Review of Ping Pong the Animation

Ping Pong is not your typical sports show. Not just because the art style is extremely kinetic, sketchy and often metaphorical; emphasizing animation and emotion over drawing and painting. But because instead of the usual single hero who is destined to face stronger and stronger foes, learning their weaknesses, and defeating each one in sequence, you get something different. Something personal. You get the story of not one character but many, each of their ping pong matches is a reflection on where they are in life, why they are alive, what drives them and what breaks them apart. And each match they focus on, does thatfor both players at the table. Each player is playing for their own reasons, and each player wins or loses based on where they stand at that moment.

It's fascinating to watch, and the stories that develop, means that even when a character loses at a match, it doesn't mean they've lost at life. This sports show is about the players, the play is just its metaphor.