Ping Pong the Animation

A quick review of Ping Pong: The Animation

It is already pretty much known how good this show is, so my opinion is not much different. I'll just talk about what I thought was really special about this show. First of all, this show is like a perfect combination. It's directed by the goat Masaki Yuasa who has also directed one of my favorites, Devilman Crybaby, the music composer for both shows is also the same, the goat Kensuke Ushio, heck even the main character is voiced by the same seiyuu! so I had high expectations from Ping Pong and it didn't disappoint me, I mean, duh. So these are some things which personally I think stood out for me.

1. Animation: When I'm watching a show, I couldn't care less about the animation, if the story is good, I'll watch it even if the animation is just watchable and understandable. But animation plays an important role in Ping Pong. It gives the show a unique personality but I think it also compliments the artstyle of manga really well. I checked out some manga panels of Ping Pong and I think anime does a pretty good job of adapting the manga. I've seen people calling the animation weird and all. I can understand where they're coming from but I think it's unique and different just like Devilman Crybaby.2. Ping pong games: Even if the name of the show is Ping Pong, table tennis is not really the main focus of the show, but still the games are so satisfying to watch, the sounds of balls tapping on the table, it's like a table tennis ASMR. The character movements, camera angles, they just give more fluidity to the games. There are some scenes where the camera is stable and the characters move to hit the ball, those scenes look so good. I don't have much knowledge of table tennis but I actually used to play table tennis a long time ago, so the games felt refreshing and nostalgic for me lol.3. Characters: There are SO MANY great characters in this show. Every side character has potential to be the main character. But my favorite ones are probably, Hoshino/Peko and Kazama. The struggles both of them go through were not just well written but relatable too. We get introduced to Hoshino as a pro table tennis player but he loses to Kong Wenge, another great character, in the first episode, that's where his downfall starts, and there's also his breaking point where he reaches the lowest point of his life. Basically, Hoshino used to play with his outdated techniques and was also over confident about his play, thus his downfall was unavoidable. But then there's a reboot of his character where he starts from zero and reaches his highest point. That whole journey is some of the best character development I've watched in any show. Along with Hoshino, there's Kazama, who also goes through a downfall, not because of his ego and over confidence but because of how he used to look at table tennis. Table tennis was a tool for staying number one at something for him. And when the realisation hits him about what he's doing wrong, he is not enjoying the game, instead he's just thinking about how to stay at the top of it, that whole realisation was so emotional to watch, that whole episode was so strong and full of emotions. There are also other characters which are really well written, like Tsukimoto, Wenge, Sakuma, Egami. Egami specifically a character who has really less screentime yet his whole story of finding a place where he belongs and what the purpose of his life is, it's just so good.4. Music: How can I not talk about Kenuske Ushio lol. Devilman Crybaby is still Kensuke Ushio's best work for me but the soundtracks in Ping Pong are also great. Even if Ping Pong is a character driven show, a sports anime always has some hype moments and Ping Pong is no exception. It's a plus point of Ping Pong that even if it's a character driven show, the games are so exciting and the music plays an important role in making them exciting. Wenge's theme China, just builds hype for his character to show how good he is at ping pong. There's also a theme named Hero appears with which the show starts, the whole concept of Hoshino being Tsukimoto's hero, then Hoshino's whole downfall and then the comeback of hero. I think this OST compliments to the whole concept of it very well. There are many good OSTs other than these two.5. The whole concept of the show:

Ping Pong does not revolve around some specific topics. It's about life. There are many stages in our life where it's not possible for us to take decisions for ourselves. Or even if we take decisions, there's always fear of regretting them later. Sometimes we have wings to fly but we don't know how (lack of skills), where (lack of destination), why (lack of cause/purpose) to fly. Ping Pong just teaches to enjoy your life, even if you're not living the best life there is, even if you're not able to fulfill other's or even your own expectations, it's always ok to be what you actually are. You don't have to be someone else just to prove yourself in something. In fact, there's no need of proving yourself if you've already proven yourself in your own eyes. The themes of Ping Pong hit me really hard because of some similar things happening in my life right now. When Ping Pong talks about something, I've noticed that it doesn't try to tell answers or draw conclusions about how to solve that life problem, instead it lets things flow how they're flowing with the themes of the story and reaches to a natural conclusion and that's one of the reasons I liked the ending of this show so much.

I don't have much to say, if you've not watched this show, you must watch it, this show is actually once in a lifetime experience. It's like a piece of art which belongs to museum. It's so well crafted and executed. If I have to nitpick something, there was a slight, a little problem with its pacing in the middle episodes and sometimes the character interactions felt a little too generic and typical (I don't know how to explain that point very well 😅), but these are really hard nitpicks, totally negligible. Don't forget to enjoy your life because if you're not, you're no different from a living corpse! Thanks for reading!