I initially planned on writing my Yuasa series in chronological order of his career, moving from Mind Game up through Kemonozume, then Kaiba, The Tatami Galaxy, and finally Ping Pong. It makes a great deal of sense to see how an auteur's work evolves over time, as the maker's attitudes adapt to the world around them and as their abilities improve (or decline!) with experience. Jean-Luc Godard is a great example of a filmmaker whose career follows a neatly traceable trajectory as he moved away from narrative-driven film and towards an increasingly experimental style as his politics became a more essential element of his style. Akira Kurosawa, on the other hand, went from political propaganda filmmaker to world-renowned Shakespeare adapter over the course of his fifty year directorial career. Yuasa, by any reasonable accounting, could merit a similar attempt at linear scrutiny of his brief but impressive career.
Reason, however, does not factor into my feelings about Ping Pong and the attention it deserves. If there is one goal behind my postings about beer, film, anime, or anything else, it is to spread my love and appreciation so that other people might find something they too can love. Ping Pong is the most lovable thing on the planet this side of adorable puppies and kittens. It oozes joy and secretes an aroma of sadness and empathy and optimism all at once. It loves you and wants you to find pleasure not only in watching its wonderful images and hearing its terrific sounds but in reflecting on the parts of you that you want to change and then changing them because of a goddamn sports anime. Ping Pong is a gift that keeps on giving, and if I can convince even one more person to give it a chance the screencapping and gifmaking and writing will all be worth it.
Now that I've totally hyped you up, and without further ado, Episode 1:
There is a school of thought about Ping Pong which says that the show is "ugly" because it looks weird. Ping Pong may not have an artistic style that appeals to everyone, with its mostly deliberately unattractive cast and strange line work, but its drawings show an intensely individualistic style that fit perfectly with the show's motifs. At least until the story reaches a later arc, each character has plainly identifiable traits which mark them as their own person. From the impish Peco to the handsome and stylish Wenge, the main cast is memorable and distinct from the very first episode. Even the more minor characters get their own trademarks, from Ota's enviable hairstyle to Jo's bushy brows and wrinkled, weary face. Oddball camera angles, tricks of perception, and simple yet colorful backgrounds force the action to feel alive even when the animation slacks.
Yuasa also revels in reminding the audience that what we are watching was once a manga series printed on real paper, with all the limitations and virtues of that medium on full display. I suppose the word to describe these sequences would be collage, but they feel like more than that as the brief frames of animation contained within give an already profoundly kinetic series an almost unfair boost. This episode also ventures into the realm of the unreal, during the climactic battle between Peco and Wenge. It is the dark yet playful touch of Peco flying through the abyss that really seals the deal on the gravity of his defeat. It's not much of a spoiler to say that this sort of thing is sprinkled throughout the series yet never feels old or overused.
The scene from which the episode takes its name offers one of my favorite moments of the entire series. The entire sequence is just fantastic, as it confirms the dynamic between Peco and Smile as players hinted at when coach Jo watches them play earlier in the episode. It also demonstrates for the audience that the mysterious player from China is a serious threat before he's ever swung a racket. But what really cinches the scene as brilliant in my mind is the establishing shot, after Peco and Smile arrive in the gym and Wenge and his coach are shown on the roof.
As Peco and Smile prepare to play a game, the camera floats from a high angle near the basketball rim, through the gymnasium walls and into the sky above the buildings. It floats there, wandering and flitting about like a kite in the wind, before arriving at Wenge's face as he leans in to hear their play. Flight is a prominent motif for the whole run of the series; here we already have the opening scene with the robot and the witch, as well as Wenge's arrival on a jet plane and subsequent vision of a plane flying overhead as the ball sails off Peco's racket one last time. Yet it's this boldly cinematic shot that I feel best encompasses the show's ambitions. It actually reminds me a bit of an iconic shot from Godard's 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, during a rooftop monologue by Marina Vlady. Whereas that 360 degree pan gains from the drabness and repetitive imagery of the banlieue rooftops, the Ping Pong shot's dancing motion conveys a great vastness between the two groups of players despite their actually rather close proximity.
I haven't talked too much about the bits of the episode that I imagine most people tend to focus on, like the characters themselves or the plot arc contained within. It's not that those bits are insignificant; to the contrary, one of the show's strongest elements is the flesh and blood. But that's stuff that comes even stronger later, and the sort of thing that anyone with experience watching quality serial drama can probably notice without too much help from my end. What I will say is that I love how this episode builds up both Peco and Wenge as elite players and then immediately pays off the audience with their match. The entire run of Ping Pong is only eleven episodes, so there's no time spent dragging out arcs or individual matches for filler. Characters with less than five minutes of total screen time will feel complete, because so much attention and care is paid to their brief time in the spotlight. I also really love the soundtrack of this episode, because it contains several of my favorite songs from the whole show, including Wenge's futuristic, Metal Gear Solid-esque (in my opinion!) theme song.
It's my belief that the greatness of Ping Pong can stand on its own from Episode 1 all the way to the conclusion without want of any justification. I hope you liked this episode enough to stick with the show. If you enjoyed this episode even before you read my musings, go right ahead to Funimation's YouTube page and watch the whole show in a couple of sittings, as I've already done several times. If you think that reading my musings is worthwhile to your enjoyment of each episode, or you actually have things to do in your personal life that make marathon viewings of anime impossible, then I hope you stick around and come back to check in every day or three. I plan on trying to make one post like this a day, to finish the whole series in a little over a week and a half, and there might be days where I try to put two episodes together when it's not super important to highlight particular elements.
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