Ping Pong The Animation

Last month marked the start of a new season for anime, and the series I was most excited to check out was a new animated adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Ping Pong. So far, 4 episodes in, I’m truly enjoying it. I should mention that it’s not the prettiest show out there – the animation style is actually crude and fairly ugly, which I get is a nod to Matsumoto’s illustration style, but as we saw with the Tekkon Kinkreet film, it can be done to look more beautiful. But what shines here is the construction of the scenes – brilliantly directed by Masaaki Yuasa – and the characters. It’s been a while since I’ve watched an anime series in which I really can’t wait to watch the next episode.