An Tachibana

An Tachibana
The Prince of Tennis character
File:An fresh.jpg An Tachibana. Screencap from episode 53.
Created by	Takeshi Konomi
In-universe information
Class	2nd year
Relatives	Brother, parents, grandparents, great-grandmother, dog (Gokutora, a Bulldog)

An Tachibana (橘杏, Tachibana An) is a fictional character in the anime and manga The Prince of Tennis.

Personality outline

File:An hihi.jpg

An Tachibana, as seen in the Prince of Tennis anime. Screencap from episode 71.

An is the 13-year-old sister of Kippei Tachibana, who is a student at Fudomine Middle School (second year) and a regular member of their girls tennis club. Her more distinguishing physical traits are her pink barrettes (green when she's in sporty clothes), and despite her tomboyishness, she uses miniskirts, cute clothes or dresses, to show her more feminine looks.

An cares very much for her brother and her friends from both the Seigaku and Fudomine teams, and tries to help them as much as she can. On the other hand, she sometimes has a rather explosive temper that leads her to either get in trouble for the sake of others (as proved by Sakuno and Atobe) or become physically violent (as proved by Kirihara when he trashed talked about her brother, resulting in him falling down a flight of stairs after dodging her attempt to slap him).

Role in the story

An's first appearance in the anime is in a fast food restaurant where Takeshi Momoshiro and Ryoma Echizen are eating hamburgers after school and discussing their chances to be regulars. She approaches them and they start speaking about the Seigaku team; Sakuno Ryuzaki and Tomoka Osakada, Ryoma's female friends from school, overhear this but don't butt in. Later, An is a witness of Ryoma and Momoshiro's failed "doubles debut" in the street courts with Izumi and Fukawa from Gyokurin.

In the manga, An is only present at the street courts but not at the fast food restaurant, therefore she doesn't speak to Ryoma and Momo.

Some days later, during the Seigaku v/s Fudomine match, An sees Sakuno being harassed by a bully after accidentally stepping on his foot and damaging his tennis shoes. An attempts to help Sakuno, but the guy slaps and belittles her for being a woman. An is offended by the sexist remark and refuses to back off, but then Momoshiro comes to her and Sakuno's defense, throwing the guy to the ground and telling him to not bully girls anymore. After that, An properly introduces self to Sakuno and Momoshiro as Tachibana's sister.

Possible romantic prospects

In the anime series

An and Momoshiro are very close friends, and may or may not have some degree of mutual romantic interest. This is hinted specially hard in the anime, because of Momoshiro's jealousy when he sees Fuji and An together in episode 71 (which can be seen in itself as the , as well as the fact that he invited An to have All-You-Can-Eat sushi with the Seigaku Team and blushed when Fuji and Eiji mentioned that Momoshiro could end up liking her.

Also, they went on an unofficial date (though it turns out disastrous and has many other people tagging along and spying), though Momoshiro denied many times any romantic involvement and claimed it was just an outing, and this was later confirmed by An herself to Shusuke Fuji; she only intended to cheer Momoshiro up after his fall of grace, but claimed the outing was a full date in front of others as a contingency plan to not let him refuse her. She's also one of the people who helped Momoshiro to regain his place in the regular line-up, after an unofficial match where he realized the flaw that was fatal for him: underestimating his opponents.

In the Animation Album 'SMASH!' character relationships chart, a picture of An has a pink-colored line (indicating a crush) pointing at a picture of Momoshiro; however, there's no arrow that points at her from Momoshiro, indicating that he isn't intrested in her beyond friendship. (Scan)

In the manga

In the manga, there's no equivalent to episode 71, therefore An's crush on Momo isn't featured. The manga seems to lean a bit more towards showing the feelings that Akira Kamio, Kippei Tachibana's sub-captain in the Fudomine team, has for her; apart of his jealousy against other guys who show intrest in her, he actually tried to ask her out on a date in the manga, but was interrupted when Fuji went to An's home to talk to her brother.

Both anime and manga

In both anime and manga, Keigo Atobe once tried to force An to go in a date with him, praising her personality and beauty, but was stopped by Kamio and Momoshiro.

Latest appearances

In the anime series

An's less-than-kind side arises very seriously in the anime, after the match between her brother and Rikkaidai's Akaya Kirihara, where Kirihara used his "Red Trap" on Tachibana and made him put pressure on his already-twisted ankle and sent Tachibana to the hospital, causing him to miss the Senbatsu (Junior Invitational) Camp. As a result, the frustrated and depressed An quickly grows an unusually violent hatred for Kirihara.

In the anime series, An joins the Senbatsu team as a manager along with Sakuno and Tomoka, and confronts Kirihara directly about the issue. Kirihara crosses the line when he insults Tachibana and the Fudomine team as a reply and An's anger bursts out, resulting in Kirihara falling backwards down a flight of stairs when she tries to slap him and accidentally causes his fall. Kamio is blamed by everyone for the accident since Kirihara refuses to disclose any info and it's a known fact that he and Kamio are at odds as well, but in the end Ryoma discovers the truth as he finds one of An's hair clips on the floor, not too far from the stairs. Cornered by Kamio and Ryoma, An explains the whole situation, apologizes to everyone and finally makes peace with herself and with Kirihara, who has decided to not injure anybody else.

In the manga

An's most recent appearance in the manga, where the whole Senbatsu camp plotline with her and Kirihara doesn't exist and her aggressiveness is toned down, happens during the Shitenhouji v/s Fudomine match. She hangs out with the Fudomine regulars and explains to them what happened between her older brother and his rival/friend Senri Chitose. An and Kamio also were present in the pre-Nationals confrontation between Fuji and Tachibana, where the latter broke all of Fuji's counters.

The scene with An explaining the Chitose/Tachibana backstory, as well as the flashback where her brother tells her about quitting tennis as an atonement for Chitose's injuries, was included in the 14th OAV.

Voice

An's Japanese voice actress (seiyu) is Akiko Kimura. Her English voice actress is Jennifer Sekiguchi, and the Latin American one is Claudia Nieto.

Akiko Kimura has released several image songs for An:

• Taisetsu na mono (Important thing), and Miracle Colorful Carnival! (with Mikako Takahashi and Fuyuka Oura) from the mini album Go Go Girls!
• Nayande, waratte! (Worry, smile!), from the game Love of Prince
• Natsu no ojousan (Summer young lady), from the similarly-named single.

Sources

• Various Prince of Tennis manga chapters and anime episodes.
• Prince of Tennis: Smash Hit 2 game guidebook.
• Prince of Tennis 'SMASH Animation' guidebook.