#home of tennis

[sephirayne]

Jason isaacs joins Eurosport and takes a tour around the Harry Potter exhibition in Paris.

[katabay]

I haven’t drawn a character with a bowl cut since rock lee

[yuwuta]

JJK OLYMPICS OHHH YOURE A GENIUS

head spinning w sooooooo many athlete aus rn….. 

satoru honestly isn’t half as cocky as the media makes him out to be but he could be because you bring up world champion men’s freestyle swim times and it’s his name on the scoreboard ten times before someone else shows up. he’s faster than himself by fifteen seconds all around, he’s earned a bit of cockiness. mentioned in the last post that whenever he’s at a competition and he finishes a race, he looks at the camera and signs a little infinity sign and then blows a kiss to you. some bitter old coach always calls him out on it, and gets him fined for unsportsmanlike conduct, and he’s happy to pay the fees if it means getting a message home to you, but eventually you two come up with a new code; and at his next race, he places gold, turns to the camera, crosses his middle finger over his pointer finger and smiles. when he’s in his post-race interview, he makes sure to explain that he does it for you with the widest smile on his face.

megumi nepotism baby but not in the same sport. toji was a multi gold medalist back in his heyday for shooting, so it’s not really a surprise to anybody that megumi has scary good aim, but he takes to archery instead of shooting. actually the idea of megumi being an emo little kid and throwing rocks at a tree when his dad pissed him off his hilarious, and even funnier is toji watching him, slightly amused and a little scared because megumi is maybe six and hitting the exact same spot every single time. he grows to be very blase about it—it’s more of a release/hobby for him that he happens to be really good at, and well, now good enough to earn a few olympic medals. megumi is not a fan of having his dad ruffle his hair on international television after he’s won, but he supposes it can’t be helped.

i don’t know where to put yuuta…. tennis…. tempting….. him in his little white shorts…. little grunts after he serves…. cries….. a complete 180 in his personality when he’s playing vs doing anything else. so charming and sweet and kinda shy when he’s being interviewed, and the second he steps on the court his eyes are so cold it’s scary…. need him… extremely nerdy about his rackets, and shoes, and clothes, and rambles to you about aerodynamics and posture and torque whenever you ask him to teach you, and you always have to shutup him up with a kiss and remind him that yeah you sort of want to learn to play tennis for him, but mostly you came bc he looks hot doing it. once he got asked in an interview if he ever thinks about you while he’s playing and his response was very concise, “no, never. it would be a big distraction,” and did not realize the implications of his heavily televised words. 

also…. not to make this post 40% yuuta but we could pull from canon a bit and make his sport fencing. he doesn’t excel because he’s the strongest, it’s because he’s learned to treat the sword as an extension of himself and a good strategist… also because i like the image of him pulling the helmet/mask off and shaking his hair out………..

don’t even know where to put yuuji…. volleyball? basketball? track and field??? the irony of him easily being the most athletic but canonically does not want to play sports 😭 but i can see him playing a sport because someone scouts him and it turns out to be a way to make steady money to support himself and his grandpa :( by the time he’s qualified and made it to the olympics, wasuke is doing much better (thanks to yuuji having landed some preemptive sponsorships and being able to afford better medical care), but not so well enough that he can travel across the world to watch yuuji play. wasuke tells you that you should travel and be with yuuji, but yuuji is so touched by the idea that you would stay with his grandpa and be by his side when he’s away :(( he wins gold, of course, and he doesn’t even wait until the closing ceremony—which, he’d mentioned in all of his interviews, so nobody can be too upset. he’s on record saying, “i’m excited to play, but i’m even happier to be going home. my girlfriend and my grandpa are watching me and i miss them!” several times— he’s on the first flight home with flowers, and tears in his eyes. puts his gold medal on his grandpa’s neck as a thank you, and spends probably thirty minutes straight hugging you and kissing you and honestly don’t put it past him to propose now that he’s got nike ambassador money 

nanami started judo as a way to relieve the stress of his overbearing job, and someone at the gym/training center notices he seems to be a natural despite being a beginner. he starts to draw a crowd, which annoys him at first because the point of judo was discipline and release from having to deal with too many people at his office job, but nanami supposes he can’t be too mad when you introduce yourself as a talent scout and offer him professional training. there’s irony in him accepting your offer, because it was definitely not based in professionalism at all… quitting his job as a salaryman to become a professional athlete in his mid-twenties was not on his bingo chart, but if it means he will have met you, then so be it. you’re with him all the way, through his training, competitions, world championships, qualifiers, all the way until he’s on the podium. you’re the first to congratulate him, but he interjects by telling you he’s quitting. you ask him why—he just won at the olympics for crying out loud, but nanami just shakes his head, puts down his flowers and his medal so his hands are free to hold your face and tell you, “it would be unethical to kiss my manager, so i am quitting.” (later, when everything is said and done, and you two are cuddling, you mention to him that he could just hire a new manager, and not quit his new career, to which he blushes because yeah… that’s probably more rational, but rational was not in his train of thought at the time)

[livetogether--diealone]

well, well, well if it isn't the throw up brothers

[muirneach]

some people who have beaten carlos this year: grigor novak monfils. hypothesis: if youre over 30 you have a chance. for some reason

[fairie-bread]

he is like a beautiful 18th century maiden to me

[kingkatsuki]

Bakugou coming home exhausted from night patrol, but he promised his little daughter that he’d take her to her ballet class so he wakes her up and gets her ready even though he’s exhausted🥺 and he stays the entire class too. Watching from the side as she dances around, and gives him little waves every so often because she wants to make him proud.

[palmbeachbrunette]

[japaneseadventures]

Tsuda Kenjiro - Nichiyoubi no Hatsumimi Gaku 2024.03.10

Highlights/Anecdotes of this episode:

Tsudaken tries to do the narration for his own guest appearance and dies of embarrassment

He blanked out and forgot his lines when he tried to act for the first time in a long while

Clips of his many major and minor TV drama appearances over the years were shown

His role in The Last Man made him trend worldwide on Twitter

Tsuda shared why he started acting and voice acting

He went on a 1-week holiday trip to Prague and got recognized by overseas Jujutsu Kaisen fans 5 times.

Nakajima Kento talked about how he admired Kaiba Seto from Yu-Gi-Oh. He told Tsuda about it when they worked together. On Kento's birthday, Tsuda sent him a personalized voice message, saying one of the most famous lines in Yu-Gi-Oh.

Tsuda played Inui Sadaharu in Prince of Tennis (PoT) and it changed his life dramatically. PoT was at the forefront of the "ikemen" boom at the time, and he could finally quit doing part-time jobs.

Kazama Shunsuke, who voice acted as the main character for Yu-Gi-Oh, talks about how close the two of them were in that series even though they were playing as each other's rivals. They were both newbies to the voice acting industry with no other jobs at the time, so they hung out a lot as they waited for their call time.

Kazama is particularly smug at being aware of Tsuda's charm a lot earlier than most people, and he wants everybody to know that, lol

Tsuda shares how the cast and staff from the TV drama Saiai are really passionate about the drama. Same goes from the staff of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Namikawa Daisuke shares some anecdotes about Tsuda. Sometimes tsuda texts him about eating out together, but then leaves him on read when Namikawa asks when he's free.

Tsuda talks about his latest movie, where he plays as a villain for the first time.

Tsudaken talks about his kids (!!) His daughter in particular is a bit eccentric, just like Tsuda (That's Tsuda and the TV Show host's words not mine lol)

A more detailed summary of the episode under the read more:

On his TV drama/ Movie Discography:

Tsuda talked about experience acting in the hit TV drama Saiai. On his first day filming, he forgot his lines. It's been 12 years since he last played as a recurring character in a TV show, and for his first scene, he had to do a long presentation in front of 30 people. All he could think was that there were a lot of people, and then his mind went blank.

Some notable TV drama appearances of Tsuda:

- Played as a host in Ikebukuro West Gate Park (2000) in his 20s for 21 seconds - A guy hitting on the main character (Inoue Mao) in Hana Yori Dango in his 30s (2005) for 30 seconds ("Ooh, I got more screentime") - A doctor in Jin (2009) for 24 seconds ("Aww, I had less screentime lol.").

In 2023, he trended worldwide on X/Twitter as an actor for his impactful scene in the drama The Last Man. When Tsuda turned up in the second episode, his acting was a popular topic on social media.

He adlibbed in the last scene of Last Man. Came up with 30 versions for that scene, and settled on "Shintaro, are you hungry?" Figured a parent would be worrying about whether his kid is feeling hungry, cold or hot.

On his acting:

Originally was aiming to be an actor, not a voice actor.

When he started acting, he was able to let all his dark emotions out using the lines he had to act out. These were feelings such as "hating people", and "hate towards society". It was the first outlet he found for those feelings, and he found that very fun. He was able to bring out his real self when he acted. Because of that experience, he couldn't give up acting.

Unfortunately, money was tight at the time and his electricity and gas would get cut off. It even came to a point when even his water would get cut off. He kept on failing in auditions, so even if he's been practicing on his acting, he didn't really have a chance to show it to others.

For him, the most painful thing about it all was that he was an absolute nobody. He had no proof that he's actually alive. But he overcame that difficulty because he was obstinate-- He believes that this is where his strength lies. He keeps doing things until he's satisfied with it.

On his voice acting career:

Voice acting was what gave him an opportunity to link with the world of expressing himself.

Says Nanami Kento is a wonderful role to play. That Jujutsu Kaisen's influence is amazing.

During the New Year's holidays, he went on a holiday trip abroad. While he was sightseeing, a foreigner would call out, "Mr. Tsuda?" He said yes, all the while taken aback since he was in Prague. They asked for a photo and a signature. In the one week that he stayed there, it happened 5 times.

When he asked them how they knew him, everyone answered Jujutsu Kaisen. "Nanami, Nanami." He really didn't expect it to be so popular abroad. It made him feel the power of Japanese anime.

While he was struggling with acting, he was invited to an audition for voice acting and he accepted the invitation with no hesitation. At age 25, he debuted as a voice actor for the anime H2.

At age 29 was his fateful encounter with the series Yu-gi-oh Duel Monsters (2000) where he played Kaiba Seto.

Nakajima Kento says his idol in life is Kaiba Seto. It was also thanks to Tsuda's acting that Kento admired Kaiba, and he told Tsuda exactly that when Tsuda did the narration for Kento's movie show. On Kento's 27th birthday, he got a voice message from Tsuda, saying "It's 27-year-old Nakajima Kento's turn! Draw!!" Kento was ecstatic. He thinks Tsuda is really cool.

A year after Yu-Gi-oh, he played Inui Sadaharu from Prince of Tennis. The Ikemen (Hot Guys) boom was rising at the time, and Prince of Tennis was at the forefront of this trend. It changed his life dramatically. He was finally able to quit doing part-time jobs. At around 31 years old. He always felt like he was walking a fine line, so it was a relief to have a stable livelihood.

Anecdotes from Kazama Shunsuke, voice actor of Yugi Moto from Yu-Gi-Oh

Both Tsuda and Kazama Shunsuke, who played the main character of Yu-gi-oh, were newbies at voice acting when they did Yu-gi-oh. Tsuda was still new to voice acting at the time, while Kazama had never done it before. Although they were playing as each other's rivals, they became close since they were both newbies.

They both didn't have any other work to do, so they had a lot of time on their hands. Kazama would contact Tsuda and ask if he came to work early, and Tsuda would reply, "I'm free right now so I'm lurking nearby." And they'd have tea together. We'd talk about what we could do to be good at voice acting like other VAs.

Kazama talked about how worried he was about Tsuda. When he laughs, Tsuda does it in 3 levels of increasing laughter. At times, he'd even do 5 levels, since the animation would also have 5 different clips as the power of his laughter increases. The 3rd level would be his usual laughter, so Kazama thought Tsuda's blood vessels would burst going beyond that lol

Kazama says he's super happy that Tsuda got to have a lot of regular acting and voice acting jobs. But Kazama just wants people to know that he's been aware of Tsuda's charm for more than 20 years now. A lot earlier than most people have lmao.

On what went on behind of the scenes of a popular scene in JJK:

Says there's a particular scene that highlights Nanami. He wondered how he'd do it, since that scene was originally in the manga. The producer told him what the mangaka said was Nanami's feelings during that scene, but Tsuda and the staff are free to play it out as they like. The director also told Tsuda to do it the way Tsuda thinks it should be acted. Leave no regrets. Like in the making of the drama Saiai, Tsuda feels that hit series like Jujutsu Kaisen are made with a lot of love from the staff, and this love is reflected in the tiny details. He believes that viewers could really tell from that.

Anecdotes from Namikawa Daisuke, who he's voice acted with in a number of works

Namikawa Daisuke says Tsuda's acting method is something unique to Tsuda. It can't be learned.

Namikawa describes Tsuda as a sloth with a nice voice. Tsuda: LOL. Say something nicer!

Tsuda would just contact him whenever, going, "I want to eat soon."

Namikawa: I'm not your mom!! When I text back, "When are you available?" He doesn't reply. He probably isn't feeling up to it right then. Staff: How long do you have to wait for a reply? Namikawa: At the latest, he leaves me on read.

In his latest movie My Home Hero, it is Tsuda's first time playing a villain. Said he had fun doing it. He was asked to make the character very quirky, which really pleased him as an actor. Sasaki Kuranosuke would make pleased faces due to the littlest things Tsuda would do, and it really pleases Tsuda in return.

On his family

Tsuda has 2 kids, a daughter in middle school and a son in grade school. It was his first time talking about his children in a show. Says no one ever asked, so he never had an opportunity to talk about it.

During holidays, Tsuda never answer work calls from his manager. He wants his day offs to be dedicated to playing with his children.

Wakako-san was just fangirling over Tsuda this whole episode lol "Ah, so cute!"

Tsuda talks about how his children won't speak with him if they haven't seen each other for a long period of time, and it makes him feel lonely.

His kids watch anime, and some of them are ones he's in. When he mentions this to his children, they're like, "I know." But they never try to talk to him about it. Tsuda: Why??

His kids love Detective Conan, and Tsuda actually is in the latest movie. (The host, Hayashi Osamu, uses this opportunity to flex and share that he's appeared in a Conon work before too LOL)

Tsuda says his daughter is a bit eccentric like him. When he asked her what she'd like for her birthday, she asked for a biwa (musical instrument), leaving him very baffled. In the previous years, she asked for a pocket watch, ship in a bottle, kemari (ball from a sport back in ancient Japan) Tsuda: Huh…

Tsuda says that now that the borders between countries are dissolving thanks to the internet and social media, he wants them to strengthen their identity as a Japanese person who lived in Japan by attending lessons for Nohgaku (a traditional style of Japanese theater).

Says experiencing something is also remembering what's tough. How there's a disparity with your imagination and experience. For example, we all know that getting scalded is hot. But actually getting scalded is hotter than you would have imagined.

Tsuda talked about he wasn't an elite. If anything, acting may be the thing he's worst at. But he believes life has consolation matches. (Meaning, even if you fail once doesn't mean you're completely out of the running) Being an early bloomer isn't everything.

[darkwood-sleddog]

Somebody lost their tennis ball on our road. It’s Sigurd’s now.

[yuwuta]

PLS PLS PLSSSSS keep talking about kids with olympic athletes! gojo and nanami pls pls pls i have to Know. everything u wrote about yuuta was already so so cute

(prev olympics au here)

the gojo twins are hilarious because your baby boy looks exactly like satoru, but has very little of his personality—it seems like the only things he inherited was satoru’s love for sweets and love for you. still, even though he’s a strong swimmer, he much prefers to relax in his floaties alongside you if you’re also in the pool, or chill by your side on a lounge chair, glasses too big for his face keeping the sun out of his eyes as he shares his smoothie with you, and asks to borrow your phone to take pictures of his sister and daddy in the pool. 

your baby girl on the other hand… she might have your face but she’s got satoru’s everything else—his competitive streak, his confidence, and definitely his mischievous nature. she’s the one who tiptoes into your bedroom at five in the morning, tapping at her daddy’s shoulders, and putting her little finger over his lip to shush him before he can wake you up; she’s always the one to convince satoru to take her swimming the backyard at the crack of dawn, and why by the time you and your baby boy wake up, she and satoru are already past warm up laps and swimming lessons and onto who can make the splashiest canonball competitions (she always wins because while her tiny body can endure a belly flop, satoru’s years of training physically doesn’t allow him to do it… and maybe because he’s not so competitive when it comes to his baby girl, he’ll always let her win). 

kento’s professional judo career honestly doesn’t last very long. after his first olympic games, you two start dating and he proposes just after he wins gold the second time he’s in the olympics; he does maybe two more years of national competitions while you’re pregnant, and decides that the intense training for the next two years in preparation of a third olympic competition isn’t worth missing time he could spend with you or your baby girl—plus, with all the money he’s made from competitions, winning gold medals, brand ambassadorships, commercials, and collaborations, he had enough money to provide for all of your for the rest of your lives. so, that’s what he does (his dream has always been to be a househusband, anyway...) his previous salaryman career comes in handy when deciding how to invest his money, how to buy a house, how to take care of his friends, how to set up a fund for your daughter, and an extra account or two… just incase more babies come along… 

by the time your baby girl is four, she’s already kento’s biggest fan. she loudly and proudly proclaims to everybody that her daddy was basically superman and won all the shiny trophies and medals in the house from when he was being a superhero. if anyone recognizes kento when they’re out together, she always confirms their suspicions, proudly boasting, “yeah kento is my daddy! he’s a winner!” it always makes kento’s heart swell to hear her praise. he doesn’t compete professionally anymore, but he does train from time to time, and has taken on a few mentees, and your daughter LOVES to watch him coach/train. she’s got her own uniform that she always puts on whenever they go to the gym together, and gets so excited when kento or ino or yuuji pretend to spar with her. 

she’s honestly kento’s mini figure. she’s respectful and reserved, but strong and knows when to fight and how to use her voice. there’s a time when he gets a call from her school saying that she got in a fight, the principal frames it as your daughter needlessly pushing around an older kid, but your daughter is certain in her words when she tells her dad that it was because the kid was being mean to the younger kids, and to her. kento doesn’t say a word to the teachers—doesn’t even fight them sending her home early for the day, because he’s happy to scoop her up and take her out for ice cream and tell her that he’s proud of her.

[muirneach]

gasp wait i hadn’t seen this

[fairie-bread]

i love being one of the only 3 (three) australians on tennis tumblr

[alacants]

hot take? maybe? mildly spicy take? but i feel like a lot of sincaraz people are jannik fans who don't make much effort to get carlos beyond him being happy & having muscles and it makes me slightly sad sometimes

ooh this is such an interesting take! i mean, i have definitely not been in sincaraz circles very long and i was coming at it from the opposite direction, so, confirmation bias. (carlos alcaraz, yeah, everyone knows he's the next big thing. jannik wh—oh ok wow.) but when i look around my dash it's for sure jannikblr heavy.

could be because carlos fans have a stronger tradition of alternative options, i.e. juanki/carlos? my own hangups aside, it's obviously compelling to many! i also feel like the doping case reveal meant a lot of fans armored up on their jannik feelings—like, it understandably focused the emotional attention in a very specific way.

but overall what you describe seems plausible because you're dealing with a couple things, right, first of all the inherently fractured and diffuse nature of source material in an rpf fandom—you have to work to stay on top of all the media and socials and promos and what have you and tennisblr is maybe a fraction as organized as your average c-list kpop bandom.

and second, and probably more importantly, how much easier it is to accept the surface reading for someone who is outgoing and expressive. if you're writing or reading or theorizing about someone who is more outwardly reserved then, like, by definition you have to ask yourself what they're thinking and how they feel. instead of assuming they just... don't have feelings. whereas it's a lot easier to take happiness at face value.

it'll be so interesting to revisit this next summer—i am so so so curious to see how the netflix doc presents carlos and what kind of narratives around his self and personality they decide to explore. like yes it's all a construct but it might be a good construct!! who knows!!!

[kalibabysworld]

I'd bet a lot of money that at least 50% of the reason Charly smashed his racquet today is because he's still carrying over frustration and anger (and disappointment) from the loss in Paris. That wasn't even two weeks ago and he himself admitted that that loss hurt more than most.

[3416]

Asking For a Friend with Auston Matthews