Ping Pong
Yes, it's about ping pong! Your favorite sport to stereotype Asians around the world has become an anime! People who've watched this show will agree that it's a gem in storytelling. However, is that statement REALLY true? I decided to watch this show so you wouldn't have to in order to give my own opinions about its animation, soundtrack, characters, and supposedly-godly storytelling all mixed into the best gosh darn blog you've ever seen about a sport that's debatably not a sport.
ANIMATION
Let's start by getting this topic out of the way. Now, what keeps a large amount of people from watching this show, like Aku no Hana, is a little something called rotoscoping. Now, I won't go into detail about what rotoscoping is here, but if you'd like to know more about it, here's a link to my review of Aku no Hana, where I go into great detail about the animating skill called rotoscope.
One aspect I found very creative on their part was animating different frames into a single frame. This makes the anime look very manga-esque. For those who don't know, the Ping Pong anime was adapted from a manga. Because of this, I believe that this aspect compliments the anime and gives the manga fans something to be happy about.
Also, though the characters look unnatural and are god-awful, the backgrounds and sceneries are done exceptionally well.
For example, take a look at the ping pong house, which is a reoccurring setting in the anime, and how great the artwork looks.
6/10
Though the scenery is great and they were creative in their animation style, that doesn't stray from the fact that the animation of the characters resulted in a negative reaction from viewers. If your animation causes people to stray away from your show, you might have a problem.
SOUNDTRACK:
Ping Pong is more of a sports anime, so they can still accomplish what they came to do without the inclusion of a good soundtrack. Though the soundtrack is composed of over 60 individual music pieces, only about 2 of them are rememberable.
8/10
I can respect the anime for being only 11 episodes, so they didn't have as much time as other anime to show off their music, which is why I gave them a higher score than I was originally. Though the soundtrack had some gems that were exceptional, I believe they could've done better.
CHARACTERS:
Now that you've learned a bit about the animation and soundtrack, les meet the people that make the anime what it is, the characters!
Sakuma Manabu (Devil)
Sakuma is a first year that attends Kaio Highschool and looks up to Ryu. When Ryu says that he wants members as strong as Smile, Sakuma becomes frustrated because he knows he could never become as talented as Smile. He then challenges Smile in order to prove his worth, but ends up losing. He then vents his anger by causing a fight with a passerby thug, resulting in him getting expelled from school.
After getting expelled, the anime doesn't cover him as much, but in the final tournament, he attends to tell Ryu something while accompanied with who we believe is his girlfriend.
Kong Wenge (China)
Kong Wenge, also known as China, is a very talented ping pong player from China. Due to specific reasons, he's sent to Japan and kicked off his team in China. Through the entire show, Kong's motivation is to prove himself in Japan in order to fly back to his homeland and his mother, who he cares for dearly. Like seriously, he's a major mommas boy.
Out of all the characters in Ping Pong, Kong is my favorite. I thought he was a pretty average character, but after seeing how happy he was in episode 6, my opinion forever changed. Can you imagine suddenly being sent away from your family while still in high school?
Kazama Ryuuichi (The Dragon)
Ryu is basically the John Cena of this anime. He's everyone's favorite to win the Inter High and appears in commercials to advertise ping pong products. Attending Kaio highschool, Ryu only thinks of ping pong and how to improve himeself. That's right, in a final scene where Sakuma is talking with Ryu, Ryu confessed that he play ping pong for himself and not for his team. He puts himself under major practice and strain in order to win instead of having fun and eventually, he forgets about having fun at all.
What I find very aggravating about Ryu is that he has an extremely attractive girl that lives with him and has feelings for him. She invites him out during Christmas and even makes chocolate for him during Valentines Day (which was her birthday!) and IGNORED ALL OF IT! Towards the end, he's all like
"Idk what I did wrong, herp derp"
Ryu, are you freaking serious right now?
Tsukimoto Makoto/Smile (The Robot)
One of the two main characters in this anime, Smile is an extremely talented player, but at first he didn't show it. It took the massive pushing of his coach to unleash his true potential as a robotic player that identifies players in the first round to find their weaknesses and exploit them in order to win, hence being called "the robot".
He considered playing ping pong as a job and often let players win out of consideration for they're feelings. For example, when Smile was facing off against Kong, we was basically dominating Kong, until Kong's coach yelled at him to win or else he wouldn't be able to return to his home, in which Smile lost the game on purpose out of consideration for Kong.
Hoshino Yutaka/Peco (The Hero)
Peco is our other main character of the series. Towards the beginning, Peco doesn't attend practices because he believed he had natural talent and could beat anyone on the team (when Smile held back). This all changed when he challenges Kong and gets totally rekt. The idea that people may be stronger than him becomes present, but he only realizes this when Sakuma defeats him in the prelims of the Inter High and Smile technically beats Kong. Peco then stops going to school at all, gets a girlfriend, and even starts smoking.
It took a photo of him, Smile, and Sakuma as kids back at the ping pong house, seeing how much fun they had. This motivated Peco to do his own training with college students away from Smile and the others as he prepares to unleash the power of the hero.
9/10
Not much can be said about the characters except that they're all pretty unique and rememberable. However, they aren't masterpiece worthy, so the highest they'll get from me is a 9.
STORY:
And we reach the piece of resistance, the story behind Ping Pong the Animation. People hype this up as a very touching and beautiful story, but is that really true? In my opinion, the people hyping this story have all the rights to do so. The story behind this anime is absolutely amazing.
It begins with Smile's upperclassmen bullying and hassling him about the whereabouts of Peco, who was currently challenging people at the ping pong house in order to earn money. The coach questions who Smile is and recognizes that he isn't using his full potential.
The next day or so, Peco forces Smile to come with him to check out the new Chinese transfer student, Kong Wenge, play ping pong. As mentioned in the character section, Peco gets rekt. Kong then challenges Smile, but gets declined. It's when they return that Smile's coach decides to put him on individual training in order to prepare for the Inter High.
Once at the Inter High, they get pretty far in the tounament, but eventually lose. The rest of the anime is showcasing the characters and what they go through before the final tournament of the anime. It's during this time that the story especially shines. I personally thought after the Christmas scene in episode 6 was when they truly set the pace for their amazing story. In that episode, we learn about the sweet spot of Kong, the family curcumstances of Smile, an image of how low Peco has become in his drinking and smoking habits, and the dramatic love triangle that's occurring inside Kaio Highschool.
I've already spoiled a lot for you, so I won't go into detail about how incredible the last two episodes of this show were. I can say that in these episodes, we learn of Ryu's true nature, why Smile stopped smiling, the reasons why each player plays ping pong, and where they are after Highschool.
10/10
I came into this show knowing fully well why I was going to watch it; the story, and I wasn't disappointed. The story behind Ping Pong the Animation is a beautiful story discussing the relationships of people and how they can unite under one interest: ping pong.
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT:
By now, you've heard, or read, about what I like, dislike, and absolutely love about this anime, so I'll be brief with this section.
While I greatly enjoyed watching each character as they mature in a beautiful story around a party sport, there were some qualities that prevented it from becoming one of my favorite shows of all time.
8/10
There was a small amount of people that actually thought the animation technique was innovative and improved the anime. I for one, didn't. The animation is quite possibly the only reason why I didn't enjoy this show as much as I could've.
OVERALL:
6/10
8/10
9/10
10/10
8/10
TOTAL: 8.2/10
WATCH? ✔️
BUY? 〰 (you can if you'd like)
