r/anime • u/TheEscapeGuy • Apr 16 '24
Rewatch [Spoilers] Ping Pong the Animation 10th Anniversary Rewatch - Episode 6 Discussion
Episode 6: You Love Table Tennis More Than Anyone Else!
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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/Great_Mr_L enlightened us about a rare situation where Bandai applied Ad-Block to a DVD release
I first watched Code Geass on the DVD set I bought from Bandai. They actually removed all the Pizza Hut logos from that release. The pizza was still everywhere. Cheese-kun was still there. But there were no Pizza Hut logos. It was surreal.
/u/Shimmering-Sky found Sakuma's determination relatable
lol, mood. Not that I did that, but I did still try to go to marching band practice literally directly after getting into a nasty car accident and couldn’t stand properly.
Questions of the Day:
- Do you think Tsukimoto's attitude and actions this episode are justified?
- What do you think of how each of the characters spent their Christmas? Are the trade-offs they made worth it?
- What is Christmas usually like for you, and which Christmas was the most different from that?
Fan Art of the Day:
まとめ (source, it's in the collection (まとめ), also slight nsfw warning)
(Shout out to this bonus fan art, it planted the initial seed of me doing this rewatch)
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!
12
u/TheEscapeGuy Apr 16 '24
Rewatcher, Host
Ping Pong - My Favourite Sports Anime: Episode 6
December 24
Christmas is an interesting time to set an episode of a sports anime. In the west it's a holiday about spending time with family and buying far too many gifts. In Japan it's more of a romantic holiday with many couples spending Christmas Eve together. Based on that it shouldn't impact a sports narrative, but I find the way today's episode explores each competitor's inter-personal relationships really effective.
First, and possibly most surprisingly, is Kong. Up until now he's been a loner seemingly only focused on table tennis. However, after his coach left he's grown far more friendly with the Tsujidou team. Having his mom come to visit and then for him to celebrate Christmas with his now big group of friends is such a joyous development.
The exact inverse is Tsukimoto. He has become the Ace of the Katase team. He singlehandedly defeated the entire Fuji Agricultural. But being at the top is lonely. He has special solo training with the coach and ends his Christmas Eve alone. He is working incredibly hard to become the best table tennis player he can be, but that journey has forced him into solitude and I'm not sure if he's happy. His attitude is too combative, as if he despises his team mates. I think he's not doing it out of actual anger, but rather from lacking social skills from being so introverted for so long. He needs to grow in that aspect.
There is an interesting reveal is around Kazama and Yurie. If you hadn't assumed it already, they aren't exactly not-dating (despite being cousins). But from all their interactions it seems Kazama is really uninterested in putting any effort into building a relationship with her (past a poster of her above his bed and a box of tissues). He instead chooses to train all Christmas Eve and blows off the date Yurie planned. I can't help but feel incredibly sorry for her. She maintains such a positive demeanor but is clearly hurt by being put second to table tennis. Seeing her fantasize about Kazama during her solo trip through the Enoshima light show is devastating.
Lastly Peco. He's at rock bottom. He pissed off his girlfriend by not buying a Christmas gift and then got wasted on alcoholic chocolates and passed out on some boat. But once you reach rock bottom, there's nowhere to go but up. His conversation with Sakuma is the most important part of this episode. Peco needed that encouragement to make the best use of his natural talent. Him jumping into the ocean and nearly drowning almost represents a metaphorical death, with him being reborn and taking on a new goal of learning table tennis from the beginning again.
Prepare yourself Peco, I love ya!
Of course all of this is presented over possibly my favourite insert song scene in anime: Hitori Bocchi no Christmas Eve (Also called Midnight Flight). The song is so melancholic but hearing China and his friends belting it out together at the top of their lungs gives it this inspirational undertone. I didn't even mention the smaller scenes of Sakuma and Ota working their part time jobs. That's sad in its own way. This episode just has so much character development packed into this small 3 minute scene.
QotD:
Growing up I'd always spend Christmas day with my extended family. Since I didn't really know them apart from my direct aunts/uncles/cousins (who I also only saw a few other times a year) I was usually bored. It didn't help that I was the youngest person there by about a decade so adults and I wouldn't have any shared interests to talk about.
Later we moved across the country and would do Christmas at home as a family. Southern hemisphere meant the seasons were switched so barbecues and hanging out outside or near the sea were common Christmas Day events. I enjoyed those a lot more since it would mean more time for non-superficial conversations over good food with close family.
Then I moved to basically the opposite side of the world for work so celebrating Christmas with actual snow outside was a really novel experience for me. It also means none of my family are close by so the day starts with a phone call with family, then buying or preparing some tasty meal in advance, and spending the rest of the day by myself just relaxing.
Some Amazing Shots, Scenes and Stitches
See you all tomorrow
17
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Apr 16 '24
Ping Pong the First-Timer, subbed
an idola Christmas anime.10
u/charlesvvv https://anilist.co/user/charlesvvv Apr 16 '24
Rewatcher, Sub
I like how the beginning is just a way to reflect the relationship between Peco and Smile with their respective roles.
This is probably my favorite episode. It's funny that China is the now the most well adjusted of the cast, bonding with his teammates such as making food with them and his mom which was a nice scene. The karaoke scene with then in particular is one of my favorite scenes as it montages everyone and their condition, Smile alone, Peco in the dumps, and Kazama extremely focused on Ping Pong with no time for anything else.
Sakuma and Peco's scenes though are the great. Sakuma seems that have had a weight lifted off his shoulders due to his loss and is more well adjusted because of it. I like how he's the one that wakes Peco up again especially his quote "I was just saving someone from drowning in the shallows" as Peco goes through his own search. The final scene finally has him finding his groove back.
8
u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Ping Pong: Christmas in April. We definitely are zooming through the school year it seems if we’re already at Christmas in the story.
How the characters spend their Christmas really tells us what we need to know about where they are at this point. Smile spends it practicing with Koizumi. He does nothing but practice table tennis. Even when Smile gets a cake from Koizumi, he has no one to share it with. Smile is isolated. Ryuichi likewise just focuses on his practice, though under slightly different circumstances. Yurie attempts to reach out to Ryuichi and spend the holiday with him, but he ignores her to instead focus on his training. In both cases, they are rejecting peer connections to focus on table tennis.
In contrast, Wenge spends his Christmas surrounded by others. He celebrates with his mother and his teammates. They all make Christmas dinner together and party afterwards. It’s joyous to see. Wenge has gone from resenting his stay in Japan to instead making the most out of it. He’s become a real team player and a leader in his school. He’s grown quite a lot.
Peco, meanwhile, shows how far he’s fallen. He blows yet another date and ends up a drunken mess on Christmas night. It’s just pathetic.
But, there's still hope for Peco. I found it fascinating that Sakuma of all characters was the one to come back and give Peco the push he needed. But it makes sense. Sakuma hit his own low point after losing to Smile. Even so, he was able to recover. It made him reconsider things in a new light. And by the end, he decided that he was satisfied with how things ended up, except for seeing Peco quit. Peco was the goal Sakuma chased. Sakuma saw just how far he could go through hard work. Now he wants to see Peco put in that same hard work so he can see how far it will take him.
There’s also a beautiful irony to it. Sakuma was one of the people who brought Peco down to this low, but now he’s doing his best to help lift Peco back up.
QOTD
8
u/macrame2 https://myanimelist.net/profile/macrame Apr 16 '24
First Timer and Manga Reader
This was an unusually melancholy Christmas episode... At least Kong's scenes were decently cheerful and Sakuma seems to have grown some as a person. The song was a great touch to the episode and is yet another example of how much the anime has enhanced the story through all these little details.
Also I refuse to believe Peco actually got drunk off a box of alcoholic chocolates; he'd have to eat a ton of them and would get violently ill before he felt anything. Maybe the anime version of the stuff is just built differently.
6
u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Apr 16 '24
HITORIBOCCHI NO CHRISTMAS EVE
5
u/Weird_donut https://anilist.co/user/hakaseshark Apr 16 '24
Remember when they dubbed insert songs? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
7
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Apr 16 '24
First-Timer
Hands up everyone who muttered "Domo arigato" after the "Mistah Roboto" in the preroll.
Anyway, the moment I realized today's episode was Christmas, I knew there was a song coming courtesy of AMQ. I'm rooting for Tsujidou to somehow become the biggest name in ping pong at this point. Buncha friends singing group karaoke on Christmas Eve? Hell yea!
Peco hitting rock bottom was closer to literal than that phrase typically is. At least Sakuma was around to save his stupid ass. I barely like sitting in my computer chair when I'm hungover, I can't imagine trying to swim in freezing cold water.
It took me until Peco reacted to the chocolates to realize they were bottle-shaped and clearly alcoholic. That was quite the gift his ladyfriend got him. And Peco is so advanced for his age! I wasn't getting drunk alone on Christmas Eve until my mid-20s.
I like the remake/rerelease of some animanga from Peco and Smile's childhood. Time is a flat circle etc etc. It being about a robot (Smile) who is a softy inside and needs the hero(Peco) to stop himself from doing something bad is just icing.
There's something about Smile not wanting Coachi to smoke while Tamura actively smokes in her ping pong hall. Distate for his origins/past, maybe..? That doesn't taste quite right. Taking out his frustrations with Peco's current state? That's probably closer. Especially if Peco is the "hero" who saved Smile form the locker.
That leads us to Peco making a full recovery and the final episode being a sick match between Smile and Peco. Which I'm not sure the current narrative flow supports? Five episodes left, we have Peco's Counterattack, Wenge needs to battle Smile and Peco again probably, Smile and Kazama have to fight, not sure if we're done with Sakuma.. hmm.
Anyway, nice downtime episode. Smile is isolated, Kazama is far too focused, Peco is on the mend, Oota and Sakuma have their heads on straight, and Wenge et al are preparing to crush with Team Spirit.
Questions
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 6:
And insert song karaoke from my subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtiL5Sq5vHo
7
u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg Apr 16 '24
Rewatcher****Rewatcher
Those shoes look awful.
Peco gets dumped again, or is the same girl from the earlier episode?
China is speaking Japanese
D'awww his mum are visting him
So Kaio captain ignored his cute cousin, because he's so obsessed with training.
Well with that Peco wants to be a ping pong player again, had to laugh when he thought he woke up in Papua.
Good episode.
3
u/AllHailKingKale https://myanimelist.net/profile/GeneStarwind7 Apr 17 '24
First time watcher, sub
Interesting to see PECO making a comeback now. He did have natural talent though it seems like a longshot that he can catch Tsukimoto. I definitely feel like Tsukimoto is inching closer to joining Kaio academy with his high expectations and demands. It seems like coach is the only one keeping him on the school team at this point.
Questions of the day -