BackgroundEdit

Ryoga Echizen (越前 リョーガ, Echizen Ryoga) is a high school tennis player not mentioned in The Prince of Tennis, first appearing in The Prince of Tennis - The Two Samurai: The First Game (テニスの王子様 二人のサムライ The First Game,, Tenisu no Ōji-sama Futari no Samurai The First Game), later appearing in an OVA in New York in which Ryoma spots him training.

Nanjirō Echizen, Ryoma's father, adopted Ryoga, though the reason is yet unknown. His techniques are copies from Nanjirō Echizen, like Ryoma in the beginning of the series, but his Twist Serve that he learned from Nanjirō also, has the opposite spin so instead of bouncing to the opponent's head, it bounces away.

While the Echizen family were in America, Ryoga was taken in by Echizen Nanjiro and lived with them for a time.

He is Ryoma's "brother" (though it was not stated whether or not Ryoga had any blood relation with Nanjiro or not). His tennis technique is modeled on that of Nanjiro.

When he left the Echizen's home, he was hired by the billionaire Sakurafubuki Hikomaro to play tennis for him in his gambling schemes. In the flashbacks, it showed that he was rather close to Ryoma.

At first he said that Ryoma's tennis was awful (which was true when he was about five or so). It was shown that Ryoga's skills were far superior, but as Ryoma continued to improve, Ryoga began spending more time with him. It is unknown why he ran away, possibly that he was just bored with home.

In the fourth OVA, Another Story, Ryoga makes another appearance and finally after surprisingly large popularity and then despite never appearing in the manga, Ryoga is brought into the manga by creator Konomi Takeshi in the sequel series New Prince of Tennis.

AppearanceEdit

Ryoga and Ryoma may be adoptive-brothers, but they both look alike. He bears a strong resemblance to Ryoma with his hazel eyes (blue eyes in the manga) and black-green hair.

Based on his height and muscular build Ryoga might be at least 3-4 years older than Ryoma. Ryoga's key features are his necklace, and his love of oranges. He is almost always shown tossing an orange. Like his younger adoptive brother Ryoma, he tends to juggle a tennis ball with his racket while walking. Ryoga is similar in height to the rest of the High Schoolers in that he is rather tall compared to the Middle Schoolers. In the U-17 Camp, Ryoga wears a hoodie under his uniform, with his jacket completely unzipped, and has his trademark necklace.

PersonalityEdit

• Ryoga's habit of juggling an orange or a tennis ball or even both while walking or talking.
• Ryoga acting cocky.
• Ryoga's love of oranges.

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Ryoga has similar personality traits like Ryoma. He too is cocky and arrogant, but overcomes it by his dedication to tennis. He uses a similar catchphrase as Ryoma and Nanjiro, which is "Mada mada dane," his is "Mada mada daze."

Ryoga is shown to be like a big brother to Ryoma even though they are not blood related. He shows some protectiveness over Ryoma. Two instances include when he saved Ryoma from a group of thugs that tried to harm Ryoma when he was not paying attention to them (in the US) and in the manga where he easily returned a serve from Byoudouin Houou in the U-17 camp. The reason for his disappearance is still unknown during the movie.

In the movie, The Prince of Tennis: The Two Samurai - The First Game, it is shown that he, like Nanjiro, is a shameless flirt.

Ryoga has a love for oranges and has been shown to even eat them without peeling them. Ryoga is almost always seen with an orange when off the court.

HistoryEdit

RegionalsEdit

Ryoga first appears in The Two Samurai Movie, which takes place after the Kanto Regional Championship. Ryoga is not mentioned in the main manga or the anime.

Aboard one of Sakurafubuki's cruise ships Ryoga Echizen introduces himself to the team as Ryoma's older brother. Ryoma reveals that Ryoga was "taken in" by Nanjiro many years ago when they lived in America.

Sakurafubuki organizes a match between his hired team and Seigaku since they were the Kanto Region Champions. However the corrupt Sakurafubuki demands the Seigaku players lose on purpose so that he can gain loads of money from the people that bet on the recently crowned Kanto Regional Champions winning against his hired team.

However Ryoga, eventually becomes angered by this as he realizes he wants a serious match with his younger adoptive brother. Despite Sakurafubuki's orders, Echizen Ryoga decides to betray Sakurafubuki in order to play a match against his brother to see who's the better player. While this happens Sakurafubuki holds several Seigaku members hostage forcing Ryoma, who plays in the last match to lose on purpose so his teammates can be freed. However Ryoga decides that he will not be Sakurafubuki's pawn any longer, and fires a tennis ball straight into his forehead. This allows the rest of the team to escape once again. As Ryoma and Ryoga's match continues, a terrible storm brews, forcing everyone on the ship to evacuate through the lifeboats.

The Echizen brothers keep playing their match, even as an enormous tidal wave descends upon the cruise ship. They seem unfazed as they play their match underwater. In the end, thanks to luck, Ryoma is the match's victor when the ball drops onto Ryoga's side of the net, despite that the net is gone and a large light has crashed across the court. Ryoga accepts his defeat and remarks that Ryoma's tennis certainly has improved. The two escape via Ryoga's jet ski, and Ryoma is reunited with his team, who have all escaped the ship unharmed. Ryoga takes Ryoma's hat and gives him an orange and tells him to find his Grand Dream. After Ryoga's chat, he rides his jet ski into the sunset.

Prior To U-17 CampEdit

Ryoga is shown practicing against a wall in New York that shows his intense level of power as the wall is completely dented. Ryoma is shown watching him during the first episode of the Another Story OVA. This is while Seigaku and Shitenhoji had a joint training camp for two days which was after the Middle School Nationals.

In the ending credits of the OVA, Ryoma returns from Osaka and is seen in a cab in New York, only to see Ryoga outside the window. Ryoma opens the cab door and smiles seeing Ryoga and the song ends with Ryoma on a street tennis court serving a ball, most likely to his brother.

Ryoga's next appearance is in The New Prince of Tennis OVA 1. When Jack tries to aim a ball at his brother's face and Ken was not fast enough to stop it, Ryoga stops Jack's shot with a Twist Serve and also knocks Jack out with the the same serve from a roof above the downtown tennis courts. He and Ryoma stare at each other for a bit, but then Ryoga walks away right before Ryoma receives his invitation to the U-17 Camp. During this time, Ryoga is wearing a black hoodie, the same one that is later seen at the U-17 Camp.

U-17 CampEdit

Ryoga's first appearance in the manga and main storyline doesn't occur until New Prince of Tennis within the U-17 Camp.

Upon the arrival of the 1st Stringers, the bus stops outside the entrance of the camp. Representative candidates No. 11-20 head to the outer courts to participate in their Foreign Expedition Group Challenge matches which involves 2nd Stringers challenging them for their spots.

While all this is going on, the Top 10 relax on the 1st Stringers coach bus, revealing Ryoga as a member of the Top 10, though his name was not mentioned until much later. Ryoga appears on the bus wearing a hoodie underneath his uniform, his signature necklace, and tossing an orange which is a known habit of his and also his favorite thing to eat.

Ryoga and the rest of the Top 10 believing that No. 11-20 will easily defeat their challengers head to the main courts, to greet the rest of the members of the camp, where the Coaches declare that they have not met Ryoga before asking who he was. Showing that after meeting Ryoma and escaping the boat on a jet ski in Futari no Samurai he really did go and explore like he said since Byoudouin Houou states that they met him abroad, saw his skill and found out he had Japanese citizenship.

Ryoga and the Top 10 wait at the courts. At this time, Ryoga is still wearing his hoodie, not revealing to Echizen Ryoma who he is. However, he stands with the rest of the Top 10 and lines up against the Top 2nd Stringers wearing his No.4 badge. The coaches notice Ryoga and state that they havent met him before, however Byoudouin explains that they met him abroad.

Ryoga is present at the courts with the rest of the camp upon finding out that the Middle Schoolers defeated No. 11-20 and replaced them as 1st Stringers. After Kimijma Ikuto decides to create a new match rota, later on, Byoudouin sees Tokugawa Kazuya and Ryoma finishing a long practice session. He decides to target them by htting powerful serves, attempting to injure them.

One ball hits Tokugawa and sends him to the floor; however, a serve is suddenly aimed straight at a startled Ryoma's face. Just in time, Ryoga arrives, returning the shot that sent Tokugawa to the floor with ease. He greets them using his childhood nickname for Ryoma, "Long time no see, Chibisuke." He was surprised that Ryoma did not remember the face of his older brother.

Ryoga is then seen with the rest of the camp watching the Representative match for spots No.10 and No.9 with the rest of the camp.

When Kintaro and Oni begin their match, Ryoga excuses himself to go to the restroom, racket in hand. Ryoma, seeing this, excuses himself as well and follows him. Ryoga actually makes his way to the restrooms, making Ryoma question his motives, since Ryoma believed that Ryoga wished to play an unofficial match with him. Ryoga notes that there is "someone who wants to play" Ryoma more than him, and Jin Akutsu makes an appearance.

Once it is obvious that Akutsu has no interest in becoming an All Japan Representative and that he only wants to play Ryoma for revenge. Ryoma declines, and Ryoga offers to play with him instead. Akutsu throws what appears to be 10 balls at him, but Ryoga uses his Clone Technique to dodge them all. They begin to play with 10 balls, and Akutsu is shown to hit them all with ease before Ryoga uses Byoudouin Houou's techique to hit a ball with incredible force. The ball has shockwaves powerful enough to wreck the wall of the building behind Akutsu, and likely would have sent him hurling, just as Byoudouin managed to do to Tokugawa, had Ryoma not stepped in. As it was, Ryoma pushed Akutsu aside to take Ryoga's shot, but is unable to fully return it, causing his racket to fall out of his hand. The Echizen brothers are about to engage in a match when Sanada Genichiro appears and berates them for them for their foolishness.

Sanada leaves with Akutsu, leaving the brothers alone; Ryoma takes this opportunity to ask Ryoga to teach him how to hit "that shot" from earlier.

Tennis RecordEdit

Playing Style and TechniquesEdit

Ryoga Echizen uses a tennis style based off of his adoptive fathers and therefore plays quite a lot like Echizen. He is Right-Handed, an All-Rounder, and is also very skilled since he was given the No.4 badge of the U-17 All-Japan team. He was accepted by the 1st stringers, who are usually very arrogant and confident about their abilities.

Ryoga was also able to easily return the serve of Byoudouin Houou, which shattered the wall around the court on the previous occasion. He can also hit the same shot as Byoudouin, though it's unknown if it is as strong.

Twist Serve

The Twist serve is one of Ryoga's main shots. However, due to a different grip that Ryoga uses, the ball shoots away from the opponent, making it difficult to return. Ryoga uses this serve in the movie.

Clone Technique

Ryoga uses this techique when Akutsu attacks him with lots of balls.

He uses it to avoid shots or return them easily

TriviaEdit

• Ryoga is the only character in the series to appear in a Movie before his anime and manga appearance. Ryoga first appears in movie The Two Samurai. He then appears in the anime episode The Prince of Naniwa First Act which is an OVA from the Another Story series which takes place just after the Nationals. After this, Ryoga appears in the manga New Prince of Tennis chapter 50. Ryoga then appears in the New Prince of Tennis Special.
• In both the movie and manga, when he meets Ryoma, he has the same reaction and similar wording when Ryoma has forgotten him. He looks slightly shocked and quotes, "Don't tell me you forgot your older brother."
• There is a high chance that Ryoga is blood relative, most likely half-brother, of Ryoma as he is at least sixteen years old, much older than Nanjirou's relationship with Rinko.