of the ; character CDs focusing solely on the trio have been released. Tezuka also appears in both the animated and live-action films. In the animated film, The Prince of Tennis: 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. Reception In every Shonen Jump character popularity poll of series, Tezuka has remained in the top five most popular characters; besides the first poll, where he came in fifth place, he has remained in the fourth spot since the second poll in 2002. In addition, in the annual Valentine Chocolate Recipient rankings Takeshi Konomi releases in the manga, Tezuka received the second largest number of chocolates in the 2001 rankings. However, since then, his rank has continued to decline; the following year, he took the fifth spot. in 2004, he slipped down a rank to sixth; and in 2005, his rank slipped to eighth place. During another one of Konomi's manga segments, in which fans were to send postcards in order to have their name listed as one of Tezuka's classmates, the replies were so overwhelming that the results had to be postponed for another volume. Also, in the Prince of Tennis Character Book 40.5, though Konomi comments that Tezuka is the character who is most unlike himself, he states that Tezuka would be the character he would pick to play doubles with, as well as want to be able to use his signature moves: Tezuka Zone and Tezuka Phantom. Various types of merchandise have been released in his likeness, including figurines, key chains, and jewelry. In publications focused on manga and anime reviews, Tezuka's character has received mixed reviews. First off, one of his techniques is negatively reviewed, with John Sinnott of DVD Talk seeing it as one of the reasons why the story is "idiotic". Also, Chris Beveridge and Jarred Pine, reviewers from an entertainment website called Mania, both see him as unoriginal, with Chris describing him as one of the series' archetypes, more precisely as the "serious prodigy...who will change the face of