Ping Pong the Animation

Despite being polar opposites, Makoto "Smile" Tsukimoto and Yutaka "Peco" Hoshino have been best friends since childhood. Although the overly confident Peco strives to be the best ping-pong player in the world, he often skips practice, earning the ire of his fellow teammates on the Katase High School ping-pong team. Meanwhile, Smile—in spite of his innate talent for the sport—cannot help but hold back his full strength when playing against others. Through their mutual love for ping-pong, the two have developed a bond that is seemingly unbreakable.

When Peco hears that an ex-national team player from China is coming to Japan, he drags Smile over to rival Tsujido High School to observe them. The subsequent trip leads to a clash between Peco and Kong Wenge, who overwhelmingly defeats the former in one game. Stunned by such a comprehensive loss, Peco finds himself questioning why he plays to begin with. Seeing his potential as a player, Katase's coach begins to train Smile to overcome his hesitation, but he is reluctant to play if it is not for enjoyment.

As the two struggle to find meaning in the sport, a plethora of stronger players—each with their own internal strifes—await them at the inter-high tournament, where only the very best can persevere. But when these young athletes let their unbridled ambition go unchecked, the hardships they face paint a somber reality as they pursue glory.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hoshino, Yutaka Main

Katayama, Fukujuurou Japanese

Tsukimoto, Makoto Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Kong, Wenge Supporting

Bun, Yousei Japanese

Kazama, Ryuuichi Supporting

Sakuya, Shunsuke Japanese

Sakuma, Manabu Supporting

Kimura, Subaru Japanese

Egami Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Koizumi, Jou Supporting

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Tamura, Obaba Supporting

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Kong's Coach Supporting

Ha, Tei Japanese

Yurie Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Fujio, Tsutomu Producer

Shintaku, Youhei Producer

Yuasa, Masaaki Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Key Animation, Series Composition

Reviews

Apr 21, 2025

frierens_feet

Recommended

A show that explores the mindset of a group of ping-pong-obsessed individuals to discuss motivation, effort versus talent, and the emotions that inspire us to fight and win in competitive environments.

Like many sports anime, Ping Pong the Animation isn't so much focused on the action of the fights as on character development and the internal struggles that accompany the matches. For characters like Smile, Peco, Kazama, and others, the fights aren't just against their opponents on the other side of the table, but also against themselves. It takes the conflict beyond the practice rooms and tournaments to reflect on why each of them pursues what ... they want. It's one of those series where the pacing is slow but is so you can get to know each player in this town and what's at stake in each of their matches, whether it's their fame, their honor, the right to return home as a victor, the title of the strongest, or "the hero."

Yuasa handles the characters very well in their routines and how they grow throughout the story, showing the ups and downs of their victories and defeats. His chaotic direction alongside the experimental animation style and Kensuke Ushio's wonderful soundtrack, further elevates the excitement of the fights to a level that repeatedly kept me at the edge of my seat and my eyes glued to the screen.

It's not realistic, but it doesn't aim to be; it's an exaggeration of the mental battles the players go through in order to get closer to them and visualize the frenzy of their actions. Not only do you see every swing, every jump, every hit, and every bounce, you also feel the weight behind them. Like other works by the director, such as Devilman Crybaby or Tatami Galaxy, watching some scenes conveys a sense of what I suppose people see when they're on drugs, and it's so exciting.

A must-watch for fans of the medium. Masterpiece.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 12, 2020

ST63LTH

Mixed Feelings

Ping Pong - The Animation, an underdog sports anime of sorts. Ping Pong is promising from the get-go with its fast paced action and resourceful split-frames leaving no idle moments. The animation style is unique and makes use of realistic movement rather than the typical characters only moving their mouth. The surface level plot behind it is also fairly intriguing with quiet and loud ping pong prodigies MC, Hoshino and Tsukimoto.

Story:
PP:TA leaves nearly no narrative detail unexplained, the story line follows 2 high school boys of opposing personalities and outlooks on life who are tightly connected through the mutual interest of Ping Pong. Their ... high school team participates in the annual inter-high ping pong competition involving schools locally and internationally, their journey and past is shared as they progress closer to the end of the competition fitting as much details about each other as visually and verbally possible. Doing all that in 11 episodes seems like an interesting idea however, it does mean it'll be slower to process detail on a surface level viewing; most likely requiring one to obsess in order to fully grasp what is occurring (unless you're a literature fanatic with fetishes for dense, unique approaches to the medium) As such, naturally Ping Pong isn't my type of sporting entertainment so it didn't interest me as much. 5/10...

Art & Sound:
I've been searching through forums to find why this series is well praised despite its vulnerability to age and change in generations. The art style, mimics a hand-drawn rotorscoped version of real life, there are no fancy ecchi characters or powerful aura that emitts from powerful opponents visually which means this series stays true to life and rather considers the use of different types of film techniques (wide angle, close up etc.) to portray action. That being said, there are a few things that this series may lack in terms of art: shading is very minimal even toward the climax of the series there weren't many hints toward shading which made the characters feel unrealistic and also the smoothness of the animation was questionable for some scenes. Overall art could be considered a 6/10; Sound didn't excel as much either since it is expected to be naturally well constructed 6/10.

Character:
The one aspect this series excelled phenomenally at was the character development. I always wondered why Tsukimoto's nickname was Smile since his classmates explained that he never smiles and I took that as the textbook reason but the person who began nicknaming him was Hoshino and the main reason was because he actually smiled while learning to play Ping Pong after he had taught Tsukimoto how to play. That level of detail was maintained at the end of the series and could have easily been missed if it was skipped over for a few seconds. The attention to character development in Ping Pong the animation is out of this world, even toward the end character development was maintained with close precision. It's amazing that level of detail would be maintained across all 11 episodes without a drop in quality. 10/10 in character development

Enjoyment:
Despite being an underdog of sports anime, Ping Pong establishes more of the characters (they even paid attention to using chinese VA as international ping pong opponents instead of using English which was surprising.) However, I personally couldn't find the sports premise as entertaining as a racing anime such as initial D or Kuroko no Basket because they give the viewer comic relief and are tailored to the user-satisfaction. As such, I'd rate 4/10 in terms of enjoyment (I still watched it though, just to give it a chance haha)

Thanks for reading :)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 25, 2024

pickyviewer

Not Recommended

Funny

I want to like this show more than I actually do. First off, it’s racist (I’ll explain in the Writing section). I would have dropped the show by the end of episode 5 if it weren’t for Kong, my favorite character. Seeing him reappear in episode 8 encouraged me to hang on. Episode 10, the second to last episode, was the first ostensible feeling of fun I had watching the show. Episode 11 then wrapped up the series in a satisfying manner.

- Story. This show is 40% sports 60% character arcs. There were a couple revelations about character backgrounds and relationships that pleasantly surprised ... me. However, the pacing was too slow. Half of the main and supporting cast are unlikeable for the first two thirds of the show. Kong and Akuma had the tightest narratives, with clear motivations and actions resulting from their internal struggles. The others had several logical inconsistencies that got in the way of convincing storytelling even though I understood what the show was trying to say with each of them. It follows that the payoff from episodes 10 and 11 took too long to arrive. In my opinion, there was enough imagery and foreshadowing that 2-3 episodes’ worth of B-roll and extraneous side plots (such as one character’s weird incest romance, or a background character's soul searching journey) could have been cut. It was not worth my time sitting there waiting for things to “get good” between Kong episodes.

- Characters. Each character grapples with what ping pong means to them. Why do they work so hard to train? Why do they want to win? Why do they like to play? Do they like to play? Who are they playing for? The answer is rooted in their individual pasts and life experiences. Kong is the star of the show for me. He faces high stakes pressure fueling his desire to win. What is most compelling, however, is how he deals with his trials and tribulations. He changes so much as a person by the end of the show. His reasons for change are open to interpretation, but I think the show gives me enough information to come to a conclusion that makes sense.

- Art. The lineart style is exceedingly HIDEOUS! In fact, the lineart is so poor that a character who changed his fashion sense was literally unrecognizable until another character said their name. It made me realize there are basically no character models for faces. As for the colors, I liked the pastel-like shading style. It made some background scenes look really nice.

- Animation. Decent for a lower budget show. It is rough around the edges, yet it fits the unhinged art style. There is some weird 3-D CGI, but I think the team did the best that they could. They made interesting stylistic choices such as animating an actual arrow as the ball travels between players. I was worried about the recycled animations, but there was only one episode in which I fast forwarded through them.

- Music. I thought the soundtrack (synthwave/electronic vibes) was fantastic. The use of the music transformed the mood of the scenes.

- Sound design. The actual selection of sounds was fine, but I noticed several moments where the sound didn’t sync to the animation. Most frequently, a shoe would skid on screen and the sound came late.

- Writing. What's up with the casual racism? Kong is referred to as “China” throughout the show. Not “that Chinese guy” or “Chinese player”, just China, as in the entire country. While they called him China less frequently out loud as the show progressed, they still referred to him as China in writing on screen and then once more in episode 8. While his Chinese identity is part of his character development, I don't care for this offensive delivery. Early on, they also threw in a stereotype about black people being good at dancing, in order to combat stereotypes (the irony). Who greenlit this? I expected better from 2014.

Even though relationships are supposed to be a core theme of this show, several depictions did not make sense. Without giving too much away, the friends in this show seemed to support each other less than their rivals/antagonists. It was hard to believe the utter dearth of empathy between two characters when they were extremely close childhood friends. Their supposed fallout was not properly explained; I wasn’t buying the one-liner provided in the show. Furthermore, Peco and Smile’s team has zero camaraderie - we constantly see the bad blood between seniors and first years -- and somehow they are on good terms at the end. The seniors had even expressed their bitterness at being neglected by their own coach, who focused all his energy on developing Smile.

Smile and his own coach’s relationship was also unconvincing in comparison to Kong and Peco’s relationships with their coaches. I do not understand where Smile and his coach began trusting each other and working together. His coach seems more interested in beating the competitive drive into Smile instead of drawing out Smile’s intrinsic motivation.

Speaking of character motivations, a couple of main characters had confusing turning points in their motivation. I could identify that there was supposed to be a catalyst, but not what it was in the scene. I had to look up other people’s interpretations online because the show didn't leave enough breadcrumbs to figure it out myself.

For some reason, this show likes to tell you all about Smile’s prowess rather than show it as it does for the other skilled players. It was irksome to hear a side character remark for the umpteenth time that Smile was a ping pong monster murder machine. I think we got it the first time, and the second time, and the third time, as they played robot noises synced to his movements… His matches were boring and predictable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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