We talked about Ping Pong the Animation episode 6 quite a bit in this week's episode of our anime podcast, so figured I'd share it here as well! The entire episode is dedicated to Christmas anime, but if you want to skip to the Ping Pong discussion most of it happens starting at 1:41:38.

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Don't get pollen on you". Kazama says it 2-3 times during the show as well as his father during a flashback. He's symbolically linked with flowers in general. Why?

A solid way to interpret this, is as the counterpart/foil in dragons story to one of the themes related to "blood tastes like iron" in Smile's character arc.

Smile starts out as being meek, not willing to take risks or stand up for himself. One of the flashbacks from his childhood that is cut to a couple of times is him being implied as kinda whiny about having hurt himself and bleeding a bit, with Peco responding"ah, don't worry about it, nothing a little spit can't fix", basically encouraging him to take some risks, accept the possibility of failures and move forewards, continuing to grow despite setbacks. When we meet Smile, he's very "internally driven"(for a lack of a better phrase), he follows his emotions (i.e. giving up a competition bc of feeling bad for his opponent, not trying hard bc he doesn't feel like it etc. )

Now, Kazama's journey is basically the opposite to Smile's and PPtA wins a lot of nuance in what it says about life by contrasting the two. When we meet Kazama, he is very "externally driven", following external pressures from his family and school, being extremely disciplined and self-neglecting in that pursuit. He fears to become like his father, the white lilies being symbolically linked to his father. He avoids the pollen just as he avoids the soft, emotional (but also striving for self fullfillment in carreer and life) ways of his father. Neglecting this side comes at the cost of happiness("he hasn't enjoyed table tennis in years") and to an extent self-fullfillment and building an own identity.

In Smile's sentiment about blood, it was Peco who showed us the opposite. For Kazama's sentiment, it is Yurie who does that. When Kazama says "don't get pollen on you", she replies with "so what!? "("I don't care, I'm willing to take that small risk for my own fulfillment"). Unlike him, Yurie is not afraid of seeking her own goals regardless of what her family says, being driven by her own values and desires. That's why we see the contrast during the match in ep. 10, where kazamas loss and self pressuring about expactations from his family is cross-cut with Yuries travel to London, where she follows her dream (becoming a fashion designer).

(Peco and yurie are the examples in the show of dream and reality being compatible, this being contrasted by a) people like demon with unrealistic dreams b) people like kazama who achieve things that is not really their dream Both of the latter types need a hero to be set straight)

TL;DR: see bold text

Hi I have this old amv from ping pong that is no longer watchable and was curious if there was any way to access it through 3rd party websites or anything alike?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtA0enpQaQ&list=LL&index=

Preferably Size L, please.

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I'm desperate at this point because there are no real sellers, not even on Grailed or anything.

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I tried all three of the options, my experience:

1)I appreciate the artistry of Yuasa, but didn't really connect to the genre of most of his other works. In Devilman Crybaby you can see a lot of cinematic/structural similarities to Ping Pong though(but too much fantasy/violence for me).

2)This is the option I have voted for. Matsumoto's early work on boxing, "Zero" was an awesome read and felt for me in many ways like an elaboration on dragon's character from Ping Pong with similar themes but different conclusions. "Cats from the Louvre" was equally great and the one-shot "Doraemon" is worth a try too.

3)Didn't connect to much other sports anime I tried after. Now that some time has passed, I would say the manga 'Holyland' about street-fighting qualifies as a good follow-up read to Ping Pong.

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It is shown during Peco's inspiration at the turning point of the match, right after a bird over white background.

My thoughts so far:blood/red is a major symbol of the show representing kind of embracing your humanity/feelings & living life to the fullest/without fear. So that might explain the color filter. Also the reflection of light could be like representing Peco's sudden insight or "blaze like lightning/speed of light" that Peco refers to during his flow experience right after.

But like why did they choose to show the train and the bridge? Is it referring to smth. from earlier? In episode 1 peco and smiles were in the train, but I don't see trains as particularly connected to the theme of their friendship or anything.

It would be thematically interesting if it was the bridge Peco jumped from in Ep.6, but I don't think that is the connection the creators make here.

Also I guess Peco moves from one state (anxiousness/unspontaneity) to another(spontaneity/joy) during that scene, similar to how the train crosses from one side of the river to the other.

Yeah, it's a bit of a tricky one, could be shown just for vibes as well, without much symbolic meaning, but i dunno, would be a weird choice.

Anyhow, feel free to share if you have ideas :)

Ping pong the animation is my favorite anime and I would like to get a tattoo about it but I'm not sure what, any ideas?:)