Review of Ping Pong the Animation

Regarding Anime genres, after a certain point it is difficult to constantly find new titles to pique one's interest. I was avoiding Ping Pong the Animation for the longest time, because I really did not want to suffer through another Masaaki Yuasa overrated mess. But given the lack of any interesting sports anime (on my radar at least), the high rating, and the NoitaminA length, I decided to give it a go. On hindsight, maybe I should've tried to get into the Mahou Shoujo genre. I already can hear the opposition arguing that this is not a sports anime. Well, we have high-school sports clubs,rivals, mentors, training montages, and tournaments. So, yeah, it is a sports anime. Maybe it transcends the genre you say? Failing the aspects that make the genre great does not imply transcendence. Not sure what the right word is, but it is not transcendence.

Let us examine why. Firstly, there are no stakes in Ping Pong the Animation. There is zero interest for the outcome of the matches. And as a side-note, the outcome of each one is painfully predictable. The sports genre has been successful, for at least 35 years, in creating stakes using as simple a device as “Zettai Koshien”. Simply disregarding that characteristic takes away much of the flavor. Even the various skill levels and the closing of the skill gap is presented without consistency and logic, making the matches even less interesting (and I repeat, they are already predictable). A final note on the subject of the matches, I dare you to try to handle the cheese of the semi-finals.

You would think that since the sports facet is not emphasized, the characters would be well written and a coming of age story would emerge. It does not. The characters are a collection of over-the-top scenes that highlight their traits, and then, we receive neither substance nor development. Ok, I guess Wenge Kong, even though he started as a caricature, had an interesting story, but he is only a minor character.

That lack of substance is the major problem; no matter how many times you repeat “The hero comes” and “Blood tastes like iron”, no matter how artsy you make the image while you repeat it, if you fail to attach any meaning to it, it's just pretentious and hollow. I would rather hear “Katsu! Katsu! Zettai katsu!” for the millionth time from a character I care about, than this pointless drivel.

To be fair, there are some interesting psychological ideas present in the beginning, but they are not worth mentioning because they are immediately dropped in favor of the pointlessness and the pretentiousness. Even Battery, a later NoitaminA addition which the consensus (rightfully I think) judged as a failure, tried harder to get away from the typical genre tropes and touched more mature psychological subjects with better care.

I should say something about the weird art style.I do not even mind it. I think in general it is good to experiment with different art styles, especially when the CGI dominance is upon us, but the style was not something special. It had some artistic moments, but nothing that could come even close to saving the train-wreck.

I wrote too many words where one would suffice to describe Ping Pong the Animation. That word is insipid. My suggestion is also brief: Do not watch it. I know that taste is relative and “To each his own” is a very important axiom to me, but I think the Anime/Manga community should not fall so easily for blatant pretentiousness and/or hype. 3.5/10.