Ping Pong the Animation · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 11 April 2014
S1E1 I've Been Waiting for You, Hero
THE MOMENT Smile deliberately loses a match he could win - the series' first hint that talent and the will to use it are entirely separate problems.
The premiere establishes Peco's swagger and Smile's deliberate detachment at a summer tournament, then introduces the Chinese player Kong who will shatter Peco's self-assurance. Yuasa's distorted panel-influenced layouts signal immediately that this is a sports series with a completely different agenda.
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Ping Pong the Animation Season 1 Episode 1 'I've Been Waiting for You, Hero' aired April 11, 2014 on Fuji TV as the premiere of Masaaki Yuasa's 11-episode adaptation that won the Grand Prize for Television Animation at the 2015 Tokyo Anime Awards. MyAnimeList users scored the series 8.63, ranking it #96 overall. Anime News Network's Nick Creamer called it 'a triumph of artistry and treasure of storytelling.' The premiere establishes Peco's self-assurance and Smile's deliberate detachment at a summer tournament, then introduces Kong - the Chinese exchange player who will shatter Peco's understanding of where he stands. Yuasa's distorted, panel-influenced visual layouts announce from the first frame that this is a sports series with a completely different agenda than technical illustration of the game. The premiere's central scene - Smile deliberately losing a match he could win - is the series' first statement of its true subject: the separation of talent from the will to use it.