He reads The Prince of Tennis and buys the most recent Shounen Jump to be updated plus the tankoubons, too. He laments when a Seigaku (the main team) regular loses a match. He sulks when he is not able to buy that certain Seigaku racket case in a store. He re-reads the The Prince of Tennis manga when he could not sleep. He names his dog Fanta, to refer to the drink Ponta was based on.

When you read his blog, you would think that 16 year-old Sakurada Doori is merely a Prince of Tennis fanboy, especially when he starts rambling about Echizen Ryoma and his teammates. Well, he is a fanboy, but he is also Echizen Ryoma in the flesh — at least for a certain time.

Sakurada Doori was born December 7, 1991 in Tokyo. He grew up like any normal kid with his older brother and older sister teasing him and learning dancing and tennis. He was also a young, albeit low-profile celebrity. Under AMUSE, he starred in a number of commercials and guested in a few dramas like Ruri no Shima.

At one point in his junior high life, he learned about the Prince of Tennis‘ adaptation for stage. Being a die-hard fan of the series since it started, Doori became eagerly interested in the musicals. He decided to try out as an actor for that musical when actors to replace the 2nd generation cast of Seigaku were called to audition.

He auditioned without the hope that he would be chosen. After all, he was so young (16 years old) and he was not as experienced as compared to the previous cast. However, one day, while he was about to board a bus to school, he received a message that he got the role he wanted. He was then, formally, the third generation Echizen Ryoma, the main character.

Doori showed the spunk and the coolness the manga-version Echizen had. Doori tried his best to uplift the role of Echizen Ryoma just like how his sempai Endo Yuuya and Yanagi Kotarou did. Doori released a Best Actor Series CD (the Tenimyu character CD) as Echizen Ryoma, and it showed that aside from dancing and breakdancing and acting, he also had the knack for singing. He had problems dealing with the rest of the cast at first, being someone who did everything at his own pace, Doori grew to love the musical and its members. He was so sad to realize that he was to graduate from the role he had come to cherish last September 2007 after The Musical Prince of Tennis - Absolute King Rikkai Dai ~Second Service~.

In his blog, Doori poured out his feelings, about how he did not want to leave the role and how his time as Echizen seemed so short. He was a bit depressed for a long time and his fans worried about him. After some time, though, he learned to accept the fact that he couldn’t be Echizen forever and decided to concentrate on his other roles.

Even though Doori was known mostly for his role as Echizen, he had a lot of other notable roles on stage. He starred in the musicals organized by AMUSE, FROGS (left) and ONLINE 2 ~Roomshare~. FROGS showed off his dancing skills with other AMUSE talents while ONLINE proved that he could be as good as any actor. Lately, it was also announced that he would star as the main character of the movie Aquarian Age, to be shown in 2008.

Such a young age, such a big name and future, what are the other things in store for the boy behind the legendary prince of tennis? Do you think we can expect other big things from him, who just dreamed of being onstage as a character he idolized?

Sources:

• Sakurada Doori Official Amuse profile
• Sakurada Doori’s Blog
• The Musical Prince of Tennis Official Site
• FROGS Official Site
• Aquarian Age the Movie Site
• Ruri no Shima DramaWiki Site
• Nihon Watch FROGS Review

(PS: I apologize for the lateness of this post m(_ _)m)