Looking to buy a copy of the Ping Pong omnibus and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin volumes. Iโm also interested in buying any Inio Asano works (besides Punpun and Nijigaraha Holograph). Let me know if you have any of these for sale!
Also, Iโm selling some random volumes:
- Battle Royale 12 (sealed) - $40 shipped
- Battle Royale 15 (sealed) - $80 shipped
- Gimmick 7 - $40 shipped
- Trigun Maximum 7 - $20 shipped
- Gantz 9 (sealed) - $25 shipped
- Gantz 28 (sealed) - $28 shipped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkOdZyWt_jY
What can I say about SPPG without rambling for several pages...
...it's the best anime I've ever seen and possibly one of the best written shows ever made. Everything from the story beats and foreshadowings to the music to the subbing--all incredible. The rushed ending was also somehow excellently crafted despite being a made-up cliffhanger.
The review covers mainly the intro episode. And a ton of lesser shows. Unlike virtually every other show out there, there's no lingering exposition in the first scene. Everything's told in motion, through mostly still shots. The fact that there's no boring-ass soliloquy or pontification about random, boring philosophy immediately makes the first scene of EP 1 better than 90% of anime EP 1s.
The opening song is superior. Point blank. Not only is it sung almost perfectly on pitch, the lyrics directly relate to the characters, and every visual has to do with an aspect of the show that we actively see. There aren't just stock shots of the main characters gliding across the screen with no context. And no generic, ear-raping J-rock.
When the two leading characters appear, one (Agari) has already been half-established in about a single minute. The rest of her development comes naturally, as she's repressing other memories on purpose. Koyori is admittedly more generic, but Agari's the actual protagonist, and Koyori does an excellent job of furthering herself as a foil to Agari in all of...another minute.
The show is bam-bam-bam. No filler; no wasted moments. I wish I could say more without spoiling it. But I didn't expect it to be nearly as good as it was. I didn't expect an 8/10 show, let alone an 11/10. The YT video will link to the full review in the description because TV Tokyo blacklisted the full review: that's over two hours. If anyone has any inkling of supporting this mangaka (Asano Yagura), I strongly suggest that they do, because he clearly worked on the thing for the passion and not the money, being cancelled for taking 2.5 years just to finish a single match--which was by far the best boss fight in any manga, ever.
I was re-watching Ping Pong The Animation and I found this interesting so I thought I would share with the rest of the class.
In the Ping Pong manga from 1996 there is a flash back to when Peco and Smile were in grade school where Peco has drawn Gundam all over his math test and even refers to himself as a Yutaka 'Newtyype' Hoshino.
But in Ping Pong The Animation from 2014 the drawings are changed to Evangelion and he refers to himself as a Yutaka 'Third-Child' Hoshino.
This is probably because they changed the time period to 2014 in the anime but maybe Yuasa Masaaki just likes Evangelion.
> โI still remember in the 2016 Olympics, weโre all staying in the village,โ Bogut said. โThe USA (menโs basketball team), as you know, theyโre too big-time for the village. They have them on a cruise liner or whatever they stay at. But we get back from practice one day, like middle of the tournament, got off the bus and in the village weโre walking to our residences. And I see Klay. As Iโm on the bus I see Klay just walking around, Team USA gear, headphones on, just walking by himself.
> โSo I jump off the bus, Iโm like, โKlay, what are you doing, man?โ Say hello to him. He goes, โYeah, I just wanted to come see the village.โ He just came by himself, no security, no other players with him. Then heโs like, โWhere are you going?โ I said, โIโm just going back to the Australian quarters.โ And heโs, โCan I come with you?โ Iโm like, โYeah, no worries.โ
> โAnd he came with us, hung out with a few of our players, because he knows Aron Baynes and Brock Motum. Came and said hello to them. And then fast-forward two or three hours later, I thought heโd left. I walked downstairs to go to dinner or whatever and heโs downstairs playing ping-pong with, like, someone from the athletics team on the Australian national team, you know?โ
I am on a quest to be the best table tennis player of all time. Iโm looking far and wide for the greatest players to ever touch a paddle. Please contact me if you are down to ping some pong.
If we post one suggestion per comment people can upvote or downvote their favorites.
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