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[Dresden]

---the premise:

Despite having drastically different personalities, high school boys Peco and Smile have been friends since childhood. Now, they’re both talented members of a table tennis club—but what happens when these sports lovers have to go up against each other in tournaments? Prepare for truly epic matches in this new series from the director of The Tatami Galaxy!

Based on the manga by Taiyo Matsumoto. Anime fans might recognize Tekkonkinkreet as another work adapted from his comics. It'll be airing on the noitaminA timeslot alongside some uguu moe bullshit.

---cm1:



---streaming on:

Funimation (US)

New episodes Thursdays at 12:50 pm Eastern.

Crunchyroll:

Ping Pong the Animation will be available to Crunchyroll’s audience in the following territories: Europe (excluding Russia and UK), Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Cyprus, Iran, and Israel.

---cm2:




---the people working on this:

Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Music: kensuke ushio
Original creator: Taiyo Matsumoto
Character Design: Nobutake Ito
Art Director: Kevin Aymeric
Sound Director: Eriko Kimura
Director of Photography: Shunsuke Nakamura
Color design: Kunio Tsujita
Editing: Kashiko Kimura

Animation Production: Tatsunoko Production

 

[survivor]

hype reaching very high levels for this, Yuasa better not disappoint

 

[Haly]

Yuasa a shit. Hopefully the source material shines through the layer of feces covering all his projects.

 

[klee123]

For some reason, I thought for a second that the Ping Pong Club is back. God that show was screwed up

 

[Beaniedude]

So people play ping pong against each other?

That's cool I guess.

 

[Shergal]

Yuasa a good, can't wait for this one.

 

[Telosfortelos]

I haven't seen it since high school (over a decade ago), but I loved the live action version. I'll definitely check this out.

 

[Branduil]

Where are the moe girls? I was promised that all anime now has moe girls.

 

[Gbraga]

This is actually called ping pong? That made me super hyped for no reason. Will watch it.

 

[survivor]

Where are the moe girls? I was promised that all anime now has moe girls.

moe enough?

 

[mintylurb]

Dang it. was hoping for another ping pong club animation

 

[hipbabboom]

n/a... bitching in the wrong thread

 

[Lafiel]

This will be the best anime of the year.

YuasaGOD never fails us.

 

[Verelios]

Hyped. This was a surprisingly good manga based off the entirety of it, and once you get past the art.

 

[duckroll]

Apparently Yuasa is storyboarding all 11 episodes himself or something. I also recall someone mentioning that Ohira could have worked on some animation for the show (in the opening animation maybe?) based on some impressions from the pre-screening they did in Anime Japan 2014 last month.

Hopefully the show turns out well. I don't always enjoy everything Yuasa does.... >_>

 

[Faiz]

Frustrated this is on Crunchyroll everywhere BUT the US.

One of these days I'll get a sub to Funi for a couple months and clear out the backlog of shows there that I keep missing because I refuse to pay for two seperate anime streaming services at the same time.

 

[metsallica]

This isn't on CR in the US!? Thought they got all the Noitamina shows... I don't need a paid Funi account to watch, right? This is easily my most anticipated show of the season!

 

[Faiz]

This isn't on CR in the US!? Thought they got all the Noitamina shows... I don't need a paid Funi account to watch, right? This is easily my most anticipated show of the season!

No, you can still watch for free, albeit at a subpar image quality and with ads.

And their device support is kinda crappy as well.

 

[djSyndrome]

Please please please tell me they retained the Supercar music (or at least got new tracks from LAMA).

 

[metsallica]

No, you can still watch for free, albeit at a subpar image quality and with ads.

And their device support is kinda crappy as well.

It's awful. I bought their $10 iPhone app the moment it came out and they've barely updated it. It crashes constantly, the news never works, the queueing is a joke, the search is broken, etc. CR has its share of issues but it's infinitely better than Funi's offering. I far prefer to do all my simulcast watching through them. Maybe I can do some IP trickery to get around the region restriction...

 

[Senoculum]

The live action movie was really, really well done. Probably one of the more memorable movies from Japan.

Wasn't it directed by the same guy who did the CG animated Vexille (I liked that film too) I didn't know it was based off a comic!

And Yuasa is a master, truly. Mind Game is still one of the best films I've ever seen; it's a work of art. Will look forward to this.

 

[metsallica]

Argh, I really need to pick up / watch Mind Game. How are the English subs on the R2 DVD? Also does the special edition (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/REDV-72) come with the remix bonus disc (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/REDV-37)? And what is this edition (http://amzn.to/1hvBMbR)?

 

[duckroll]

Yup, Bahi JD has confirmed on Twitter that legendary animator Shinya Ohira will be on Ping Pong today.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

I love the live action movie of this so I need to check it out.

 

[Blackhead]

I love the live action movie of this so I need to check it out.

Same here but I don't know if I'll enjoy this as much after reading the manga and watching the film. There's no more tension for me as the plot progress and I don't expect as much emotional appeal from these cartoon characters as I got from the live action actors. I'll still check out the first few episodes if I can get CR to cooperate. I hope it will wash out the bitter aftertaste of kill la kill

 

[Faiz]

It's awful. I bought their $10 iPhone app the moment it came out and they've barely updated it. It crashes constantly, the news never works, the queueing is a joke, the search is broken, etc. CR has its share of issues but it's infinitely better than Funi's offering. I far prefer to do all my simulcast watching through them. Maybe I can do some IP trickery to get around the region restriction...

Yeah that's terrible. I never bought their app because I thought it was a silly price. I still can't believe they haven't dedicated more resources to rolling out apps and channels for various set top devices. Crunchyroll is available on every device in my house. Even my main TV!

 

[Soriku]

Is this like epic ping pong?

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

The ED sequence is a neat solo by Eunyoung Choi. The OP doesn't appear to be finished yet.

 

[survivor]

Episode 1

Fuck yeah, this was great. I'm still unsure about some of the animations which I read can be due to productions issues, but the match shown has contained all the hype from the manga and the intensity so I'm now I'm fully confident they will do the matches full justice.

Oh and the backgrounds were fantastic. Most of them were from the trailer so I was familiar with them, but I hope they will show new ones in the future episodes.

 

[duckroll]

Episode 1

That was great. I'm not familiar with the source material or the movie, but I'm familiar with table tennis, since it's one of the few sports which my country actually does well in! I'm really impressed with how it was directed. Almost no exposition, captures the tone of the sport really well, recognizes the importance and supremacy of China in the sport, and they actually cast a real Chinese guy in a major role. The fluency of the Mandarin really adds a lot to the enjoyment for me, since one of my pet peeves is unauthentic language use in character casting.

While the opening sequence does look like it's some sort of placeholder, it was really well edited too. I liked how they played around with the speed of the looping footage to match the song. Overall it's a really unique and cool visual package, and presented the characters and the theme really well. The backgrounds in particular were fantastic.

 

[Mature]

Dang it. was hoping for another ping pong club animation

It's going to be good, but it's not going to be that good.

 

[JoeFu]

omfg this show is so good

Cool to see the dude speaking chinese too. I can focus on the show and not read subs when WenGe is speaking!

 

[firehawk12]

AOTY?

noitaiminA's Gravity?

 

[Shard]

Reposing my thoughts on the first episode from the Anime-GAF thread.

Ping Pong The Animation Episode 1:

Ah yes, this was a curious treat to watch, although I could see many not getting into it because it is doing that Aku No Hana rotoscoping thing that looks really ugly at times. Anyway, it is really refreshing to watch a sports anime that is not also a shonen show and thus keeps things to a low roar and this makes me interested in watching ping-pong, no small feat. Yes, I think this is already a highlight of this season.

 

[Sinthetic]

Excellent first episode. I'm a huge fan of Yuasa and his quirky style and it fits perfectly with the sport theme.

Really exciting action, great characters and an awesome ED. I can't wait for more.

 

[survivor]

Watched the ED few times already and the last 5 mins, really good stuff.

AOTY?

noitaiminA's Gravity?

does that mean a month from now people will complain that Ping Pong is all style with bad writing and no substance?

 

[Gazoinks]

Really liked the first episode. I've always been a fan of Yuasa's weird visuals, and this episode delivered that nicely. I especially liked a lot of the backgrounds, and the color and dynamics of the match at the end. Characters seemed good, and I like the tone of the show. One of the better first episodes this season.

 

[Shard]

This isn't on CR in the US!? Thought they got all the Noitamina shows... I don't need a paid Funi account to watch, right? This is easily my most anticipated show of the season!

Actually Aniplex gets a fair number of noitaminA programming, like they have Nanana's Buried Treasure from this season.

 

[CrazyArcadia]

For some reason, I thought for a second that the Ping Pong Club is back. God that show was screwed up

Dang it. was hoping for another ping pong club animation

It's going to be good, but it's not going to be that good.

I thought/hoped so too, still revisit The Inachuu Ping Pong Club once or twice a year.

Anyway, looked at the trailers of Ping Pong the Animation and it looks really nice, fresh and interesting style and not too serious. Might keep a watch on it.

 

[firehawk12]

does that mean a month from now people will complain that Ping Pong is all style with bad writing and no substance?

I think that means Ping Pong will be considered the greatest human achievement in the history of the medium!

 

[dimb]

Ping Pong The Animation Episode 01

Really amazing. Incredibly efficient with its storytelling that's primarily relayed through great dialogue that feels completely natural, carrying a unique tone that always comes off as cool. All of this energy is communicated by the show's visual style even when tone of the characters is muted or easy-going. I really can't wait to get more of this.

Spoiler

Yuasa the god. ToonamiGAF continually wrecked.

 

[sixteen-bit]

that emoticon in the title is so cute

 

[Delusibeta]

I'm trying to find who nabbed the UK rights, considering Crunchyroll specifically excluded the UK from their availability, indicating someone else nabbed them first. It wasn't Animax, and Wakanim hasn't officially announced their pick-ups yet.

 

[firehawk12]

I'm trying to find who nabbed the UK rights, considering Crunchyroll specifically excluded the UK from their availability, indicating someone else nabbed them first. It wasn't Animax, and Wakanim hasn't officially announced their pick-ups yet.

I had assumed that Wakanim must have gotten it. Weird.

---
Crossposting, AnimeGAF forever!

Ping Pong 01

noitaiminA shows are so classy that they can use real brands and not get sued!

Beyond the fact that it looks amazing and the characters feel more human than your typical shounen protagonists (compare this to Haikyuu and Baby Steps, if not all the other boring sports shounen protags over the year), I'm amazed that they had the balls to just have a foreign character who speaks his native language. No Japanese with a bad accent, or Japanese but lets pretend he's speaking Chinese. Just pure Mandarin for what amounted to a third or half the episode.

Apply that to the idea of sport itself being a language and boom, you instantly make that connection without needing to spell it out too much for the audience (even if the dude literally explains that to the audience just in case they didn't get it lol).

But really, this was exciting to watch. I knew nothing about it other than the random animegaf hypetrain (we know how that goes), but I'm glad I checked it out. If nothing else, this is the sports anime that makes me want to watch the next episode. Hopefully it becomes anime of the year material.

 

[Lafiel]

That was unsurprisingly great.

And even though it's pretty traditional for Yuasa.. it didn't stop it from being stylish as fuck. :bow:

 

[Shard]

Ping Pong The Animation Episode 01

Really amazing. Incredibly efficient with its storytelling that's primarily relayed through great dialogue that feels completely natural, carrying a unique tone that always comes off as cool. All of this energy is communicated by the show's visual style even when tone of the characters is muted or easy-going. I really can't wait to get more of this.

Spoiler

Yuasa the god. ToonamiGAF continually wrecked.

What does ToonamiGAF have to do with this?

 

[dimb]

What does ToonamiGAF have to do with this?

They hated Kick-Heart.

 

[Passive Assassin]

pls do well so we can get takemitsu zamurai!

 

[Shard]

They hated Kick-Heart.

Opinion was divided on that note.

 

[Crocodile]

I need to check this out later. Table Tennis doesn't super interest me but there is more than enough going on here that makes me want to check it out.

They hated Kick-Heart.

*rolls eyes*

ONE DUDE hated Kick-Heart.

Spoiler

Maybe two or three tops.

That thread isn't a hive mind you know.