Appearances in Other Media
In addition to his original appearance in the manga, Tezuka has appeared in all of the series' adaptations and other media, including the anime, movies, radio shows, musicals, video games, and many others. In the anime series, the timeline of certain events sometimes differ from the manga, as well as the places mentioned; in the anime, Tezuka goes to Germany for medical treatment rather than to Kyūshū. In addition, there are original events included in the anime, like Tezuka attending the Junior Senbatsu tennis training camp as a coach, and him winning an Intraschool Ranking match against Fuji. In the OVA, A Day on Survival Mountain, when the Seigaku team travels to a tennis resort and encounters cocky, college tennis players, Tezuka ends up defeating the team's arrogant coach in a match.
In The Prince of Tennis musicals, also known as Tenimyu, the events of the series are reenacted via various musical performances, in which the characters' traits are often parodied; the actor, in character, often has to point out in mid-performance that he is, in fact, only fourteen years of age. Tezuka is portrayed by several actors in the musical, including Eiji Takigawa, Yuu Shirota, Keisuke Minami, Daisuke Watanabe, and Ryoma Baba.
As a member of the central tennis team in the series, Tezuka is featured in several of the anime's soundtracks, as well as spawning a few character CDs featuring only his character. Also, since he is one of the few characters in the series who wear glasses, he, along with Sadaharu Inui and Yuushi Oshitari, is part of the "Megane's" (眼鏡?, lit. glasses); character CDs focusing solely on the trio have been released.
Tezuka also appears in both the animated and live action movies. In the animated movie, Tennis no Ōjisama - Futari no Samurai, his team is invited to a cruise trip where they are forced to play in rigged tennis matches. Initially, Tezuka was supposed to play against Ryoga Echizen, but plays and wins against a different person in order to let Ryoma play against Ryoga. In The Prince of Tennis live action film, the story follows the events that lead to Seigaku playing against Hyotei, and Tezuka is portrayed by Yuu Shirota.
Read more about this topic: Kunimitsu Tezuka
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