Review of Ping Pong the Animation
I guess it’s all in the way you say it/show it, sometimes is not the clearest of statements the ones that just stay with you. Ping Pong tells the different stories of different kind of people, whose lives revolve around the sport of Ping Pong (duh). Each and every one of them has a different approach to it, and a different way of seeing it, from the way it’s played, to how to relate with the scene of the sport, and to the very personal meaning that the effort of high level playing have for the person. It’s hard to say from the start what kindof series this is by the way is presented, its contents might seem familiar at first but Ping Pong tries from the very beginning to set the all so elusive effort to ignite our senses and interpretation capabilities, this is automatically noticed by the peculiar animation and drawing style that the series chose to portray and the sudden weirdness in general.
The thing is, this is not the first, and will not be the last, series to try and catch the eye of the spectator trough bright and weird colors, so that is not the point, the point is that this kind of symbology it’s a way for setting a stage, one that is more open to interpretation than the “regular” ones, in other words, it is an invitation to get all crooked eyed and see to read every symbol within with another perspective… not exactly the regular one.
It’s all about how you portray things…
The whole sports anime thing is a pretty much standardized field, so the faintest of the efforts to change this are noticeable… does this mean that such series are necessarily good? Of course not… does this mean that Ping Pong is bad? Certainly not.
Even after you’ve taken in the first impression, that of the visual extravaganza of the series, you are not left with a classic sport story, not even close. Ping Pong offers an interesting twist, not often seen in this genre, in which the story revolves around TALENTED players, so instead of the classic underdog/effort/sacrifice for victory/talent earned kind of story, you are presented with already overpowered talented players with already set personalities that instead of developing they focus on interacting with each other all talking the language of winning and high end competition. This character scenario added to the flamboyant imaginary leaves you with a different language to understand, and that’s the main beauty of the series, you know the symbol and the codes but are influenced to do a reinterpretation of that which you already know.
Even if you find relatable storylines and scrip scenarios, the whole package is presented in such a way that leaves place to interpretation. Each one of the protagonists will gave you a moment of reflection, all from that comfortable place of talent and superiority, but not compromised by it. In a way you can feel that all the effort on the story telling is purposely made to leave you wondering, every gesture and every struggle gets a makeover in this series, which ends up giving you a wonderful experience as you try to unravel the possible mysteries behind the visual and argumental decisions made in this, not so typical, sport anime.
It’s funny because me personally did not found any truly complex idea entangled in Ping Pongs presentation, to me it was more about the enticing nature of what I was seeing, even if the result of the experience didn’t really left me whit anything new.
In the end, even if you do not find the possible uniqueness in Ping Pong, you’re definitely left with a nice story with fun and complex enough characters to entertain… even if you aren’t prone to dwell too much in the interpretation. Ping Pong makes a strong statement with its contents and presentation, whether we buy it or not.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t there.