why she loves it

LOOK AT THEM. Don't they look precious together?! I don't know about you, but i'm a sucker for cute things. And this is just .. another one of those 'cute things' that I can't resist. These two certainly aren't my absolutely-positively-favorite-princes of the Tenipuri series, but their relationship (LACK THEREOF?) makes me melt into a puddle of goop. Slashing them is so... adorable, because here you have a unique, innocent obsession-driven pairing unlike any other in Prince of Tennis. I haven't seen any other character in Prince of Tennis who admires as boldly as Jirou does. Who can blame Jirou, anyway? Marui is freaking awesome. When I first watched episodes 118/119, I was blown away by how Jirou was so... into Marui. As a newbie Tenipuri fan, I had only watched 118/119 to see how the Momoshiro/Kaidoh combination works. And sure enough, the fanboy!Jirou came in the package. I said to myself, "Wow, this guy... is he in love? And more importantly, with the red-head?" And yeah, that's the way I intperpreted it, really. Either way you look at them, it's going to end up giving you a lasting impression. I also think that their personalities suit eachother well. Marui is someone who thinks highly of themself, however, everyone else doesn't seem to actually care about his self-proclaimed "tensai" status. He'd need some sort of ego-booster, and the perfect person to fill that empty void is Jirou, who... spent two years looking up to Marui obsessively? I think that's adorable. I also love how... opposite they are in terms of habits. Marui is always running on a sugar high, but Jirou is always sleeping, and it's like, wow, polar opposites? Other than all the things I mentioned above, I also noticed how much official stuff they have together. I used to think that Marui appeared next to Kirihara more than Jirou, but I was really wrong. Wherever Marui is, there is a 70% possibility there is a Jirou with him, and vice versa. Kinda cute, how the animators still decide, "Heeey, let's stick them next to eachother!" Does that mean this is canon?

They're also part of the 3 Guava Trio (along with Aoi Kentarou of Rokkaku).