Crunchyroll Reveals The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup Anime's English Dub Premiere, Cast

Crunchyroll announced that it is streaming the The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup (Shin Tennis no Ōji-sama U-17 World Cup) anime series on Wednesday.

The English cast includes:

• Ry McKeand as Ryoma Echizen
• Jonah Scott as Kunimitsu Tezuka
• Jacob Hopkins as Shuichiro Oishi
• Stephen Fu as Shusuke Fuji
• Christopher Wehkamp as Keigo Atobe
• Ian Sinclair as Genichiro Sanada
• Wayne Grayson as Masaharu Nio
• Mike Haimoto as Bunta Marui
• Austin Tindle as Akaya Kirihara
• Ryan Colt Levy as Eishiro Kite
• Joshua Waters as Kuranosuke Shiraishi
• Caitlyn Elizabeth as Kintaro Toyama
• Cameron Bowen as Jin Akutsu
• Christopher R. Sabat as Hoo Byodoin
• Howard Wang as Ryoga Echizen
• Richard C. Barcenas as Jujiro Oni
• Patrick Seitz as Jurgen Borisovich Volk
• Doug Erholtz as Ralph Reinhart
• Chris Okawa as Dodo Obando
• Johnny Yong Bosch as Kiko Balentien
• Steve Staley as Rocky Meredith
• William Ofoegbu as Maxwell
• Michael Sorich as Siegmund

Additional voices include Aimee Smith, Wayne Grayson, James Cheek, Kevin D. Thelwell, Austin Tindle, Alejandro Saab, Daman Mills, and Howard Wang.

Howard Wang is directing the English dub with assistant Mike Haimoto. Patrick Morphy is the lead ADR engineer, and Sawyer Pfledderer is also an ADR engineer. Howard Wang is writing and supervising the English script. Beth Featherstone is handling ADR prep. Alec Gervais is the mixing and mastering engineer. Amber Lee Connors is producing the dub. Sarah Poulsen is in charge of talent coordination.

The new anime premiered on TV Tokyo on July 6. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan. It is the first anime in the franchise in about a decade.

Keiichiro Kawaguchi (ISLAND) is returning from the last 2D anime, The Prince of Tennis II Hyotei vs Rikkai Game of Future, to direct the new series at Studio KAI and M.S.C, and Mitsutaka Hirota (Anime-Gataris, Nanbaka) is again superivising the scripts. Akiharu Ishii (Blood+, Ultramarine Magmell) is back to design the characters and serve as chief animation director.

Singer Yoshiki Ezaki and hip-hop duo Bleecker Chrome are collaborating for the anime's opening theme song "I can fly." TeniPri Artistars perform the ending theme song "Dear Friends."

Takeshi Konomi serialized The Prince of Tennis manga's original run in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1999 to 2008. The manga follows middle school tennis player Ryōma Echizen as he battles rivals to reach the national tournament. That original manga inspired a 2001-2005 television anime, two anime feature films and a theatrical short, various video anime projects, a live-action film, a live-action television series in China, and a popular stage musical series.

Konomi then launched The Prince of Tennis II manga series in Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine in 2009. The story picks up after the national tournament, when Ryōma joins a select group of middle school players at Japan's top training camp for players under 17. This ongoing sequel manga spawned its own 2012 television anime series The Prince of Tennis II. The Prince of Tennis II OVA vs. Genius 10 series then ran for five volumes from October 2014 to June 2015.

The manga also inspired the Tennis no Ōjisama BEST GAMES!! original video anime (OVA) project that retells the story of the franchise's top matches. The project includes three OVAs that released in 2018-2019. The anime franchise also includes the two-part The Prince of Tennis II Hyotei vs Rikkai Game of Future anime project that debuted in February and April 2021.

Most recently, the Ryōma! Shinsei Gekijōban Tennis no Ōji-sama (Ryōma! Rebirth Movie The Prince of Tennis) 3DCG film for The Prince of Tennis franchise opened in September 2021. Iconic Events Releasing and Anime Expo partnered to screen the film in U.S. theaters on May 12. Eleven Arts is distributing the film in North America.

Source: Crunchyroll (Liam Dempsey)