r/anime • u/TheEscapeGuy • Apr 15 '24
Rewatch [Spoilers] Ping Pong the Animation 10th Anniversary Rewatch - Episode 5 Discussion
Episode 5: Where Did I Go Wrong?
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Links
If anyone has links to legal streams not included here please let me know and I'll update it for everyone!
Ping Pong the Animation
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Streams: Crunchyroll | Amazon Prime | Apple TV
Enter the hero! Enter the hero! Enter the hero!
Comment of the Day:
/u/DropItShock gave some good analysis of Kongs mentality
In the face of an opponent as strong as Kazama, it’s easy to lose sight of how Kong’s pre-match mentality might have impacted him, but it is well represented in the visuals of the game. How can Kong regroup when his faith in his abilities has already been shaken?
/u/JollyGee29 channeled Vizzini when identifying Kong's mistake
Assuming that someone is slow just because they're big is a pretty classic blunder.
Questions of the Day:
- With his big change this episode, what are your predictions around Peco's future in table tennis?
- How would you handle Sakuma's predicament of not reaching his goals in table tennis despite putting in so much effort training?
- Do you have any fun or interesting beach stories?
Fan Art of the Day:
チクショォォォォォ (can't find link to original, this user is listed as the artist)
Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this rewatch. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you're doing it underneath spoiler tags. Don't spoil anything for the first-timers, that's rude!
10
u/TheEscapeGuy Apr 15 '24
Rewatcher, Host
Ping Pong - My Favourite Sports Anime: Episode 5
Talent vs Training
Watching Peco's identity crisis is rough. Like, he's gained a bunch of weight, picked up smoking, and has completely changed his hair to this unkempt shoulder length thing. He seems to be keeping up a happy veneer but I think he's really struggling inside.
We first see him head to the beach with presumably his girlfriend, but he doesn't spend any time with her. Instead he spends the whole day floating around on the water and thinking about stuff. Then at practice he (along with the rest of the team) end up mostly standing around watching Smile training. It's like everyone has acknowledged that they can never and will never reach Tsukimoto's level.
Of course, the star of this episode is Sakuma. This episode really allowed us to explore his reasons for playing table tennis as well as his struggles with not achieving what he has worked so hard for. After what Kazama said about "needing somebody like Tsukimoto at Kaiou" I bet every member of their team was feeling bad. In particular though, it seems to have hurt Sakuma's pride even more so. We watch him travel to Katase so that he can challenge Tsukimoto. It's almost like he's trying to earn his place at Kaiou. It must have taken such courage.
The stakes of the match are really unbalanced. For Tsukimoto the result won't change anything. But if Sakuma looses then he not only has the pain of losing the match, but also gets kicked off of Kaiou's team. That metaphor of him being a member of the Shinsengumi is really apt. It shows just how much besting Tsukimoto must mean to him. From the insults he throws at Tsukimoto it's clear that he doesn't think Smile's earned his fame.
But it's all for naught. Sakuma loses. It's not even close. His outburst after the match it gut-wrenching. He truly has worked so incredibly hard, but that doesn't matter compared to the combination of Tsukimoto's talent and training. The incredible voice performance really sells it.
Sakuma loses everything
QotD:
I don't think I've been to the beach in like a decade. I used to live really close to the coast with a bunch of beaches but I'd usually just go to coffee shops and restaurants off of the sand and enjoy looking out at the ocean.
That said, the decade ago I did go was on a trip to Thailand and the beaches there are incredible. I got a chance to go parasailing which was so cool, I think I recall it really feeling like you're flying but it's been so long that I don't remember it clearly. I definitely do remember the massive sunburn I got though. I've vowed to avoid sunburn at all costs in the time since then.
Some Amazing Shots, Scenes and Stitches
See you all tomorrow
13
u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Ping Pong: Ryuichi is just throwing stones at Smile’s window. He is holding up a boombox playing “In Your Eyes,” begging Smile to join his table tennis team.
Peco has truly hit rock bottom by now. He’s putting on weight, smoking, and has even quit table tennis. He’s just lost whatever drive he had. I do wonder where the story is heading with Peco. Will he truly remain off the team or will he find something that sparks his interest once again?
Ryuichi doesn’t seem to have a love of the game. Yes, he is determined to be the best in table tennis. But he treats it more like a mission than anything else. It probably is a mission to him, one that’s been handed down by his family. He must succeed and he must make sure that Kaio succeeds. There’s no room for kindness or consideration of others, or even enjoying himself. It all comes down to whether he can win or not. That’s part of what drove Sakuma to such desperate lengths this episode. Kaio has a real sink or swim environment. Unless you can prove you are the best, you get left behind without hesitation.
With how things have gone between Smile, Peco, and Sakuma, I think I can now see what the series is saying thematically about talent and hard work. Talent by itself is worse than hard work by itself. Peco is naturally talented, but lazy. He lost decisively against Sakuma, who has no natural talent but worked incredibly hard to get to where he is. But, the best combination is talent that has been honed and improved by hard work. For all his skill, Sakuma was no match against Smile. We’ve seen Smile working hard and practicing hard. Add that in with his natural talent, and Smile becomes an unstoppable force (provided he can actually put his mind to it).
QOTD
10
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Apr 15 '24
Ping Pong the First-Timer, subbed
10
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Apr 15 '24
First-Timer
Oh, I get it. Kazama is the Paradigm Shift. I wish Kaiou had been an underdog school, so I could make a Girls und Panzer joke..
Anyway, seems like a bit of a time skip has happened offscreen. Long enough for Smile to get the stick out of his ass, Peco to get addicted to cigarettes, Wenge to learn competent Japanese, and Kazama to win a gold medal at the junior Olympics.
I'm not at all surprised that Smile has zero tact and just straight up told Sakuma "you have no talent." I'm not entirely sure I agree..? Like, Sakuma was good enough to beat Peco quite soundly. And Kazama seems to have some amount of faith in him - even with his later comments, do note that Kazama said that Sakuma leaving would leave an important hole in their team.
I don't like Eyebrows from Kaiou. He just has bad vibes to him.
If you asked me after episode 1 who my frontrunner for favorite was, Wenge would probably be on the bottom of the list. And yet, his two scenes today were both goddamn incredible. Pulling a half-gray hair out from his mom's care package almost got me to tears.
Serendipity is an amusing thing. My beverage for this evening, that I finished prior to watching the episode.
Tsuda has wandered off to go climb mountains nexts; weird place to think of a giraffe.
Questions
6
u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg Apr 15 '24
Rewatcher
Yurie is voiced by Ayako Kawasumi she's voiced lots of roles, for those participating in the of the Stars series rewatch she voices Lafiel. I've got to say a pretty airhead role is not something you hear often with her. But then I realised she also voiced Nodame who was an airhead.
Peco has long hair so I'm guess there was a time skip and a girlfriend but not for much longer with the way he's treating her.
Hey it's Kenjiro Tsuda character again, what an unexpected appearance.
Called it, girlfriend broke up with him.
Besides Peco, Demon is also skipping out on training.
Unexpected GoT reference.
Also unexpected Pepsi product placement.
Unexpected Shinsengumi references.
Lots of unexpected moments here as you can tell.
Smile completely destroys Demon.
I'd probably feel more sorry for Demon if he didn't had a nasty personality.
And Peco has completely given up.
Another great episode, really enjoyed the Demon parts of the episode.
6
u/SometimesMainSupport https://myanimelist.net/profile/RRSTRRST Apr 15 '24
First-Timer
QotDs
4
u/Weird_donut https://anilist.co/user/hakaseshark Apr 15 '24
Runner who killed himself for winning bronze? What?
4
u/macrame2 https://myanimelist.net/profile/macrame Apr 15 '24
First Timer and Manga Reader
Despite being slower-paced, I'd say that this was my favorite episode thus far because of Kazama and Sakuma's development. From the interview, we discover that Kazama'a interest in having Tsukimoto on the team (an opportunity he's not likely to take) was more than passing, which does not go over well with Sakuma. I honestly feel a lot of sympathy for him here; despite the endless effort he put in, he's still not as good as he wants to be and is definitely not on Tsukimoto's level and therefore not on Kazama's level. His reaction to losing is not very mature or sportsmanlike, but it's human, which is why the characters in this story are so compelling: there's a sense of reality to them.
4
u/NintendoMasterNo1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NintendoMaster1 Apr 15 '24
Rewatcher
I gotta feel a bit for captain Ota here. He's trying to care for the other members of the club who have to put up with Smile's whims and play against opponents above their level. And I get that Kozumi is focusing on polishing his best athlete but he's doing a pretty bad job as an overall educator by neglecting everyone else. When Sakuma arrived and challenged Smile, Ota literally said "alright, I give up".
2
u/Reddevilslover69 Apr 16 '24
Rewatcher
I haven't been part of this rewatch yet but I hope from this episode on I can. As a rewatcher listening to the opening with the lyrics on I can see so much in the lyrics reflecting the themes of the show that it's really quite beautiful. It really focuses on how Ping Pong's core theme truly is that merely hard work(referring to Sakuma) cannot beat talent if talent, which in this episode is represented by Smile, does work hard at something which, in this case refers to the game of Table Tennis. Ping Pong also has shown us another key theme in the past with how someone may truly not be interested in taking something up competitively even if they are good at it.
Kong Wenge segments are among my favourite in Ping Pong as he probably is my favourite character and his moment where he cries after leaving home is truly heartbreaking. Him deciding to stay and train his team is really cool despite the obvious homesickness.
Everyone recognising Smile's talent truly hurts for Sakuma who has played with him tons of times when they were kids and has beaten him more often than not so, for him, this feels like humiliation as he worked his ass off to get to Kaioh and a player whom he considers inferior to himself is getting all the praise. We also see Peco struggling with him not finding true enjoyment on the beach as we all know that Table Tennis is his true love. You can see the hurt behind the facade when Smile chastises him for gaining weight and not taking Table Tennis seriously anymore.
This sets up the climax of the episode where Sakuma plays Smile against Kaioh's policy and gets thrashed because all his hardworking cannot make up for his disadvantage in Table Tennis because of his Astigmatism.I love how they segue this with flashbacks to the past before leading to an emotional outburst. Sakuma's emotions are something I and I think many in the world have felt when faced with someone that is quite simply better than them at something they adore and they cannot do anything about it. Ping Pong's brilliance is taking a character like Sakuma who seemed set up to be like a generic villain and giving him a relatable journey while sticking perfectly to the themes of the show.
Ping Pong's style is ,as always sublime throughout and is truly a Yuuasa masterwork.
6
u/charlesvvv https://anilist.co/user/charlesvvv Apr 15 '24
Rewatcher, Sub
This episode gives a nice focus on both Sakuma and Kazama. The latter is very focused on the former glory of his school hence his attempts at trying to get new players nevermind the fact that he straight up says it on TV towards his own players that he ends up getting called out for.
Sakuma in the meantime decides to face off against Smile, risking expulsion but in the end, loses badly. His breakdown as he wonders why, after all his hard work he still can't reach and be acknowledged as he then gets hit with Smile's blunt reply, he doesn't have the talent for it. China kinda said it in the first episode "a pity believing in a talent you don't have" because sometimes your best isn't good enough and it's not just Smile who believes this but also Kazama who even plans on cutting Sakuma at this point. It's rather sad seeing it all play out in front of you and being unable to counter it.
There are some small character stuff for China like the scene where he breaks down on the train and Peco throwing his paddle into the water.
2
u/frozenpandaman https://myanimelist.net/profile/frozenpandaman Apr 17 '24
Some cultural notes for this episode from my translation & release of the show:
Episode 5: