Dec 8, 2021
Okay, I know what you're all thinking. A 10/10? On a typical moeblob anime? That seems a bit overkill, right? Well, let me explain, and then maybe you'll understand why I love this anime as much as I do. (Please bear with me, this is my first time writing a review)
Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume, translating to Scorching Ping Pong Girls, is an anime about a group of girls who are on the table tennis team at their school, Suzumegahara. The anime follows their matches amongst one another in their attempts to get better, their practice matches against other schools, and their journey to Nationals.
As
...
soon as I noticed this anime, I was immediately drawn in by the art style. I'm typically a very picky person when it comes to art in anime...if I don't like the art style, then I can't enjoy the anime itself, no matter how great the story may be. I don't know what it was in particular, but I really enjoyed the art, even if the animation wasn't as smooth as it could've been.
I cringed upon reading the title, and I assumed that there would be tons of fanservice (as is the norm with anime like this) and that the plot itself wouldn't be very good. I had seen very poor attempts of combining sports and cute girls before, and it hadn't ended well. But I decided to give it a shot nonetheless. And I have to say, just after the first episode, I was immediately hooked on the story and characters.
I find that this series doesn't just cater to those who like cute girls and slice of life anime...it has plenty of high-paced ping pong matches between the characters as well that are intense and incredibly thrilling to watch. I play ping pong myself (which is the primary reason I decided to give this anime a try), and just by watching these matches and watching Kiruka give the girls tips, I was able to pick up some tips and tricks and actually improve quite a bit. It was also quite interesting to learn about each character's individual play style.
The characters are all amazingly likeable, and fit together so well. Usually, with an anime like this, you get a group of characters: the typical go-lucky genki doormat, the incredibly annoying tsundere, the shy (if you could even call it that) kid who is picked on by everyone else, and the annoying tease/pervert that acts way more mature than they actually are. I was expecting similar stereotypes in this anime, but I was thankfully very wrong.
Usually, I can't help but cringe when I see tsunderes on screen, as most of them are very poorly written. But Agari was one of the best tsunderes I had seen in a while. Her dialogue never felt awkward, she actually has insecurities and is capable of forming relationships, and her personality doesn't boil down to that one trait. The same is with Koyori. She isn't your typical shy character, she has a more energetic side as well that only emerges when she plays ping pong.
I noticed that quite a few of the characters were amazingly unique, too. Kururi is one of my all-time favorite anime characters thanks to this show. Her personality is so interesting, and I couldn't help but smile every time I saw her on screen because her insecurities and worries about Zakuro leaving her perfectly resemble my insecurities. She's also an actually well written yandere. So there's that.
And of course, while I didn't pay too much attention to the BG, the OP and ED songs were both decent, particularly the OP, which, in my opinion, perfectly fitted the contents of the anime, which isn't common.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this anime, and was left wanting more at the end. It felt like the first season ended on a cliffhanger...and the fact that they have yet to announce a second season worries me. I desperately want to see how each school performs at Nationals, and if they have the strength to finally beat the mysterious team shown at the very beginning of episode one. While there isn't much hope considering how long it's been (and how the manga has ended), I'd like to still hope that I'll get to see Death-chan again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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