We have all heard of successful people who have earned the place through their work and efforts, but do we know what they went through? The success to the top is extremely glorified in this world, but have we seen the pain that is required to reach that spot? Ping Pong the Animation shows the pain and brutality of the top, and it shows us the true struggle. The visceral pain of knowing that you may just not be the biggest fish, which more often than not leads to great self-anguish. This anime asks the viewer how do you define success. Some characters had a goal that ends at one point and some characters had a never-ending goal. Do you want to be the strongest? Do you want to be the best? Do you want to be famous? It could be none of the ones mentioned. Here the anime asks what is important to YOU, and none of these goals are overshadowed by the other. Normally a regular anime would just be vague and answer "nakama and friendship!" (which is not bad or anything but it does get jaded after a while). Ironically, Ping Pong is not really about the sport unlike many other anime in its genre, but it is about the struggles our well-developed characters go through as humans to succeed at a personal level. All these characters have their own goals along with great story-telling bestowing it a real spot in my favorites
Characters
We meet our main protagonist Makoto (Tsuki)moto who is a quiet boy with a stoic looking demeanor nicknamed "Smile" (pretty ironic), and his friend (Hoshi)no or as he is nicknamed "Peco" both of these guys are members of their high school Ping Pong team. While (Tsuki)moto plays for fun, (Hoshi)no plays to be best in the world, making two amazing characters. These characters are relative yet opposite to each other like ying and yang, and they also help develop the secondary characters perfectly. These guys are all so different, yet we can all relate to them in one way or another.
Sound
I can promise you whenever I hear the OST of Ping Pong I get the chills and it perfectly meshes along with each scene during the anime. It was made by Kensuke Ushio who is not too well known compared the omega popstar Sawano Hiroyuki.
Animation
Now I seen a lot of people saying that this animation is "bad" because it isn't high quality. Does our anime need to look like Fate Zero to be counted as good? We have timeless classics like Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Persona, Metal Gear Solid, Pac-Man, etc, and to this day people are still playing them! Ping Pong's funky art style suits the anime perfectly, and it wouldn't be the same if it had the regular anime art style.
Enjoyment
I watched this anime three times without experiencing a single second of boredom 'nuff said.
Overall 100/10
I was blown away. Surprisingly, a brilliant work for a director who usually makes pretentious anime. I truly believe you should give this beaut a good watch.
