Ryoma Echizen, whose father could have been one of Japan's greatest tennis players, except for his unfortunate injury, returns to Japan and enrols in the Seishun Academy, a school well known for its focus on athletic prowess. The return is not without its problems. As the prodigy Ryoma must prove his tennis qualities against all comers. Having played against seniors and beaten them the captain of the tennis team enters Ryoma into the intramural matches which will determine who goes forward into the upcoming City tournament...

The Prince of Tennis: Volume Three, story and art by Takeshi Konomi, continues this highly successful sport based manga, and after three volumes of this I am loosing the will to live. If anyone would like to write in and defend this terminally dull title please do. Apart from the good, and I say good, not great, artwork I’d love to know what I’m missing here - as there are forty volumes of this stuff and I have a horrible feeling that they will be coming my way.

After a quick flick through the new volume there was an apparent lack of sixty pages of long tennis matches. So with a gleeful heart I looked forward to some plot and character development - maybe a love story or a mystery to solve - and what do we get? Discussions about the importance of keeping fit, training and not pulling muscles. Oh, and remember to drink your milk.

That’s not to say that you don’t get some more tennis, there’s always room for a little more tennis, especially if your as OCD as Konomi’s characters who talk about nothing else but tennis - that is when they are not playing tennis.

Unless you are obsessed by tennis, run for the hills my friends, as this title seems to have come from the shallow end of the manga pool.

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Charles Packer