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| A 12 year old boy named Echizen Ryoma is participating in the Kaginogizaka Junior Tennis Tournament meant for 16-year-olds. 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 waiting for her grandmother, the girl meets the boy again, who asks her where the Kaginogizaka Tennis Garden is. She tells him to go through the South exit. The girl sees the boy's name on his bag as he is leaving: Ryoma. Later on when the girl's grandmother shows up, she found out that it was actually the North exit that took them to the Tennis Garden. When the girl, Sakuno, and her grandmother arrive at the courts, Sakuno runs off to look for Ryoma. She finds him and apologizes for making him late for the tournament, causing him to lose by default. As the two sit down for a drink, they are found by the 3 high school boys they met on the train earlier. Sasabe, the boy holding a racket, claims to be one of the seeds in the tournament and is also a hit. Ryoma isn't scared at all but stares back at him evenly. Sasabe, pissed off by his attitude, swings the racket at him, stopping inches before Ryoma's face. Ryoma doesn't even flinch. As the 3 boys were leaving, Ryoma challenges Sasabe to a match. Sasabe goes easy on Ryoma and does an underhand serve to start the game. Ryoma makes a return ace and tells him to play seriously. Sakuno's grandmother joins them and watches as well. Sasabe uses a bullet serve next, but Ryoma can still return it, saying that the serve is too slow. As the game is progressing, Sakuno's grandmother tells Sakuno that Ryoma is the son of one of her former students and the "Prince of Tennis". Ryoma won 4 consecutive titles while competing in American junior tournaments within the last year and a half. Echizen's family returned to Japan after a long stay in America (New York according to the address of the letter in the anime). The reason Sakuno's grandmother came was to watch Ryoma play in this tournament. And so the match progresses and Sasabe is doing horribly, losing 5-0 even with his cheap methods. Sasabe gets angry when he can't reach the lob from Echizen and throws the his racket in Ryoma's face. However, Ryoma returns this favour by doing Twist Serves, hitting Sasabe back in the face. Despite the fact that Sasabe lost, he's still boasting that he was going easy on Ryoma. Ryoma says it's okay if Sasabe wants to go at it again and switches the raquet to his left hand. Sakuno's grandmother tells Sasabe to give up, since Ryoma is actually left-handed.Ryoma serves the ball, pinpointing right between Sasabe's feet. Sasabe is freaked and runs off. |
Episode 2: Samurai Junior
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| A reporter visits Ryuzaki-sensei (Sakuno's grandmother) at Seishun Gakuen and gives her a tennis magazine from his company. Ryuzaki-sensei sees an article about Echizen Nanjirou (Ryoma's father even though only Ryuzaki-sensei knows this) and also known as a samurai in America. A day of school has passed by and Ryoma is headed to the tennis club for tryouts. Horio Satoshi, a student from his class joins him. As they were signing up, the two meet two other first years, Mizuno Katsuo and Kato Kachirou, who told them that since the 2nd and 3rd year students are off to another school for a game, sign ups start tomorrow. As the 4 were about to leave, some 2nd year students challenge the four to hitting a can from a distance. Sadly the first years fell for the money scam. The 2nd years tell Ryoma to try it too and Ryoma accepts, asking if he gets 1000000 yen for hitting it 100 times. When the two 2nd year students get pissed off at Ryoma, another boy, Momoshiro Takeshi, makes an appearance, serving the ball and denting the can in the process. Momoshiro tells the 2, one of which was called Arai, not to pick on 1st years and also challenges Ryoma to a match. Meanwhile, Sakuno and her friend Tomoka are on their way to sign up for the tennis team when they get asked for directions from Shiba Saori, an editor from the monthly pro tennis magazine. Inoue, the reporter who was with Ryuzaki-sensei earlier joins them and they watch the match between Momoshiro and Echizen. Tomoka falls in love with Ryoma. [note: =_=;] Ryoma serve and eventually Momoshiro is able to return them. However, due to his injured ankle, Ryoma wins the game. Momoshiro gives up when Ryoma switches to his left hand, knowing that Echizen is getting serious. Ryuzaki-sensei asks if it's alright for Momoshiro to give up so easily but Momo tells her that Echizen was going easy on him because he noticed the injury. Inoue, watching from the side, noticed Ryoma's resemblence to Nanjirou and begins to wonder if Ryoma is Samurai Nanjirou's son. |
Episode 3: Seigaku Regulars
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| After morning practice, Ryoma, Horio, Katsuo and Kachirou are getting ready to go to class. In the changing room, Horio notices that Echizen sat on Arai's jersey but Echizen could care less. Of course, when Arai finds out that his jersey's been tampered with, he gets extremely mad. After school on the same day, Inoue and Shiba visit Seigaku again. Horio, with his 2 years of experience in tennis, brags about his knowledge again. When a club member asks Ryoma who this "Great Freshman", Ryoma points to Horio. The boy goes up to Horio and tells him to stop showing off when Arai tells him that it is actually Ryoma who is the one he's talking about. He gets pissed after realizing that Ryoma tricked him. A few moments later five regular members arrive. Tezuka (captain) is with Ryuzaki-sensei (coach) in the school because Tezuka is deciding on people to put on the school tournament for selecting regular members. The regulars show their skills through a smashing exercise where all of them hit the ball back into the tray with pinpoint accuracy. One of the lobs goes too far and reaches Echizen. Without a second though, Echizen hits it back into the tray as well, commenting that it was very easy. This catches the attention of the regulars but angers Arai. When Echizen finishes running, the freshmen are practicing their strokes. Echizen looks for his rackets but finds them missing (because Arai and his buddies hid them). Taking advantage of the situation Arai challenges Echizen to a game and gives him an old racket to work with. The regulars just watch from the other courts; Oishi and Tezuka watching from the classroom. The first few returns were very off, but after getting used to the racket, Echizen spins his body in order to add a spin to the ball and makes a return ace and the outcome of the match is clear. After seeing this, Tezuka puts Echizen's name in for the ranking tournaments. |
Episode 4: The Man Known As Viper
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| 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. The reporters Inoue and Shiba drop by again to watch the tournament [note: these two get too much screen time =_=]. While Echizen is playing his match, there are some girls on the side cheering for him. Tezuka is also observing him from another side. Meanwhile Kachirou is recording Kaidoh's game. All the regular members are doing well, winning their matches 6-0. Katsuo, Horio and Echizen are having lunch before Echizen's match with Kaidoh when Kachiro joins them with a black eye! When asked what happened, Kachirou tells them that he got hit in the eye by the ball when recording Kaidoh's match. Ryoma mumbles something about not being able to win while reading the magazine and leaves the other 3 freshmen and goes of to practice. The 3 are left to observe the video themselves. Kaidoh has a unique play style which he calls Mamushi (Viper). Soon after, Echizen's game with Kaidoh begins. Everyone is observing this match, Inui taking out his notebook to make some notes. Kaidoh shows off his move "Snake" early on in the match. Echizen also gets serious and switches the racket to his left hand. |
Episode 5: Snake Shot
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| The match continues on and Echizen keeps on hitting low and deep into the court. Kaidoh continues to 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, Echizen is forced to run back and forth around the court. The true intention of the Snake Shot is to make the opponent run around and lose stamina. Even though Kaidoh is forcing Echizen to run around, he finds it strange that Echizen still hasn't lost his energy. As a matter of fact, Echizen's returns have increased in speed and are getting stronger yet. When returning one of Echizen's shots, Kaidoh's knees buckle 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 Echizen 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, Echizen tries to hit the Snake Shot himself (which he read about in a magazine). Everyone is amazed! However it is not the technique he used that is worrying Tezuka, but the fact that he's playing one of the top players and In the end, Echizen 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 watching the match, Inoue is definite that Ryoma's play style is the same as Samurai Nanjirou's. Inoue decides to pay Ryoma's father a visit later on. |