Sometimes it doesn’t pay to play by the rules.  Hunan TV, despite having some shameless promotion tactics, and a reputation in China for being “Shanzhai”, has had a long history of turning out good dramas, from Princess Returning Pearl to their latest Ugly Wudi. In contrast, straight-forward Shanghai-based Dragon TV has always been kind of fail with their attempts at shows. For a station situated in such a trendy city, Dragon (aka Tomato) TV has been one step behind Changsha-based  Hunan-TV, and never had the knack that Hunan TV has had in actually delivering quality fun drama. It was however, the first in China to tackle adapting a manga, buying the rights for a live-action drama adaptation to the fanatically-followed manga, Prince of Tennis in 2007, with much support and enthusiasm from its writer, Takeshi Konomi who hoped this would help promote his beloved manga in the huge Chinese market.