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The New Prince of Tennis Manga to End Within a Year

The Prince of Tennis manga creator Takeshi Konomi posted on Tuesday that he plans to end the serialization of The New Prince of Tennis (Shin Tennis no Ōji-sama) manga within a year. His post commemorated the 26th anniversary of the original Prince of Tennis manga, and he noted that The New Prince of Tennis sequel itself has been running for 16 years. He asked his fans to keep reading until the very end.

Konomi serialized the original manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1999 to 2008. The manga follows middle school tennis player Ryōma Echizen as he battles rivals to reach the national tournament. The manga inspired a 2001-2005 television anime, two anime feature films and a theatrical short, various video anime projects, a live-action film, a live-action television series in China, and a popular stage musical series.

Konomi launched The New Prince of Tennis sequel in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine in 2009. The Shin Tennis no Ōji-sama U-17 World Cup (The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup) anime series premiered in July 2022, and was the first television series in the franchise in about a decade. The anime's sequel series titled Shin Tennis no Ōji-sama U-17 World Cup Semifinal premiered on October 2.

Konomi did not attend the Jump Festa '23 event in December 2022 due to his poor health. He explained at the time that he had been in poor health several times in 2022 due to an unspecified illness. He then reported February 2023 that he was unable to walk and was using a wheelchair. He has since regained the ability to walk and has been attending events.

The Prince of Tennis II: RisingBeat (Shin Tennis no Ōji-sama Rising Beat) smartphone game announced on Monday that the game will end service on August 31 at 3:00 p.m. JST.

Source: Takeshi Konomi's X/Twitter account via Hachima Kikō