Ping Pong

Taiyou Matsumoto is somewhat of a hidden master of manga, most people don't know about him but those who do respect him a lot. Sadly until recently I was someone from the first group, but fortunately I have now converted to the second group. This guy is master of telling a story by very subtle means, conveying the tell with both his excellent and imaginative writing and unconventional and brilliant drawing. Ping Pong is one of his most famous mangas and after you are few chapters within you begin to understand just why is this guys so special. This manga is a very simple tale oftwo friends growing up, their passion for the game of "table tennis" yet this is so much more. With this story you seem to strive with the characters for their goals, you cry with them when they fail and laugh with them succeed. These emotions are very hard thing to evoke especially on someone who doesn't even care about the sport of "Ping Pong or Table Tennis", but the writer does this feat with an ease only found in master story-tellers. This tells the story of two childhood friends, Hosino and Tsukimoto who are very different from each other. Hoshino aka Peko is a carefree spirit who saves Tsukimoto aka Smile from bullies whom he attracts due to his unusually silent demeanor. Peko is his only friend and he introduces him to the game of "Ping Pong" as something which he really loves. This all is shown in flashback as we are thrown in middle of the story of these two as part of a high school team as they prepare for and take part in a tournament to select Japan's best. They both are talented players and their struggles both in this sports and also as growing up is shown with exquisite beauty of thought provoking drawing. Their unique relationship is detailed and also the fact that how it molded their life as a whole. We also get introduced with other good players of ping pong as well as get to know their story and feel their emotions with them. I might have revealed other details about the story but really don't wanna spoil the enjoyment by any means at all. The art is superb on a different level, while it may not be very good to look at and some characters have almost the same face when getting serious the stylistic approach is very unique. It conveys so much more than any other conventional manga with its drawings, there are pages without any words which says more than many pages crammed with speech bubbles could tell. The story telling style is also unique with the jump between past and present and also between viewpoints of different characters which adds more to the simple story in a very unorthodox way. One chapter you might come to hate a character and a few chapters later when seeing his viewpoint you start to understand him and even care for him. This is all due to the writers excellent ability to incorporate us with the story. Overall this manga is a journey, a story that takes you in and makes you strive with the characters and in the end you get to look back at how wonderful an experience it was and really feel like may be reliving it someday. It is indeed something special, quite definitely a masterwork and recommend to everyone who enjoys a good story whether you like sports or not.

At first glance Ping Pong looks like your typical generic sports manga, albeit with a choice of sport relatively uncommon to be found in the medium. And yet, while it does have the usual ingredients (tournament, rivalry, dramatic matches, training sessions, etc.), Ping Pong is way more than its simple, literal, title suggested. To start, there's nothing typical with Taiyou Matsumoto's art. His style is very distinctive and could initially be hard on the eyes, especially if you're used to pretty, conventional, manga artwork. Matsumoto's characters looked like little demons at times, especially when they're grinning, and in this serieshe has tendency to zoom up on their big chunky hands. Stick with it though, and you'd be rewarded with diverse range of facial expressions, beautiful surrealistic imagery, and exhilarating sport scenes. The ping pong matches, in particular, bursts with so much life and energy that I can almost feel the sweat and intensity oozing from the page. The story revolves around a quintet of young ping pong players, with the biggest spotlight trained on long-time friends Peco and Smile. Characters were assigned nicknames, a nice touch as it lends a sense of immediate intimacy with them. The heightened focus on the players (or rather, human beings that happened to play ping pong) over the sport itself is really apparent; While we were informed about the characters' basic playstyle and their general strengths/weaknesses (Peco, for instance, has a weak backhand), there's no technical breakdown or detailed rules explanation for ping pong newbies. Matches tend to be brisk, rarely extending beyond a couple of chapters at most (although as aforementioned, still exciting thanks to Matsumoto's art). It's also realistic and gritty; While in any other sports series a character nicknamed 'Dragon' would be able to strike flaming ping pong balls with literal dragon flying on the background, don't expect that kind of stuff here. Ironically, considering the title and all, you can swap 'ping pong' with bowling, badminton, or watermelon smashing, and it wouldn't make that much of a difference; Ping Pong is really about the range of realistic emotion that'd be familiar if you ever engage in something competitive seriously. Questioning the exact purpose of spending so much time and energy at something. Wondering if it's really worth it. Crushing realization that no matter how hard and long you train, there's someone whom you'll never be able to surpass. It's all about those feelings, and also the universal theme of growing up and friendship, as illustrated through Peco and Smile. Ping Pong wrapped up in just five volumes, way shorter than many more popular sport manga, but Matsumoto clearly didn't need multiple tournament arcs and dozens of competitors to get his point across. The ending may come off as a bit abrupt and too 'neat', but I can't deny how emotionally satisfying the journey was.

MAY HAVE SPOLIERS , BE AWARED ! Passion is something that can either change ur life for the great and good or lead u down into the destruction of life , a dead-end , a scary world that even worse than hell , a "homonuclus". Nuture vs nature , a debate which has been delivered throughout this manga , that in the end , there is still not a clear answer . But there is one thing u know , that is "hard-working" because , if u don't practice , u don't learn , ur talent , ur passion will just die... that is why in theprofessional world , the players always have to trained all the time , otherwise , their skill will just... disappear. This is of course , not ur ordinary slice of life , sport manga , this is not some kinds of cute stories about love , NO . This is a journey of hardworking swordmanship , a trip where each characters exploring themselves from the past through the future , from having fun while doing passion to sacrificing for it , being serious about it but it the end... u need to really have fun in order to continue . I feel happy when they are talking happily while training , i feel excited about every matches , i feel depressed when someone has to give up on their passion bc of the "limit" they have reached , because of harsh the world is to treating these players , they were once innocent kids , it is sad , it is haunted... especially when I read the last match , I'm hit... "yes , fly high" , after all , u play ping pong not because of ur TALENT , not because of ur PASSION but because FUN , U NEED TO HAVE FUN . I shed a tear reading that.... Deep-diving inrto the ocean of thoughts , feel lost in while a time is what our mc has tried... he has talent , yea , for sure , but he suddenly feel lost , and sad... because of his friend , because of the sport , he suddenly sees everyone becomes serious and no longer having fun on ping pong... they play just to "waste time" , they play just for "titles" , they play just for "money" , to "prove themselves" without having fun , they are killing their emotion , they are becoming "robots"... Throughout 55 chapters of the manga , u will see the mc is always trying to be happy because he surely plays ping pong because he finds FUN in it... and when he feels that , he just "lost" , grow hairs , smoking... and even trying to sucide... but when he gets rescued... he suddenly starts to notice... and he comes back the sport he has abandoned months ago.... he will teach every other players how to have FUN in sport through his gifted talent. The art of this manga is realism , to use this art type , u really have to focus alot in developing story and characters , and ofc , they nail it by miles... this art reminds me of cubism , an abstract art type that was used frequently by Pablo Picasso , this art requires u need to dig deep in the objects that u are drawing , not only on the surface but also the materials while also expressing ur thought in it. This art surely so real that it captures the emotion of characters so good... it is so real that i feel like it is happening in my real life , it is so real that i feel hurt when the mc is "lost" in the "ocean of thought" ( in both meanings ), It feels so real that it is so fake... it makes right and wrong swapping each places all the time.. a vortex... a hurricane... a storm. Many predicts i have put while reading this manga are wrong and wrong again the longer the story goes. This manga is either making people who loves will really love it and people hates it will hate it alot and mainly because of the art style which i find it silly , if u rate a manga just because of the art didn't fit ur taste , then sorry , u and I aren't in the same level and please avoiding me right away , people just really love "fake beautiful" art than "ugly truth" words , it is also the reason why art is considered as money laundering these days... Anyway , i'm in the "really love" it side because it cuts deep in humans , it cuts into Philosophy of different characters about what they are thinking while participating this so-called "passion". In the end , every single great mangas are written base on human , every single things that humans are doing , behaving , expressing . Their emotions , their thinking ,their true nature... And if u forget that base , ur work is souless and deserve be thrown to an exhibition for alien , not humans . U will notice that once u read alot of works... it is all about humans , all about ourselves... I'm rating mangas mostly because of their story and characters , and humans are my base of rating , that is why , I adore this manga . Anyway , I just want to say... I really , really , really suggest u guys who are interested in sport and slice of life gives it a try , u won't forget it , this experience may either becoming an unforgettable one or just a dust fly though ur face without u noticing it , It all depends in ur feeling so plz don't take my review too serious , take it as the small review at the last page of the novel. Thx u for reading.

As ping pong the animation is one of my favourite animes of all time I get to read the manga instead of rewatch it for the fifth time xD But unfortunatly the manga was less quality than the anime The anime had it's character development better than how the manga show it . In the manga you will feel that everything is very fast and that make you unfeel the emotions of the characters I used to compare animes with their mangas but i couldn't find an adaption that is better than it's source before i read this manga The manga is good and all that butif you ask me i will tell you to go and watch the anime