MY JOURNEY INTO PoT OBSESSION:
I first got into Prince of Tennis when my friend bought the Shonen-Jump licensed manga here in the U.S. (I know, I know, I've heard all about how horrible the translation is. But PoT still rocks, no matter how bad the circumstances, lol.) I'm already a tennis fan, but I don't normally read shonen manga (I'm one of those shojo freaks...). As I discovered through reading the manga, though, Prince of Tennis kind of shatters the whole shonen/shojo boundary. Plus the artwork is awesome in all versions of PoT, although I'm an extra crazy fan of the anime. Not to mention I already know a thing or two about tennis, so I even enjoyed the tennis part of the story. And the amount of drool-worthy guys in this show is without a doubt off the charts, which settled the matter, and an obsession was born. I managed to get my hands on the anime episodes (although they had to be subtitled because my Japanese skills are, in the words of Inui, at 0%.). Frankly, I fell in love, and I'd like to think I haven't been this obsessed about an anime since... well, ever. In summary, Prince of Tennis rocks. If you're not watching it already, you really should be.
My Place in the PoT Fandom:
Besides the task of being the webmistress of TSL, such as it is, I'm fairly involved in other places of PoT obsession. (At least, I try to be, as much as possible! XD) I frequently lurk around all kinds of PoT-related communities on LiveJournal, though I wish I had the time to post a lot more. I also have an account on Fanfiction.net, where I post mostly PoT fanfics. My pet project from ff.net is the completed 25-chapter epic "When I Come Back to You," which got, um, waaayyy more attention than it deserved. ^^; Either way, I met a lot of PoT fans through that story, so if you happen to have heard of me outside this site, that's probably where it came from. In the coming months, I hope to be a lot more involved in PoT communities online, so you may see me around more often, if you frequent LJ or Boy's Cloud.
What I Like/Don't Like about PoT and its Fandom:
For the most part, I love everything about Tennis no Ohjisama/Prince of Tennis. In fact, I can't say I have a character that I really hate from the series. (Yes, I know, the fact that I include Horio and Tomoka in that list is... uh... shocking, at best. ^^;) I like everything about the series, from the manga to the anime to the musical. I also enjoy all aspects of the series, including but not limited to its most serious moments and its most off-the-wall crack humor. XD I've always been a fan of the music from PoT (BUYITBUYITBUYIT!!!!), and I've even become a PoT doujinshi enthusiast these days. I must confess, however, that there are some things about the actual series that I'm not so fond of. The main one is when the plot line gets a little out of control. O_O I mean, though I will always love everything about PoT, I hate trying to explain to my tennis-playing father why the tennis matches have become Dragonball Z-esque fights, where you can't even see the tennis ball. Still, the gripe is extremely minor, all things considered. XD
I also like pretty much everything about the PoT fandom, but there are a couple of things that get on my nerves sometimes. The main one is pairing bashing. While I can understand people not liking a certain pairing, especially if they have a favorite OTP involving two popular characters, I still don't like it. That's probably just because I'm unusually open-minded about pairings. This is something to keep in mind if you find yourself discussing potential PoT relationships with me. You are free to your opinions, of course, but you might not want to bash whatever it is in front of me. XD; Another thing that bugs me is PoT bashers in general, though I have yet to meet a significant amount of them. Since I'm so obsessed with the series, I can't help wanting to defend it from bashers, so that's a forewarning for any potential flamers. (Though I can't imagine flamers bothering to e-mail a site owner, but nevertheless...) Also, if you want to set me off on a rant, please feel free to call Ryoma a 'Mary-Sue' character. Then just sit back and watch the fireworks. XDDD
Mostly, though, there's just one thing about the fandom that gets me going: thoughtless media leeches. This includes direct linkers, as well as those who do nothing but download the anime music, anime eps, and doujinshi scans. For the record, that does not mean people who might download some things, but who also try to buy what they can afford. It just means those people who never even think of buying PoT merchandise themselves. The reason this bugs me is because I have seen not one, but two wonderful web sites get taken down due to some of these whining anime leeches. So bear in mind that I am not sympathetic to those types of people, and that I am one of the biggest advocates around for buying PoT stuff for yourself, if you possibly can. Trust me, it's more than worth it, and it also insures that there will be more PoT for everyone in the years to come! So, BUY IT! (I should probably mention... PoT does not have more media leeches than other anime fandoms, at least not as far as I know. This is just a general fandom pet peeve of mine. ^^;)
