Mar 31, 2014

Masaaki Yuasa's "Ping Pong" series is amazing.

Table tennis sounds like a sport that doesn't need an anime series, but leave it to the Japanese to make it as exciting as a superhero action-adventure series. This is the premiere of "Ping Pong," a new 11-episode anime series from Japanese director Masaaki Yuasa ("Mind Game," "Yonbun Mythos Daikei") that will debut on April 10 in Fuji Television's late-night Noitamina slot. French viewers can watch the series on Wakanim.

The film is an adaptation of the mid-1990s manga by Taiyo Matsumoto ("Tekkonkinkreet"). An adaptation of the mid-1990s manga by Taiyo Matsumoto ("Tekkon Sukecrete"), the quirky ping-pong-themed story was also made into a live-action film in 2002. Animation production is by Tatsunoko Productions. Major staff members include Nobutake Ito (character design), Kevin Aymeric (art director), Kunio Tsujita (color stylist), and Kensuke Ushio (music).

It is impossible to watch the trailer and not be in awe of its absolute artistic excellence. What we see here are not animated characters, but stylized portraits in motion. Director Yuasa and his staff know how to draw, and they use their skills to create cinematic spaces with powerful compositions from unlikely angles:

The watercolor and wash backgrounds have an organic, painterly feel. They create the atmosphere of the scene without distracting from the action:

And if stylized animation could be used to create such dynamic and exciting movement, full animation would not be necessary: