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If anything, Masaaki Yuasa is a great director, who knows how to make interesting anime that have a lot of "meat" to analyse.

I'll start by addressing the elephant in the room - the artstyle. Ping Pong, like Yuasa's other works, presents itself in a very unconventional, simplistic and blocky artstyle. The look and feel of Ping Pong the animation will be familiar territory for those who have watched anime such as Mononoke, but otherwise it may be a hurdle to get past in order to fully appreciate the good aspects of the show.

That implication was intentional. I didn't like the artstyle in Ping Pong the ... animation, to put it bluntly. It is not just because it appears "ugly" on a superficial basis. I liked the look of Tatami Galaxy and Kaiba and both of those can also look rather "unsightly" at times, but Ping Pong feels like a technical downgrade from both of those, which shouldn't be happening because Yuasa's skills as a director and artist should be improving over time, not worsening.

On a technical standpoint the presentation in Ping Pong still works. The sound design of the sport, the music and the determined grunting of the characters is spot on at times, and there is some interesting splitscreen shot composition, along with characters that have suitably expressive faces and voices.

The problem is that the unconventional artstyle does nothing for Ping Pong. The surreal artstyle worked for Kaiba because it was to convey a deceptively cutesy, dystopian cyberpunk world. The strong colour tones and "cartoonish" look of Tatami Galaxy was there to communicate the inherent silliness of the dramas and desires of college life. Ping Pong the animation from the setting and premise is basically a typical sports anime, and nothing about the artstyle inherently invokes "sports".

To summarise, Ping Pong the Animation could have been produced by Kyoto Animation, and have all the characters replaced with cute "moe" girls, despite this the result would have effectively been the same thing, and just as good.

Therefore, it is not the presentation that makes Ping Pong the Animation a diamond in the rough, but the characters. The characterisation and subsequently the way the events play out transforms an otherwise average sports premise into an emotionally-striking commentary on talent v.s hard work, passion v.s obligation, and coming of age themes. Each character is meticulously written to represent an aspect of these conflicts. Tsukimoto for example has no passion for ping pong but has an extreme degree of talent, his friend Hoshino on the other hand is extremely passionate about ping pong but has no talent. Each of the characters undergo development as developments in the sport and the passage of time ages them and even makes them question their life choices regarding playing ping pong as a sport. This makes the tournament arcs feel more authentic than in your standard sports or shonen anime, where characters tend not to develop and merely win or lose.

The other thing that works so well about Ping Pong the animation is that it acknowledges the fact that there are no good guys or bad guys in sports, just different players and perspectives, this is represented by the different playstyles and equipment of each school and even their nationality, without having to resort to sterotypes. Just trust me - you will be rooting for *everyone* towards the end.

Despite it's rough presentation, Ping Pong the Animation has a heart of gold, over time it has drawn many people away from the artstyle, but has enamoured others with it's authentic conflicts and characterisation. Although I seem to be in a middle ground in this regard I would still recommend Ping Pong for anyone looking for a change of pace in sports anime.