Ping Pong the Animation: Envy of the Game, A Dislike for the Individual

I reviewed Ping Pong the Animation a few months back, so I figured I’d post it here for people to read!

I didn’t like Ping Pong the Animation.

This isn’t a matter of me feeling that Ping Pong the Animation is a bad anime, if anything, I just don’t like it. I can’t call the dislike for it complex, since it’s not, but you know how something has good directing, good storytelling decisions, but it just doesn’t sit well with you? That is the case with me & Ping Pong the Animation. It is without a doubt a good anime at the end of the day, but it wasn’t something I had enjoyed or gotten to have a strong feeling for.

While this review will cover my dislike, I’ll also cover some things that I found to be remarkable about this show.

In Ping Pong the Animation, for those of you that don’t know, it follows two strong leading characters. Peco & Smile. Peco has the bowl-cut & of course, as you would know, Smile is the one smiling from ear to ear. I’d like to say that I enjoyed these characters, but I didn’t, in fact, they contribute to my dislike for the series, but in an odd way. From the start of the anime, my sense of immersion had been broken apart by these two characters simply because of how they are. I don’t mind a good old cocky protagonist who is great at what he does, but I certainly dislike it when they look down upon everyone, especially when it comes to trampling all over the dreams of another.

That’s what Peco does, but Smile is guilty of this as well throughout the series. It shouldn’t be much of an immersion breaking issue since this isn’t uncommon in series at all, but something about them in particular… just left a bad taste in my mouth.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s for the sake of telling a story, which I won’t deny, it told a great story, but it did all that without me liking these two characters for a moment. But, if I wasn’t enjoying them from the get-go because of their two opposing personalities crossing each other constantly, then why would I enjoy them when in the middle of a ping-pong match? See my point? But, despite my dislike for these characters & every match they played, they managed to either light a fire in other characters they had come across or just moved the story forward altogether, which was delightful since that is a sign of good directing from Masaaki Yuasa.

There are many moments of compelling imagery in Ping Pong the Animation, often enough, it could define the story of not just one character, but multiple.

I like the idea that because of Peco & Smile, many characters had been shown “sinking” or “flying.” It was one or the other, but never both at the same time. This could have been a story of youth, but it was a story of the envy of others, but also a dislike for the individual, one that isn’t yourself, but the one that stands on a pillar in the sky you simply cannot reach. As the pillar rises, the one you’re standing on goes lower & lower until you sink into the ocean; while the one at the highest point is given their wings, being able to fly faster & further than everyone else.

Peco & Smile brought this out of everyone, even the adults who’ve long since given up on the sport that is Table Tennis, but it’s probably because of their arrogant attitudes, which they hadn’t always been like that of course, but if that development of their personalities & how Table Tennis if a reflection of how they were as kids isn’t put on display until the very end, then what can you say you liked about them?

Table Tennis is a competitive sport.

The competitive atmosphere that exists in this anime surrounds just about everyone & I don’t think they had given it a rest for a single moment, apart from one episode of course, which is the Christmas episode. But, due to this competitive atmosphere, every character felt the same because of it, all except for one. I’ll get to that character in a minute though. If only one personality is natural out of an array of personalities that COULD exist in this series, then do tell me, what might be the unnatural element in this case? All the characters spout off the same line such as, “I’ve worked so hard to get to this point. I should be better than you”, only to be countered by “You just don’t have any talent for table tennis.”

In the dark, however, there exists one character who had eyes on something beyond table tennis, his eyes were dead set on a prize only he could obtain through hard work. A warm & loving place that he would like to call home.

Kong is the character who had a strong envy towards others because of the game & what they return to but had a strong dislike for himself more than he did other individuals in the series.

Being the breadwinner in the family isn’t everything it’s made out to be. Sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise, but often enough, it could be considered quite the burden. To Kong, it’s both. He is able to support his family in the way he wants to, he strives to be successful, but the one thing he wants most is to return home. The sport isn’t all that it was thought out to be anymore to him. He was envious of others not because of their skill, but because of the way they all played the game differently than him. Kong had the chance to return home as a big success robbed from him many times throughout the series, be it from Smile or Kazama, his light went out constantly. He looked up to the sky with bright eyes, but cries to himself at night, feeling as if he won’t be going any further than where is now. This is the makings of a great character & the focus they had given to him is second to none.

On the other end, going back to another character who mattered, you had a lonely Christmas for Smile, who has nothing at all. While he has nothing, he kept on taking away “something” from every character he had beaten. He took the shine away from Peco, only for Peco to get it back later on since he’s a hero. He took the hard work from everyone else who played against him & shoved it right back in their faces as “You don’t have any talent.”

I felt like this constant back & forth of the same repeated lines from someone who is considered a robot since he has no interest in others that aren’t Peco to be very weak. It didn’t have an impact on me, it just amounted to nothing. I could say something along the lines of “Wow, I can’t wait to see this character be taken down a notch”, but that never actually happened during the course of the anime. We only saw the characters match him or just become better than him in the same: “Hard work pays off”, sort of fashion.

If you haven’t figured it out from my words just yet, then I’ll make it simple. The anime desensitized me. As I made clear from the start, my sense of immersion was broken from this anime simply because of the character personalities for the two leads, but yet, I could find some value in their somewhat lonely lives that are chock full of fulfillment because of table tennis. Maybe I found value in it since they made everything else shine just a bit more than I had expected, this is including the meaningful moments where imagery is just about everything.

The genius of good storytelling isn’t found within enjoyment itself, but it can be found in the heart of brilliant writing where all the absolutes equal out in the end.

This is one of the many absolutes that equaled out in the end. The moment on Christmas where Kazama & Yurie had a great time together on Christmas, though it was a fantasy, the distance from each other made it out to be a momentary refresher that reality doesn’t shackle them down. It was their well deserved time off from all the stress of trying to amount to something more. I thought it was great for them & for the sub-plot of Yurie & her strong feelings for Kazama. She cared a great deal for him & this moment paid off in more ways than one. Another moment in this very episode is Kong being able to spend time with his mother, where home can be found.

These two moments had their own force to them that left me feeling content with the characters & who they were at this point. I felt like I didn’t need to watch the rest of the show to see where they would go in the end, I should just know.

A show like Ping Pong the Animation here is a unique one. Through unique symbolism that is found in imagery more than it is words. The genius of all points connecting & meeting one end to head into a new beginning, it all felt so refreshing. I feel like it’s a dynamic of time & space itself where everything feels whole that only anime could pull off. That is the type of storytelling that could be found in a series only from a masterful director who understands the very makings of this work.

The competition in Ping Pong the Animation meant nothing to me, not as much as the symbolism did. I felt like the games were to pass the time until something incredible were to happen, which, that ended up being the case the entire way through.

My favorite piece of imagery that isn’t the grounded butterfly that won’t fly without the help of others is the “Enter The Hero!” piece.

Enter The Hero, felt like a centerpiece that could only be found in this anime. It isn’t like the whole idea of a “hero returning alive” that can be found in any kind of media, but it was the idea that once your envy of another individual becomes it’s own thing, you too will obtain your own kind of individuality that won’t be tied down by the envy you hold onto so tightly, but you, yourself, as a person will become the envy of others. It feels great putting that into words because it makes sense, but at the same time, makes little to no sense at all whatsoever. More or less, you have to watch the series to understand what it means.

Besides that nonsensical ramble on my end, “Enter the Hero”, was a constant throughout the series that served a purpose. The hero saves everyone by turning them into their own heroes & in a series such as this, where envy is the name of the game; while a dislike for the individual itself is a sport.. it felt like a necessary good rather than some luxury to feel apart of.

Everyone needed to be saved from their own dislike & they were, only for it to lead to a happier end than one they could have ever dreamed of. Ping Pong the Animation, the series where I only like two characters, is a series that I could see other people enjoying.

I’ve seen a countless number of anime & I like to look for a deeper meaning in my anime when I watch them unless they’re a comedic slice of life of course, but this? This is one where I found the deeper meaning, yet I didn’t enjoy it.

The two characters I liked had a specific drive that would carry me through the rest of the show, especially to see where their stories go. One is a place of home, the other is a place of fortune. Both of them weren’t even main stories, they were sub-plots there to add to the overall experience.

I found value in these shorter stories, I found a lot within the compelling imagery, but even more… I found a heart in the direction. The experience is second to none in a unique sense that I can’t exactly explain, but I didn’t feel disappointed in the end if that means anything.

A series can only go so far with directing alone, but the script & visual cues took the experience to the next level.

While I didn’t enjoy this one, I feel like that only added to my experience. The dislike for this series, the dislike for the characters, the dislike they had for themselves, & the better end of the two sides of the same coin, the dislike I had for myself that I had gotten over while watching this show.

There were things I didn’t agree with, but if the story was both conclusive & continuous, then maybe it isn’t such a bad one at all, which I never thought it was, to begin with.

Once again everyone, thank you for reading!

Thanks for your time!