 23, 2006
EPISODE SUMMARIES
Episode 1: The Prince Appears A 12-year-old boy named Echizen Ryoma is participating in the Kakinokizaki Junior Tennis Tournament, meant for 16 years old. On the train, a high school boy is flinging his racket around, showing off to his friends. The girl that was sitting near them was nearly hit by the racket. The young boy sitting across from the girl tells the high school students to shut up and lectures them about Eastern and Western grip before getting off the train. The 3 high school boys and the girl also get off at the same station. While the girl is waiting for her grandmother, she and Ryoma meets again, and ask her where is the Kaginogizaki Tennis Garden is. She tells Ryoma to go the South exit. Upon leaving, the girl looks at the boy's bag seeing his name: Ryoma E. When her grandmother has arrived, she found out that she mistakenly said the wrong direction to the boy, it must be in the North exit going to the Kaginogizaki Tennis Garden. After coming to the tennis garden, the girl asks her grandmother what happens if a player is late and the grandmother replies that he will be defaulted. Worrying even more she then looks for the boy and finds him daydreaming somewhere and she asks if he made it on time, but he was 5 mins. late so he was defaulted. Knowing she could cheer him up she asks if his thirsty but it turns out she didn't have any change, so the boy end up buying it for both of them and she thanks him on the train for "saving" her. The boys on the train then comes and try to tell to Ryoma, but Ryoma asks Sasabe (guy on the train) if he remember the grip already and tells him, if not then he will show him what is tennis all about. Now we see Sasabe getting ready for a tennis match and thinking he can beat a grade schooler real easy. Sasabe tries to play with a handicap. But seeing to see he is confident, Ryoma returns the ball and tells him to play seriously. So the match goes on and Sasabe then tries to play serious and noticing he is losing his service game. Just then, Coach Ryuzaki had shown up and Sakuno tries to tell her to stop them, but Coach Ryuzaki wants to see Ryoma play. She then says that he's the son of one of her former student. Ryoma Echizen 12 years old, won 4 straight junior US tournaments and is known as a prodigy. As the match continues Sasabe tries to use his height against Ryoma. After losing a couple of points Ryoma then returns Sasabe serve into a high lob in which earning him a point and continues. Trying to cheat Sasabe says one of the ball was out, but it was in, because it is a self called game. So knowing Ryoma, he made the ball spin before the line and earning him another point. The match progresses and it seems like Ryoma is winning all of his games. Then Ryoma uses a high lob again, and Sasabe, knowing he couldn't reach it, he threw his racquet at Ryoma's face. Still now caring Ryoma makes fun of him by saying his grip was still weak. Kind of pissed Ryoma then uses his "Twist Serve." A ball when served, is the opposite spin from a regular serve thus when hitting the ground bounce up towards the opponent. So during Ryoma's service game he uses the twist serve and hits Sasabe face several times. Sasabe trying to showoff says he can beat Ryoma with one more game because he lose, so Ryoma doesn't care and earning him 40 points and uses the "Twist Serve" on Sasabe and he quits and thus leaving Ryoma the winner. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Episode 2: Samurai Jr A reporter visits Coach Ryuzaki (Sakuno's grandmother) at Seishun Gakuen and gives her a tennis magazine from his company. Coach Ryuzaki sees an article about Echizen Nanjiroh (Ryoma's father) who is also known in America as "SAMURAI". As school days passed by, Ryoma is heading to the tennis club for tryout. Horio Satoshi, a classmate of Ryoma who joins with him, will also join the tennis club. As they were signing up, the two meets two other first years, Mizuno Katsuo and Katou Kachirou, who inform them that practice is cancelled due to the fact that the 2nd and 3rd year players are going in other school for a game. As the four were about to leave, two 2nd year students approach them and offer them a chance to win 10,000yen. If they can hit the can and knock it over in 10 tries or less they win. Sadly the first year fell for that money scam. The 2nd years tell Ryoma to try it too, and he accepts, Ryoma tells them no matter how you hit it, it will not knock over. He serves the ball and hits the tip of it opening the can and revealing the stones they have put in, just as he said they did. As he continued to hit the can in every serve, he asks, "Will you sempai's give me a million yen if I hit it 100 times in a row?" They start to scold him, and a dark figure comes out and smashes the can. It is 2nd year regular, Momoshiro Takeshi. He warns the other two, one of which called Arai, not to pick on first years and challenges Ryoma to a match. As they are walking, Ryuzaki Sakuno (Coach Ryuzaki's granddaughter) is walking with her friend Tomoka, who asks her, "why did you take up tennis all of the sudden?" Sakuno's answer was little short and cut off by a woman, Shiba Saori, a reporter from a monthly Tennis Magazine, who asks where the Tennis Court is. Shortly after that, her sempai Inoue joins them and they walk together to the Tennis Court to see them. As they arrive, Sakuno recognizes Ryoma, and Tomoka instantly fall in love to Ryoma. At the same time Inoue recognizes the name, Echizen Ryoma. Momoshiro challenges Ryoma to a match because he heard from Ryuzaki-sensei that he could perform "Twist Serve". They start to play, but unknown to all except for Ryoma, Momoshiro plays with a hurt ankle. Ryoma starts off with a regular slice serve, in which Momoshiro tells him to cut to it and serve that "Twist Serve". After he serves it, Momoshiro and the others are stunned to see a 12-year-old boy being able to serve like that. After several more serves, Momoshiro is able to pick the timing out to return the ball, as he does this, Ryoma decides to switch hands using his left hand and this tells Momoshiro that it's time to stop. He gives up and tells him he doesn't want to play anymore. Inoue watching from the side noticed Ryoma's resemblance to Nanjirou and begins to wonder if Ryoma is Samurai Nanjirou's son. ---------------------------------------------------------- Episode 3: The Seigaku Regulars Arrive After morning practice, Ryoma, Horio, Katsuo and Kachirou are getting ready to go to class. In the changing room, Horio notices that Ryoma sat on Arai's jersey, but Ryoma don't care. Of course, when Arai finds out that his jersey has been tampered, he extremely gets mad. After school on that same day, Inoue and Shiba visit Seigaku again. Horio, with his 2 years experience in tennis, boasting his knowledge in tennis again. A club member asks Ryoma who this "Promising Tennis Freshman" is. Ryoma points to Horio. The boy goes to Horio and tells him to stop showing off till Arai comes and tell the boy that Ryoma is the one his talking about. The boy gets pissed off when he realized that Ryoma fooled him. A few moments later, five Seigaku regular members arrive namely: Oishi Syuichiroh, Fuji Syusuke, Inui Sadaharu, Kaidoh Kaoru & Kikumaru Eiji. Tezuka (captain), Oishi and Ryuzaki-sensei (coach), are figuring about which people to choose in the ranking tournaments. Freshmen's are training outside, as they have to do 50 sit-ups next. Inoue and Shiba, the reporters, are passing by. Arai comes, trying to intimidate Ryoma then the regulars come. Oishi, who Horio thinks is Tezuka till a couple seconds later, let the freshmen play on the courts. The regulars show their skills through a smashing exercise where all of them hit the ball back into the basket bin with pinpoint accuracy. Arai once again talks to Ryoma as Oishi accidentally lobs to high, which Ryoma hits right into the bin, which catches the attention to the regulars but angers Arai. Tezuka appears and makes both Arai and Ryoma run 20 laps. As Ryoma runs, Arai has an idea. (Looking at Ryoma's tennis bag). The freshmen are swinging their rackets as Ryoma finishes running, finding his bag gone (because Arai and his buddies hid them). Arai challenges Ryoma to a game and gives Ryoma an old racket to use. Ryoma accepts the match. The match goes on, as Ryoma can't hit the ball for a bit, when Ryoma is getting used of his racket he spins his body to add a spin on the ball. Arai is losing then on. Ryoma obviously wins, saying his warm-up is now done. Tezuka and Oishi were watching from the classroom. Tezuka says to Oishi, to give punishment to tennis members, to run laps for breaking the rules. When Tezuka is leaving the room, Coach Ryuzaki is looking down at the ranking tournament sheet, to see Ryoma's name on it. ------------------------------------------------------------ Episode 4: The Man Called the Viper The episode starts at the three 1st years (Horio, Katsuo, Kachirou) with Ryoma, talking about how everyone is counting on him to become a regular, Horio is saying there's no way Ryoma could beat a regular. Kaidoh is nearby, he scares the trio off, as Ryoma stays for a bit, walking off later, just saying, "scary..." The three talk about the ranking tournament, Oishi comes by, telling them to do their duty, which they do. Scene to Sakuno, practicing tennis swinging, Ryoma passes by, giving her advice, "Your knees are too bent, and don't flick your wrists like that. Your shoulders are too wide and your hair is too long, you should cut it." At the tennis court, Ryoma enters, then Kaidoh, who gives Ryoma an evil stare. The ranking tournament begins. Echizen is put in block D, along with Kaidoh, a regular member. Inui, another regular member, is also in block D. There are 4 blocks and 2 members from each block are chosen as regulars. Ryoma's tennis match begins, sometime; he defeats all his enemy, 6-0. There are some girls from the side who are cheering for him. Tezuka is also observing him from another side. At another court, Kachirou is video recording Kaidoh's match. All the regular members are doing well, winning their matches 6-0. Horio asks if Ryoma is okay when he groans...he's just hungry, then Horio's stomach growls soon after. Katsuo, Horio and Ryoma are having lunch, before Ryoma's match with Kaidoh. A tennis ball hit Kachirou later. Kachirou comes in the tennis room, black-eyed, as they are eating lunch, with the video camera to help Ryoma. When asked what happened, Kachirou tells them that he got hit in the eye by the tennis ball when recording Kaidoh's match. Ryoma says he probably can't be the top pro tennis player, the three thought he was talking about Kaidoh, when he was really looking at a tennis magazine. And leaves the other 3 freshmen and goes to practice. Inui comes by the ranking board, putting his score down, holding his book up as to say he probably has a way to defeat Ryoma. The 3 freshmen are left to observe the video themselves. As the video finishes, Katsuo still believes Ryoma will win, while Horio doesn't. Ryoma is practicing, hitting the ball in the same exact spot as Sakuno had arrived. She gives good luck to him and runs away, blushing. Kaidoh has a unique play style that he calls Mamushi (Viper). Ryoma goes into the tennis court, passing by Momoshiro, saying to watch out for "Mamushi (Viper)". Ryoma's father is deciding to play a game with Karupin, taking out the toy snake. The match soon begins as Kaidoh enters the court. Ryoma's serve, the match goes on as they hit back and forth. The ball soon hits the net and falls down on Kaidoh's side. Everyone is observing the match, Inui taking out his notebook to make some notes. Karupin is continuously attempting to get the toy snake. At the match, Kaidoh uses the Snake. Game at 15 all. Nanjiroh has put the toy snake between his toes, swinging it around while reading a magazine. Karupin bites Nanjiroh's toes. Ryoma is serious, switching his racket to the left hand. ------------------------------------ Episode 5: Snake Shot The match continues as Ryoma keeps on hitting low and deep into the court. Kaidoh is continuing to use and hit his Snake Shot. None of them are giving each other any chances as the game count goes to 1-1. Kaidoh is quite impressed by the fact that he can receive his finishing move but by doing so, Ryoma is forced to run back and forth around the court. The true intention of the Snake Shot is to make the opponent run around the court until the opponent will lose his stamina. Even though Kaidoh is forcing Ryoma to run around, he finds it strange that Ryoma still hasn't lost his energy. As a matter of fact, Ryoma's returns have increased in speed and are getting stronger yet. When returning one of Ryoma's shots, Kaidoh's knees is bending a little. Apparently, it seems to be Kaidoh who is having problems returning the ball. The regulars are surprised by this; it's their first time seeing Kaidoh out of breath. Inui makes the observation that Ryoma is countering the Snake Shot by hitting deep and low in the court so that Kaidoh has to bend his knees to return it. This takes 2 to 3 times more energy. Both players are tired at this point, but game count is going up very closely. During one of the games, Ryoma tries to hit the Snake Shot to himself, which he read about in a magazine. Everyone was amazed! However, it is not the technique he used to that is worrying Tezuka, but the fact that he's playing one of the top players. In the end, Ryoma wins the game 6-3. The freshmen are rejoicing over Ryoma's win and suddenly Kaidoh starts hitting his knee with his racket. As Kaidoh leaves the court, Inui makes a comment but Kaidoh says, he won't give up his spot as a regular. After seeing the match, Inoue is definite that Ryoma's playing style is the same as Nanjirou's "Samurai". Inoue decides to visit Ryoma's father later on. ----------------------------------- Episode 6: That man, Echizen Nanjiroh Tezuka is talking to Coach Ryuzaki about the team, when Sakuno suddenly rushes in looking for Ryoma, asking her grandmother where could be Ryoma is. Coach Ryuzaki tells her that Ryoma is probably practicing tennis somewhere, even when there are no matches today. Meanwhile, Inoue and Shiba come over to find Nanjirou. They arrive and find a monk striking a bell and looking at sexy magazine. At first, Nanjirou denies his identity until Nanako comes and tells him to reply honestly. Nanjirou built a court in the temple. He asks Inoue for a match, who feels very honored. Nanjirou tells Inoue that he will answer any question, if Inoue can score a point in the game. But this is impossible for Inoue. Not only has he not scored a single point, but also Nanjirou hasn't taken a step away from where he was standing, using his left leg as a pivot. Nanjirou even closes both eyes and Inoue still can't land a shot. Ultimately, Nanjirou wins, but also comments that playing Ryoma is 100x more enjoyable than his career. Also, Ryoma's playing style is only a copy of Nanjirou. There is something he must do, although Nanjirou doesn't tell Inoue since he lost the match. Scene change, Sakuno finds Ryoma practicing by himself in another tennis court and watches him. She also asks Ryoma questions about why he plays tennis. As crossing the pedestrian lane, Ryoma replies that he wants to defeat someone. -------------------------------------- Episode 7: Two Ryoma's The ranking tournament matches continue. A large crowd of Seigaku students has gathered to watch the game between Tezuka (captain) and Oishi (vice-captain). In another court, Ryoma is getting ready for his match against Inui. Momoshiro also has a match versus Kikumaru. Ryoma's match begins; Inui makes the first serve and also gets the first point. Sakuno and Tomoka also rushes in to watch Ryoma's match against Inui. As the match continues, the first years notice that Inui seems to know where Ryoma's returns would go and is always ready to position and hit the ball on time. Fuji tells the first years, that this is not a coincidence. Inui takes the first game. As they pass each other while changing courts later on, Inui tells Ryoma, that he collected all the data on Ryoma based on the matches he has played previously with the other tennis members as well as with the tennis regulars. Inui's notebook was open by the wind and we see that all his calculations are inside. Based on it, 75% Ryoma will used crossed shot and that 25% only chance for Ryoma to win. Coach Ryuzaki, who is watching from her office, comments that Ryoma is playing against "himself" at the moment. If he is unable to surpass himself then he will not be able to win against Inui. In another court, Tezuka won his match against Oishi, result 6-1. And for Inui and Ryoma's match, the game counts 3-1 against Ryoma. ---------------------------------------------------- Episode 8: Split Step Ryoma is determined to make a comeback and starts using Split Step, which Fuji explains as the expansion and contraction of muscles to explode into a dash, causing a faster reaction time. Ryoma even starts telling Inui where he is going to hit the ball, so he doesn't have to guess. The game goes exactly as Inui had predicted, but now Ryoma is able to return Inui's smash, even if it goes out of bounds. This was not in Inui's calculations. Ryoma is now catching up. Fuji makes another observation about Ryoma's step. If both feet land at the same time, then it's normal split step, but Ryoma only lands on one foot. Ryoma is probably a step and a half faster than usual instead of just half. The game continues and suddenly, Inui is unable to return the ball since he misses on his swing. Ryoma continues to catch up, now winning 5 games against Inui's 4 games. When Ryoma serves, he switches to his right hand and uses a Twist Serve, which Inui is unable to return. ------------------------------------------------------- Episode 9: The Hard Day Inui acknowledges Ryoma's talent, being able to hit a shot like that with his right hand. But Inui thinks of a way to return this serve in his head and puts his simulation into action. However, the racket gets knocked out of his hand when he tries to hit the ball. Ryoma wins the match against Inui, 6-4. Inui doesn't seem disappointed at all. As a matter of fact, he treated it as his another data collection and goes off talking to himself. Ryoma wins all of his remaining matches in the ranking tournament and becomes a regular member. There is one spot left for the regulars in Block D in which Inui versus Kaidoh are fighting for. Unfortunately, Inui loses again, meaning he is dropped from the regulars and Kaidoh remains. So the eight regular members has been announced; Tezuka Kunimitsu, Oishi Syuichiroh, Kikumaru Eiji, Fuji Syuusuke, Kawamura Takashi, Momoshiro Takeshi, Kaidoh Kaoru and lastly Echizen Ryoma. Although Inui lost his spot as a regular, he is now in charge of the training menu for the team instead. He adds weights to the regular's ankles and makes them return balls of a specific color back to their respective colored bin. At first, they all think it's easy but the weights soon take effect and they fall. As a punishment, they are forced to drink Inui's "special vegetable juice". Everyone who drinks it make them run to the washroom with exception of Fuji, who actually liked the taste and Tezuka, who didn't make a mistake. After the practice session, Inui gives them all advice to improve on and told Ryoma to drink 2 glasses of milk a day so he'll grow fast (probably). At the end of the day, Ryoma goes to a shop to pick up his regular jersey. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Episode 10: Counter attack! Sasabe once again Kajirou has invited his friends (Ryoma, Horio, Katsuo, Tomoka and Sakuno) to a tennis club where his dad works as a coach. He also invited Momoshiro. When they thought all is going to be well, here comes a club member known as the Golden Retriever. He is arrogantly insulting Kajirou's father for asking him to do some warm-ups before playing tennis. This arrogant player was eventually the father of Sasabe (the guy in the train in the first episode) and was really bragging about his tennis skills. Just then Ryoma came to the scene and asking Sasabe Jr. if he had mastered the correct grips already. Sasabe was scared upon seeing Ryoma but insisted that his dad was better. So the Golden Retriever Sasabe Sr. and Ryoma has come into a match. As in their game, Ryoma revealed the weakness of the Retriever and obviously won the match. As for Momoshiro, on his way to the courts he met Nanjirou who was supposed to deliver Ryoma's lunch. They fought on the way and ends up not arriving in their real destination. At lunch, Ryoma and the others were eating. Sakuno on the other hand was pleased that Ryoma was eating the lunch she prepared for him. Then she asks him how was the lunch she made but Ryoma answered "Mada Mada Dane!" (actually he was referring to the players they were watching) so Sakuno ran off along with the lunch she made and Ryoma was left there having no idea what he has done and saying "Where's the Lunch?"
Posted at 05:56 pm by ryoma_days
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