Unlike its predecessor, Ping Pong volume 2 places much more emphasis on tournaments and friendship — and even faked me out as to who the main central character is!
Yes, while both Tsukimoto and Hoshino shared the spotlight, the manga seemed to favor Tsukimoto. Heck, his nickname, Smile, was the name of the first chapter while Hoshino’s nickname is featured as Chapter 2’s title. But this second and final volume proves this is Hoshino’s story. That’s not just my opinion; the editor of the manga says so in his post-manga analysis. This is even cemented by the final chapter which acts as an epilogue.
After Hoshino and Tsukimoto are defeated at the Inter-high qualifiers, all the spots were taken up by Neptune. But they didn’t get much traction at Inter-high, so they all get a rude awakening. Hoshino continues to slack off and make excuses for his loss, and Kazama tries to snap him out of his funk. When Hoshino finally wants to get back into the game, Tamura steps up to train him hard. Koizumi can be hard on Tsukimoto too, but Hoshino faces tougher challenges having spent too much time snacking and playing at the arcade. Hoshino is also allowed back on the team to compete in the qualifiers, but until then, both pretty much operate independently with their trainers. Tsukimoto rides the captain’s tail a bit in regards to equipment and stuff, and I can’t blame the team for feeling a bit resentful that their coach so heavily favors one player.
As I mentioned earlier, actual ping pong matches are heavily featured in volume 2. Hoshino and Tsukimoto face-off against some familiar opponents, and they have to show their results of their hard work to avoid a repeat of the previous year. That would be enough drama in this high-power manga, but Hoshino has a major issue that hampers his grand return: a knee injury.
It’s hard to discuss the tournament with covering the ending, but the manga wisely sticks to the qualifiers. They end with a fade-out and then a photo, but the winner is irrelevant. The series has already declared the emotional winners, and I was satisfied without seeing the full game. Yet I was less thrilled with the finale. Not saying that I expected all of the main characters to go pro, but one of the two major characters doesn’t seem to have catapulted off all his character development. If there is a manga critical analysis class out there, I think you could have a spirited debate about the ending and the characters…and the whole blood tastes like metal thing, which is still weird.
And in that way, Ping Pong volume 2 is a major success. It’s something that I won’t forget, and there’s just so much energy in the matches even though the series is more about finding and keeping your heroes than hitting a little bouncy ball. And with the art more stable and solid throughout the omnibus than in the first, that just means the series becomes even more memorable as Hoshino, Tsukimoto and the others battle for personal and extracurricular glory.