Ping Pong, Vol 1 is a Terrific, Grounded Sports Manga, for Better or Worse
- WRITER
- Taiyo Matsumoto
- Artist
- Taiyo Matsumoto
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- Price
- 29.99
- Release Date
- 2020-05-19
The shonen genre is filled with sports manga, from Haikyuu to The Prince of Tennis. However, Ping Pong stands out among its peers. Stylistically, Ping Pong looks nothing like your typical manga, with its exaggerated, sometimes garish character designs. For many reasons, Taiyo Matsumoto's Ping Pong Vol. 1 stands apart from all other sports manga because, for better or worse, it's arguably the most realistic, grounded sports manga you'll ever pick up.
Two boys, nicknamed Peco and Smile, have just entered high school. Both are best friends who stand apart from the crowd, despite being incredibly close. Before high school, they played table tennis as a sport, but fear that the competition has become a little too intense now. It doesn't help that one of their teammates is a Chinese table tennis champion who consistently bad mouths and dismisses players around him. The two almost quit the team until a teammate named Dragon encourages them, seeing their incredible potential.
When discussing Ping Pong, it's vital to review it in two ways: as a coming-of-age story about teenagers and as a sports manga. The manga spends far more time exploring the kids and their insecurities than actually showing ping-pong competitions. Large chunks of the manga show Peco loudly eating junk food, while Smile, ironically, looks insecure and stand-offish. It explores why "China," as he's nicknamed, is so arrogant and stand-offish all the time. It delves into the dynamic of the teams and players. However, if you're want to watch the sport of ping pong rendered to life, you might prefer to watch the anime, because Ping Pong the manga is more interested in creating the reality of high school sports life more than rendering epic sports competitions to life. This is a strength in the manga's favor.
Ping Pong's dialogue feels natural. The characters talk in ways that sound like the way real teens would talk. No one gives speeches about friendship or make unrealistic heightened statements. The strong writing, coupled with the art, establishes a sense of realism throughout the series that other manga fail to capture.
Most of the drama isn't really focused on winning. One of the more compelling elements to Ping Pong is that the players on the team are not unbeatable. They lose, and these failures shake their confidence. Just about every player on the team has a personal conflict they need to overcome. However, the problem is that these character conflicts are often resolved outside of the sports, with the sports serving less as cathartic resolution or triumph and more as a way to spur on the coming-of-age story.
Matsumoto's art is incredibly stylized in a manner that feels more like caricature at times. It's not pretty, but it's not supposed to be. It's garish and sometimes ugly, but captures a vibrancy to the world he creates. For many, however, it might be hard to look past this art style if you're accustomed to -- and expecting -- character designs more akin to other sports manga like Haikyuu.
Most of the ping-pong actionis competently relayed on the page. Some games are rushed, while others are given more attention. These games aren't always exciting for their own sake, but they're effective vehicles for character development. That makes for compelling drama -- excellent drama, even -- but weak sporting entertainment. This the arguable downside of the hyper-realistic approach. In real life, you're not going to see insane Prince of Tennis-esque maneuvers or world-record stunts like something out of Yuri on Ice!!! Readers looking for epic moments of hype will probably find Ping Pong boring.
Ping Pong is a fascinating high school drama that lags whenever we need to watch them play table tennis. If you're expecting a manga that teleports you to all your high school sports fantasies, you're going to be disappointed when reading Ping Pong. If you're looking for a compelling and fascinating story about teens realizing their self-worth, having their egos challenged and ultimately finding support through a system of friends and rivals, however, then you're in for a treat.
Ping Pong Vol. 1 is now available from Viz Media.