Forum - View topicPing Pong (TV).
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2261 |
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I understand where you are coming from, but I think that might be a little too harsh. The busted knees and sacrificing yourself for your friend was Butterfly Jo and his generation's story. Believing in and the summoning of your friend's talent, plus not disrespecting him by taking it easy on him was Smile and Peco's story. Dragon's end isn't so heartwarming either and there's a bittersweet quality to Smile's end because he had talent but chose not to pursue it. Having your cake and eating it would have had everyone with a happy ending and both Peco and Smile playing on the national team. |
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danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
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Right,the thing that truly matters (for me at least) is that Peco was willing to sacrifice himself for Smile's sake.If there were some dire consequences for his act I don't see in what way it would have contributed to the show's theme or story.
Big difference between Ping Pong and other sport anime ,was how Ping Pong's story wasn't carried or determined by formula but by characters. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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One-Eye, with the cake comment I was referring to Peco specifically, not the entire cast.
I know Peco did say to Auntie that he was going to play Smile for his own sake and not Smile's. But it was obvious that the reason Peco became interested in ping pong again was because he wanted to see Smile smile again. He did that but he also got to then continue on with the sport and make a career of it, which seems too much of a fairytale. It jars with the show's mature and realistic tone and what much of the story had been about. Peco may have considered himself to be the hero but that doesn't mean he should be able to pull off the impossible with a bung knee, and then suffer no long-term effects. Anyway, regarding your comments about the fates of certain individuals, without question Dragon and Smile both had good ends. Dragon wasn't the top player anymore but he no longer felt trapped and isolated by the sport and his father's death. Losing to Peco freed him to appreciate ping pong on his own terms. And Smile was obviously a happy and socially well-adjusted dude at the end, and he even hinted that he had a girlfriend. Both may not be in the sport anymore but they are vastly improved compared to their teenage selves. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Peco may have considered himself to be the hero, but what's really important is that Smile considered him to be his hero and he neeeded this hero to save him. So maybe Peco ruining his career for Smile's sake would have been "realistic" but it would have resulted in a crappy ending for everyone: "Peco wanted to make Smile smile again but he ruined his knee in the process, had to give up on his dream and Smile felt guilty ever after. The End. But hey, that's life..." I don't believe that was the message the show wanted to convey? I don't have a problem with the "fairytale ending" because i didn't really view the show as especially "realistic", i don't think it's incidental that it featured heroes, robots and dragons? I don't really think we are supposed to take everything completely literally, but that's just my take on the show. |
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One-Eye
Posts: 2261 |
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Dragon basically lost the girl because of his demons and was kicked off the national team. He might have felt some peace at being released from the things that had driven him, but all was not flowers and sunshine. He was going to have to pick up his life and start over again. I also said bittersweet quality when it comes to Smile, not that its negative. He too had significant talent and its sometimes sad to not see that talent used. This is why Butterfly Jo wanted to show him a little of what it was like to stand high. Its just that Smile wasn't interested in that sort of life which was ok, but if you have known people in similar situations you wonder what might have been. I would say a cop-out, playing it very very safe, a having your cake and eating it too would have followed normal sport tropes. It would have had them all aiming for the national team together. They would all have been fired up during competitions. We might have gotten a cute Ping-Pong manager as a possible love interest. We would have gotten explanations on Ping-Pong and Smile would have come out of his shell with a personality upgrade. Thankfully it didn't do something like that. |
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medama_oyaji
 Posts: 99 |
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Wow, this series was fantastic. I really felt like every episode in the second half was especially great.
spoiler[ I thought it was interesting that Dragon gets kicked off his team at the end, and him being unable to skip stones was a good touch. Sometimes going at things with full, aggressive force is not the way!] I recommend everyone who enjoyed this series to check out the live-action movie. This was my first exposure to this story, and I think it's done really well. It differs a bit from what was shown in the anime. I'm curious how the original manga compares to both. |
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MaxSouth
Posts: 1363 |
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This anime is outstanding, a truly piece by masters. I only stumble upon this quality not more than once per year (Flowers of Evil is another example of just a few projects of this class I ever saw, among nearly five hundred and fifty titles watched).
Concept/story/storytelling/characters: 1) as any artistic story, it leaves something to ambiguity and to muse about -- but not in annoyingly pseudo-clever way where authors create confusing mess with no sense behind it and pretend that there is some deeper meaning about it; 2) main hero is slightly autistic, the project does not job to show that however unemotional those people can look, they often times can feel wide range of emotions -- good job on that; 3) characters have real personality, and are not sugar-coated. Even two main heroes to are likeable to a certain limit, they do not behave perfectly at all circumstances; 4) project shows realistic picture of sport-related microcosm: people are competitive and often times arrogant jerks; 5) it is great that Chinese-speaking characters do not magically switch to Japanese after just couple of phrases -- like in many other anime that suppose that viewers can not read subtitles; 6) the show does not care to explain all of table tennis jargon, and it is not necessary for "adult" project; 7) a lot of disgusting showcase of smoking. Voices: 1) I really love the voice of bowl-hair lad (Peco), his timbre sounds very likeable; 2) producers have found a guy who actually knows Chinese to voice Chinese player. He maybe even lived in China for some time; however, he still obviously does not sound as actual Chinese; 3) it is annoying that the trainer uses English words; no need for that; 4) real children used to voice child characters -- always sign of higher class project. Music: 1) though not epic at all, the music is unusual for anime, and it perfectly fits; 2) great, high-quality opening and ending songs, and even a song sang by actual children. Visuals: 1) intentionally sloppy drawings are probably way harder to do than usual ones. Though there is computerized post-processing filter that crooks even lines into randomly skewed and uneven, it is apparent that much of work is hand-done. Most of characters looks crooked and ugly, which looks interestingly, comparing to typical anime. It is kind of "anti-anime" in this regard: no giant eyes, no beautiful faces; 2) as side effect of such style, most of characters look like 40-50 years old, even if they are 15-16; 3) no shadows and tones used to pain the drawings; 4) the way animation (which is separate thing from character design and drawing style) is done is great. Summary: In almost all anime I watch there are flaws, something fake, stretches here and there. This is one of very few cases, where production is as honest as possible. No patty cakes, no sugar-coating, no BS-alarms triggered. Of course, nothing is perfect, but this project deserves between "Excellent" and "Masterpiece", closer to the latter. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Glad you enjoyed it. It's truly a masterwork, one of the best anime ever made. I would certainly put it into my top 10 series list.
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