Scorching Ping Pong Girls – Episode 7

Settle in everybody, we’re watching more Scorching Ping Pong Girls! After a long run of match-filled episodes introducing the main team, Ping Pong Girls slowed down for the first time last episode, and used Hokuto’s family store to emphasize the importance of the unconditional friendships uniting our heroes. It was a charming episode that demonstrated Ping Pong Girls’ slice of life elements can be just as satisfying as its sports elements, while also clearly setting this show’s thematic axis on the importance of friends who love you for who you are. The use of color to illustrate how Hanabi’s presence impacted Hokuto’s life was an effective trick, and the villain Futamaru’s introduction was as wonderfully stupid as I might have hoped. On the whole, as always with this show, it was a very nice time.

That episode also left me more than eager to see these girls actually engage in some doubles matches. I’ve never seen a slice of life property pair up its characters quite this aggressively – every member of Agari and Koyori’s team has a specific partner they trust completely, and having spent so much time building up these relationships, I can’t wait to see those bonds paid off through thrilling acts of teamwork on the ping pong court. With only half a season left, my guess is that we’re about to witness a disastrous practice match that will both set up the threat of our opponents and serve as motivation to succeed in the actual tournament. But either way, I’m happy to be watching more of this consistently charming and often thrilling production. Let’s get to it!

Episode 7

I forgot this show includes its “last time on” recap within the OP itself, as the song hangs on the verse beat while we spin through the last few dramatic turns. That’s a really cool trick that feels particularly appropriate for a show as upbeat and irreverent as this one – it feels somewhat like the tongue-in-cheek use of Dezaki postcard frames, simultaneously winking at this story’s melodramatic pretensions and genuinely embracing the joy of melodramatic storytelling

This show’s cheeky character symbolism shows up in all sorts of unusual places, like how these rising arrows around the episode title are all color-coded to the various teammates

Kirara just casually leans on Munemune’s boobs even while standing. The most married team

Hokuto wisely gave Koyori the rubber that simply feels the most satisfying to use, with the most snappy tactile feedback. A different rubber might have played more into her tactical strengths, but Koyori’s true strength is her underlying love of table tennis, and so Hokuto chose the rubber that is best able to put her in that satisfying zone. This show is really friggin’ good about its tactical drama – this explanation makes total sense to me, and reflects positively on Hokuto’s alleged understanding of racket rubbers

“That’s my Koyori.” Agari has claimed her

We jump right to the practice match with Mozuyama Junior High

Mozuyama captain’s Zakuro is very… enthusiastic. Zakuro is quite an unusual name

“We’re here to win and gain some momentum heading into tournament play in summer, but we’re also here to see how good we are right now!” Munemune essentially underlines the genuine narrative purpose of a sequence like this. In order for sports heroes succeeding and overcoming some professional antagonist to feel meaningful, we must first have a clear understanding of the personal challenges they have to overcome, as well as the imposing strength of their opponents. Sequences like this can conveniently facilitate both of those goals, as our heroes are defeated in ways that demonstrate both their weaknesses and their enemies’ strengths, thus setting the surpassing of those limitations as a meaningful and coherent goal to strive for

For tactically grounded sports dramas, setting up the board and establishing the stakes both in a strategic and emotional sense is the foundation work that will later result in battles where the audience can instinctively understand the key mechanics and momentum of the fight, thus offering that satisfying sense of investment and ownership that comes from actively communicating with media

Oh my god, Kururi Futamaru thought Koyori’s panicked breathing meant she was practicing for labor cramps

“Well, it deathn’t matter who I’m up against.” These subs really emphasizing the absurdity of Futamaru’s vocal tic

It seems even Futamaru’s teammates are intimidated by her, except for the captain. A clear contrast with the family atmosphere of our leads. I’m guessing Futamaru has trouble making friends just like Hokuto did, and thus feels particularly attached to the captain, who isn’t put off by her aura

Kururi gets all bashful and tongue-tied when the captain calls her out, demonstrating she actually can turn it off sometimes

But it looks like the captain herself is kind of a klutz, and Kururi acts as her general caretaker. I kinda wish I lived in the universe where everyone found their you-complete-me soulmate by middle school

Zakuro thanks Kururi, and Kururi immediately becomes too gay to function. This show has a pretty relatable cast

All of Mozuyama’s second years all have their own character gimmicks, which they do their best to demonstrate in a few seconds of screentime. I like “Nom-Nom Kimiko”

Kururi and Zakuro are the only third years, and Koyori comments on how many of the tables are unused. We may get into how Kururi’s style of obsessive love doesn’t really allow for a table tennis family to develop – or frankly, we may just not. I initially figured Kururi was being set up as a thematic counterpoint to the positive relationships of our leads, but her bond with Zakuro seems pretty darn genuine. I’m sure we’ll return to those “friendship points” eventually, though

Kururi imagines Zakuro praising her and immediately stumbles and slams her head into a window, then just stays there. I hear you, Kururi

Koyori somehow got herself stuck on top of one of the bathroom stalls. Goddamnit Agari, you know you can’t leave her unsupervised like that

Koyori’s hair tails start wagging when she makes a new friend. How can this show be so goddamn adorable. How is it scientifically possible

“A good game? Not even death would make that enough to pay the friendship fee.” Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. It seems Kururi feels she must constantly work to re-earn Zakuro’s friendship, and that Zakuro sticking around her is an entirely transactional thing. She doesn’t play table tennis because she loves it – she plays because achieving victory is one of the ways she knows she can please Zakuro. So we’ve got a character conflict that naturally contrasts with Koyori’s personality, which will presumably lead towards Kururi eventually realizing that embracing happiness for her own sake is actually the best way to make Zakuro happy as well

Kururi declares that “I play for her,” leading Koyori to wonder what she herself plays for. I kinda like that – Koyori actually has a healthier attitude about table tennis than Kururi, but we only really know that as viewers with an understanding of this show’s thematic grasp, while Koyori is an insecure person who’d naturally doubt herself in the face of Kururi’s intensity

Junior high team play is apparently composed of four singles matches and one doubles match. Huh, I figured they’d be leaning more on doubles play, considering all the pairs within our main team

Agari and Koyori will be playing against Zakuro and Kururi respectively. And we finally get to see the team moms play a doubles match!

Yeah, Koyori is just not that mentally strong. She keeps replaying Kururi’s words in her mind

Hanabi’s opponent is keeping up a smug face in spite of being overrun, but her teammates are just not interested in supporting her. A properly supportive team would be all like “at last, the enemy has fallen into her trap” right about now, but instead they’re just saying she’s bad and going to lose. This is a good show

Oh man, some wonderfully fluid animation for Hanabi’s opponent shifting into high gear. After a bunch of panning stills, fluid animation by itself conveys an inherent sense of tremendous speed

The shift from closeup stills to mid-distance shots emphasizes how the opponent is throwing Hanabi off her rhythm, and forcing her to run back and forth away from the court. Cinematography as illustration of tactics, good stuff!

“At this point, you are but sad prey, rendered immobile in a scorching hot desert.” I wish I played anime sports back when I was in high school. I think I’d be really good at these speeches

This feels like a very understandable mismatch of specialization – Hanabi is good at speed, so her opponent forced her to run all around the table, and thus wore her out. A more conservative playstyle would be less vulnerable to this opponent’s tactics

The opponent Sasorida’s long strikes are visualized as a fluidly animated scorpion tail striking down on Hanabi. This show is such a fun celebration of sports anime that I’m already kinda sad there isn’t any more of it

Sasorida’s teammates dunk on her victory, while Hokuto heads over to comfort Hanabi. Both a fine character gag and an illustration of the divide between these two teams

And one more lovely, operatic postcard shot for the ending!

And Done

Heck yeah, we’re really in it now! This episode was largely dedicated to building up the threat of Mozuyama, but it certainly succeeded in that, while also offering one more fun match as a concluding payoff. The show’s larger-than-life style of characterization let it quickly fill out the back row of Mozuyama contenders, while Kururi’s material went a long way towards establishing her and Zakuro as genuine foils for Koyori and Agari. At this point, I no longer think this will be the quick and brutal failure that inspires our heroes to try harder next time – this practice match is nearly a tournament in its own right, and will likely consume a fair portion of the remaining season. That’s fine by me; every match in this show is its own reward, and I’m eager to see all of our heroes tested to new limits in the coming fights. Scorching Ping Pong Girls continues its fiery course!

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.

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