Yamabuki Middle School

₩article issues
unreferenced = January 2007
tone = September 2007

nihongo|Yamabuki Middle School|私立山吹中学校 is a national caliber tennis team in the manga and anime "Prince of Tennis". They first appear in the semi-finals of the Prefecturals Tournament Arc, facing Fudomine Middle School. They easily beat Fudomine because some of the members of the Fudomine team were in a car wreck before the match. They then play Seishun Academy Middle School. Seishun beats them with a match score of 3-1. They then advance to the Kantou tournament, but lose to Fudomine in the quarterfinals. They still win 5th place, getting them into Nationals, but they lose in the early rounds. Yamabuki's uniforms are green jackets with yellow stripes with hoods (Fudomine is the only other school to have hoods), shirts also the same design, white shorts, and green warm-up pants.

Members

Kentarou Minami

nihongo|Kentarou Minami|南 健太郎|Minami Kentarō is a 3rd year student and the captain of the team. He is a doubles player who typically plays with Higashikata. They are strong in the basics and use a strategy to pressure opponents.

Notable Matches: vs. Kikumaru-Oishi pair, the match starts off with the Yamabuki doubles pressuring Oishi with hard shots. When Eiji goes to help, Oishi declines it. Eventually Seigaku regains their pace and wins the game. Together, he and Higashikata are known as the Jimmies, which refers to the Japanese word 地味 (jimi), which means plain, or dull. They definitely do not like this nickname.

Despite being the captain, Minami is not a very distinguished character and Sengoku is often believed to be the captain instead. This has often been joked about in radio dramas and in the musicals.

"Stats"
*Age: 15
*Birthday: 3rd July
*Height: 178cm
*Weight: 66kg
*Dominant Hand: Right
*Play Style: Counter Puncher
*Family: Father, Mother, Younger Brother
*Blood Type: A
*Seiyuu: Masaki Ishikawa

Kiyosumi Sengoku

nihongo|Kiyosumi Sengoku|千石 清純|Sengoku Kiyosumi is a 3rd year student and vice-captain of the team who is also known as Lucky Sengoku. He is a strong player on the team; despite this he is a happy-go-lucky guy. He has a strong tennis sense and extremely sharp eyes. He sees even the fastest moving balls. His strongest weapon is his jumping serve, known as "Kohou (Tiger Cannon)".After losing against Momoshiro (Seigaku) and Kamio (Fudomine), he leaves tennis for a short time.

In the anime, he throws away all his ways of playing tennis, and focuses on boxing. When he comes back to go to the camp to be chosen for the Goodwill Games between Japan and America, his new style, "Boxing Tennis", becomes a turning point in his style of play. He is able to get his revenge match against Momoshiro during the camp. However, in the Goodwill Games in the Single 3 match, both Sengoku and Bobby Max ran out of energy which caused the game to be called a No Contest.

"Stats"
*Age: 15
*Birthday: 25th November
*Height: 170cm
*Weight: 59kg
*Dominant Hand: Right
*Play Style: All Rounder
*Family: Father, Mother, Older sister
*Blood Type: O
*Seiyuu: Kōsuke Toriumi

Taichi Dan

nihongo|Taichi Dan|壇 太一|Dan Taichi is a 1st year student and the manager of the team. Not much is known about him, except for the fact that he looks up to Akutsu ever since meeting him in the school courts. He wears a green headband, one that Akutsu tossed away in that same encounter and Dan has kept ever since. Dan is even shorter than Ryoma at 147 centimetres (Ryoma's 151 cm) and believes he is too short and weak to play tennis. However, thanks to Akutsu's advice, he eventually decides to quit being a manager and start actually playing tennis. In the anime he copies Ryoma's style and challenges him to a match. He has a habit of saying "desu" at the end of his sentences.

Notable Matches: Vs. Ryoma, Dan challenges Ryoma in the anime and loses horribly. Dan shows that he has learned the Twist Serve and Drive B, but due to his inexperience fails to win a single game against Ryoma. (It should, however, be stated that it's quite remarkable for him to learn in such a short time these moves that most adults have trouble executing.)

"Stats"
Age: 12
*Birthday: 2nd January
*Height: 147cm
*Weight: 41kg
*Dominant Hand: Left
*Family: Father, Mother, Little sister, Dog
*Blood Type: AB
*Seiyuu: Yumiko Kobayashi

Jin Akutsu

nihongo|Jin Akutsu|亜久津 仁|Akutsu Jin is a 3rd year student and a punk, who was a once-per-decade tennis player. But after the match against Ryoma he has a mild change of heart; while he keeps his rough attitude, he's more willing to help those who need him, as proved when he helps Ryoma prepare for the Kantou final against Sanada. He also shows up at the middle of the match together with Taichi, who has become his sort-of protegé.

Akutsu uses an incredible playstyle. He uses the unusual flexibility of his body to put high speeds on his shots and hit balls in unnatural positions. Some of his famous techniques are the "Sliding" and the way he disappears and suddenly shows up at the net. He formerly used a style where he aimed the ball at people to win, similar to the style of Akaya Kirihara.

After he loses to Ryoma in the Yamabuki match Akutsu quits tennis, but in the anime he shows up after Ryoma's big loss against Rikkaidai's Genichirou Sanada and challenges him to a match, claiming that he wanted to see if Ryoma hadn't turn into a coward. At first Ryoma is losing game after game, but then turns the match around and wins.

Akutsu was raised alone by his mother, Yuuki (he was born when she was only 19 years old, and his father is never mentioned) and has been a friend of Takashi Kawamura for years. They met in a karate dojo they used to attend as children. Akutsu was seen smoking a cigarette in the manga of chapter 81.

Notable Matches
* Ryoma Echizen: Akutsu put much pressure on Ryoma with his unnatural movements. Ryoma couldn't predict which way the ball would go and ended up running in the opposite direction. Eventually Ryoma uses his split step twice and is able to reach the ball. During the time-out, Nanjiroh ventures that Banji's voice is starting to affect the way Akutsu plays; however, after that Akutsu's drives becomes more powerful. Ryoma wins and Akutsu, satisfied with his own performance and feeling that there's nothing else to do, officially quits tennis.

* Kevin Smith (anime only): Even though Akutsu quit tennis he still challenges Kevin Smith for revenge (Kevin had beaten up all the Yamabuki regulars with his violent playstyle), but he takes a humiliating loss when Kevin uses Ryoma's techniques to beat him, including the Drive A, One-footed split step, and Drive B.

In chapter 330, Akutsu reappears during the Kawamura v/s Gin Ishida (Shitenhouji) match. Unable to return Ishida's ultra-powerful shots anymore, a seriously injured Kawamura is sent literally flying towards the crowd much to the horror of his teammates, but Akutsu catches his friend mid-air and saves him from crashing into the seats.

In chapter 369, Akutsu and Ryoma's other past rivals have appeared to help Ryoma recover his lost memories due to amnesia.

"Stats"
*Age: 15
*Birthday: 2nd April
*Height: 183cm
*Weight: 71kg
*Dominant Hand: Right
*Play Style: Aggressive Baseliner
*Family: Mother
*Blood Type: B
*Seiyuu: Nozomu Sasaki

Masami Higashikata

nihongo|Masami Higashikata|東方 雅美|Higashikata Masami is a 3rd year student and Minami's doubles partner. He is also notably the tallest in the team, measuring at 187 cm and is the other half of the Jimmies.

"Stats"
*Age: 15
*Birthday: September 10
*Height: 187cm
*Weight: 76kg
*Dominant Hand: Right
*Family: Father, Mother, Younger Sister

Ichiuma Kita

nihongo|Ichiuma Kita|喜多 一馬|Kita Ichiuma is a 2nd year student and Nitobe's doubles partner. He likes tomatoes, and is equally cynical. He has trademark swirls on his cheeks.

"Stats"
*Age: 14
*Birthday: July 26
*Height: 170cm
*Blood Type: O

Inakichi Nitobe

nihongo|Inakichi Nitobe|新渡米 稲吉|Nitobe Inakichi is a 3rd year student and Kita's doubles partner. He is cynical, sarcastic, and weird. He has a trademark plant protruding out of the top of his head.

"Stats"
Age: 15
*Birthday: August 8
*Height: 168cm
*Blood Type: A

Tôji Muromachi

nihongo|Touji Muromachi|室町 十次|Muromachi Tōji is a 2nd year student. He is referred to on rajipuri as Yamabuki's eternal secret weapon, as his matches are usually never shown. Muromachi has a smart mouth, always wearing sun glasses and seems to think highly of his senpai, Sengoku.

"Stats"
Age: 14
*Birthday: October 31
*Dominant Hand: Right
*Family: Father, Mother, Older Sister
*Blood Type: AB

Tsubasa Nishikiori

nihongo|Tsubasa Nishikiori|錦織 翼|Nishikiori Tsubasa is a 3rd year student and the replacement for Akutsu after he quits tennis. However, he does not manage to do a lot.

V.S

eigaku

D2-Takashi Kawamura/Shusuke Fuji v.s Inakichi Nitobe/Ichiuma Kita. Yamabuki Wins. 3-6

D1-Eiji Kikumaru/Shuichiro Oishi v.s Masami Higashikata/Kentarou Minami. Seigaku Wins. 7-5

S3-Momoshiro Takeshi v.s Kiyosumi Sengoku. Seigaku Wins. 7-5

S2-Ryoma Echizen v.s Jin Akutsu. Seigaku Wins. 6-4

Fudomine

D2-Kyousuke Uchimura/Tatsunori Mori v.s Inakichi Nitobe/Ichiuma Kita. Fudomine Wins. 7-6

D1-Tetsu Ishida/Masaya Sakurai v.s Masami Higashikata/Kentarou Minami. Yamabuki Wins. 4-6

S3-Shinji Ibu v.s Tsubasa Nishikiori. Fudomine Wins. 6-1

S2-Akira Kamio v.s Kiyosumi Sengoku. Fudomine Wins. 7-6

ources

*Various Prince of Tennis manga chapters and anime episodes.
*Prince of Tennis 40.5 artbook