(Discussed further in Episode 27 of the podcast I am in, Digitized Desperadoes. Here’s a link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS6fKnuqMsE )

(Spoiler warning.)
Masaaki Yuasa takes the Coming-of-Age story, bounces it between two paddles, rips it to shreds, blends it, and drinks it for breakfast.

Well, Yuasa adapted a manga series, but he did it in such a way that I can’t imagine it in any other medium. PPTA is a story about recreation, competition, and growing up, but not in the typical sense of coming into the world. It’s about why we do the things we do in our daily lives. Each character is asked the question (not literally): “Why do you play Ping-Pong?” And each is forced to answer through their actions.

The visual style of the series is impeccable. There’s a sense of realism. The characters’ faces are modeled more after real life than the typical anime style, and that’s a-okay. It turns out a little bit uncanny sometimes, but I think that’s part of the charm. The motion and action is all incredibly dramatic, with zoom-ins and manga-esque panels. Sometimes the matches even go into fantasy sequences, with characters being represented by animals or forces of nature. It’s incredibly impressive, and absolutely engaging to watch.

The plot itself? I can’t say I love it. It’s incredibly toxic-masculine until the very end, and not very condemning of those attitudes and lifestyles. “But garthol, the manga was written in 1995 Japan! It was a different time!” Yeah, sure, and at times it does really call out how horrible their attitudes are towards the sport. There’s a great scene near the end, when two characters play against each other and realize they’re actually enjoying the match, which is crazy! It emphasized a lot of the themes I was feeling, and I wish they explored that more. I felt like the reason behind the story was that these people weren't playing Ping Pong. They were playing in some kind of mental hellscape where they were always trying to prove themselves to themselves or someone else. One is trying to pull his friend out of a funk, one is trying to redeem his family, one constantly remembers his home country…

Sure, a lot of these things are probably emblematic of Japanese sports media. You need the rivalry and clashing motivations, and I ate it up. Kong Wenge, a “minor antagonist,” if you’ll allow the metaphor, ended up being my favorite character. There’s a strange Christmas episode halfway through, and it’s really obvious that he’s the guy who gets his shit together immediately after he realizes his problems. In the beginning he’s a huge jerk to the people around him, but after reevaluating his actions, he gets right back up and becomes a better person. I liked it better than the “main plot,” where it just seemed like people were hurting themselves to prove idiotic points to their friends.

The toxic masculinity is painful for me to watch, and I’m not a fan of Peco and Smile’s saga, but the delivery and execution of the story is still brilliant. There’s enough there to pull a viewer in, but not enough to get definitive answers. I mean, one of the climatic scenes just turns into an abstract musical number rather than give you the results. (They’re revealed through a later conversation, though.)

It’s bleaker and less visually appealing than Tatami Galaxy, but it’s also a completely different kind of coming-of-age story that I think Yuasa excels at. There are multiple stories written into these 11 episodes that were worth telling in this specific medium, and I don’t regret watching it, even if the ones they focused on were not my favorites. I’d say give this a shot. In terms of sports media, I feel like it’s a shining star, but it’s not Yuasa’s best. 6.5/10.