Ryouma Echizen

Ryouma Echizen is the main protagonist from the Prince of Tennis anime and manga.

Ryouma is a first year student at Seishun Academy, which he attends immediately after his arrival in Japan after formerly residing in the United States.

Appearance
Ryouma, being twelve-years old, is noticeably shorter than his fellow 2nd and 3rd year regulars; although he is at a similar height to all of his fellow 1st year peers and classmates. He has brown eyes (hazel in the anime) and green tinted black hair. His eyes are sharply shaped and big, giving his facial expression the look of a confident, yet childish, person.

Ryouma’s signature clothing item is his Fila hat (however, in the anime the "F" for Fila is censored and replaced by an "R" for Ryoma). His shoe brand also belongs to Fila. He is almost never seen without his hat with the exceptions being when he is in his school uniform or sleeping at home.

His usual tennis gear outside of his Seigaku Regular uniform is a white short sleeved collar shirt with the sleeves being red (along with the top part of his collar having 2 red lines) and black (or a very dark shade of blue) shorts. On occasions, Ryouma wears a dark-and-light red jacket over his white-red shirt. He is most often seen in his Seigaku Regular's uniform or his school uniform.

In the New Prince of Tennis, after training in the mountains, Ryouma is seen wearing the Black Revolutionary Brigade Jersey. Also, after the mountain training, he is always seen wearing a band-aid on his nose, due to a small injury he received while training in the mountains.

Personality
He does not go easy on himself and pushes himself more, rather than letting himself rest. He is specifically a singles player, though he did try doubles once with teammate Momoshiro Takeshi. After seeing how bad he was at doubles, Coach Ryuuzaki usually placed him in the S3 (Singles 3) or S2 (Singles 2) position. When captain Tezuka Kunimitsu goes away for rehabilitation for his arm, Ryouma and teammate Fuji Shūsuke take turns for the S1 (Singles 1) position. In the Nationals, Ryouma often found himself placed in the S1 position nearly every match.

Ryouma has a habit of forgetting people that he finds insignificant or met for a brief moment. The first person he forgets is Sakuno which saddens her. Another person he forgets is Sasabe and his father. He also forgot Sengoku as they met just briefly. Whether he does this on purpose is as of yet unknown.

His catchphrase (and favorite phrase) in the Japanese anime is "Mada Mada Dane", literally meaning "No, not yet" or "Not good enough", although the literal translation in Japanese is "You still have lots more to work on". In the American version, it is translated as "You still have a ways to go".

In the Prince of Tennis movie Tennis no Ōjisama - Futari no Samurai, Ryouma supposedly has an older brother named Ryōga Echizen, but the latter is later revealed to simply be a child that Nanjirō took in a few years ago. In the manga, it was confirmed Ryoga is Ryouma's half-brother.

Ryouma can be quite arrogant at times, but is usually able to back up his statements with his tennis skills. He is usually distrustful of other tennis players, and often provokes his opponent before a match. In the beginning of the series, Ryouma is not taken seriously by the other students at his school, especially at the Seishun Tennis Club. It is only after he beats two of Seishun's regulars (Kaoru Kaidō and Sadaharu Inui) that he gains respect from fellow club members. He is also unafraid almost to the point of recklessness, but rarely gets angry or out of control. In the TeniPuri family chibi episodes, Ryouma is the eldest son of the family and always creates all sorts of troubles. In other chibi episodes, he is mostly shown very skilled.

At the beginning of the series, all of Ryouma's tennis skills are a copy of his father's. With the help of his team captain, Kunimitsu Tezuka, Ryouma realizes his need to develop his own style of tennis if he intends to reach his goal and defeat his father.

With each match, it becomes apparent that Ryouma not only brings his potential to the front, but that he is constantly reaching a new point in the state of self-actualization – especially so during crucial points in a match. Although he views each opponent as a stepping stone of advancement, Tezuka soon becomes the wall that Ryouma has set up for himself in order to achieve actual greatness.

Although Ryouma has a rather tunneled vision as to whom he considers a rival (his father, Tezuka, and Fuji), there are many that view the first year as just that. One of the more notable examples of this in the anime is Kevin Smith, the son of the tennis coach George Smith, who was defeated by Nanjiro Echizen fifteen years ago in defense of George's pupil Rinko Takeuchi, who becomes Ryouma's mother. Kevin appears later in the series in the "friendly" match between the U.S.A West Coast Region and the Japan Kanto Region. Kevin became obsessed with wanting to play Ryouma because of their pasts, whereas in the beginning Ryouma regarded Kevin's threats with a rather unconcerned attitude until he saw him play against Yamabuki's Jin Akutsu in the streets. Tezuka was unimpressed with Ryouma's attitude toward the matches, and as a result, Ryouma is forced to earn his place as a reserve player.

Ryouma also cares much about his family cat Karupin. Once, Karupin follows Ryouma to school after he accidentally packs its toy into his bag. After he discovers the fact, he frantically searches for his cat around the district. Also, Karupin had followed Ryouma to the US Open tournament by sneaking into Ryouma's bag.

He has many girl fans that are so obsessed with him. He currently doesn't show any interest in girls because of his dedication toward tennis. Occasionally, he has been seen dismissing them. Although his apathetic nature, he does show Sakuno his genuine concern. In the anime, he has saved her from time to time. In the manga (Chapter 306), he threw a tennis ball at a thief for making the prepared food she made drop onto the floor.

He defeated everyone that he battled except against his captain, Tezuka. It should be noted that while he inherited his father's tennis skills and cockiness, his way of thinking seems to be more similar to his mother as he is shown to be quite serious, studious, and silent when possible. He finally defeats Tezuka and then returns to America for the US Open.

Revealed in the manga, Ryouma did worship and adore Ryoga as Ryoga teased but Ryouma denied. They celebrated Halloween together, collected oranges together, and got into trouble together. This showed they were extremely close. When Ryouma witnessed Ryoga get into a car and leave him, Ryouma was devastated that he could not stop screaming out for Ryoga. This devastation could be the reason why Ryouma does not recognize Ryoga or because they have been separated for too long.

Abilities
Ryouma is an all-rounder, otherwise known as an all-court player, meaning he has aspects of every tennis style; he can use techniques from different tennis styles with many special shots and abilities, depending on his current needs. One of Ryouma's greatest talents is his ability to learn new techniques after only seeing them performed a few times. His dominant hand is his left hand, but he is ambidextrous, able to use his right hand when he needs to. He also has an amazing amount of stamina and does not sweat as much as the other players.

His tennis sense is extraordinary, as he is able to hit tricky shots such as drop shots and volleys without losing his cool, while having amazing control; Ryouma was able to aim for a cord ball when using a smash and was shown to return cord balls with cord balls in the manga. Along with fellow Seigaku regular Kikumaru Eiji, Ryouma is known to have an exceptional talent for seeing moving objects. Ryouma has always been noted to keep his cool in tense situations, as noted by Rikkai vice-captain Sanada Genichiro and Higa Chuu member Tanishi Kei. He is skilled at analyzing an opponent's techniques and can usually find a way to counter them, while being able to copy them at times for himself, as shown in many of his matches.

However, while Ryouma's tennis sense is amazing, this only applies to Singles. Due to never really playing or learning Doubles, Ryouma's debut Doubles match with Momoshiro was shown to have a significant amount of holes, which the Gyokurin pair, who individually are vastly inferior to both Ryouma and Momo, took advantage of and quickly took the lead against them. His amazing tennis senses worked against him in Doubles due to his ability to cover the field better than an average player, which made him overlap with his partner's side of the court. Even by the time Nationals rolled around, Ryouma stated that he was still unable to play Doubles. However, by the time the New Prince of Tennis series rolled by, he was able to play Doubles and secure a win (with Ken in the OVA and with Oliver Philips in the match against Tube Republic), although this could be due to a difference in skill between Ryoma and his opponents rather than his Doubles sense improving.

During the crucial points in a match, he seems to be able to increase his speed and the velocity of his shots, making others mistake him as playing at a higher pace and tension as usual, but in reality, that is his best tension. This, along with his one-footed split step, is noted to be the ability of the top pros as well as being natural for people. However, these were actually ingrained into him by his father when he was a kid through special training.