Remember Aku no Hana? This show reminds me of that, except replace the perversion and romance plot with table tennis and friendship.
Our main characters are Smile and Peco, two high school table tennis player in some low profile school. Smile, contrary to his name, is a super serious person who never really smiles. Peco, on the other hand, is a carefree happy-go-lucky person who plays with an unorthodox style?
So who’s better? It is widely believed that Peco is better, as Smile can’t seem to win against Peco. But a table tennis ace exchange student from China in a nearby rival school notices the fact that Smile actually loses on purpose against Peco, for some reason.
So what exactly is up with Smile? Why is he losing on purpose? Will he ever play up to his actual potential and talent? Is Peco just some cannon fodder in this story? Are we gonna meet more people with freaky hairstyles?
If you liked Aku no Hana‘s art style, which was non-traditional, then there’s a pretty good chance Ping Pong the Animation is for you. It’s not as drastic as Aku no Hana though in my opinion, but it does have the same effect of realism and weirdness in the art.
As a sports anime, though, Ping Pong the Animation is pretty good. It doesn’t dawdle on trivial stuff like romance or an underdog story. It goes straight to table tennis, plain unadulterated table tennis. Of course there still are these quirky characters thrown in, but those don’t really detract from the bulk of the story, which is, table tennis.
Rating: 8/10
P.S.: Is this rotoscoped?