I am not into sports, and despite having played a handful of sports like basketball, my adult laziness has outgrown them. As for table tennis, which was founded in 1880s Victorian England, it is a sport that nowadays is perhaps taken more seriously in other countries other than the UK and the United States, with notable players of the sport being based in China. Of all of the sports he can use to make as a psychological drama, manga artist Taiyō Matsumoto uses table tennis as the basis of a coming-of-age tale about two high school boys.

Yutaka Hoshino/"Peco" and Makoto Tsukimoto/"Smile" have been friends since childhood, despite having drastically different personalities. Both talented members of the table tennis club of Katase High School. When both become contestants for the upcoming Interhigh Table Tennis Qualifier Men's Singles, their elderly coach Jō Koizumi, who has a deep sense of commitment to the sport, is determined to bring out the best of his players, in particular the quiet and reserved Smile.

Upon reading the initial pages, the art will be the turning point on whether readers will appreciate the book or not, because Matsumoto’s style is unconventional compared to the normalcy of most manga. With the attempt of illustrating a reality that we would be familiar with, from the advertisements of Coca-Cola or children playing Sega Rally at the arcade, Matsumoto’s characters are sketchy at best as the anatomy can be loose, notably the hands looking really large, which I guess you need to have if you’re playing table tennis.

With this art-style and the cold characterization through the eyes of Smile, who is perhaps the book’s main protagonist, reading most of this volume I was left emotionally cold. The drama is static and even though there are clichés such as the tough coach mentoring his student to reach his maximum effort, this is when the book perks up by presenting a tone that is actually funny even if sounding serious.

Despite not feeling compelled by the introductions of some of the players, all of which develop a rivalry between each other, by the time we reach the Men's Singles, that’s when Matsumoto’s visual storytelling starts to really work. Like sports movies that should be as enjoyable as the best action movies, the action of sports depicted in manga is highly stylized to the point it’s almost like witnessing a Dragon Ball Z fight sequence. Through dynamic panel layouts, speed lines and sound effects, Matsumoto’s art can still be rough around the edges, but there is enough surrealism to add enjoyment to the matches that also forms as an extension of the characters.

Adapted into an acclaimed anime series in 2014, Taiyō Matsumoto’s Ping Pong is an odd mixture of cold characterization and surreal table tennis matches that gives just enough to see how the story continues in the next volume.

Ace high school table tennis players push their passion to the limit in this story of self-discovery, told by Eisner Award winner Taiyo Matsumoto. Tsukimoto doesn’t smile even though he’s got a natural talent for playing ping pong. As one of the best players in school, all hopes are on him to win the regional high school tournament, but winning is not what Smile really wants to do. Will the fierce competition to be number one bring out his best or drive him away from the game? Ping Pong is Taiyo Matsumoto’s masterwork reflection on friendship and self-discovery, presented here in two volumes, featuring color art, the bonus story Tamura and an afterward by the original Japanese series editor It was....fine....i guess...too long for my taste...

This story is very character driven in its plot. I can't lie, I don't think this art style really resonated with me personally. I know this is an older title, so maybe that's all that I am picking up on. I do think I just wasn't the right person for this series. I like sports manga, so I thought I would give this one a try. There was a character purposely losing in a match, and that just bothered me.
I do think that a lot of readers will enjoy this one more than I did. I really just think it wasnt for me, so I don't think I will continue on. It wasn't bad by any means, just not for me.

I remember seeing the film of Ping Pong back in 2002 - just after I came back from a trip to Japan. I remember liking it a lot, there was something about the use of this odd indoor sport, heavy on reaction timing and stylistic quirks, that bought out the exaggerated extremes in the personalities of its leads. So now, finally, I get to read eighteen years later a translation of the manga it is based on, and discover quite how much in common they have. Japanese sports manga are a large genre, and one I know little about, but even so my sense is that Ping Pong is more interested in some of that coming of age stuff, than the game - despite the manga probably being about 75% gameplay.

One of the things that impressed me about the film was the innovative (SFX heavy) presentation of the sports action scenes. Table Tennis is a fast game, but very contained. The film came out just after the innovation of bullet time, and that, and some computer graphics made it visually very exciting. But the book - whilst formally quite traditional - excels are the near impossible p visualising ping pong playing styles, motion, speed, and the action. Whilst splattered "Pok Pok" effects give us the rhythm and the sound of the game, we also get trainer squeaks, squeals as the scores mount up. About a third of the 500 pages here are taken up with a regional tournament, and three games in particular, and you can glean the player style from the presentation. The art is jerky but precise, its very clean linework (one of those lovelythin technical drawing pens) particularly wobbly on renditions of advertising logos, but clean on the four or five telling traits of its lead characters. There are occasional flips to colour linework, but it is mainly in very stark uncoloured black and white, which is a contrast to the story being told which at the heart of it is trying to reconcile the personalities of the kids, with the personality of a winner. Is it sportsmanlike to play down to a weaker opponent? What role does confidence, arrogance and personality play?

The volume starts pretty philosophically, but once we get into the tournaments it has little time for its observation that blood tastes like metal. This volume finishes on a mild cliffhanger, there are more games to be played and one of the leads has sacked off of Table Tennis (and I can remember what happens in the film, so know there is more to come). I don't know enough Manga to judge it within the genre, but after a slowish start it really finds its own storytelling pace (which is at once breathless and extremely decompressed) and I want to come back and see how this plays out in the next volume. I have never been the best at reading action in comics, and there is a lot of quite frenetic action here, and so I am impressed with how well it worked, and sucked me in. My sense is this is a bit of a classic from the film, and its overall presentation, and like any kind of classic it has its was of drawing in even a casual reader of manga.

[NetGalley ARC]

Even at the top, there’s always someone better.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I know next –to-nothing about ping pong. Despite not having a frame of reference for the manga’s main theme, I never really felt like I was at a disadvantage when reading this manga. In typical Japanese sports manga fashion, all of the action is dialed up to 11, and I was surprised at how engaging this over-the-top presentation made ping pong. You’re introduced to Makoto Tsukimoto (“Smile”) and his friend Yutaka Hoshino (“Peco”) early on, and through them are introduced to the wild ride of intramural ping pong tournaments. I especially liked how “noisy” this manga was, lots of onomatopoeia in the form of shoes squeaking, balls hitting paddles, and crowd noises all worked together to really put you there.

My only real complaint about this manga was the art style. It’s very stark, very gritty, lots of dark contrast with light. I typically like more free-flowing lines and manga-esque style and shading, which you won’t find here. That said, the story was more than enough to carry me through all 500(!) pages of this first volume despite my personal art style hangup.

A fast paced read with some nail biting moments. You get all of the sound effects of shoes squeaking on the floor (Kweek! Skrik!) as well as the sound effects of the ping pong ball hitting the table and paddle (the pak, pok.) You also get to "hear" the roar of the crowds -- Waah! Yaah!

A good graphic novel which could be improved with color and illustrations more like 'Speed Racer' or some other manga comics. The cover could do well with more color and having less pictures in my opinion. It was just too busy for my taste.

I really did enjoy the storyline; and wow, I'm left hanging until volume two!

Four stars for me (I really like it.)

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

A heavily-illustrated sports story about the lengths an athlete will take to become a master. Interesting characters and masterful illustrations work together to create an engaging and compelling story.

Fun read, as a fan of Ping Pong I was already excited going into this. Needless to say it held up enough to keep me reading as the series keeps going.

ARC COpy...not what I was expecting in a school drama (besides longer length then I am used to) especially in terms of the hyper yet surreal realism art styles! Well Ping Pong is serious stuff in this manga's universe sooo if you extreme-competitive table tennis...jump right in!

Ping Pong is a story about competitive high school ping pong and, at its heart, about a friendship.

It's been a few years since I've read this manga in full, but the impression it left on me was huge. Taiyo Matsumoto's art style is singular, unmistakable, his dialogue and characters and the way he builds a narrative masterful. From what I've read this translation is good. I can't wait to buy and reread it in full when it's released (I don't really want to reread it with those watermarks on every page, and I want to experience it again with the physical copy in my hands).

Very sparsely drawn, this book details the lengths that a student goes to in order to become a master at his sport.