From the director who brought us, among others, The Tatami Galaxy and Kaiba, comes Ping Pong the Animation.
By definition, this would be a sports anime, and it is indeed centered around the lives of several ping pong players in different high schools striving to be better, but this is a pretext for much more than just youths battling each other over titles, fame, rewards or anything truly tangible- this is much more a story about coming of age than it is one of competition.
The competitive sub-plot isn't the focal point of this series and is, in fact, something quite ordinary and unlike other anime related to competition: there's no actual grand prize sought by many, there's no overpowered and unreachable rival who is yet to be defeated, and the main character is not an unseen talent which manages to overcome odds and out-skill its competitors without any effort.
The game itself isn't analysed too much either: it's just there as a subtext for developing the story while still not being neglected at all, or certain mechanics and set pieces left unexplained, so the viewer is never confused and does not forget what the pretext for the story is.
In other words, you can jump right into it even if you're not a fan of this discipline to begin with.
Its setup may be confusing at first, since it does seem to introduce characters that later on, from one's perspective, may become clichéd antagonists for our heroes to conquer, but this is not the case. In fact, each and every one of the characters of Ping Pong is likeable, human, and realistic. There are no 'evil' or 'good' sides, and is indeed just a collection of well developed characters measuring each other through game to see who is better at the sport they are in love with.
Indeed, this is a sports anime closer to its definition than many of its colleagues: it's a story about camaraderie, dealing with loss and celebrating victory, improving oneself and understanding others, making friends to accompany each other on the trip through adolescence, partaking in a shared hobby, having fun and creating memories. In fact, this is what the actual essence of sports is, or at least should be.
Each and every character competing against one another is well defined, equally as important, and never briefly introduced only to be forgotten just until minutes before a decisive match. Even though Peco and Smile have the majority of screen time and focus, in the end, none of the other people presented are any less important than the two of them, and you might attach yourself more to a character that wasn't meant to be the focus of the main story in the first place. The voice acting also helps a lot to deliver this result as well.
As you can imagine, characters are the strong point of this series, and it does shine quite brightly: they're all well defined, with their own weaknesses and strong points, and are more human than what your average animation cast is. They don't need colorful somatic traits to be memorable: they're skilled albeit ordinary ping pong players, every one of them strong in some way, every one with its own defects, contradictions, and hardships them alone must face and overcome.
Its uniquely gorgeous art style, along with its upbeat and fitting soundtrack, skilfully paced story and execution manage to deliver in eleven episodes what many praised series struggle to do in 26. I personally recall feeling this series to be longer than that just because of how good its storytelling was.
Would I recommend this series? Absolutely. It's one of the best series of 2014, and it will probably remain in your memory for a long time, along with its characters and its fulfilling sense of growth.
