Ping Pong the Animation

Despite being polar opposites, Makoto "Smile" Tsukimoto and Yutaka "Peco" Hoshino have been best friends since childhood. Although the overly confident Peco strives to be the best ping-pong player in the world, he often skips practice, earning the ire of his fellow teammates on the Katase High School ping-pong team. Meanwhile, Smile—in spite of his innate talent for the sport—cannot help but hold back his full strength when playing against others. Through their mutual love for ping-pong, the two have developed a bond that is seemingly unbreakable.

When Peco hears that an ex-national team player from China is coming to Japan, he drags Smile over to rival Tsujido High School to observe them. The subsequent trip leads to a clash between Peco and Kong Wenge, who overwhelmingly defeats the former in one game. Stunned by such a comprehensive loss, Peco finds himself questioning why he plays to begin with. Seeing his potential as a player, Katase's coach begins to train Smile to overcome his hesitation, but he is reluctant to play if it is not for enjoyment.

As the two struggle to find meaning in the sport, a plethora of stronger players—each with their own internal strifes—await them at the inter-high tournament, where only the very best can persevere. But when these young athletes let their unbridled ambition go unchecked, the hardships they face paint a somber reality as they pursue glory.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hoshino, Yutaka Main

Katayama, Fukujuurou Japanese

Tsukimoto, Makoto Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Kong, Wenge Supporting

Bun, Yousei Japanese

Kazama, Ryuuichi Supporting

Sakuya, Shunsuke Japanese

Sakuma, Manabu Supporting

Kimura, Subaru Japanese

Egami Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Koizumi, Jou Supporting

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Tamura, Obaba Supporting

Nozawa, Masako Japanese

Kong's Coach Supporting

Ha, Tei Japanese

Yurie Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Fujio, Tsutomu Producer

Yuasa, Masaaki Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Key Animation, Series Composition

Kimura, Eriko Sound Director

Reviews

Jun 19, 2014

Volunteer

Recommended

Ping Pong The Animation is an exceptional show. This is less of a sports anime and more of a powerful emotions series. It's a beautifully crafted coming of age story and one that certainly doesn't come along often. In a word, it's unconventional. Nothing about Ping Pong feels ordinary so love it or hate it, it's hard to not recognize its artistic merit.

The story is a simple one and it chronicles the lives of two boys and their experiences with table tennis. We're introduced to Makoto Tsukimoto, aptly nicknamed "Smile", and his boastful best friend Yutaka Hoshino, or "Peco". These two are polar opposites ... and we follow them through their high school ping pong careers. Their story is told in just 11 episodes and it's nothing short of pacing perfection. Everything meshes wonderfully from start to finish and each episode provides just the right amount of information without overwhelming or confusing the viewer. Ping Pong is great at giving you important plot points piece by piece and this makes it an incredibly engaging experience. Each episode is satisfying and this makes it very tempting to marathon.

This is where things start to get shaky for the average anime viewer. The art style is simple and misshapen. There are no enormous and colorful eyes. The lines are crude and uneven so things like ping pong balls aren't perfect circles. It'd be no exaggeration to say this is some of the most unorthodox art in the industry today, but by no means is it bad. It may be out of the comfort zone, but it's fitting for what the show is trying to do and it has an inexplicable charm to it. The animation is quite weak at times and things just look sloppy. This actually works to the show's advantage by providing a unique style of its own. The art and animation stay consistent the whole way through. If this bothers you, get out while you still can.

It's hard to believe a show about ping pong has music as good as this. The sound sets the mood perfectly. From simple melodic tunes while training to the adrenaline pumping opening song, Ping Pong knows just the right track to play at every given moment. A handful of tracks feel a bit out of place, but as a whole, it feels like watching one long movie. Additionally, the music is very good at distorting one's perception of time. There are times where it goes completely silent to emphasize the strain on a character. You may even associate certain songs with certain characters and this is a very good thing because it means you're connecting with them.

Where Ping Pong really shines is its characters. The amount of development in such a short time is staggering. The interactions between characters are astoundingly genuine; every conversation feels natural. There's meaningful growth in even the most unlikely people and this is a breath of fresh air from shows where nothing seems to change.

I don't want to go into too much detail regarding individuals, but the rivalries between characters are beautifully illustrated. Their personalities bounce off of each other in a frighteningly realistic way. The harsh reality of athletics is painted not only on their faces, but also on their words. A lot of conversations later on are poignant and almost poetic. It's tragic at times and these interactions do a great job of maintaining the morbid realism that made the early episodes special.

Ping Pong is not a light watch. This is something that can be enjoyed by anyone who wants a good story. You don't have to like or even understand table tennis, it's first and foremost a tale about growing up. It's undoubtedly a memorable experience and something very much worth your time if you keep an open mind.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 28, 2014

sjwho2

Mixed Feelings

Ping Pong the Animation.

It's one of those series that is either going to get over-the-top praise or disdain from it's watchers, for me it was simple disappointment.

Story: 5
-Well like most sports anime the story is not too heavy. However Ping Pong's biggest problem is that the story and how it plays out has been done before, several times in fact. You can see the ending from the start and every "twist" isn't all that surprising once you get to the end. I was not entertained when it came to the story and it's presentation.
NOTE: I do not take away points for it being a ... sports anime and having a sports-themed story. I take away points for unoriginal and poor presentation.

Art: 7
-I'd say the art is mediocre. Not because "it's not HD so it sucks" but because funimation purposefully made the anime this way, but still re-used animation within the first few episodes. I actually like this type of animation if it's done right, but way too many times in this series is it not. Funimation clearly had the budget for this anime, but chose to make several scenes look out of place and terrible because they didn't know what they were doing or didn't care.
NOTE: The art style fits well with the theme.

Sound: 4
-It's there and not much else. Nothing outside of your generic background music and nothing you'll even remember in T-minus 5 minutes.(already forgot).

Characters: 7
-Now the characters in this show are pretty well done. I'd like to say they are "deep" but they really weren't. Only Hoshino and Tsukimoto really stood out, as everyone else became X, Y, or Z stereotype. That being said, Hoshino and Tsukimoto were deep in accordance to the story but not as characters themselves. "One track mind" would describe the entire youth of this cast. However there interactions are at least midly entertaining.

Enjoyment: 6
I can't say I enjoyed my time watching this series more than the general mediocre anime. It's not exactly entertaining per episode, I've seen the entire story/characters done before in other series(ala prince of tennis), and to be honest the ending/starting episodes were the only parts I think were worth the watch.


Overall: 5

Ping Pong the Animation is a series that presents a rather mediocre product to an already saturated genre. The art style differentiates it, but does not make it shine.

I'd recommend it to people who have not watched other sports series.


Note: this is all my opinion, but I stand by that opinion 100%.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 1, 2022

Play2X

Not Recommended

Oh yeah, Ping Pong: The Animation.
I know I'll get reports and dislikes for this one,
but please bear with me, since this is my oppinion.

Story: 4/10
The story of Ping Pong is probably one of the poorest executed versions of 'Cliche-Sports-Story Mk I'. There isn't even much I could spoil. What do you expect of the most cliched sportsstory?
Take a while and imagine. I'll give you a hint its the same principle used in next to every shounen, as well as probably every sports anime.
I don't have much of a problem with such a storyline in itself, but if the story is like that, you'd need some ... other points to make up for it. And I simply couldn't find anything to make up for it. There is no comedy, no fanservice, no action scenes or anything else which made up for the classical storyline.

Art: 1/10
The original manga is actually from 1995 while the anime aired 2014. Still, at that time anime like Detective Conan or Dragonball also aired. Why would I be ever pleased with that art? In a way this style is really unique. Yes, I definitely haven't seen something like this before.

The background arts -> boring
The character designs -> ugly
The animations -> simply pathetic

If you want an idea of what I mean by ugly character desings, just click one of the pictures above in the characters section. Most of the characters look like they didn't want to spend more time then necessary on the characters. The characters are merely some rough outlines, with some strokes as facial expressions. This can't obviously be enough.
As for why the animation is simply pathetic: I noticed it rather early in one of the table tennis games. The ball nearly went to the ground, but they got it back on the table. In a straight line. From UNDER the table. One of the greatest physic fails of all time.
Sure, this might be intentionally by the drawers. Or it might just as well be a crude mistake.
I personally prefer realistic and fluent movements.
For reference also a reason why the background arts are boring: In the first episodes, the main characters gym is presented. Fair enough. In the later episodes, the rivaling school has the exact same gym. Well with everything which was green in the main heroes gym being purple...
Summed up, the rather low quality of the anime completely distracted me from everything else.
It took several hours for me to get used to it, and by that time the anime was already half over.

Sound: 4/10
The voice acting was basically mediocre. The only voice I even remember is Wengs. I'm personally a fan of using original languages with foreigner characters. And well, Weng, or his seiyu, pulled that one off pretty good. Next, the BGM: unmemorable.
And I mean unmemorable. I watched one of the episodes again, just caring for BGM. And theres next to none to begin with. This one might be for style reasons, making the actually existing ones more important, but those that actually exist are just mediocre tracks sadly.
As for how they are mediocre. They sound generic and could be used in every anime. They don't connect to what the anime wanted to present, or at least thats what it feels like for me.
Last, we have the opening and ending, which both were, to be honest, absolute forgettable as well. Just as the BGM, if there wasn't the video, I would never even imagine that this would be Ping Pongs Opening/Ending, which is really sad.

Character: 4/10
And once again Kong Weng is the guy who saves up some points.
Both his background, as well as his character was well fleshed out and, to top it off, realistic.
I really disliked both main characters, because both only have one or two memorable traits.
Their backgrounds get described every once in a while in some talkes other characters have, and to be honest, those backgrounds are, just as the story, used a hundred times, again.
This is one of the mainreasons I didn't enjoy Ping Pong at all. Everything seems just like we've all seen it before, with nothing which elevates it out of the masses.
The character development, especially Smiles, came off rather forced.
Pecos on the other hand, was the classic shounen development. Its a reasonable one, but once again an abused one.
At least the side characters are, compared to other anime, acceptable.
They have some traits that make them enjoyable, backstories that might make them interesting or developments, which make them more vived. But, here as well, these are the classical ideas, used just another time.

Enjoyment: 1/10
I only laughed once in the whole anime. And thats because of a scene where the arts nearly killed me. I personally hated this stuff, but since its a Top 100 I wanted to give it a shot and also have it completed.

Overall: 3/10
In my opinion one of the poorest anime I've seen so far, and I'm at 100 days of watching anime.
Maybe you're better off trying it for yourself, because I absolutely disliked it and can't possibly recommend it. Maybe you'll come to like something, I absolutely didn't.
If you're interested in sports anime however, just go with Kuroko no Basket. If you're interested in good character development, go with one of KEYs works, either Clannad, Little Busters!, or Angel Beats.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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