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So after learning the names of the remaining ones, I was looking at this image of the US reps again:
And while doing that, I was thinking to myself "Man, this Jackson dude is pretty tall. I wonder if he's taller than Ochi (probably not, but that's not the point). He also has a pretty calm expression. Doesn't look like he's lacking power though." I moved on to some of the others afterwards, basically did the same thing there, and finally made the connection that Konomi has shown us exactly 10 American reps as the core of their team while we also have the Genius 10.
Long story short, I wonder if there are parallels for all ten characters between the two teams. These may either be the function they have on the respective teams or actually carry over to their playstyles, and I'd like to present some thoughts on all ten. So let's get started right away:
Tsukimutsu Ochi - Geisel Jackson
Starting with these two since I essentially already went over them in the introduction. I want to note at this point, however, that while the top 5 will be more function focused, the bottom 5 don't really have a function themselves, so I believe their playstyles will be rather close to each other in the specific sense of the US reps having similar strengths to the Japanese ones, but without the same weaknesses, i.e. they're superior versions in most cases.
Ochi's main weapons are his high mental fortitude and his big serve, so Jackson will have those as well. Ochi is lacking on the physical side though, needing to improve both his Power and Stamina, so I think Jackson won't have those same weaknesses. Instead he will have a big power serve while retaining enough speed to return Mach and the mental strength to not fall prey to the mental assassination. Tentatively I'd give him the following stats:
Speed: 5, Power: 6, Stamina: 5, Mental: 7, Technique: 4
Juusaburou Mouri - Rocky Meredith
Don't have much to say about these two. Meredith is probably a bit weaker than the other reps, just like how Mouri is a bit below the rest of the G10. I think he'll be an All-Rounder with slightly lower Technique than Mouri, but he will retain Mouri's strong will and fix the most glaring weakness Mouri has:
Speed: 5, Power: 6, Stamina: 4, Mental: 6, Technique: 4
Atsukyou Tohno - Clive Miller
These two are probably the most straight-forward of the bunch. If you look at how Miller is portrayed, his eyes are very aggressive and half the time Konomi's drawn him, you can't even really see them. I'm not sure if he'll attack the opponent directly like Tohno does, but I believe he'll be an offensive, technique oriented player. What's Tohno's biggest weakness? His injury of course, so obviously Miller won't have that.
Speed: 5, Power: 4, Stamina: 6, Mental: 5, Technique: 7
Ikuto Kimijima - Alan Hopkins
Hopkins looks very eloquent to me, so I think he will battle with words just as much as Kimijima and among all the counterparts I portray here, this might be the confrontation I'm looking forward to the most in the bottom half of the line-up. I'm not really sure what Hopkins could do exactly, but I imagine him to be a very smart player. Kimijima's weakness is his physical side, having relatively little stamina and a weak serve. Hopkins is going to improve on both of those without a doubt. In fact, I won't be surprised if he's the most well-rounded player on the American team in an attempt to not give his opponents any weaknesses to exploit:
Speed: 5, Power: 5, Stamina: 5, Mental: 7, Technique: 5
Ryuuji Ohmagari - Dan Pacino
Maybe it's the sunglasses, but Pacino looks kind of like a bodybuilder to me. So just like Ohmagari, I think he will focus on the physical side. At the same time though, he won't have the same overconfidence Ohmagari is said to have. That said, with physical abilities as high as I predict them to be, there needs to be a weakness somewhere and I believe it'll be on his Technique. This makes sense to me because, unlike Ohmagari, Pacino won't have Nitouryuu and I can't really think of anything comparable either. Nitouryuu seems to be a big factor in Ohmagari's Technique stat though, so it doesn't seem out of place if Pacino is weaker there in my opinion.
Generally, I think Pacino will be an Offensive Counter Puncher, as Konomi coined the style. This means he will hit back everything and do so very rapidly until the opponent can no longer keep up. Overall I'm thinking something along the lines of these stats:
Speed: 6, Power: 6, Stamina: 7, Mental: 5, Technique: 3
Juujirou Oni - Ryoga Echizen
This is where the playstyle parallels end, so I won't bother with stat predictions anymore and merely describe the function of the characters instead. In the case of these two, they both seem like leading figures in the team, and even if they're not the strongest, they may have (Ryoga) or have had (Oni) strength comparable to that of the No. 1. Other countries should also have little data on either of them.
Kazuya Tokugawa - Ryoma Echizen
The super rookies of both teams. They're both newcomers to the Japanese and American team respectively and while they're not the strongest at the moment, I'm convinced they're the ones who will grow the most over the course of the tournament. What I'm the most curious about is how they are going to grow. We can already be fairly certain that Ryoma himself won't lose any matches, but Tokugawa doesn't have the same status protecting him. We've seen him grow from his matches with both Byoudouin and Volk so far, so I wonder if he'll lose against another pro before finally winning a big match.
Duke Watanabe - Dodo Obando
Both seem to be power players. Both are friendly, get along with their team captain and seem to fill in the vice-captain position. I'm glad Konomi turned Watanabe into more than a simple power player and I'm sure Obando will have something else up his sleeve besides the ability to jump high. One thing I am curious about is if Obando is half... North American (?) since the guy he may or may not be based on, Sherman Obando, was born in Panama in Central America.
Shuuji Tanegashima - Kiko Balentien
In the case of these two I mainly want to highlight how they were introduced. Tanegashima we first saw hanging out with Tokugawa and being treated with respect by him. Shortly afterwards we learned that he was part of the 1st string and then a bit more down the line that he was in fact the 1st string's No. 2.
Balentien hasn't had that much exposition yet, but the first time we saw him, he was together with the American captain and just in general he seems to be one of the team's central figures. We already know that he's a rep of course, so he can't get the same build-up Tanegashima had. Instead, however, Konomi chose to make him a 1st year, something that is very clearly unusual. He also seems to be pretty laid back like Tanegashima, but the main point is that Balentien is clearly someone we know is very strong, even though he hasn't even touched a racket yet.
Houou Byoudouin - Ralph Rhinehart
I wish I'd have more to say about these two, but I don't (yet). They're both captains and most likely highly capable. One point of interest might be that Rhinehart is described as outstanding leader by QP whereas I'm kind of split on that in Byoudouin's case. On the one hand, he hasn't managed to unite the entire team with his philosophy with Tokugawa, Oni and Irie at least directly opposing him at various points, but on the other hand he's still pulled them along. So I think ultimately it will be interesting to see how both Byoudouin and Rhinehart act in their role as captains.
How do you guys feel about all of this? Do you think the parallels will be as present as I'm making them out to be or do you think America will be very different from Japan in the end?
Furthermore, from the stats I gave the bottom of the American line-up, you can see that I'm expecting the US team to be stronger than the Japanese one overall (which is in line with what Ryoma said), but do you think the G10 will have fixed some of their weaknesses during the training camp and be closer to the level I projected the Americans to be at?
And finally, I've neglected to talk about one very important factor: Irie. The core of the American team has ten players, but the core of the Japanese team has eleven instead. In my mind, this can mean one of two things:
1) Irie will be the deciding factor that tips the tides in favor of Japan; or
2) There's one strong American rep we haven't seen yet.
Which one do you think will be the case? Or can you think of a third possibility?
And while doing that, I was thinking to myself "Man, this Jackson dude is pretty tall. I wonder if he's taller than Ochi (probably not, but that's not the point). He also has a pretty calm expression. Doesn't look like he's lacking power though." I moved on to some of the others afterwards, basically did the same thing there, and finally made the connection that Konomi has shown us exactly 10 American reps as the core of their team while we also have the Genius 10.
Long story short, I wonder if there are parallels for all ten characters between the two teams. These may either be the function they have on the respective teams or actually carry over to their playstyles, and I'd like to present some thoughts on all ten. So let's get started right away:
Tsukimutsu Ochi - Geisel Jackson
Starting with these two since I essentially already went over them in the introduction. I want to note at this point, however, that while the top 5 will be more function focused, the bottom 5 don't really have a function themselves, so I believe their playstyles will be rather close to each other in the specific sense of the US reps having similar strengths to the Japanese ones, but without the same weaknesses, i.e. they're superior versions in most cases.
Ochi's main weapons are his high mental fortitude and his big serve, so Jackson will have those as well. Ochi is lacking on the physical side though, needing to improve both his Power and Stamina, so I think Jackson won't have those same weaknesses. Instead he will have a big power serve while retaining enough speed to return Mach and the mental strength to not fall prey to the mental assassination. Tentatively I'd give him the following stats:
Speed: 5, Power: 6, Stamina: 5, Mental: 7, Technique: 4
Juusaburou Mouri - Rocky Meredith
Don't have much to say about these two. Meredith is probably a bit weaker than the other reps, just like how Mouri is a bit below the rest of the G10. I think he'll be an All-Rounder with slightly lower Technique than Mouri, but he will retain Mouri's strong will and fix the most glaring weakness Mouri has:
Just by looking at him, you can see that Meredith is not only not lacking power, he has some to spare. Not sure if he has a special move, but I won't be surprised if he pulls one out. Overall:
Speed: 5, Power: 6, Stamina: 4, Mental: 6, Technique: 4
Atsukyou Tohno - Clive Miller
These two are probably the most straight-forward of the bunch. If you look at how Miller is portrayed, his eyes are very aggressive and half the time Konomi's drawn him, you can't even really see them. I'm not sure if he'll attack the opponent directly like Tohno does, but I believe he'll be an offensive, technique oriented player. What's Tohno's biggest weakness? His injury of course, so obviously Miller won't have that.
Speed: 5, Power: 4, Stamina: 6, Mental: 5, Technique: 7
Ikuto Kimijima - Alan Hopkins
Hopkins looks very eloquent to me, so I think he will battle with words just as much as Kimijima and among all the counterparts I portray here, this might be the confrontation I'm looking forward to the most in the bottom half of the line-up. I'm not really sure what Hopkins could do exactly, but I imagine him to be a very smart player. Kimijima's weakness is his physical side, having relatively little stamina and a weak serve. Hopkins is going to improve on both of those without a doubt. In fact, I won't be surprised if he's the most well-rounded player on the American team in an attempt to not give his opponents any weaknesses to exploit:
Speed: 5, Power: 5, Stamina: 5, Mental: 7, Technique: 5
Ryuuji Ohmagari - Dan Pacino
Maybe it's the sunglasses, but Pacino looks kind of like a bodybuilder to me. So just like Ohmagari, I think he will focus on the physical side. At the same time though, he won't have the same overconfidence Ohmagari is said to have. That said, with physical abilities as high as I predict them to be, there needs to be a weakness somewhere and I believe it'll be on his Technique. This makes sense to me because, unlike Ohmagari, Pacino won't have Nitouryuu and I can't really think of anything comparable either. Nitouryuu seems to be a big factor in Ohmagari's Technique stat though, so it doesn't seem out of place if Pacino is weaker there in my opinion.
Generally, I think Pacino will be an Offensive Counter Puncher, as Konomi coined the style. This means he will hit back everything and do so very rapidly until the opponent can no longer keep up. Overall I'm thinking something along the lines of these stats:
Speed: 6, Power: 6, Stamina: 7, Mental: 5, Technique: 3
Juujirou Oni - Ryoga Echizen
This is where the playstyle parallels end, so I won't bother with stat predictions anymore and merely describe the function of the characters instead. In the case of these two, they both seem like leading figures in the team, and even if they're not the strongest, they may have (Ryoga) or have had (Oni) strength comparable to that of the No. 1. Other countries should also have little data on either of them.
Kazuya Tokugawa - Ryoma Echizen
The super rookies of both teams. They're both newcomers to the Japanese and American team respectively and while they're not the strongest at the moment, I'm convinced they're the ones who will grow the most over the course of the tournament. What I'm the most curious about is how they are going to grow. We can already be fairly certain that Ryoma himself won't lose any matches, but Tokugawa doesn't have the same status protecting him. We've seen him grow from his matches with both Byoudouin and Volk so far, so I wonder if he'll lose against another pro before finally winning a big match.
Duke Watanabe - Dodo Obando
Both seem to be power players. Both are friendly, get along with their team captain and seem to fill in the vice-captain position. I'm glad Konomi turned Watanabe into more than a simple power player and I'm sure Obando will have something else up his sleeve besides the ability to jump high. One thing I am curious about is if Obando is half... North American (?) since the guy he may or may not be based on, Sherman Obando, was born in Panama in Central America.
Shuuji Tanegashima - Kiko Balentien
In the case of these two I mainly want to highlight how they were introduced. Tanegashima we first saw hanging out with Tokugawa and being treated with respect by him. Shortly afterwards we learned that he was part of the 1st string and then a bit more down the line that he was in fact the 1st string's No. 2.
Balentien hasn't had that much exposition yet, but the first time we saw him, he was together with the American captain and just in general he seems to be one of the team's central figures. We already know that he's a rep of course, so he can't get the same build-up Tanegashima had. Instead, however, Konomi chose to make him a 1st year, something that is very clearly unusual. He also seems to be pretty laid back like Tanegashima, but the main point is that Balentien is clearly someone we know is very strong, even though he hasn't even touched a racket yet.
Houou Byoudouin - Ralph Rhinehart
I wish I'd have more to say about these two, but I don't (yet). They're both captains and most likely highly capable. One point of interest might be that Rhinehart is described as outstanding leader by QP whereas I'm kind of split on that in Byoudouin's case. On the one hand, he hasn't managed to unite the entire team with his philosophy with Tokugawa, Oni and Irie at least directly opposing him at various points, but on the other hand he's still pulled them along. So I think ultimately it will be interesting to see how both Byoudouin and Rhinehart act in their role as captains.
How do you guys feel about all of this? Do you think the parallels will be as present as I'm making them out to be or do you think America will be very different from Japan in the end?
Furthermore, from the stats I gave the bottom of the American line-up, you can see that I'm expecting the US team to be stronger than the Japanese one overall (which is in line with what Ryoma said), but do you think the G10 will have fixed some of their weaknesses during the training camp and be closer to the level I projected the Americans to be at?
And finally, I've neglected to talk about one very important factor: Irie. The core of the American team has ten players, but the core of the Japanese team has eleven instead. In my mind, this can mean one of two things:
1) Irie will be the deciding factor that tips the tides in favor of Japan; or
2) There's one strong American rep we haven't seen yet.
Which one do you think will be the case? Or can you think of a third possibility?
) but what's the point to see a kind of Japan team No. 2 ? You might be right for some of them but I would find it a bit disappoiting. Each team should be different. 
