Interest
Prince of Tennis Valentine Count Will Get Its Own Program
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
The annual Prince of Tennis Valentine's Day character popularity contest buried Shueisha offices this year, a statement that is more literal than figurative. The publisher received over 100,000 chocolates, more than 10 times the amount of chocolate gifts that the editors in charge expected. People had to carry some of the chocolates to manga creator Takeshi Konomi's own warehouse space.
With such a large response, Konomi announced on White Day that the results will be announced on a special program with the series' characters titled "Happy Summer Valentine." Konomi announced that going forward, August 14 is dubbed "Happy Summer Valentine Day." The manga creator will also release his fourth single, also titled "Happy Summer Valentine," on June 14. He made his singing debut last year.
Character Keigo Atobe won last year with 8,948 chocolates. Overall, 112,863 chocolates were sent in and it took eight staff members to complete the counting. Konomi tweeted on July 4 along with a special drawing, "Number 1 in the 2016 Prince of Tennis character Valentine chocolate count was Keigo Atobe. *clap clap* Regardless of the ranking though, we definitely received everyone's love for the characters!”
The annual Prince of Tennis chocolate popularity contest returned last year after Jump Square magazine editors changed popularity contest to a simple ballot in 2015, hoping to avoid the burden of a basement full of sweets.
The original Prince of Tennis manga was serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump from 1999 to 2008. Its sequel, New Prince of Tennis, has been running monthly in Jump Square magazine since 2009.
[Via Nijimen]
