Ping Pong : : the Animation

Locations
Call Number: Blu-ray Animation Ping
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	Blu-ray Animation Ping	1-week checkout	On Shelf

Based on the manga by Taiyou Matsumoto.
Contains 11 episodes on 2 Blu-ray discs and 2 DVDs.
Special features (14 min.): episode commentaries; Japanese box set commercials; TV spots; original trailer; next episode previews; promotional video; textless songs; U.S. trailer; trailers.
Japanese voices: Fukujūro Katayama, Kōki Uchiyama.
English voices: Aaron Dismuke, Micah Solusod.
Smile and Peco. Peco and Smile. Besties from the beginning, both with a badass backhand. Peco is known for his arrogance on the table tennis court, and Smile for his silence. But with a new school year and a new high school table tennis team, both boys are in for a challenge, on -- and off -- the court. Peco's slacker ways are hurting his game, and after getting crushed in a tournament, he decides to quit. Smile is finally learning to harness his natural talents, but can he squash his sympathy for his opponents enough to beat them?
Blu-ray, Regions A, B; widescreen (16x9) presentation; 1080p High Definition, HD native; Dolby True-HD (English 5.1, Japanese 2.0); requires Blu-ray player.
Contents: Pinpon.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Amazing! submitted by deleuzean on October 30, 2015, 10:38am Matsumoto Taiyō is one of my favorite manga creators, and Yuasa Masaaki a favorite animator as well, and their styles and interests compliment each other magnificently here. I encourage you to Google search both of them to find out about their work.

They are both somewhat out on the fringes of their fields in terms of making stuff that is more capital "A" Art than others in the modern Japanese entertainment industry that is so driven by budgetary issues and time deadlines.

"Ping Pong" started out years ago as a manga and was first adapted as a live action feature film, which is also a really great piece of work.

"The animation" is a very interesting piece that comprises a kind of collision between its stereotypical sports "drive to succeed" story and the fine-art style through which it is told. This style draws out from the material a higher level of emotional nuance and complexity of ideas than might be possible with a more straightforward telling of the same familiar story.

Beneath the surface of its style (which is also someone unusual in the live action film version), it remains a very accessible piece in every format, but it also has some very high-level experimental / formal artistry going on in it. As is my general recommendation (even though I do not speak Japanese), I think it's best to watch in the original Japanese with English subtitles. This is partly because the voice acting in Japan is done at a higher level of training and intensity, and is actually directed by the original creator of the series, so it carries more of the original intent with it.

There is a level of cultural specificity to this particular work in regard to Japanese attitudes about hard work and group social commitments and the like, and I think the particularly kinetic, rough and experimental style of the artwork in this series very deeply conveys the struggles of the young adults who are its main characters.

VBM,. submitted by MagicallyMay on August 4, 2019, 9:46am CV

Ping Pong submitted by maywang on June 11, 2021, 2:10pm Not too bad