Sadaharu Inui

Infobox animanga character
name = Sadaharu Inui
series = The Prince of Tennis


caption =
first =
last =
creator = Takeshi Konomi
voiced by = Kenjirō Tsuda (Japanese)
Jack Bauer (English)
age =
born = June 3
class = 3-11
relatives =
aux1 name = School
aux1 = Seishun Academy Middle School
aux2 name = Style
aux2 = Data Tennis, Serve and Volley, right handed

nihongo|Sadaharu Inui|乾 貞治|Inui Sadaharu is a fictional character in the anime and manga "The Prince of Tennis". In the most recent character popularity poll, Inui came in 5th place.cite book |title= Prince of Tennis　Vol. 38 |last= Konomi |first= Takeshi |year= 2007 |publisher= Shueisha |isbn= 978-4-08-874353-0 |pages= 192 |chapter= Genius 333 ]

History

Four years prior to the start of the series, Inui and Renji Yanagi from Rikkaidai were an unstoppable Elementary School Doubles Pairing. Unfortunately, their doubles pairing was ended when Yanagi suddenly moved to the Kanagawa Prefecture.

Inui is a highly intelligent player. He plays what he calls "Data Tennis," which involves collecting and analysing data for a player in order to determine weaknesses. He is even able to determine the exact probability of certain shots being successful. The Data Tennis style actually originated from Yanagi. To his surprise, Data Tennis does not work against Ryoma Echizen who evolves over the course of a match, and Jin Akutsu (although Inui never played against him), due to his natural flexibility making shots unpredictable. Inui also finds it difficult to get accurate data on Shusuke Fuji and Kunimitsu Tezuka. Before Echizen came to Seigaku, Inui was considered the third strongest player of the team, with only Tezuka and Fuji above him.

Inui was beaten by Ryoma, and then lost to Kaoru Kaidoh (who had also been beaten earlier by Echizen and was determined not to lose his spot) at the beginning of the series and became the team's manager. He uses his data to create exercise programs for the team. His most hated innovation would have to be his "Inui Juice" or "Penal Tea" (penalty), a disgusting health drink which is used as punishment. The contents of "Inui Juice" are unknown, but Inui is always coming up with new and "better" recipes. When the team went bowling, Inui's new invention "Aozu" first knocked out Kaido and even Fuji (who usually enjoyed drinking the "Inui Juice" or "Penal Tea") as well as the rest of the team. Even Inui himself falls victim to the "Aozu".

Eventually, Inui is able to make it back as a regular by using the data he obtained over the time he was manager, losing to Kunimitsu Tezuka but beating Takeshi Momoshiro. While he's a very good singles player, he usually plays doubles with various partners, most notably his protegé Kaoru Kaidoh. His doubling with Kaidoh helped Seigaku overcome their problems with doubles teams (which Ryuzaki considered weak with only the Golden Pair as an effective team).

Techniques

;Sonic Serve:A serve used by Inui that is very fast and difficult to return. Inui achieved an even faster version of this serve after removing his weighted wrist band (a part of his continuous training prior to the Kantou tournament) during his match against Hyotei Gakuen's Doubles 1. It is said that this serve has a speed of 197km/h.

;Data Tennis:More of a playing strategy than a special move, he collects data during and before the match to defeat his opponent. He uses probability to determine what shot will be made, and where it will go. The effectiveness of his use of Data tennis increased greatly after he implemented a new training regimine (2.25 times more difficult than Kaidoh's, whose own training menu was three times harder than that of the rest of the team, making Inui's training several times as hard as that of the others) in order to improve his ability to physically reach the predicted location of tennis balls.

:Although later on in the series, before the nationals, he starts to play a rougher form of tennis that consists of mainly power and speed shots whenever he realizes that his data is useless.

;Waterfall:A serve that is faster and stronger than the Scud serve, it set a new record at 212km/h in the nationals. But later the record was broken by the Neo Scud Serve at 215 km/h. Its arc and descent resemble that of a waterfall. It was not named by Inui himself, he had overheard the description of his serve by a kouhai (junior) as resembling a waterfall the engulfs the opponent. It was first seen in the national championship against Hyotei Gakuen in Doubles 2.

;Rising Shot:Its is a shot that the user immediately hit the ball after bouncing. Inui used this in his match with Renji Yanagi of Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku.;Jack Knife:The Jack Knife is a fast, sharp and powerful high-leveled backhand shot made by using the front foot to jump into the air with balance while utilizing a pendulum-like effect of the body to achieve maximum strength. Originally used by teammate Takeshi Momoshiro.

Tournament Matches

legend0|#ADD8E6 = Win
legend0|#C4C3D0 = Loss

= Tezuka played as a singles match against Chitose.cite book |title= Prince of Tennis 38 |last= Konomi |first= Takeshi |date= 2006-06-04 |publisher= Shueisha |isbn= 978-4-08-874353-0 |language= Japanese |pages= 192 |chapter = Genius 332 ]

Notable Matches

Ryoma Echizen

During the First Ranking Tournament of the school year, Ryoma broke his Data Tennis using the one-footed Split Step.

Kunimitsu Tezuka

After defeating Takeshi Momoshiro, Inui was waiting for a match with Tezuka since long time ago. The team also discovered that Inui trained 2.25 times the training menu he has given to the team during his manager role, pulling out his data tennis and his physical condition to another level. But at the end, Tezuka won the match 6-4, proving that he's still Seigaku's captain and current Pillar of Support.

Renji Yanagi

In the final match of the Kantou Tournament, between Seigaku and Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku, Inui and Yanagi once again meet one another. As the match starts, Yanagi's Data seems to be too much for Inui's. Inui then announces that he'll abandon his Data, shocking everyone. The two fight back and forth, reaching a score of 5-4, in Yanagi's favor. At that point, Inui reminds Yanagi that they had an unfinished match with that score from 3 years ago, and he realizes Inui never even abandoned his data, but manipulated everything to this point. In the manga, this is apparently intentional, while in the anime, an idea is given that it was partly accidental and Inui only took advantage of the turn of events to convince Yanagi of his skills.

Inui fights hard against Yanagi, forcing the two to go into a tiebreak. Eventually, Inui manages to defeat his old friend and rival.

Later on in the National's Finals Match, Inui and Kaidoh play against Yanagi Renji and Kirihara Akaya of Rikaidai Fuzoku. Yanagi surprises Inui with his serve because it was against Inui's data but Inui still manage to return it with a lob and then Kirihara went in for the kill by returning the lob by using Kaidoh's Short Snake move. The ball made a wound on Kaidoh's face. The match continues with both parties rallying. However Kirihara falls into his 'Bloodshot' state and wins 4 straight games. Being pressured, Kaidoh uses his Tornado Snake but much to his surprise, Kirihara returns it using the same move with more destructive power, causing more injury to the pair. Kaidoh then becomes serious and uses his new move, a variant of Yagyuu Hiroshi's "Laser Beam" called "Gyro Laser". Later on, Kirihara got hit by the "Gyro Laser" and awakens to become 'Demon Akaya.' He didn't smash on Kaidoh, instead he hit Inui. When the score turns to 5-1, Inui says that he collected all the data at the time he gets injured by the ball. In the end however, Inui collapses and they are forced to forefeit the doubles 2 match.

There might be a possibility that Inui's Data Tennis can be used to its fullest after this match.

Inui Juice

One of Inui's most notable traits is his penchant to brew horrible vegetable juices (named "Inui Juices"), which he uses mostly in practice as punishment for players who fail the training menus. Only he and Fuji dare to drink.

The Progression of Inui Juices throughout the anime series is:

* Inui Special Vegetable Juice //episode 9

* Inui Juice Deluxe //episode 23
* Golden Power Remix Inui Juice //episode 23

* Penal-Tea //episode 38
* Improved Penal-Tea //episode 39
* Special Improved Deluxe Penal Tea //episode 39

* Inui Juice Special High Grade Deluxe //episode 53
* Inui Hyper Remix Juice //episode 64
* Revised Special Golden Power Remix Inui-juice Neo

* Aozu (blue vinegar)(All team members fall to this brew, including, for the first time, Inui and Fuji)
* Akazu (red vinegar) //episode 87 - Prince of Bowling
* Improved Akazu (dark reddish violet vinagar) // episode 98 - Prince of Billiards

* Super Royal Inui Juice Z (combination of Aozu and Akazu) //episode 98 - Prince of Billiards

* Iwashi Mizu (Sardine Water) // Prince of Tennis (OVA) 7 - Beach Volleyball

* Marvelous Surprise Inui Juice Excellent // OVA - A Day on Survival Mountain

Trivia

* Like Tezuka, Inui is an only child. His parents are among the few of the Seigaku tennis team members that are barely mentioned in the series, contrasted with others such as Ryoma, Kawamura, or Fuji, who have had most of their family members introduced.

* Inui's eyes are dark green in the anime and dark brown in the manga. In the anime, both of Inui's eyes are first seen in the short movie "Atobe kara no Okurimono" ("Atobe's Gift" in English). When Inui is jumping during one of the competitions held by Atobe in the festival, both of his eyes are revealed. Prior to that, only one of his eyes were shown in the anime series; during episode 168, which Inui's glasses were broken in a regulars match with Eiji Kikumaru. In the manga, we can see his eyes during the match against Renji Yanagi (Chapter 211 pgs 18-19), and we can see another picture of his eyes in the cover of his single "Distance".

* In the Spanish dubbing for Animax channel in Latin America, due to the particular Spanish accents, his first name is pronounced "Sadayaru". (Most of the characters are called by their given names.)

* Running jokes in the anime include other characters getting a look at Inui's eyes behind his glasses, his tendency to surprise others by appearing behind them unannounced, and various situations involving Inui Juice. Ryoma was once caught by Inui when they went on a training camp before the match with Rikkai; also, Inui was not wearing his glasses while sleeping, but when he rolled over, Ryoma sees that Inui is wearing a blindfold. Another one is to have Inui attempt to use his data and maths formulas to cheat at other games (for example: Bowling or Billiard), only to fail. Although, there was a case in the anime when his data helped him win a baseball game.

* Running jokes in the manga, however, include Inui attempting to escape a punishment he cannot take, and the result is usually something worse, like getting his pants pulled down. An example is in his avoidance of the "Silver Seat", by taking a hit to the face with a volleyball, his partner, Kisarazu Ryou says he's unfair, but by trying to pull him down by grabbing his clothes, he inadvertently leaves him to a worser fate of getting his swim trunks pulled off.

* Inui often spies on his teammates outside of school or practice, such as the time when Ann Tachibana took Momoshiro on a tennis date, or when Kawamura went on a "date" with Akutsu's mother Yuuki, whom everyone mistook for his girlfriend since she was a beautiful and very young-looking woman. He also stalks people from other teams, like when he spied on the Ginka team right after Ryoma Echizen defeated them to rescue Sakuno Ryuzaki from their bullying. He even does this in the last episode of the manga, where he spies on Fuji teasing Tezuka.

* In the TeniPuri Family chibi episodes Inui is the father of the family and can always be seen quoting data and statistics. He's also often beaten up by Oishi, who plays the mother of the family and has a rather volatile temper.

* When Inui was doubles partners with Yanagi, he was called "Hakase" which means doctor.

Actors

* In the Anime series, Inui's seiyū (or voice actor) is Kenjirō Tsuda.

* For the live-action adaptation film of "The Prince of Tennis", Tenimyu actor Hirofumi Araki portrays Inui.

* In The Prince of Tennis Musicals, Inui is portrayed by actors Sota Aoyama (2003-2005), Hirofumi Araki (2005-2006), Masei Nakayama (2006-2007), and Yuuta Takahashi (2007-present).

Reception

In each of the official character popularity polls for the series run in Weekly Shonen Jump, Inui has appeared in the Top 10, with his rank steadily increasing. In the first two polls he came in 10th place each time, [cite book |title= Prince of Tennis　Vol. 10 |last= Konomi |first= Takeshi |authorlink= Takeshi Konomi |year= 2001 |publisher= Shueisha |isbn= 4-08-873162-X |pages= 184 |chapter= Genius 83 ] [cite book |title= Prince of Tennis　Vol. 18 |last= Konomi |first= Takeshi |year= 2003 |publisher= Shueisha |isbn= 4-08-873407-6 |pages= 192 |chapter= Genius 158 ] and he increased to 6th place in the third poll. [cite book |title= Prince of Tennis　Vol. 33 |last= Konomi |first= Takeshi |year= 2006 |publisher= Shueisha |isbn= 4-08-874048-3 |pages= 192 |chapter= Genius 276 ] In the fourth poll, Inui made it into the Top 5 for the first time, appearing in fifth place.

References