autumnleaf16

Well…here it is, as I mentioned in the previous entry. A sort of character analysis, mini essay? Like the one I did for Hotohori, only that this is about my favourite character from Prince of Tennis, as well as the character responsible for making me read the story properly. I have read random funny bits from the story before but I didn’t really plan to read the whole thing, but when I read Shiraishi’s match against Fuji (his main moment of fame) I kind of decided: ‘ok, I’ll read the whole thing.’ It is also his match that made me realize: ‘Hey, the tennis bit won’t actually be that bad.’

Basic data, Shiraishi Kuranosuke is a third year student, the captain of Shitenhouji (a junior high school in Osaka). His school was in the nationals last year and reached the semi-finals. Even though they were beaten by Rikkai completely, they lost all three of their first match. (the school who was champion last year and the year before that), it is agreed that they gave Rikkai a much tougher game last year in the semi finals, then the school who actually was runner up in the finals. Shitenhouji is probably the strongest team in the Kansai region, since they actually won the Kansai tournament this year and last year with a clean sweep.

Because Shitenhouji is in Kansai, the majority of the Kantou schools (which is most of the schools in the story) doesn’t really know how good Shitenhouji or their captain is. Also, Shiraishi didn’t get to play in the nationals last year, against the match with Rikkai (which was an excellent opportunity for him to display his skills to the Kantou players) as he was in singles 1 (the most important position), which is the fifth person to play. As a result he didn’t get to play so his skills are a mystery to almost all of the Kantou players. (note- Tezuka seems to know about Shiraishi’s skills as he warned Fuji that Fuji should be on his guard.)

Not much is known about Shiraishi (although I think he is an example of how much stuff you can find out about a character if you really try to seek information), he only appears in Volume 29 of the manga, when all the captains were there to draw their orders for round one of the nationals. There, he made a comment about how Tezuka seems more capable this year, as well as saying that it might be Seigaku this year. (I still am not sure whether he means that Seigaku will be the winners of the nationals, or merely indicate that his school will possibly play against Seigaku.) The next time he comes out is when the schools were walking in the procession, then in Volume 31, where he and most of his team mates were watching Seigaku’s match with Higa. But he doesn’t properly come out until Volume 35- when his team played Fudomine- even though he didn’t get to play again. He was in singles 1 and his team won all three first matches. Then Volume 36…kind of his…his turn to shine? Most of volume 36 basically consists of his match with Fuji. After his match he then kind of fades, since he isn’t a major major character, although he did participate in the meat-eating competition, and he is shown to be watching the finals with a lot of other school, saying that even though Rikkai is most likely to win, he think Seigaku have a chance of preventing Rikkai from winning the nationals three year in a role.

As I said before, Shiraishi is the captain of his team, and the interesting thing is that he was the captain in his second year too, as well as having the prestigious position of playing singles one. Judging from this I think it is quite reasonable to conclude that he was in the school team since his first year as well. If he was allowed to be the captain in his second year, I think it is highly likely that his school would have been lenient enough to let him join the team in his first year. And in a lot of schools there are people who were in the team ever since their first year, although most captains in this story only become captain in their third year (but Tezuka was vice-captain in his second year and I think Yukimura might very possible have been the captain from his second year too). I personally think that it is the fact that he was captain in his second year that played a large part to the forming of his character. Perhaps the sudden responsible was too heavy, making him too responsible a captain with the interest of his team in his heart in such an extreme fashion, or perhaps it is merely because unlike the other third year captains, he have to face another year with the result of his actions during the time he was captain.

Shiraishi plays perfect tennis, I don’t understand anything about tennis so I will just take the following from wikipedia: ‘Perfect Tennis is the form that Shiraishi uses when he plays any match. Perfect tennis is achieved when one masters every technique in its basic form (i.e. perfect forehand form, perfect overhead form).’ I don’t know whether I am right but it is because he knows all the rules so well that give him advantages in his match against Fuji? In his game with Fuji he was able to counter Fuji’s very fancy attacks, and I wonder whether he can do it because he knows the best way to hit the ball, the behaviour of the ball? Fuji have this serve which he calls the disappearing serve and what happened is that the first time Shirasihi swung his racquet he actually didn’t hit it, as it disappeared, but then he turned around and hit it, I think he knows to go that direction because the ball will go there? But basically he plays by the rules, and only by the rules, he doesn’t use any extra actions, each move is precise and has a direct purpose. He is also said to be quite fast and relatively strong. Because of his perfect tennis, he is also known as the bible of Shitenhouji. (Fuji’s coach actually says that Shiraishi and Fuji’s skills are equal.)

The reason I say that Shiraishi is too responsible a captain is because he is, to an extent, letting the interest of his team outweigh his love for tennis. However, Shiraishi doesn’t actually like perfect tennis, as he describes it as the most boring thing in the world, but as he is the captain of the team, he have the responsibility of doing whatever it takes in order to score a win for his team, because no mater how much fun and exciting the match is, if your team doesn’t score three wins in total then you will be out of the race. No matter what happens, if you lose then you lose. I know that you can argue that giving up his own pleasure is not that big a deal but I feel it really is. Like most of the characters in this story, he loves tennis but he has to play it in a way that he doesn’t like. I think for a boy his age, that is a really admirable feat. Also, it must be painful to do something that you find really boring over and over again when you know that you can actually do it in another way that is fun.

So because of this realization, and most importantly because he is the captain, he believes that he is obliged to use perfect tennis in order to let his team be more likely to have three wins, and therefore continue to the next round. Interestingly enough, he actually told Fuji that his tennis is very “cool”, only that it has too many extra movements. I think that is actually a sincere compliment in the first half, as I believe that Shiraishi would like to play tennis that way if he could. I believe that if he was not the captain…when he stops being the captain, then he would actually begin to play the way he used to again, the way that he enjoyed. So what makes him such a noble character is that he is doing it for his team, not for himself.

Shiraishi also seems a rather mature person, as he actually doesn’t really trash talk at court, in fact he hardly talks during the game. I think it is partly due to his character- he just doesn’t do that, and in his case it might also be due to the fact that talking can waste some energy. I think the most extreme thing he said is that “you can’t struggle anymore, the game will soon be over,” given the fact that he was on the point of winning, and that a few moments ago his opponent was lying on the ground, I think it was justified enough. And his words like “Don’t hold back, use all your triple counters” is not really an insult either, it really is just like saying bring it on. One of the bits that I really like is when Shiraishi scolds one of his team mates for going a bit too far with his taunting. “Be careful with how you speak.” As it shows what a nice person he is. And I noticed that he doesn’t really seem to criticise their opponents, as he tends to praise his team mates instead- by saying how good they are. It is also quite clear that he is the captain, and in the match in Fudomine, we see him telling him team mates to go and do their best, to do whatever it takes to win. Interestingly enough he also forbid Kintarou to bother Chitose when Chitose said that he quits, even though he must know that this would weaken his team.

In his match against Fuji, due to Fuji’s miraculously recovery and evolved triple counters, Shiraishi began to face difficulties. However, he does not give up and even if he panicked, it was only for a short duration. He just kept on trying to analyze Fuji’s serve in order to somehow break it, and he manages to in the end. As Fuji said: “I’ve never seen any opponents who can remain as calm as he is in such a condition.” I think this is because he refuses to give up, he did all these sacrifices and to give up now would make them all futile, I remember thinking that he probably wouldn’t give up or leave the court before the match end unless he was dragged away.

Shiraishi seems much more skilled then almost all of his other team mates, as he recognizes Fuji’s white whale/dragon for what they are immediately. Also, he actually seems to understand what Chitose’s Pinnacle of Great Wisdom is, unlike many of his team mates, who were rather confused. I suppose he should be, since he was the captain since his second year. He also has a very detailed knowledge about almost all his team mates.

Even though Shiraishi says that the most important thing is to win, and that he will play perfect tennis even though he doesn’t like it- because it will help him to win, he doesn’t really seem to fully believe this. A very interesting to notice is that in Volume 37- which starts by announcing his victory, he doesn’t actually appear that happy. I think this is due to him knowing that he sort of won by chance, he probably could have won more gloriously, but the game was ended in his favour due to Fuji’s ball being out. One of his friends then reminds him that the most important thing is that he won, and at this he finally smiled slightly and said “That is true…” Although I think this might just be for the benefit of his team mates. Perhaps he is also rather bitter about the fact that his perfect tennis has give him yet another victory, because every time he wins a match with perfect tennis, he is tied to it even more, it is the ever present reminder that he have to do this, even though he does not like it. He also admits that his match with Fuji would be much better if Fuji had played as well as he did in the middle since the beginning, suggesting that he does like to have a good game, instead of just winning.

As for his match with Fuji, the really interesting thing is that Shiraishi and Fuji are like polar opposites. As mentioned before, Shiraishi plays the way he does in order to win, to score a win for his team, even though he doesn’t like it. Fuji, on the other hand, enjoys playing tennis when he sees his opponent pushing themselves to their limit- which I personally think is rather sadistic. He basically just do enough to let his opponents push themselves to the limit, and as a result, he doesn’t play with his full potential. This is acknowledged by Shiraishi during the middle of the game. I think the main problem with Fuji is that he is a genius, so he never has to try that hard. Others…they probably have talent in tennis but it is not something that they can rely on completely. Personally…Fuji really annoys me, especially since he is so smug at times. But I think this became his downfall in his match against Shiraishi, because he got so confident that his final counter ‘Gate keeper of Hecatonchires’ can forbid Shiraishi hitting the ball over the net, he didn’t realize that Shiraishi has start to counter it until it was too late. (to be honest I can’t remember the last time I so wanted to hit someone with a tennis racquet so much when Fuji did his “Your ball won’t go over the net anymore” to Shiraishi and just turned away when Shiraishi was still serving). In the end, the game reached a tiebreak and Shiraishi won because Fuji’s final serve went out, and I think this is because Fuji let the game dragged out too long so he got really tired. And the cause of this was he didn’t give his full potential in the very beginning. I think when Shiraishi asked Fuji whether he think tennis is so easy that he can just afford to change his attitude in the middle of the game, he is really speaking for many other people- as well as the readers, not just for himself. Why is that Fuji is allowed to do this, I’m sure that if most other people did what Fuji did, then they would have lost.

To be honest, I really wish that Shiraishi could win more gloriously, but well…Fuji is a really popular character and there are already a lot of people on forums who complain about this. I mean…Fuji have it pretty lucky, if you ask me. Officially he only lost due to chance, and his opponent is very worthy. Shiraishi actually never said anything overly rude, and he even went up to shake Fuji’s hand immediately afterward- telling him that he is really good. I mean, it is not as if Fuji lost to someone like Kirihara. But Shiraishi, with his win against Fuji, becomes the first person to defeat Fuji in an official match. Although I admit, if the opposite thing happened then I would be doing what Fuji fans are doing, I would be complaining that it shouldn’t be like that- that this is unfair.

Ok…a bit off topic but the match of Shiraishi and Fuji is a really important bit to Shiraishi’s character, and the two of them are very interesting comparisons. Shiraishi is drawn in a very interesting way, his left hand is bandaged. This is never explained why, but Kintarou (the first year in his team) believe that this is because his left hand is poisoned. Shiraishi certainly plays along with this idea, although we don’t see him actually telling Kintarou that his hand is poisoned, Shiraishi would just begin to unwind his bandages and threatens Kintarou with death in order to make him do something, or not do something. We have actually never seen him unwinding the bandages completely, as he usually manages to gain Kintarou’s cooperation very easily. His first proper appearance is in Volume 35, when Kintarou tried to challenge Echizen to a match, instead of watching their other team mates. Once Kintarou left, he apologised to the Seigaku team. “Sorry for causing you guys problems.” The funny thing is that Momoshiro and Ejie seems to sort of believe this, as they both stared at Shiraishi with a rather frightened expression, and Momoshiro even mumbled out: “Poisoned hands…” this then made Shiraishi laugh and tell them that it is only a way to manage Kintarou. But because he seems the type of person who will never waste time, in the meat-eating competition he would put pieces of meat on the grill whenever someone took a piece to eat to make sure that no time is wasted, so I really think that there is something wrong with his left hand in the first place.

Despite using his hand to threaten Kintarou with death, Shiraishi actually seems to be quite fond of him, I think he really treats Kintarou as a younger brother. For example, in volume 30, as they watch Seigaku playing Higa, he is actually ruffling Kintarou’s hair.

Lastly, either there is a slight inconsistency, or Shiraishi is ambidextrous. During his match with Fuji, he uses his left hand most of the time, occasionally using both hands to hold the racquet. This suggests that he is left handed, but before the meat-eating competition, he and his team mates were eating noodles, and he was actually holding his chopsticks with his right hand, but later on in the meat-eating competition- we only see him using his left hand to hold the chopsticks.

Wow…this is getting to be quite a long essay- if only I can write my school essays as fast and as easy. But the above information are all from the manga, as the manga are the original. So, now, OVA parts.

To be honest I was quite worried that Shiraishi is going to end up being very different in the anime/OVA, as I have bad experiences with characters that I like in the past. Eg. Shuro from Ayashi no Ceres becomes totally random while Fushigi Yugi…let’s not go there. And prince of tennis is especially alarming because one of their other characters got this huge as sudden transform. So I was quite nervous as I watch the OVA, not that I could be assured because I didn’t get to watch a subbed version until some times later. Even though the people in the OVA looks really good, and his school’s tennis uniform is so much better. (although I’ll be really angry if I really like his coach, because I think his coach looks more evil in the OVA. I mean, he is quite a sly character in the manga, but he didn’t look evil.)

But much to my relief, the OVA didn’t ruin Shiraishi’s character, or dehydrate his role. I actually really like the extra scenes of him which they added, because they are very to character, which are not in the orginal manga. Shiraishi’s team mates were talking about how good Shiraishi is and his coach then recollected how he once walked pass the tennis court one evening/night when he saw Shiraishi there, all alone, practising. And it seems that he was pushing himself almost to the point of exhaustion, as he was actually panting- barely standing. But then he picked up his racquet once more and resumes practising. I really like what his coach then said: “Everything is the result of hard work.” Because this is true, and I think it reminds us that he is very different from Fuji. I think he has talent, but unlike Fuji it is not something he can rely on that much. I also like what Shiraishi did after the match against Fudomine, he clasped his two team mates on the shoulder and told them “well done”. This is what the captain should do, even if his team mate is really capable, so I think he is definitely one of the very good captains. Although a great pity is that even though the OVA convey the idea that he is playing perfect tennis for his team, even if he doesn’t like it, they didn’t specifically mention that this is because he is the captain, burdened with duty and responsibility.

The OVA also convince me that he treats/regards Kintarou as a little brother, because of the way he acted and spoke with Kintarou. I feel that it shows an elder brother’s exasperation of ‘What have you done this time?’ instead of a captain thinking ‘I’ve got to take responsibility for him.’ Perhaps it is also the fact that he would use his hand to threaten Kintarou, and his promise to Kintarou that they will be able to play against Seigaku if they win against Fudomine is more like a coax, instead of a logical reasoning. He and Kintarou also did the preview of OVA 15- introducing it, basically characters would kind of talk about the next episode as we see preview of the next episode. It is so cute, especially the last line!!! This is what happened.

K: It’s finally our turn to come out! Wait for me with a washed neck. (I think the last line is often a slang for fighting)
S: Kin-chan, this isn’t fighting. It’s tennis, tennis. (although I often think the story is like fighting, all the elaborate moves etc…)
K: Doesn’t matter, it’s all the same. Koshimae, be prepared! (Koshimae is Kintarou’s incorrect way of pronouncing Echizen’s name)
S: Sorry, Kin-chan, but it’s my match first.
K: What did you say? But no, never mind. Ok, go Shiraishi! Next episode: Houkou. Actually, what does Houkou mean?
S: You haven’t really been studying, have you, Kin-chan?
Shiraishi’s tone through out this is like a fond exasperation, quite elder brotherly…