September 23rd is 「Tennis Day」

The anniversary date was established by the Japan Tennis Association back in 1998. September 23 was chosen because it is a national holiday, the autumnal equinox, and because the climate is mild throughout the country.

Among sports anime, tennis is a genre that attracts fans’ attention. They can be depicted in various ways, such as expressing the charms of a real match, flashy actions unfolding in the dead heat, and some not even really playing tennis in the first place.

So Anime!Anime! conducted a yearly reader survey titled 「What is your favorite tennis character in anime?」. Within the survey period September 11th till September 18th, a total of 714 were received.
The gender ratio is about 6% for men and 94% for women. The age group was about 20% for those under 19 years old, and about 60% for those in their 20s.

■『The Prince of Tennis』 Dominates the top 3!！
1st place goes to Keigo Otobe from 『The Prince of Tennis』. The support rate was about 20%. Comments for the Hyotei Gakuen Middle School Tennis Club president such as 「Atobe-sama who is the king of Hyotei Gakuen. I love everything about him！」 and 「When you think of tennis king you’ll think of him」 were received naming his title as king.

2nd place goes to Ryoma Echizen from 『The Prince of Tennis』. The support rate was about 13%.
Comments for the main protagonist Ryoma such as 「 He’s a first grade junior high school student who sometimes shows his confident and cheeky side, but that’s what makes him so cute 」and 「I really love the way how he’s always eager for victory while enjoying his favorite sport」 complimenting his cool and stoic figure.
This year is the 20th anniversary of 『The Prince of Tennis』’s serialization. For that, comments like 「This is the first manga I bought with my pocket money. I’ve always admired Ryoma and I joined my high school tennis club because of that. He’s still my first love till this day」 were received from quite a few reader.

3rd place goes to Seiichi Yukimura from 『The Prince of Tennis』. The support rate was about 8%.
Comments for the Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku Chuu Tennis Club president such as 「I respect his strong will to overcome his sickness, frustrations and hardships all to lead Rikkai to the championships for the team and for himself」 and 「His strength to crawl out of despair and fight till the end for a third consecutive victory of the club. His strength to fight comes from thee feeling of pleasure when playing tennis」. His struggling without adversity strikes into everyone’s chest. Although he doesn’t have a special shot move, his play style that uses his voice to confuse the opponent was impressive.

■Introducing the other comments!!
Toru Amuro from 『Detective Conan』 got comments like 「It was cool to see his refreshing fast-paced ball serve to win the junior tournament.」 and 「Good-looking, smart, and to top it with a professional skill level of tennis！」.

Eiichirou Maruo from 『Baby Steps』 got comments like 「As someone with tennis experience, you can see where Ei-chan is struggling his feelings of accomplishment. The ball rotation, tactics, and mental aspects are all shown in detail which are very helpful」.

Hiromi Oka from 『Aim for the Ace！』 with comments like 「Speaking of tennis works. I was moved by the story of a newbie named Hiromi who gradually improves while being harassed by others」 and 「Character designs, voice actor, story, theme song etc. were all really good」.

Sagaru Yamazaki from 『Gintama』 got comments like 「The parody of the anime『The Prince of Tennis』 was interesting」an episode where Ryoma Echizen was emntioned.

The top 20 in the overall ranking were mostly occupied by the characters of 『The Prince of Tennis』. 『The Prince of Tennis BEST GAMES!! Fuji vs Kirihara』 will be screening on November 15th.
The momentum will accelerate further as the series celebrates its 20th anniversary.

■Top 10 Ranking
[Who is your favorite tennis character in anime？ 2019 Edition]
1st Keigo Otobe 『The Prince of Tennis』
2nd Ryoma Echizen 『The Prince of Tennis』
3rd Seiichi Yukimura 『The Prince of Tennis』
4th Toru Amuro 『Detective Conan』
5th Kuranosuke Shiraishi 『The Prince of Tennis』
6th Shuusuke Fuji 『The Prince of Tennis』
7th Kunimitsu Tezuka 『The Prince of Tennis』
8th Masaharu Niou 『The Prince of Tennis』
9th Bunta Marui 『The Prince of Tennis』
10th Renji Yanagi 『The Prince of Tennis』

（Survey period：September 11th till September 18th 2019）

■Top 20 Ranking
[Who is your favorite tennis character in anime？ 2019 Edition]
1st Keigo Otobe 『The Prince of Tennis』
2nd Ryoma Echizen 『The Prince of Tennis』
3rd Seiichi Yukimura 『The Prince of Tennis』
4th Toru Amuro 『Detective Conan』
5th Kuranosuke Shiraishi 『The Prince of Tennis』
6th Shuusuke Fuji 『The Prince of Tennis』
7th Kunimitsu Tezuka 『The Prince of Tennis』
8th Masaharu Niou 『The Prince of Tennis』
9th Bunta Marui 『The Prince of Tennis』
10th Renji Yanagi 『The Prince of Tennis』
11th Yushi Oshitari 『The Prince of Tennis』
11th Wakashi hiyoshi 『The Prince of Tennis』
13th Genichirou Sanada 『The Prince of Tennis』
13th Ryou Shishido 『The Prince of Tennis』
15th Kaoru Kaidou 『The Prince of Tennis』
16th Akaya Kirihara 『The Prince of Tennis』
17th Hiromi Oka 『Aim for the Ace！』
17th Kenya Oshitari 『The Prince of Tennis』
17th Shirou Kitei 『The Prince of Tennis』
17th Kanae Shinjou 『Teekyuu』

（Survey period：September 11th till September 18th 2019）