First Impression – Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume
Can you feel the burning!?
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Burning Ping Pong Girls joins the fine tradition of cute girls doing cute things, only this time it’s organized around the sport of table tennis… |
Goodness Gracious Great Blobs of Moe
Oh my…
So in interest of full disclosure, I’m not a sports guy, not in the slightest. I mean, I can follow the rules of most sports fairly well; and I don’t do that nerdy “Yay! Touchdown” when the red lamp lights up at the hockey rink. But I could be doing literally anything instead of paying attention to sports. Regardless, this didn’t throw me a curve as the table tennis is not the only way to focus the relationship dynamics, and with plenty of light drama and comedy on top of it, I’m not going away unpleased. Plus, these girls are pretty awesome in so many rights….
So fine…
So, as it in these sorts of shows, the sporting action is highly exaggerated, but that doesn’t mean it falls out of it’s own rules of consistency. Fast paced motions are slowed down, reactions from observers or others happen in very real time, so the comments register, and motions are repeated for effect. Even with my own uncaring eye, I can see that the continuity of action is preserved from shot to shot. The matches don’t fail to please, and since they are of such importance to the show, they carry the weight of most of the emotions. Within that they use the rest of the cast outside the match to support the dynamics of the primary characters in the match, and it proceeds at a brisk pace. This is the externalization of emotion and complex feelings done well.
She’s used to being top idol…
And oh what they do express. I love the rather strong “first among equals” character play they use this episode. They set up Agari as the ace and the hard worker of the ping pong club, someone who’s also come to enjoy the idolization of her peers, if not value it outright as a drop of honey to her ego. So when the newcomer blitzes in like a natural, the upset is supposed to be that palatable. That would be Koyori. It’s a given that we need someone to have it all explained to, to catch up people like me, so it’s also a given that she has nearly negative clues about what’s going on. She plays the clumsy, somewhat shy ditz part very well and provides the contrast to Agari’s cool exterior. It’s a tried and true method to tell a story, and again, they do it very well, and it’s funny and very easy going.
…and this little puppy might replace her?
She has a lot to deal with then…
But Red is easily taken over…
I wasn’t exactly anticipating this one, but having watched the first episode I’ll be very happy to keep up with it from week to week. It has that Lucky Star sort of vibe to it and who doesn’t want that sort of cool runnings? This one comes from the creator of the ROD (Read of Die/Dream) manga, and it looks like he’s adapting from his own work this time around as well. I just poked around at his MAL credits and he looks like a good, long running, professional, writer with more hits than misses. He knows how to round out with both goofy, straight, honesty, and shyness. The direction is spot on, and nothing is missing in this. It might not be everyone’s cup of victory, but if you like the visuals and this sort of character structure, then it should be a ton of fun.
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I thought this did well for an opening episode of a sports anime. There’s no try-hard main character working her way up from the bottom, the only whiny “I’m so great, you’ll never beat me… whaaaaat how could I lose?!?!?!” was characters that we really won’t see again. And I really like that Agari’s motivation, from the beginning, was “I like it because people praise me.” The ping pong action was really good, and it wasn’t really slowed down for dramatic reasons. And it did a good job showing how much effort goes into playing high level table tennis (there is a rule in international matches that you can only towel off after every 6 points to avoid stalling). ut at the same time, it didn’t get bogged down in any one aspect. Well, except…
Munemune’s chest size. It was bad enough they called her that in the first place, but then they kept going back to that again and again as a joke. They did show her being a good player (and I really liked the way they drew her legs in your clip above).
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
They do draw women as real women in most respects and don’t appear to want to apologize over that – which is good; and yeah, the boobs jokes are unrelenting at that age.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Oppaipai-senpai!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
This is definitely the series with most unique character designs! THOSE EYES are a bit odd, but overall the animation is interesting.
SO many cool characters thou <3
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…the eyes remind me a bit of Manabi Straight?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
And just for some fun, take a look at this. The really fun part starts about 7 minutes in:
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…are those guys, like, the Globetrotters of table tennis? BTW folks, if you’re bored of this stuff (LIKE ME!), it actually starts at 7:14. This is what I have to endure with Highway. He loves to subject me to things like 14 unwanted seconds of table tennis.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Actually, those guys are apparently good friends who are both highly ranked players. That was at an exhibition.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…I don’t think the floor judge was a friend…the other judge looked like he was though…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Those aren’t ping pong balls Munemune is hiding under her shirt.
For me this episode was good enough to get me to watch another one or two, but not good enough to sell me on the series. I do see there is some potential in it for good drama as well as comedy, but I absolutely hate super shy characters like Koyori. Shy, yes okay, but not to that extreme.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I quite liked it. I’m especially fond of how the main drama here is about Agari getting jealous that she’s not being completely idolized by a herd of fangirls every second of the day. It’s ridiculous and I like that they made her so self-centred. It’s fun having a sassy character like that in a fluffy show like this.
Also, man, the ping pong looked great. Not that I know a thing about ping pong. But even so, they made me like it!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…in addition I enjoy that Agari isn’t totally self-centered. Close, but not all the way into flanderized characterization.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yes, there’s a good person in there…and there are layers of pettiness too haha
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The only thing I didn’t really like with the visualization of the ping pong was the freeze frame with the ball path that looked like you took a picture with a strobe light. And I think that’s more of a personal preference thing, in that the shots are supposed to be unreturnable because they’re so good, and to me that visualization makes it look like they just missed it. It loses the dynamism of the exceptional shot and the desperate lunge that doesn’t reach it. But other than that, it may have been the best sport animation I’ve seen. And they totally got the feel of a fast-paced rally down.
And like you guys, I love that Agari’s motivation is so authentically self-centered. Maybe the only inauthentic thing about it is that she’s so open about it to herself, not convincing herself that she’s not mostly in it for the attention and adulation.