After winning all of his matches in the USA, 12-year-old tennis prodigy Echizen Ryoma is brought back to Japan by his father and enrolled in the prestigious Seishun Academy Middle School. Although he doesn't understand the move, the school is in fact famous for it's tennis team and Ryoma soon finds himself playing alongside school captain and national player Tezuka Kunimitsu, cool-headed Oishi Syuichirou and the acrobatic Kikamura Eiji. He also attracts the attentions of Higaki Shioin, a strange and quiet girl who watches him attentively from the bleachers. As the pressure from both his father and fellow team mates begins to rise, can Ryoma meet the challenge and earn the title of Prince Of Tennis?

The first and most instantly appealing aspect of 'The Prince Of Tennis' is that it sticks fairly close to the original concept. Right from the opening, it opts to recreate as many of the crucial scenes as possible and mimics the introductions of the main characters to great effect. Likewise, the overall look and feel of the production is spot on, with a very anime inspired style that showcases some excellent camerawork. As if this wasn't pleasing enough, the film also boasts a cast who really act and look like their animated counterparts and the highest compliment I can pay the film is that it always feels exactly like 'Prince Of Tennis'.

When it comes to the acting ability on display, this is equally as adept and it's nice to see a manga adaptation that doesn't just dip into the realms of the ridiculous. 15-year-old Kanata Hongo is right on the mark as Echizen and provides an exceptionally mature performance for his age. Unlike a lot of child actors, he never comes across as obnoxious and manages to convey the quiet and contemplative elements of his character without ever appearing arrogant. Yuu Shirota (Tezuka), Sayuri Iwata (Shion) and Kousuke Kujirai (Kaidou) are also worthy of special mention as they all slot perfectly into their roles and avoid the tendency to overact.

For a film that uses tennis as it's main focus, I'm also pleased to report that all of the matches in the film are extremely well shot. Considering the erraticness of the game, you may expect there to be some issues with the flow but they are amazingly realistic and there's a tenseness to the matches that is often lacking in most sports movies. Surprisingly, the superhuman techniques of the players are also well represented and aside from a few bizarre flying manoeuvres, the CGI is very impressive and certainly right up there with the likes of 'Shaolin Soccer'.

Understandably, the time restraints of the movie do cause some upsets and a number of popular characters and sequences are noticeably glossed over. This is particularly true for several of the Seigaku team and (a much younger and prettier) coach Ryuzaki, who all take a back seat so that Echizen and Tezuka can become the central focus. For the sake of the film's story this is clearly the best approach, but from an existing fans' perspective you do miss out on several entertaining personalities. Similarly, some of the early bouts with the Seigaku team are much shorter than they originally were but once again, this works in the film's favour as it makes the final matches that much more exciting.

If you're a fan of the anime or enjoy superhuman sports movies like 'Shaolin Soccer', I would strongly advise you to seek out 'The Prince Of Tennis'. It's exactly how a manga/anime live-action adaptation should be done and ignores the hype in favour of providing an accurate and fun representation of the source material.