Story: 10
The beats of the story, the story development, is kinda like poetry. There's a repetition of abstract, often metaphorical, foreshadowing, that blossoms at its climax into an enlightening whole. And like some poetry my first impression was kind of awkward because I didn't quite understand the meter, or some of the meaning. But also like poetry, once I caught on to it I fell in love. It's got great narrative style. But also, it's simply great storytelling. In true sports anime fashion, it deals in themes of perseverance, victory, defeat, injury, strategy, etc. But there's also a deep tension between the complete devotion of all time and energy to a single passion and the nature of what, or whom, must be sacrificed for such devotion; and whether doing so is running towards a goal or running away from something else; and whether no longer doing so means being free or being directionless. As someone who has experienced moving on from a sport that drove my spirit for many years, I really appreciated this.
Art: 10
The art had me all tied up in knots for the first couple of episodes. On the one hand, it didn't feel like watching anime at first. (Which, by the way, goes against my belief in anime as a medium rather than a genre! Gosh I'm such a hypocrite. But that's human nature I guess.) It sort of felt like watching animated Picasso. And there is actually an element of truer-than-life distortion that's a bit reminiscent of Picasso. It's not such a literal or anatomical distortion, but it's there in the lines and the perspective. On the other hand...it sort of felt like watching animated Picasso. I mean, Picasso's work is strange but it's genius and inspiring. You just have to look at it hard enough and long enough. For me, once it clicks it's insanely poignant. Ok. So the style of art in "Ping Pong" isn't literally like Picasso. I just felt the faintly similar vibe while watching it, and thought it might make a nice comparison to explain what I see in the art that merits a 10.
Poetry. Picasso. A little hard to grasp at first, but truly meaningful and a lot of fun once you get into it. But mixed in with these artsy elements there's some fun and classic charm points too.
Sound: 10
There were some very clever uses of sound in the storytelling that really struck me. And overall, the sound effects are very crisp and bright - a perfect reflection of the classic sound (which we of course hear a lot) of ping pong balls. There's also some humorous and fun but subtle use of sound effects. Last but not least, the music has a lot of good beats - again a nice nod to the sound of a game of ping pong. The sound of the series is actually a lot of fun.
As a transition from sound to character, let's talk about the voice acting. I'd say the voice actors were subtly superb. A current of dry humor was particularly brilliant, especially from Yara Yuusaki as Coach Koizumi and Nozawa Masako as Tamura Obaba.
Character: 10
I loved the characters from the very beginning. The main duo, childhood friends Hoshino and Tsukimoto, have a really fascinating friendship. It's not just like they're brothers, it's like they're brothers who are ninety years old and know each other the better for those long years. Hoshino's eccentricity and kinetic spiritedness contrasts Tsukimoto (nicknamed "Smiles"), whose wavering between apparently listless indifference and intensely quiet passion always keeps you on your toes. The mentors, Koizumi who is the coach at the boys' school and Tamura who keeps the dojo where they grew up playing, are sort of humorously cranky about being the trainers rather than the good old days when they were the players. But their silliness of passion and witty sense of humor were a real joy. Then there are the characters who can be described as teammates and rivals and secondary characters, but who might best be described as characters who were affected by the two main boys. Their backstories and character arcs were treated with as much care, if not as much spotlight, as the main characters, and the way they were affected by the main characters might actually be the main point of the story.
Enjoyment: 9
The only reason this isn't a 10 is that I had to work into the right headspace at first to truly enjoy this series. I'm guessing the next time (or few times) I watch it my enjoyment will be a 10.
Overall: 10
Although I might be slightly maybe a little tiny bit hypocritical about it at times, I really believe in animation that has an extremely, individually unique style. The world of illustration has a great, extreme variety of style and characterization. You can tell just by glancing at some illustrations who the artist is. I hope animation can become even more this way. There are some great examples in anime. And "Ping Pong: The Animation" is one such example.
