What is the worth of Ping Pong The Animation?
| Ping Pong The Animation is now up for vote. Decide if powers through the ranks and becomes the champion of Enlightenment or if it loses and gets drunk on alcoholic chocolates in the Relations. RULES: 1. You can only vote for a title if you've finished watching/reading it. You must've read or watched at least 60% of the published content for unfinished titles. There might be exceptions for very long finished titles as they are decided on a case by case basis, but usually amount to more than half of the published content. 2. Write your vote at the very top of your comment. 3. Below your vote, give a substantial explanation to back it up. It doesn't have to be lengthy; it just needs to cover the points you want to make. 4. If you have only read/watched the adaption/source material of the respective nominee, please state so in your post. 5. It will take a minimum of 5 votes for either Enlightenment or Relations to make it into any of the lists as an anime (3 votes for manga). If it fails to reach that, it will be deemed Invalid. 6. The votes for Enlightenment will have to outnumber the votes for Unremarkable and Relations for it to be included in our list; the same goes for Relations. If it fails to reach that, it will be deemed Unremarkable. 7. Behave yourself. We accept discussions and debate, not flaming and incoherent fanboy/fangirl behavior. 8. The fate of the poll will lie in the hands of the officers if it turns out that there are more first time voters than regulars or the series cannot be gauged by both voting and discussions. This polling process will last 14 days. BEGIN |
Ducat_RevelDec 7, 2014 8:36 PM
| Option 1 - Enlightenment This is a really refreshing move from Yuasa. A character driven sports anime instead of a quirky plot driven anime. This is a first. He fits Matsumoto's artstyle well though. And while we're on topic, this is also something I never expected Matsumoto to make. Granted, I've only read Gogo Monster, so I'm not too versed with Matsumoto's habits. It's just that Gogo Monster was such a dim, dark, and surreal manga. Ping Pong is, well, simple in comparison. The plot is pretty standard for a sports anime. Tournaments, adversity, come backs, finals, etc. That's secondary. The main focus of the show are the characters. They're all wonderful. Hoshino grows as the shows moves along, Smile rediscovers a passions for the sport, so does Kazama, and Kong's desperation and tenacity are simply moving. They all get arcs and all those arcs are fantastic. But that's not why I'm voting this manga in. What I liked the most from Ping Pong is that it doesn't beat around the bush. From the very start, Ping Pong centers its themes around talent and passion. In the show, we can see how mercilessly these two factors crush hard work. In fact, Nekota's character highlights the futility of hard work in the face of talent coupled with passion. And while talent has always been part of good sports anime (Hajime no Ippo, Slam Dunk, and even, Chihayafuru) it has never been as overwhelming as it is here. This isn't an anime that will baby someone and tell them that they can achieve anything with hard work. This is a show that demands you have natural talent. Harsh. But the levity of this message comes with its coupling with passion. More than talent, passion is the true champion. That's what set Hoshino apart from Kazama or Smile. His love for the sport. And that was explosive in this anime. Especially in the Kazama vs Hoshino game. That episode should go down as one of the finest sports anime episodes. It was so good. I can't say this is my favorite Yuasa work. It's not. Hell, I think I might even like Gogo Monster over this in terms of Matsumoto works. But there is no denying that this show has the heart and drive which great sports anime are made of. Definitely get this show in the E-List. |
Ducat_RevelNov 25, 2014 4:41 AM
| Option 1 - Enlightening As Ducat said quite nicely in his supporting statement, one element to this show that I found of particular interest and striking contrast to almost any other sports anime that I have stumbled upon is how unforgiving the competitive world is depicted in this series, and it shows this through each and every characters hard work, dedication and passion for the sport but what really makes this show pack a powerful punch is that it shows the struggles of the characters, and that if you work really hard it doesn't guarantee that you will come first place. As everyone else will more than likely be working just as hard so what matters for the characters is the approach, and Ping Pong handles this concept extremely well. Whilst the plot is fairly simple its simplicity allows for the show to develop in the most professional of fashions around its large cast of characters, and how it manages to give such shape and depth to each character in the short period each of them have on screen is literally quite phenomenal, and how more-so it manages to pull this off without ever feeling dragged out or rushed just adds to the poignancy of each characters presence. If I had to pick a favourite, I wouldn't be able to tell you, they're all fantastically written with diverse backgrounds and details into their personalities and taking the time into delving into how these characters came to be that particular way and how it effects their efforts in the competition. I will say that for personal reasons Ping Pong is probably my favourite Yuasa work to date and its adaptation to the screen follows the same intellectual aspiration and approach that his previous "The Tatami Galaxy" followed where it doesn't spare anytime over certain elements of the story to get to the crux of what the show is really about which happened in Kaiba and Mind Game. Not to say that this is in anyway a major criticism for any of Yuasa's works but it shows a real maturing in Yuasa's skill as an anime director. |
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| @Wing_Falcon Your vote has to be on top of your reasoning. |
| 1. It is made of excellence and deserves to be on our Enlightenment list. While I do think the sports setting is dragging it down and the metaphors being incredibly hammered into your head to a certain fault, I loved this series. It is just a joy to watch, the energy, the emotion, the devotion, the motivation. It's not just pretty and artsy fartsy, it is a genuine character study about real people struggling through their lives as humans and then, as athletes. The drama is portrayed in a realistic sense, but at the same time not too overbearing, adding to the artistic aesthetic and the "ugly" faces. Every character has their own life, their own motivation, their own struggle, their own talent, their own strenght. They are 3 dimensional, and the actual events are dramatized properly as well, still having the appeal of sport anime: the actual showdown, where all the training is put through the test. And the watercolor aesthetic also adds to the surreal style of the show, lines are allowed to seem inconsistent adding to the artistic expressionism that is a staple of Yuasa's works. And lastly the panel presentation was also a well done quirk to condense the show into its tight 11 episode running time(a well deserved binge watch). The audio is pitch perfect, the tone can be perfectly dark even when the screen is almost entirely white. There are a lot of grounded ambience songs and some actual thrilling tracks to keep you on edge. And of course there's the iconic climax with our Robot, ending on an almost melancholy, but somehow relieving note after all the struggle our characters have gone through. It is certainly something different, well executed and above all Enlightening! |
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| It is made of excellence and deserves to be on our Enlightenment list. I haven't seen any sports anime other than Ping Pong. I haven't even seen any of Yuasa's anime other than Ping Pong. But I can definitely recognise quality when it's presented to me, and this series is of extremely high quality. From start to finish Ping Pong draws its viewer in, whether with its outstanding and creative scenes or the realistic characters. One becomes easily invested in learning about Peco and Smile and watching them as they grow and develop. It's an extraordinary and beautiful journey. The side characters are very nicely fleshed out as well and easy to sympathise with. I should also mention the splendid voice acting, in particular Bun Yousei's portrayal of Kong Wenge. All in all, Ping Pong is a fantastic series which fully deserves the praise it's getting. May it join the Enlightenment list. |
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| 1 - Enlightening One of the first sports anime I have watched, and I didn't know what to expect when going in as far as if the ping pong matches would be exciting. I was surprised at how tense and entertaining they were, even more was how well all the characters were written, and bringing to point on failure, and success with the harsh truth that even through numerous hours of hard work, there still will be ones that rise above you easily, almost effortlessly. That's pretty discomforting, especially if you were one to put great amount of effort trying to be the best you can in hopes of being among some of the best at something, but at times there's only so far ones can go. Still, the show brings the point home with it's group of multi-faceted characters, that in life there's not going to be a victory, there's going to be actually victories, not all will be won at once, and even through trials, and tribulations, one still can pick their self up as Peco did, enjoy themselves, while realizing they can achieve greatness against all odds, but within that process will be times of falling, even still it is the courage to continue that enables one to final reach their greatness, and never letting a set back make them lose enjoyment in life. I wish I had watched this show when I ran track/cross country in High School (I wasn't bad, I was good, just always tensed, and never enjoyed myself). This was truly a masterpiece with how it was able to convey such a message through nicely written characters, while being directed well to a point where everything was concluded well. For some of these reasons among others that others here mentioned, this show deserves all the praise it gets, and of course a spot on the enlightening list. |
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| Option 1 What can I say that hasn't been said already? Yuasa managed to create a stunning adaption of Matsumoto's terrific manga that remains true to the source while also taking a few liberties. This show is more of a character study than a sports show and as you might have expected this is where it shines the most. Every character develops more in a few seconds than most character in an entire 2-cour anime. The aniamtion is fluid, the designs carried over well from the source and the OSt is mazaing - overall a very impressive production. |
| Steel Ball Run anime when? |
| option 1 Ping Pong is one of the best coming of age stories out there, ping pong was never about the sport it was about life and it portrays the stories of many different people growing up in a way storytelling in general has not. Every single character in this show is fantastic showcasing an amazing level of depth and development in such a little time frame and makes this story feel like a journey by the shows glorious final episode. Theres a level of humanity in almost every aspect of this show and there was not a single episode in the show where i did not get goosebumps on my skin at some point or another. The story is already worthy of enlightenment but then the superb directing makes this even more of a masterpiece than it already was. the musical cues are nothing short of perfect and compliment just how good the ost is on its own, the pacing always manages to move forword and showing you something new every second yet still manages to take the time to develop every single last character that appears in the show, and the jumps between different art styles and symbolism make some scene nothing short of magical, and this is coming from a guy who thinks symbolism is pretentious and unnecessary, ping pong does it right. |
Immahnoob said: Jizzy, I know you have no idea how to argue for shit, tokiyashiro said: Jizzy as you would call yourself because youre a dick The most butthurt award goes to you And clearly you havent watched that many shows thats why you cant determine if a show is unique or not Or maybe you're just a child who likes common stuffs where hero saves the day and guys gets all the girls. Sad taste you have there kid you came up to me in the first place making you look more like a kid who got slapped without me even knowing it and start crying about it to me |
| Option 1: Enlightening Okay there isnt much to say that hasnt been said. As said before ping pong has excellent characters, the actual matches interesting and full of energy, the animation is fluid, the art style quite uniqe and has a nice sense of sharpness to it. What I will mention tough is how nice the atmosphere is. Unlike many other anime that attempt to tackle a coming of age story, ping pong manages to maintain the balance between dramatic and happier moments. Both showing that sometimes you dont win no matter how hard you try but also showing that not everything is over because of that, and hapiness can be found elsewhere. What I also love is that all the characters are truly uniqe. Sometimes in anime there is this strange sense of character development where they just pick one after the other, focus on them, they go trough hardship and then they come out of it stronger and as the winner. Not so in Ping Pong. Not everyone is a winner not everyone goes trough the same struggle, everybodies life story feels truly unique. |
| Option 1 :Enlightening Not much left to say about the show. The only thing I'll add is that as a sports show, in terms of overall merit, Ping Pong is very close to the level of Mitsuru Adachi's best works (H2 and Touch). That is the best compliment I can give to this wonderful anime. |
Kagami_Hiiragi said: Idc if you think its weird, I have a life and friends and an income of money. |
| 1. Option Wenge This is one of the largest landslide victories we've had, so I'm not going to do much more than just going to drop by and say Kong is one of the best characters I've seen in a very long time. Anything that gets him into our list is fine by me. And really, I think that was Ping Pong's strongest attribute really, was its characters. While the music was great and the story good, the characters really, truly brought all of this to life in a way that is rarely seen because it was done in such a simple manner. The parallels of Kazama and Wenge were especially intense to witness, people trapped in a painful position that they both hate and love and could maybe even decide to step away from if they weren't buried so deep. There was so much buildup for them that was done without being done for the sake of it. It really made Wenge feel like a real person. From his introduction and bitterness, to his pride, defeat, grudging acceptance, slow evolution. And that Christmas episode was absolutely great for everyone. The series had a very unique ending in my mind, not for the actual events, but for the feel of it. Especially in a sports anime the final matches are usually the most intense of the series, and in a way they were, but not in the usual manner. They were intensely fun. In a way that reinvoked everyone's passion for the game in a way they hadn't felt for too many years. Everything about Kong's final match really was perfect, and in the final shot, with his signature plan flying away from him, the smile on his face was one of the most human emotions I've seen in anime. I dote on Kong's character because it really was the thing that changed Ping Pong for me, so I vote Enlightening in large part for him, but the series does have a lot to offer from many fronts. |
ForgoneReality said: 1. Option Wenge Team Wenge! |
| With an overwhelming 11 votes for Enlightenment, I draw this poll to a close. Thank you all for voting! |
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