Ping Pong - Collector's Edition [Dual Format] [Blu-ray]

I'll review both the series and the product itself.First, the product is astounding; very well packaged and the extras are a nice touch. I absolutely love the packaging for the Blu-Ray and DVD discs, and the artwork and attention to detail is phenomenal. I love how both Blu-Ray and DVD discs are included for those who need or would like both. There's not a huge amount of extras on the discs, but it's not bad from such a small anime.Now onto the series itself. Honestly, I think Ping Pong is by far my favourite sports anime; I adore other shows like Ippo and Haikyu, but Ping Pong is so much more mature in the way it approaches its subject matter and characters. The sport of ping pong is really just a backdrop, it's a medium for the author to explore these characters and how they face life and the obstacles that come their way. It's fundamentally a coming-of-age story and it really becomes extremely psychological later on, as we become privy to the thoughts of each of the four main characters.These four main characters are Peco, a young boy who's been a prodigy at ping pong all his life; Smile, Peco's friend and classmate who started playing after being invited by Peco; Kong, a Chinese ping pong player so good he was on the first team, but recently was kicked off and sent to Japan; and Kazama, an incredibly good ping pong player who is in the top four players worldwide, and currently dominates the national game.Now these characters are all very very interesting to watch grow, and each of them has their own mental baggage; and it's great watching this all come to a head through the sport and having their personalities clash and I love how the show doesn't rely so much on standard tropes and character archetypes. There's a lot that isn't said but is rather shown which is nice, and the show greatly benefits from a second watching, as it is much easier to pick up on clues and hints in earlier episodes.All in all, I'd highly, highly recommend this show to any anime fan. It's an underappreciated gem, and was easily the best anime I watched back in 2014, and is by far my favourite sports anime.

The series is great, no doubt about it and no going into details. The best I've seen recently and one of the best I've had ever seen. Taiyo Matsumoto's style is very well adapted and clearly recognizable and that's suerb!, I love Taiyo Matsumoto style. If you like Taiyo Matsumoto, you will love it! If not, there's still big chance you will enjoy watching it. Collector's Edition is put together very nicely but humble (it's basically hard cardboard case, 2 dvds, 2 BlueRay discs and 4 postcards with characters from series), except that I don't like that any other alternative wasn't given - you HAVE TO buy "dual format" edition, which is sort of pointless - if you can play Blue Ray, you don't need dvds, if you can't, you don't need BR discs. But no, you have to pay for both here (there's also no budget alternative for "non-colectors"). And on top of that, dvds start with trailers for Wolf Children and Cowboy Bebop (both seen long time ago by any serious person) - these trailers can't be skipped (or at least, it wouldn't work on my player), which is ridiculous - after paying so much for Collector's Edition, you should be able to decide, if you want to watch ads.

The English subtitles are forced with this Austrailian (Funimation) release, you can't remove them.