Back to nugenki's Profile nugenki's Profile

I play a little bit of table tennis, and a few other sports, and usually sports anime resonate well with me. For some reason though, I found this to be pretty mediocre. There was little excitement, but I can't wait to watch Ping Pong the Animation.

I like the characters. They a vivid and lively. They are all unique, which in the case of a non serious anime, makes it's all the more fun to watch.

Sometimes, the animation was amazing, especially in episode 1, which tricked me into watching it. It's not amazing compared to all other anime, but was amazing in the sense that there ... was more action sequences that showed the ping pong battle, than just freeze frames of people talking. There were even a few rotoscoped sequences sprinkled throughout the series, and made everything feel much more lively. Unfortunately, episode 1 got special treatment, and most of the scenes afterwards, are just still frames.

There were some details of the sport that you'll learn throughout, like replacing the rubber on the paddles, or the effects of spin shots. The mangaka obviously knew the sport well. The only thing I can point out bad, is that the spin shots were usually reserved for only the highest ranked players, when in reality, they are easy to learn.

The story is whatever, but more importantly, the battles seriously drag the enjoyment down. Every single battle was as mediocre as you could imagine. Everybody always ties, and then someone loses. Or learning to overcome a weakness near the end, and then winning. Or the negative person, learning the meaning of having fun, after being shown a fighting spirit. And many, many other examples of the most cliched things you can think of.

I've found it rare to come across an anime adaption that keep character interactions believable and realistic. There is no need to have a character acknowledge communication with a series of grunts, or sudden eye movements. Reality is that the listener is usually quiet, especially during more dramatic scenes, and I found this anime is be exceptional at this, which I feel is one of the biggest sins in current animation.

Not only does the anime keep it realistic in said regards, but many others as well. There are no over dramatized emotions. Characters show many different levels or joy and grief, and it's easy to ... tell just by their faces. With every character, you can start to understand how emotionally withholding they are, and how that drives the characters to act certain ways, there is no need for the story to spoon feed you their characteristics.

The character interactions feel much more (and I use the word again) believable with regards to issues they have, whether between all the girls intimately, or with their handlers in a stricter and more formal manner. You can tell they care for each other, and aren't all just thrown together for the sake of plot forcefully.

There are many things that this anime did wonderfully animation wise, but taking a peak at season 2, I wish Madhouse would have works on said season as well, because the difference is very drastic, and disappointingly sloppy. The animation may look dated, but the techniques used are anything but.

Short summary: I'm not going to hold back! *Everybody then proceeds to hold back*

I heard about this by seeing it recommended enough times. I am a biy disappointed to find another shounen where the next boss is actually more powerful, and the main character unlocks a whole new level. The typical, trash someone would write if they only planned out the beginning and ending, and fills the story with coincidences so the plot holes are as blaring, but I'm sure most of us can distinguish.

It would be unfair to say I didn't enjoy this, cause I did, but only the parts where I didn't roll ... my eyes. I don't mind copy and paste character tropes, and these characters were unique enough where watching them interact warrants a 20 minute episode, and for once the mascot is likeable from the start.

There were times when the soundtrack far exceeded what this anime could have ever been, and I was ignorantly excited for what was to come.

The story itself is pretty good, and I never really felt like any major storylines from any character was forced. It somehow felt very natural for everyone to end up together. But besides that, there are many, many moments where the coincidences are really too obvious.

So, all in all: mediocre at best, and watch it if you're in the mood for shounen.

Another reviewer had a lot of good points made about how the characters made horrible, illogical decisions. Somehow, when I watched it, it seemed to make sense. I think after watching Re:Creators (Which I think is the most illogical anime, and has the most unrelateable characters), I've been feeling like any anime I watch now is golden.

I thought the pacing was amazing and was even saddened when I was at the half-way mark. To watch this anime, you should know that this entire anime follows the children from birth, until they get a lot older, so it's definitely gonna be a slower anime. It's ... masterful storytelling of which I've never seen in anime yet. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I hated that character that somehow knew everything for the convenience of setting up the world, but it was so absurd that I absolutely struggled to watch the first 5 episodes. As usual, the high secret operative from the government bows down to that character's episodes long speech. As usual, highly trained soldiers and powerful guns do absolutely nothing. As usual, you have characters that would fight first instead of talking and ending confusions and misinterpretations. There was nothing logical about their actions, so I could not relate to any of the characters at all. This is basically Cliche-The Anime. If not for the visuals, ... the redeeming episode 6, and the soundtrack, I would have dropped this in episode 2.

And the insert song that plays is amazing, but you can't just keep using the same drop every single time! It was so ridiculously corny after the fourth repetition.