Half a year on from the events of the previous episode, it’s a winter of the soul for the various protagonists. We see just how much has changed in the intervening months through the kaleidoscopic lens of one Christmas Eve.
Ryuichi Kazama continues his victorious streak with a singles win at the Youth Olympics, while Sakuma and Peco realize they aren’t cut out for the sport after witnessing Smile’s continued improvement. At the halfway point in the story, we seem to be in a transitional stage in which the relationships of the players to one another and their attitude towards the sport are changing. The episode didn’t have much tension to it partly as a result of that. There was no strong driving narrative force. That made it one of the less memorable episodes so far.
The championship grinds on. After Smile’s defeat at the hands of Kong, the tables are turned and the elite players of Kaio Academy come …
Tensions run high during the high school championships, and all eyes are on the showdown between Kong and Smile. The third episode jumps abruptly from Smile’s training in episode 2 right to the championships, and to a Smile who has begun to gain the confidence to show his true potential.
The most fascinating bit of news out of WonderCon last weekend? Japanese director Masaaki Yuasa (“Mind Game”) has storyboarded and directed an upcoming episode of “Adventure Time.”
Determined to unleash Smile’s potential, Coach Koizumi devises a relentless schedule of training that culminates in a death match pitting old veteran versus young hopeful. Smile’s resistance finally cracks under the pressure, and he begins to get serious. Meanwhile, the appearance of a new rival – the tough-looking Ryuichi Kazama – sets the stage for a later showdown.
When we started offering recaps of Steven Universe last November, we were uncertain how readers would respond. Your feedback turned out …
A recap of the first episode of Masaaki Yuasa’s new series “Ping Pong.”
Table tennis sounds like just about the last thing that needs an animated series, but leave it to the Japanese to make the sport as exciting as a superhero action-adventure series. This is our first extended look at “Ping Pong,” a new 11-episode animated series by Japanese director Masaaki Yuasa (“Mind Game,” “The Tatami Galaxy”) that will debut April 10th on Fuji TV’s late-night noitaminA block.
Transparency in the crowdfunding community is highly valued, and animators tend to be most successful when they are upfront about the …