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Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009
The episode wasn't very eventful. I'm assuming there's going to be more to the story than a douchey guy who isn't as good as he thinks he is and a goony guy who is a lot better than he seems.

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Another Poster
Apr 12, 2008
That was pretty good. Definitely keeping up with this.

Edward IV
Jan 15, 2006

DICKS FOR DINNER posted:

Supposedly Kong's VA was born in China, and I couldn't find anything about his coach/interpreter's VA but with a name like Tei Ha, I'd assume he's also Chinese.

Honestly I was already all-in because of Yuasa but having fluent Chinese speakers for it is such a cool touch that I can't help but be even more into this :allears:

My Mandarin is quite rusty (and has a Nanjing accent) but Kong's Mandarin sounds legit which, being that I'm Chinese, is really cool. It's also good that Kong has more depth than a walking stereotype. (Not that I'm accusing Yuasa of having done anything like that but I'm always hesitant when an anime has foreign characters.)

Makes me wish China or Taiwan has more easily accessible media with good story telling and style here in the US. I'm very afraid that my Chinese fluency will eventually become the same as my fluency in Japanese which has derived exclusively through anime.

Butt Frosted Cake
Dec 27, 2010

Edward IV posted:

Makes me wish China or Taiwan has more easily accessible media with good story telling and style here in the US. I'm very afraid that my Chinese fluency will eventually become the same as my fluency in Japanese which has derived exclusively through anime.

You hating on Honk Kong movies and other kung fu stuff? That stuff is pretty available, maybe not as much as anime but still. I don't know poo poo about Taiwan movies except for A City of Sadness so maybe you have a point there.

laplace
Oct 9, 2012

kcab dneb smra ym semitemos tub ,reh wonk I ekil leef I
I haven't been this unreasonably happy about a TV show since I watched Tatami Galaxy while it aired. I've missed this.

With this and Mushi-shi there's basically no reason to watch any other anime this season because what a loving joke that competition is.

Srice
Sep 11, 2011

Hey there's also Jojo!

At a distant third, mind you, but hey.

The season has a lot of rubbish but the worthwhile stuff is really worthwhile.

Hopefully the OP is finished next week, I assume it was just a placeholder here.

STANKBALLS TASTYLEGS
Oct 12, 2012

Like some people, I wish there was more technicoloured ping pong games in this first episode, but it was really good at setting things up.

AnacondaHL
Feb 15, 2009

I'm the lead trumpet player, playing loud and high is all I know how to do.

Wow. The style, the story, the characters, everything was just...well put together.

coathat
May 21, 2007

If you like this show go out and read everything Taiyou Matsumoto has made. All of his manga are great.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

coathat posted:

If you like this show go out and read everything Taiyou Matsumoto has made. All of his manga are great.

Indeed. I highly recommend Takemitsu Zamurai, it's one of the ethereal manga I've ever read.

Butt Frosted Cake
Dec 27, 2010

coathat posted:

If you like this show go out and read everything Taiyou Matsumoto has made. All of his manga are great.

Also tekkonkinkreet got a movie adaptation, watch that too

devtesla
Jan 2, 2012


Grimey Drawer
I watched it again and I liked it even more the second time, which is always a good sign. I love how it's mostly very natural and almost conventional in how it's directed, and then it pulls something risky and interesting like the panel cuts and the sweep out of the gym and into the sky. The theme of "someone is always better than you but you should try anyway" is super obvious right from the start, but I didn't find it distracting largely because it keeps presenting the idea in so many different ways.

Srice posted:

Hopefully the OP is finished next week, I assume it was just a placeholder here.

I actually really like the OP, and I think repetitive shots of people practicing and playing the game fits the tone of the show. I think it would be cool if they updated it with new clips for each week. I have no idea what it will be, however.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005
Finally got around to watching it myself, it blew my loving mind with how well presented it was. You can tell Yuasa had to be conservative with animation in places, but the overall feel and the roughness makes it just such an utter pleasure to watch. Just the little details he's added to the animation, it's just such a treat.

The source material seems ace too, because I'm enjoying these characters and interactions a hell of a lot.

Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen
I really wanted to like this, but Yuasa's art style is just too much of a roadblock :smith:. I had the same problems with Tatami Galaxy, Mind Game, and Kaiba--I couldn't stand the art, they were almost painful to watch.

I feel similarly but not as heavily about Gainax/Trigger though so I guess I just have the world's most awful taste

Kaja Rainbow
Oct 17, 2012

~Adorable horror~

Relambrien posted:

I really wanted to like this, but Yuasa's art style is just too much of a roadblock :smith:. I had the same problems with Tatami Galaxy, Mind Game, and Kaiba--I couldn't stand the art, they were almost painful to watch.

I feel similarly but not as heavily about Gainax/Trigger though so I guess I just have the world's most awful taste

Mental roadblocks are mental roadblocks. I know an ex-animator who can't watch anime because to her it looks like a slideshow of still images. In other words, its frame rate is too low for her.

laplace
Oct 9, 2012

kcab dneb smra ym semitemos tub ,reh wonk I ekil leef I
To be fair, Yuasa's animation itself is pretty loving stellar. It has an awesome attention to consistent anatomy -- Not that it's necessarily anatomically correct in terms of looking exactly like humans do in real life, but rather that everyone looks like they're the same species and move like they're the same kind of creature. It's rare to see that in anime. I also personally just like his overall art style, though most of his work doesn't really look the same. The art in Ping Pong is much more Matsumoto Taiyou than it is Yuasa.

Imaishi work on the otherhand... poorly animated shlock.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005
Do other animators in Japan dig Yuasa? I know there are some animators considered "an animators' animator", and he certainly doesn't make stuff that feels 'generically anime', ever.

laplace
Oct 9, 2012

kcab dneb smra ym semitemos tub ,reh wonk I ekil leef I

Zorak posted:

Do other animators in Japan dig Yuasa? I know there are some animators considered "an animators' animator", and he certainly doesn't make stuff that feels 'generically anime', ever.

Yeah! He's very well liked over here. The big "problem" with his work is that while he gets decent ratings no one buys his DVDs, so he just can't get a job due to credentials.

Over here there's actually a big issue with animators and teams being "locked out" of jobs because of their credentials-to-performance ratio. Of course the big names like Oshii and Otomo and even Imaishi to some extent can get whatever work they want -- Most of the time the stuff that claims to be "directed by the Visionary that brought you Ghost in the Shell..." etc isn't actually directed by them as much as it is overseen. Almost all Animation direction is done by in-house people at the individual animation studios that most work is outsourced to.

That being said, Yuasa is pretty fondly looked at in the industry over here. He does the animation for Crayon Shin-Chan so he's pretty well known. People recognize his style and back in the day he was hired to do a bunch of pilots and shorts for things that later became popular. The big problem is that most of the stuff he wants to do "doesn't warrant someone who deserves to be paid as much as him" (a huge overall dismissal that is common in pretty much all Japanese working environments).

There's also an overall push for things to be animated overseas in Korea or by students in training at the companies' sponsored schools. This is actually pushing big names out of the industry into other industries. Similar things can be seen in the Games industry as well over here -- Big game corporations are pushing out their big name developers because there is more of a focus on their name than their contributions.

That being said I think Yuasa is more well "admired" in the western world -- specifically France.

Edit: And America, obviously.

laplace fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Apr 11, 2014

Neeksy
Mar 29, 2007

Hej min vän, hur står det till?
Sounds similar to the US model of increasing outsource to Korea and relying in interns for everything else.

The hard part about getting genuine talent is that you have to be able to pay for it (and depending on the personality of the artist, extended time to complete); combined with the funding system being tied to DVD sales within a market that isn't supporting auteur work, Yuasa is in a tougher position than others like Imaishi who produce things that not just get attention, but appeal to the types of people who will buy lots of ancillary products.

SC Bracer
Aug 7, 2012

DEMAGLIO!
His artstyle is a pretty huge block for me too. Like, I can see that the animation is fantastic, and that the overall composition and story of ping pong is great, but that art, and the fact that it's an anime about ping pong makes it really hard for me to watch.

aers
Feb 15, 2012

My favorite part of the episode was actually Choi's solo ED, but I'm pretty biased towards that kind of stuff.

laplace
Oct 9, 2012

kcab dneb smra ym semitemos tub ,reh wonk I ekil leef I

aers posted:

My favorite part of the episode was actually Choi's solo ED, but I'm pretty biased towards that kind of stuff.

Choi's work there was super solid. Another highlight was just how great Wenge's voice actor was. Peco as well, though not the same kind of performance. I'm impartial to Wenge in the Manga and the Movie but I really like him in the show already, specifically after his monologue.

Edit: it is also actual blasphemy that people in this thread are implying they think Tatami Galaxy and Kaiba weren't the prettiest goddamn animes to ever anime.

Kaja Rainbow
Oct 17, 2012

~Adorable horror~

SC Bracer posted:

His artstyle is a pretty huge block for me too. Like, I can see that the animation is fantastic, and that the overall composition and story of ping pong is great, but that art, and the fact that it's an anime about ping pong makes it really hard for me to watch.

Like I said, I understand aesthetic roadblocks. But I really do recommend getting past them (if nothing else, consider that it being anime is in itself an arbitrary roadblock for many). As for anime about ping pong, trust me, the source material blows away most sports fiction I've seen. The individual sport doesn't matter as much as the implementation. (But then again, one of my favorite works of sport fiction is about karuta, a sport that essentially consists of flicking away the right cards faster than your opponents can. Yeah, I'm talking about the Chihayafuru manga/anime.)

Lucy Heartfilia
May 31, 2012


The visual style of this show isn't all pretty and cutesy, but it feels so energetic and alive! I really like it and think it's beautiful.

Also:
A chopper is a table tennis player who mainly uses chops to hit the ball, and is typically a defensive player who waits for the opponent to make a mistake first.

In table tennis, a chop is a backspin stroke (with anything from virtually no-spin to heavy backspin) that is performed from about 3 feet or more from the end of the table, usually against a drive or loop from the opponent. The bat will hit the ball somewhere between the bottom and the back of the ball, imparting more backspin if the ball is skimmed rather than hit solidly.

Forehand Chop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7DlijPvZmU
Backhand Chop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgUTnMh0FV8

Shakehand and penhold grips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zq-OHCNx7o

Tuxedo Catfish
Mar 17, 2007

You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.
It doesn't surprise me, because people have complained about it with all his shows, but it still blows my mind that Masaaki Yuasa's visual style is a "barrier" as opposed to, say, the only reason I'm giving a sports anime the time of day to begin with.

I'm glad I did.

Kaja Rainbow
Oct 17, 2012

~Adorable horror~

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

It doesn't surprise me, because people have complained about it with all his shows, but it still blows my mind that Masaaki Yuasa's visual style is a "barrier" as opposed to, say, the only reason I'm giving a sports anime the time of day to begin with.

I'm glad I did.

Not just his visual style, he's also aping Matsumoto's style. There're good reasons I consider this a match made in heaven. (Matsumoto is basically the Yuasa of manga.) I love both of those guys' stuff. And I'm psyched for a great and fitting adaptation after what I've seen of the first episode.

Franz von Dada
Feb 10, 2014

A Boy and His Parasite
I prefer Imaishi's "wacky-angles & exaggerated-posing" style, but good animation is always good animation and KLK barely had animation.

I'm not really into this kind of "sketchy" artstyle but it fits the show really well, so I don't see any reason to complain about it.

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009
I think the art is fine overall but it's not like there aren't any problems with it. It's hastily drawn, and there's nothing really special about the style. People also have a bit of a fish eye thing going on as a result of trying to draw realistic eyes in a very simplified manner. The art just looks like it was an afterthought to the story, and not something the artist obsessed over.

The animation is good though and I assume that's the part that comes from Yuasa.

devtesla
Jan 2, 2012


Grimey Drawer

Mercrom posted:

The art just looks like it was an afterthought to the story, and not something the artist obsessed over.

Get a load of this guy. It takes a lot of skill to look this unpolished and still communicate so much emotion.

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009

The Devil Tesla posted:

Get a load of this guy. It takes a lot of skill to look this unpolished and still communicate so much emotion.
Skill and effort aren't the same thing though. And even if he redrew everything a hundred times to get it right there's no way to tell, and it still looks like not much effort was put into it.

Valsu
Jan 2, 2006

I can understand how the art style would put some people off of the show, but that's part of the charm for me. Yea, it isn't pretty, but it looks different from 98% of the other stuff I watch. I think its cool to watch something that isn't trying to look like every other show. Its the same reason I like other shows that do this. Aku no Hana is the first one that pops into my head.

As for the show itself, I really enjoyed the first episode. It was a little ridiculous that the Chinese guys could tell so much about the game from listening to the ball slapping against the table/paddles while they were outside, but eh, shonen competition. I'm not terribly familiar with Yuasa or his style, but I really liked this show's first episode and I'll look into some other stuff Yuasa did.

Khagan
Aug 8, 2012

Words cannot describe just how terrible Vietnamese are.
Did anyone honestly expect a sports anime to fail?

Aesthetically, Ping apong is slightly worse than Monoke but that certainly did not hurt it during the intense scenes.

In fact I believe it worse off if it looked any better.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005
All anime needs to look uguu sugoi as hell, otherwise its lazy and

This is using the original manga's style. Yuasa uses a similar style on occasion. It allows / enables pretty fluid "meaty" animation

Mercrom
Jul 17, 2009

Zorak posted:

All anime needs to look uguu sugoi as hell, otherwise its lazy and

This is using the original manga's style. Yuasa uses a similar style on occasion. It allows / enables pretty fluid "meaty" animation
I haven't seen the manga but I agree it allows for good animation. The roughness makes it seem more smooth and less stiff.

Lucy Heartfilia
May 31, 2012


I just wanted to see the Peco vs Wenge match again and ended up watching the whole episode a second time.

Level Slide
Jan 4, 2011

For someone who's reportedly bad with kids, Smile is pretty good at handling crybabies.

Phobophilia
Apr 26, 2008

by Hand Knit
That was significantly better than I had expected! That was extremely entertaining.

Edward IV posted:

My Mandarin is quite rusty (and has a Nanjing accent) but Kong's Mandarin sounds legit which, being that I'm Chinese, is really cool. It's also good that Kong has more depth than a walking stereotype. (Not that I'm accusing Yuasa of having done anything like that but I'm always hesitant when an anime has foreign characters.)

Makes me wish China or Taiwan has more easily accessible media with good story telling and style here in the US. I'm very afraid that my Chinese fluency will eventually become the same as my fluency in Japanese which has derived exclusively through anime.

The golden age of classic HK movies is long long over :(

Mo_Steel
Mar 7, 2008

Let's Clock Into The Sunset Together

Fun Shoe
Solid first episode, I'm pretty hooked to see where this goes. I really like the unique style and after the first minute or two I was pretty much adjusted to it.

Popo
Apr 24, 2008

Homestuck is a true work of art surpassing all of Shakespeare's works.
Love the style, both art and direction, and the story offers a mildly interesting twist with Smile not just being the quieter, never quite as good as as the boisterous genius archetype but I still felt a little underwhelmed. It had all these elements but they didn't seem to come together for me. That said I'm onboard all the same since you can't judge a show by one episode and this blatantly has potential.

Got to say though, could that white pan from Peco up to Weng on the roof have felt longer?

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devtesla
Jan 2, 2012


Grimey Drawer

Popo posted:

Got to say though, could that white pan from Peco up to Weng on the roof have felt longer?

That was to get you listening to the ping pong sounds.

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