Tenimyu

About

Tenimyu (Japanese: テニミュ) is an abbreviated name of Musical The Prince of Tennis (ミュージカルテニスの王子様, Musical Tennis no Ouji-sama)^[1], a musical franchise for the Japanese manga The Prince of Tennis by Takeshi Konomi.^[2] It also refers to a big misheard phrase/fake subtitle meme happened on the Japanese video sharing service Nico Nico Douga (NND) in 2007.

Origin

The seed of this meme was a singing scene in “Musical The Prince of Tennis: Imperial Match Hyoutei in Summer”^[3], the 7th performance in this musical series played by the 2nd generation cast in August 2005 and released in DVD on November of that year. This scene is based on the manga’s episode of Ryoma Echizen’s game against Wakashi Hiyoshi in Kanto Tournament, which is included in chapter 154-157. Then, it came to get the first attention by a YouTube video which was submitted to NND in beta service on January 18th, 2007.^[4] This video, called “Aitsu Koso ga Tennis no Oujisama” (あいつこそがテニスの王子様, lit. “He Will Be The Prince of Tennis”), had been watched about 700,000 times in its first three weeks, and deleted by copyright infringement in the following month.

Japanese (Romanized)English TranslationIke Echizen omae no yuku teni ni waGo, Echizen! There is our worldOretachi no sekai ga aruIn the road you walkTobe Echizen nanimo osorenuJump, Echizen! Don’t show fear!omae no COOL na GUTS wo misetekureShow them your cool guts! Soko da Echizen inazuma to mimagouIt’s there, Echizen! It’s like looking at lightningTWIST SERVE de kimeroLet’s decide it with twist serveIi zo Echizen meni moto maranuIt’s good, Echizen! It doesn’t stay in the eyesSPEED wo motsu SMASH wo puchikamaseHit it with a smash of great speed GO Echizen kakan na taido deGo, Echizen! In a resolute attitudeAtarashii waza ayatsureManipulate the new techniqueALRIGHT Echizen　hirumun janai yoAlright, Echizen! Don’t be afraidOmae ni fukanou na koto wa nanimo naiNothing is impossible for you Arayuru hito doumoku saseruMake all the people stare at youOmae no TENNIS wa shikou no wazaYour tennis is a supreme techniqueOmae wa Seigaku no hashira ni nareYou must become a pillar of SeigakuOretachi no eikou wo michibikeAnd lead us to our glory Gekokujou daze tsubuseIt’s gekokujou! Crush him!Noshiyagaruze choujou madePush your way to the topOikakeru no ga kaikan dazeChasing is a pleasureOitsuite buttsu bushite yaruAnd it catches up in no time Gekokujoutte iu kedoThough he says it’s gekokujouOre ni wa kankei nai saIt has nothing to do with meTeki ga tsuyokereba tsuyoi hodoThe stronger the opponent is, the stronger I getTaitou ni butsu kariau dakeLet’s compete with each other equally Gekokujou daze Gekokujou dazeIt’s gekokujou! It’s gekokujou!Tsubuse!Crush him! Aikawarazu dane Echizen RyomaIt’s still the same, isn’t it? Echizen RyomaNan i do no takai TECHWith a difficult techniqueDe shiai wo moriageruBringing the match to the highestOmae wa boku wo atsukusuruYou make me passionateOmae wa hito wo hikitsukeruYou attract the audienceBEST TENSIONBEST CONDITIONBest tension, best conditionYOU ARETHE BESTYou are the bestYOU ARETHEPRINCE OF TENNISYou are the prince of tennis Omae no shinshi na taido wa mukatsuku hodo dazeYour sincere attitude makes people feel sickShikashi hito no kokoro wo ugokasu sono AURA wa nandaHowever, it moves a person, what aura is this? Ore ni ninsei wo kangae saseruYou made me look back on myselfTsuyosa yue no kibishisaI become strict because of strengthSona kouki na kagayaki niThe noble shine makes peopleHito wa mabataki wo wasureruForget to even blink Terekusai hodo no yobinaga niauIt’s like the given nameOmae wa masashiku TENNIS no OujisamaYou are an exact prince of tennisYOU ARETHEPRINCE OF TENNISYou are the prince of tennis BESTTENSIONBEST CONDITIONBest tension best conditionYOU ARETHE BESTYou are the bestYOU ARETHEPRINCE OF TENNISYou are the prince of tennis

via. Kumikyoku Wiki^[5]

The Musical

Musical The Prince of Tennis, running since 2003, is a quite unique “sports manga” musical played by young male actors only. Supported by many female fans, it has grown to a very succeeded musical franchise that has drawn 1.7 million of spectators in the first decade. Even English wiki page for this show has been launched by fans in overseas.^[6]

This musical’s another characteristic is its actor selection process which chooses casts by whether their looks fit to the original characters’ image out of consideration of their actual acting carrier or skills. So, there are a few of strange moments in this show caused by young actors’ impassioned but immature performances. However, it’s the biggest enjoyment for fans to watch the growth of their favorite actors throughout the shows.

Spread

By the great help of NND’s comment feature working as subtitles and decoration, funny misheard/fake phrases by users went quite well with actors’ bad pronunciations/singing even if those were slightly unmatch. Led by those user comments, this video immediately became to one of the killer contents in that newborn video sharing service. Though copyright holders tried removing for several times, users have continued re-uploading since after NND’s relaunching on March 6th 2007.^[7]^[8]^[9] As of March 2014, the fourth reincarnation of this video (shown below) had earned over 4.5 million views^[10], and the total view count of all of the reprints has reached over 6 million. The amount of related videos tagged under “Tenimyu” has reached over 4700 as well.^[11]

【ニコニコ動画】Aitsu koso ga Tennis no Oujisama (あいつこそがテニスの王子様)

Original Phrases
(Translation)Misheard Phrases
(Translation)Omae no yuku teni ni wa
(There is our world)Omae no yaku cherry pie
(A cherry pie that you’re baking)Are wa “Zero Shiki”!
(That’s “Zero Style”!)Anal Zero shiki!
(Anus Zero style!)Gekokujou daze! Tsubuse!
(It’s gekokujou! Crush him!)Nekokujo daze! Tuuhuusei!
(Extermination of cats! Ventilation power!)Noshiyagaruze choujou made
(Push your way to the top)Rosia Garu de JoJo Mane
(Russian girl spoofing JoJo)Hito wa mabataki wo wasureru
(Forget to even blink)Hito wa nagasaki wo wasuresu
(People forget Nagasaki [Prefecture])Best tension, best conditionPlaystation, Best Sony Shou
(Playstation, Best Sony Award)You’re the bestYuasa desu
(I am Yuasa. [family name])You’re the Prince of Tennis!You’re the Prince of Penis!Omae wa boku wo atsukusuru
(You make me passionate)Omae wa boku wo atsuku surū
(You passionately ignore me)Hyoutei! Hyoutei! Hyoutei!･･･Doutei! Doutei! Doutei!･･･
(Cherry Boys! Cherry Boys! Cherry Boys!･･･)

Tenimyu meme is also dubbed as “The First Great Three” (初代御三家) together with Let’s Go! Onmyouji and Kishimen, and known as one of the most important memes that established NND’s unique comment style in the earliest days of that video sharing service. In a reflection of the popularity, this song has been included in many niconico medleys created in later years.

Notable Examples

Different from many other NND memes, Tenimyu is a simple meme to enjoy comments on the musical’s original videos. It hasn’t derived so many parody videos like MAD videos memes.

【ニコニコ動画】有機VS人参【ニコニコ動画】カナダ☆レモン　
Left: “Organic vs. Carrot” | Right: “Canada☆Lemon”
【ニコニコ動画】空耳ミュージカル「たこ焼きライス」【ニコニコ動画】空耳ミュージカル　「パワー忍者です」
Left: “Takoyaki Rice” | Right: “I’m a Power Ninja”