Internationally acclaimed anime film director Makoto Shinkai (Your Name., Weathering with You) posted his favorable comments on Ryoma! Sinsei Gekijyoban Tennis no Ouji-sama / Ryoma! Rebirth The Prince of Tennis: The Movie, the all-new 3DCG feature film based on Takeshi Konomi's The Prince of Tennis manga series, on his official Twitter account yesterday. 

The 100-minute film was released in 172 theaters in Japan on September 3, 2021. It was out of the top ten in its first weekend of release, but perhaps due to favorable word of mouth, it climbed to ninth place in its second weekend.

Shinkai wrote, "'Ryoma! Rebirth The Prince of Tennis: The Movie,' I was a little nervous because I hadn't read the original manga, but it was a wonderful film! It was an authentic musical, and its priority was always on 'how to entertain the audience' rather than the conservative dramaturgy, and the overwhelming power of the climax was both funny and heartbreaking. I saw a good piece of work."

Immediately, the manga's author Takeshi Konomi responded to Shinkai's comments. "Hello, I'm Konomi, the original author of 'The Prince of Tennis' and the executive producer of the film 'Ryoma!.' Thank you very much for your wonderful comments, which blew away the exhaustion of the director and the production staff, who had to face a series of challenges that defied the common sense of the film industry. I'm very happy that people who haven't read the original TeniPri manga can enjoy it."

Then, Shinkai also posted another comment of gratitude, "Thank you very much for this wonderful film! As an audience, I earnestly had a great time, but I'm sure the filmmakers had a lot of struggles, because this is a film without any ordinary depictions. It gave me a lot of inspiration. I will be reading the manga as well!"

The franchise's first full 3DCG film tells an original story about what happened in the three months between the first manga The Prince of Tennis and its sequel The New Prince of Tennis.

Its story takes place in the past in America. Three days after the finals of the National Tournament, the protagonist Ryoma Echizen goes on a tennis training trip to America by himself. When he arrives there, he encounters his classmate Sakuno Ryuzaki, who is also visiting the country on a family trip, is being tangled up with gang members. When the ball Ryoma throws to save her collides with another ball thrown by a mysterious person in a wheelchair, time and space get distorted, and the two are traveled back to the time when Ryoma's father was known as Samurai Nanjiro in America.

Source: Makoto Shinkai Twitter account, Takeshi Konomi Twitter account

©Takeshi Konomi/Shueisha

©Rebirth Prince of The Tennis: The Movie Production Committee