Hi, people. Welcome back! I had planned to do this post right after I came back from my vacation. But, things happened and decided to write about another anime. Te~he! And also, one of my close relatives had passed away recently...just before I finish
the post on Saki Achiga-hen.
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| Hoku hoku...nice cat ears btw |
Anyway, putting that aside, let's talk about Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume!!!! The table tennis (or ping pong, whichever you prefer) anime!
Oh yeah, you will see bouncing boobs too. Boing! Anyway, without further ado, let's go!!!
WARNING:-
SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't watched it and plan to watch it without anyone being the spoiler, please DON'T CONTINUE READING!!!
P.S. If you want to be spoiled, well, go ahead and read it. You HAD been warned. Don't blame me for being spoiled if you INSIST on continuing to read this post.
Introduction
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| The anime cover... |
The anime, Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume (in English, Scorching Ping Pong Girls and in Japanese, 灼熱の卓球娘) is adapted from Japanese manga series of the same name by Yagura Asano about table tennis. The manga began its serialization in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Jump SQ.19 in 2013 and moved to Shueisha's online platform Tonari no Young Jump after the end of Jump SQ.19's publication. Currently, the manga has been collected in three tankōbon volumes. As for the anime, it is done by Kinema Citrus and aired in Japan between October and December 2016.
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Manga cover of the 1st volume
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Plot
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| That match shakes up the tournament... |
The story starts with a table tennis (or Ping Pong) tournament, where the champions for nine straight years, the Oudou Academy table tennis team defeated by the unknown Hayabusa Academy in the selection match. What a way to start the anime...WITH SUSPENSE & INTENSE INTRODUCTION TO THE MC'S FUTURE CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Yes, this is Agari. And that hairpin, LOL! |
Anyway, with that happening, one girl with a hairpin (which is literally an arrow pointing upwards), Kamiya Agari. She is the school's top table tennis player...which will face a serious from some transfer student. Wait a minute...this feels so cliche. Why is it that only a transfer student will upset the balance? Just asking.
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| The transfer student, Koyori. |
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| A random table tennis game... |
OK, back to the story, this transfer student, Tsumujikaze Koyori is a very shy individual and shows great interest in joining the table tennis club. With that, both of them had a practice match against each other. Surprising (or not that surprising), Koyori is really skilful with her table tennis skills. That feels so cliche...oh, man...
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| The new ace? |
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| The battle of the aces looks like it will soon happen. |
Back to the topic, Koyori quickly rising up the club's ranking after beating ten first-year members in a row. She slowly becomes the club's rising superstar and slowly but surely beating the top-ranked member with the likes of Oomune Mune (or Mune Mune...
the one who has a ridiculously huge breast), Itsumo Hokuto (
who names people by the colour of panties they wear) and Tenka Hanabi (
Oh? No description, you said? Well, she is the cheerful one). Powerful, isn't it? With that setting, Agari is feeling the pressure on her number one spot. INTENSE...And...another thing that intensifies the tension is that this transfer student was a prefectural semifinalist in her previous school.
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| Tsumujikaze Koyori vs Kamiya Agari! |
And of course, with that tension building up, the battle between Agari and Koyori starts!!! Agari lost the fight to keep her spot as the number 1 in the school. Although she had lost to Koyori, she found the joy of playing table tennis, got
a gay partnership, I mean a friend in Koyori and of course, a drive to further improve her skills. Happy ending? Nope! There is a table tennis tournament coming up. Wait a minute...is that Saki all over again? Ahem, never mind that. Let's move on.
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The friendship formed. And probably a gay partnership? Maybe. |
With the competition upcoming, the members start to up their game, literally, just like any usual sports anime. So, I'm not gonna further elaborate the story as it is mostly a matchup between two players. Anyway, this anime is pretty typical of any sports anime but it has quite a lot of funny moments to behold. OK, let's move on.
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| Cute Koyori hiding behind Agari |
Anime Rating
Story (Rating: 7/10)
The story is pretty interesting and pretty generic at times, just like any sports anime. The light-hearted moments are really funny. There is not much of any special thing except it obviously don't have some OP powers behind it but only about skills. The spin of the ball, the bounce of the ball and even the rubber surface of the table tennis bat is shown in the anime. Of course, a good comedy is an important element in this story. The relative easiness to understand the story and the pacing of the story are also pretty good.
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The two potential gay partners. I mean, good friends! |
Art and Animation (Rating: 7/10)
The art and animation are quite good and present the intensity of the game quite well. The character looks decent and movement is fine. The consistency and the looks of the animation are good
unlike Imo-Imo, which is consistently terrible. Anyway, the exaggeration of table tennis skills is not as good as the ones in Saki.
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| Is this even ping pong anymore? |
Sound and Music (Rating: 5/10)
The OP and ED songs are decent and for me, not really the song I would like. For me, I don't hate but I don't particularly like it either. Well, it depends on you regardless of my opinion. Oh, as for the BGM, there are really good in terms of bringing out the tension of the game and the light-hearted situations.
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| From the OP... |
Characters (Rating: 7/10)
As for the character, the developments are mostly on their table tennis skills, with minimal focus on the inner character of the characters. Plus, the character development is highly focused on the two MCs, Agari and Koyori. Well, this anime is probably more relatable to the audience than Saki anime as it doesn't involve some random supernatural OP skills. BUT, it does exaggerate the basic table tennis skill...anime. I mean, it's anime, right? No exaggeration, no anime.
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A random yuri moment or a show of friendship from the two girls? |
Enjoyment (Rating: 10/10)
For me at the time, I enjoy the competitiveness between the characters in the anime, just like in a recent anime that I had watched and reviewed, Hanebado. Anyway, I also enjoy the funny and light-hearted scene in this anime. I might rewatch but not anytime soon.
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| One of the cute moments of the top ping pong players... |
Overall Rating: 7.2 (6.5)/10
Screenshots
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| How do u even get up there if you can't come down? |
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| Ōmune Mune vs Tsumujikaze Koyori |
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| Tsumujikaze Koyori vs Itsumo Hokuto |
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| Tsumujikaze Koyori vs Tenka Hanabi |
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| The match for the number 1 place...Koyori vs Agari!!!!! |
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| Ushirode Kiruka vs Tsumujikaze Koyori |
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| The doubles match! |
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| Zashikiwarashi Zakuro vs Kamiya Agari |
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| Tsumujikaze Koyori vs Futamaru Kururi |
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| One of the funny scene. And...Kumami (the one in the middle)!!! |
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| Onsen fanservice! |
PV/Trailer
Conclusion
Oh, hi. Welcome to the end of the post. Well...bye? No, just joking. Wait for a moment, I wanna say something before you go. I'm planning for another anime, a multiple season anime for my next post. I'll give a hint. It's a typical "cute girls doing cute things" anime. Anyway, that's the end. Hope you enjoy it and hope to see you again. Goodbye, and God bless you!
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| That face of Koyori |
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