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Ping Pong the Animation
ピンポン THE ANIMATION
2014 · TV series · 23 min episodes · 1 season
Makoto 'Smile' Tsukimoto and his friend Yutaka 'Peco' Hoshino have been playing table tennis together since they were kids, but as they enter high school, they find that the game, and how they see it, has changed. Peco, brimming with confidence and energy, wants to be the best in the world, but the reserved Smile has little fighting spirit and doesn't want to sacrifice others' happiness just to win, despite his innate talent. As the two grow, and experience the ups and downs of the sport – and life – they try to figure out exactly who they really are and what drives them to play.
5 positivefrom 5 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
You need to see Samurai Champloo if you haven't. It's twenty years old but absolutely timeless.
Reposting my comment from elsewhere here:
For something more fantastical, To Your Eternity, an adventure that makes you feel and hurt. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End for an adventure that's both young and grown-up - it only came out recently, but has instantly been acclaimed as a modern classic.
For something more childlike yet endlessly creative, Delicious in Dungeon or even Ranking of Kings.
For proper literary sci-fi (despite featuring young protagonists), From the New World (Shinsekai Yori).
For true artistic cinema despite a Japanese high-school setting, Ping Pong The Animation.
Other gems mentioned that I second: ODDTAXI (a tightly written mystery-drama despite its art) and Pluto (serious thinking sci-fi with gravitas).
There are always a few upper-tier shows coming out each year that retain an artistic, mature bent. Not very many but at least they're there.
Give Vinland Saga a go, for some gripping historical drama.
Or Bartender: Glass of God (the ongoing 2024 series), for stories in a real-world setting.
For something more fantastical, To Your Eternity, an adventure that makes you feel and hurt. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End for an adventure that's both young and grown-up - it only came out recently, but has instantly been acclaimed as a modern classic.
For something more childlike yet endlessly creative, Delicious in Dungeon or even Ranking of Kings.
For proper literary sci-fi (despite featuring young protagonists), From the New World (Shinsekai Yori).
For true artistic cinema despite a Japanese high-school setting, Ping Pong The Animation.
Other gems mentioned that I second: ODDTAXI (a tightly written mystery-drama despite its art) and Pluto (serious thinking sci-fi with gravitas).
There are always a few upper-tier shows coming out each year that retain an artistic, mature bent. Not very many but at least they're there.
Your Name (2016, Makoto Shinkai) and Ping Pong the Animation (2014, Masaaki Yuasa) are both IMO top notch (and the creators are active and have extensive oeuvres). The Shape of Voice (2016, Kyoto Animation (RIP)) was also much acclaimed. Of these, I recommend Ping Pong the most (and Yuasa's other works as well).
I suppose for more sci-fi/fantasy, Rebuild of Evangelion (2007-2021) might be interesting, although to me, its popularity in Japan and why the retelling was made is actually more interesting to me than the works themselves. It didn't win any particular awards or acclaim, but I was a fan of the incredibly stylish manga series, and I personally enjoyed the Blame! (2017, Hiroyuki Shesita) CGI anime film for those into the Japanese post-cyber-apocalypse sci-fi aesthetic.
I think these days, the economics of anime has driven more interesting work into series rather than features. Recently some memorable ones I've enjoyed are Steins;Gate (2011-2015, White Fox), Devilman: Crybaby (2018, Studio SARU), Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022, Trigger), Pluto (2023, M2), and Frieren (2023, Madhouse).
I was surprised to see The Dragon Prince but not ATLA.
Even on rewatches, the show is powerful for me. There are two episodes that will always make me at least tear up. I would almost hazard to say it is a perfect show for youth. Even the youth qualifier feels shaky sometimes.
Just to add in, an animated show I have rewatched a lot that still inspires me is "Ping Pong the Animation". I recommend the original voice work for the initial run, especially if you understand Chinese. They recasted one of the characters for the bluray release, and the delivery is not quite right in my opinion.
Ping Pong the animation is a fantastic, series about.. leadership, I guess?
It's short enough that you can watch it in an afternoon as an extremely long movie if you'd like (assuming you skip most of the intro and outro/credit sequences, which add a few minutes to each episode).
Ping Pong is a great 13 episode series. Seems to be available on Funimations site - http://www.funimation.com/shows/ping-pong-the-animation/videos/episodes. Also on Hulu Plus.