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Makoto Tsukimoto, nicknamed Smile, plays table tennis like he expects to lose, while his childhood friend Yutaka Hoshino, nicknamed Peco, plays like winning is inevitable. As both boys collide with rivals who take the sport far more seriously than either of them initially does, their friendship and their relationship to competition itself get pushed and reshaped in ways neither expects. It is a sports anime unlike most others: introspective, visually unconventional, and far more interested in what winning and losing actually do to a person than in staging a predictable underdog triumph.
⚠ Background — may contain spoilers
Ping Pong the Animation is based on Taiyo Matsumoto's manga, directed by Masaaki Yuasa and produced by Tatsunoko Production, airing in 2014. It is celebrated as one of the most distinctive sports anime ever made, praised for its bold, sketchy visual style and its unusually mature psychological approach to competition and self-worth. Yuasa's direction turned what could have been a straightforward sports story into something closer to a character study, and the series remains a favorite among critics and animation enthusiasts for proving just how much artistic risk a sports anime can take.
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Trailer
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Episodes
11
1
The Sound of the Wind is in the Way
Aired 2014-04-10
2
Smile is a Robot
Aired 2014-04-17
3
Devoting Your Life to Table Tennis is Creepy
Aired 2014-04-24
4
The Only Way to Avoid Losing by Not Fighting
Aired 2014-05-01
5
Where Did I Go Wrong?
Aired 2014-05-08
6
You Love Table Tennis More Than Anyone Else!!
Aired 2014-05-15
My only warning is that this show is best appreciated when you're awake, engaged, and have all the attention you can give, since it's an expert in the department of showing rather than telling but doesn't always even draw that much attention to what it does show. I'm happy to say that Masaaki Yuasa has done it again!
Its visuals won't appeal to everyone but its story and handling of its characters are almost flawless, resulting in a compelling package that will live long in the memory.
Established in 2002 and launched as an independent event in 2014, the Tokyo Anime Award Festival (TAAF) is an annual international animation festival hosted in Tokyo, Japan. Operating under the slogan "TOKYO is the HUB of contemporary ANIMATION," its goal is to discover new talent, promote animation culture, and celebrate outstanding works worldwide.
