Teekyu

Plot

The story follows the everyday lives of four girls of the Kameido High School's tennis club. The series' focus is not really on tennis, but on the wacky and eccentric characters, with strange object associations and even stranger misconceptions, on their many random adventures. These adventures have included traveling to an army base, going skiing, helping a cake shop owner with financial troubles, and helping an alien refuel her spaceship.

Characters

Yuri Oshimoto (押本 ユリ, Oshimoto Yuri)

Voiced by: Yui Watanabe

Yuri is the only member of the club who actually knows how to play tennis. She is considered the only normal girl in the entire group who takes things seriously, much to her chagrin. She plays the straight man, often giving surprised remarks to the other girls' shocking behavior. She has a younger brother in middle school named Yota.

Kanae Shinjo (新庄 かなえ, Shinjō Kanae)

Voiced by: Suzuko Mimori

Kanae is a second year student though she does not act like it at times. She likes to do things that break norms, such as getting a tennis racket with strings made from her grandmother's hair or sleeping by standing up and with her head against the wall, and sometimes even breaks laws of physics, such as sinking into solid ground or splitting herself in two. She tends to freak out Yuri and/or Nasuno in the process.

Nasuno Takamiya (高宮 なすの, Takamiya Nasuno)

Voiced by: Kyoko Narumi

Nasuno hails from a rich family. Having returned from a trip in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon, she wants to try out for the tennis club, though she has no idea how to play begin the most normal of the Second Year students. If Yuri was not present, she acts as the straight man. Nasuno is capable of providing for her own and other characters' outlandish ideas with her vast amounts of wealth. In her spinoff series, Takamiya Nasuno Desu!, she spends her summer at her family's vacation cottage, relaxing and ordering around Yota.

Marimo Bando (坂東 まりも, Bandō Marimo)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa

Marimo is another second year student who hails from the same school as the other members. She has a large number of misconceptions about the world, and her antics tend to get herself and others in trouble, and sometimes in harm. Examples include wearing and actually eating a girls' panties and kidnapping a child. She does have a kind nature to her, despite her lack of maturity and self-control. Despite being the crazier member of the club, she ends up being the voice of reason when the others aren't around.

Media

Manga

The Teekyu manga series is written by Roots and illustrated by Piyo. Its first chapter was published by Earth Star Entertainment in Comic Earth Star's 12th issue, released on February 10, 2012, and the series has also been compiled in 15 tankōbon volumes. On March 3, 2021, a one-shot was published. The one-shot takes place a decade after the end of the manga.

The Takamiya Nasuno Desu! manga is also written by Roots and illustrated by Piyo, and also published by Earth Star Entertainment. It is a spinoff of Teekyu that focuses on the daily life of Takamiya Nasuno. It has, as of October 10, 2015, had two tankōbon volumes released.

Anime

Announcement of an anime adaptation of Teekyu came in August 2012, alongside the release of the first tankobon. The announcement came five months after the manga was first published, the fastest manga-release-to-anime-announcement time that Earth Star Entertainment has ever had. Each episode of the anime is about 2 minutes long, so characters speak and actions are performed at a very quick pace, with shortcuts used to save time on animation sometimes. Shin Itagaki is the director and writer for each season.

The series has had nine seasons so far. The first season aired between October 7 and December 23, 2012, the second one between July 7 and September 22, 2013, and the third one between October 6 and December 22, 2013. The fourth season aired from April 6, 2015, to June 22, 2015. The fifth season began airing on July 6, 2015. The sixth season aired from October 5, 2015, to December 21, 2015. The seventh season ran from January 12, 2016, to March 29, 2016. The eight season ran from on October 5, 2016, to December 21, 2016. The ninth season aired from July to September 2017.

Takamiya Nasuno Desu! received a 12-episode adaptation, and aired on the same days as the fourth season of Teekyu, from April 6, 2015, to June 22, 2015. Like Teekyu, each episode is two minutes in length, and character speech and actions are performed at a quick pace. Shin Itagaki is also the director and writer for this series.

Usakame received a 12-episode adaptation from April 11, 2016, to June 27, 2016.

Stage play

There was a stage play adaptation of Teekyu called "Butai-ban Teekyu Senpai to Meguriau Jikantachi" (舞台版てーきゅう ～先輩とめぐりあう時間たち～) ("Stage Play Edition Teekyu: The Times to Come Across with Senpai"), about a musical being put on by the tennis club members during their high school's Culture Festival. The play was performed at Japan Newart College Omori Campus Theater in Tokyo, Japan, from July 29 and August 2, 2015.

Reception

Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post, reviewing the first three episodes, gave the anime a C, stating that he enjoyed the comedy, but the short length of the episodes and the quick pace ruined the experience. Ryan Hand of B-TEN, reviewing the first 3 seasons, gave the show a 5.25 out of 10, again stating that he enjoyed the show and its characters (despite there being no character development). However, he criticized the poor animation and art, although he commented on how it fits the fast-paced action of the show. It has been suggested that the show has not been as well received outside of Japan due to the language barrier for non-native speakers, causing difficulty in following the unusually fast-paced dialogue.

The official Twitter account for the franchise has over 20,000 followers.