Review of Ping Pong the Animation

Being the 3rd sports anime I watched, after Haikyuu and Run with the Wind, I was in for a totally different style in both art, pace and tone of the series. Compared to the rating of the series, I was disappointed Story 7/10: The story is rather weird at times. Focusing on character less important than the main characters, which makes me feel I'm following the main characters in 3rd person. Also many scenes seems irrelevant for such a short series. It could have been spent showing more about table tennis, that feels rather unimportant, when games are skipped quickly mostly just showing some clips, andskipping to result. No character thoughts or progress trough a game. General pacing is often confusing and the watcher has to figure out himself when a timeskip suddenly apears several times out of nowhere. The power level of some charcter just shifts very quickly for weird reasons. And one of main characters seemingly so strong, yet seems to have no interest in table tennis.

Art 5/10: So, the art of this series is probably a love or hate for many. I did not like it at all. It reminds me of Attack on Titans art from the ugly titans, and it just gets you down, rather than excited. The pace of some scenes become way to fast, while the art is also very unclear and blurry, makes it hard to enjoy. Hardly ever seen clear character face expressions. The only positive about the art is some of the animation techniques used. Others, like the multi split screen, doesn't work very well often.

Sound 7/10: I'm not a big fan of the opening theme, compared to the ending. Guess it's just taste. Most of the characters where male and the conversations are very dull, which sets a very unentusiastic conversational tone. Also at one point there is this annoying battle music whenever the Kano players are shown. One refreshing positive note is the actual chinese and english spoken by the characters, rather than only japanese.

Character 8/10: Characters are some of the only bright part about this series. And feels like the creator builds the series around these.

Enjoyment 6/10: The whole tone of the series, from the start is very dark and depressing compared to other sports anime. All the characters are negative (except Peco), they boast and talk shit, making players feel like shit and qutting Table Tennis (including me wanting to quit watching) There are very few female characters (like 2x5 seconds in the first 4 episodes) which makes only hearing angry young males complain for over an hour constantly, just a bit over the top. I did not get hooked, and pushed myself to push trough every episode, which is not good for anime.

Overall 7/10