"Ping Pong is freaking blast" -- Pico
This is the one of the (very)few sports anime that shows the reality of how life works.
Lets review each of the main topics constituting this anime.
story: 9/10
This Story is when Talent X Hardwork X Expectations cross paths with each other .
Story mainly follows Tsukimoto Makoto ("Smile") and his friend hyperactive Hosino Yukata ( "Pico") through the two years of their highschool life at their table tennis club.Story is quite fast paced as you expect from a 11 episode anime but very few anime achieve what this anime achieved.And that is development of all the characters it introduces in smooth manner without forcing them in that direction.
This is one show where there are no antagonists or protagonists.Everybody is doing their own thing and there are no super powers to main characters (as there are in certain sports shows) and no special moves to any characters and as stated early this show shows contrast between talent, hardwork and expectations
--Spoilers--
Smile is Talented and Hard working but does not feel anything for the game whether he wins or losses . Where as Pico is Talented and Enjoyes the game some where losses his path due to various reasons and get defeated by China, and Akuma. But he rediscovers his love for the game, train's hard and finally wins the tournament. This shows that talent is not sufficient to succeed but you also needed hard work and love for the job you do to succeed in life. And it also Shows that how hard you may work, if somebody is talented than you and work hard less than you they will succeed and surpass you.
--SpoilersEnd--
This is true in real life. If you are talented and works hard at a thing and you enjoyes doing it then you are sure to succeed and if you lack any one of these then there will be less chance of success.
Art: 10/10
I am the first one to admit that the art style threw me off the first time i watched this anime. I even dropped this anime because of that. But after picking it again and just after 1st episode art style grew on me and i cannot imaging this anime with any other art style. I am even glad to see once a sports anime without all handsome/beautiful looking characters. Character designs are quite original and crude just as the anime intend them to be. Characters may be crude but backgrounds are quite beautiful
And i am giving it a 10 because i judged it wrong the first time.
Sound: 8/10
OP is quite good and it goes well with the theme of the anime and some of the sound tracks are really beautiful to hear and the song by 'china' is easily the top's the list of best Christmas song :p . Ending song is ok. Background music fits perfectly for this anime.
Characters: 9/10
This show mainly focuses on the five characters who represents different types of people present around you.
Tsukimoto Makoto: Nicknamed "Smile" by his peers is quite talented and good at Ping Pong but cannot go all out against his best friend pico. He shows very little emotion and does not have any feelings whether it is winning or losing. He just plays for the sake of playing.
Hosino Yukata: Nicknamed "Pico" have quite opposite personality of his friend Smile and he is always active, Talented in Ping Pong. He shows emotion quite often crying when he lose and happy when he won. He loves Ping Pong and enjoy's playing the sport.
Manabu Sakuma: Nicknamed "Demon"(Akuma) is childhood friend of Smile and Pico but not as Talented in Ping Pong. Though he compensates his lack of talent with hardwork and he tries to defeat Pico and by that showing hardwork can trump over Talent.
Ryuuichi Kazama: Nicknamed "Dragon" is one year senior of Akuma and his teams captain. He believes that winning is the sole purpose of life and strives to take his club to its former glory.
Wenge Kong: Nicknamed "China" is Chinese player who arrives to Japan to defeat all the top Japanese to show the Chinese that they are wrong and there by regaining his place in China national team.
And there are many other side characters who are unique, original and real.
Enjoyment:9/10
I quite enjoyed this show and will recommend to anyone even those who do not watch sports anime but some may get off because of art style. And it has great rewatch value.
Overall: 9/10
This is the one of the most underrated and best anime 2014 and you may think me of as some fanboy since i did not write anything bad about this anime. But Seriously i tried to find bad things about this anime but just cannot find them.
This is my first review.. and i appreciate all the feedback.
