Ryoma! The Price of Tennis is coming to theaters in the United States.
Anime Expo, one of North America's largest anime conventions, and distributors Eleven Arts and Iconic Events Releasing announced that they are partnering up to bring the latest movie in the classic sports manga and anime franchise to the United States. The movie's release is part of Anime Expo's attempt to expand its branding beyond the annual Los Angeles convention and achieve nationwide recognition. The Prince of Tennis movie will be the first release under this initiative, as the group behind the convention plans to host screenings across the United States of numerous other classic and noteworthy anime films under the "Anime Expo Cinema Nights" banner. The first Cinema Night will take place on May 12 and will feature screenings of both the English dubbed and subtitled versions of the film. A new trailer of the movie was released to promote the event.
Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis originally premiered in Japan in 2021. The movie is set in between the events of Takeshi Konomi's original 1999 Prince of Tennis manga and its 2009 sequel series, The New Prince of Tennis, and tells the story of tennis prodigy Ryoma Echizen's trip to Los Angeles. Ryoma's international journey also becomes a trip through time, as the young tennis prodigy finds himself transported back to the past, where he becomes involved in his father's infamous tennis match at the US Open.
The movie was directed by Hiroshi Koujina, who also directed The Vampire Dies in No Time and has worked on numerous classic anime, including The Vision of Escaflowne and Macross Plus. Voice actor Junko Minagawa, who is also known for portraying Sailor Uranus in the Sailor Moon series, reprises the role of Ryoma.
Konomi's original Prince of Tennis manga is one of the most successful sports manga of all time, with a worldwide circulation of over 60 million copies. The manga is available in English from publisher VIZ Media. An anime adaptation, produced by studio Trans-Arts and Nihon Ad Systems, premiered in 2001 and ran for 178 episodes. In 2021, Funimation announced that it had licensed all of the animated entries in the franchise and would be giving the series an all new English dub. In addition to the anime, the series has also been adapted into numerous stage plays, video games, and a series of live-action Japanese movies.
Source: YouTube