English Dub Review: The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup “Upset”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
The World Cup Group League commences and Japan battles it out with Greece and Australia.

Our Take:
Following a brief match between Ryoma and the Prince from Team France, we’re now back to the real action, with the World Cup starting its Group League. So if you think Team Japan’s match against Germany was challenging, you haven’t seen what the team will be up against next in the league. As the previous episode stated, Team Germany is one of the Big Four that dominates the World Cup every year. This episode has Team Japan facing off against the two teams, Greece and Australia, after being placed in the same block as the other Big Four team, Switzerland.
Most of the episode focuses solely on the match between Japan and Greece, in which the former came out on top with three wins to none. Like the last couple of episodes, “Upset” follows the basic formula of showcasing the characters overcoming specific obstacles during the matches while portraying their special moves. For example, Japan’s player, Oishi, lacks the confidence to help Japan score some points in the first round. Thankfully, Suki’s mach serve carried the team to victory, but not without Oishi getting his self-belief back after getting hit in the head by Greece’s ball.
Another example is Todoro in the second round. After getting injured several times by Team Greece, he used his execution method to bounce the ball back to one of Greece’s team members, leaving him paralyzed. Finally, in the final round, Tamakashi performed an upset over Zeus following his struggle to keep up with the Greece player. The main reason is that Tamakashi held onto the bottle cap throughout the match, which may have affected Zeus’s perception.
There’s nothing too upsetting about “Upset”, aside from Switzerland losing against Japan’s next opponent, Team Australia. However, it still offers enough moments to make this latest round of tennis more enjoyable. While Ryoma prepares for his upcoming match, Team Japan hopes to have a good game plan to send their defensive rival back to the outback.