The Ping Pong Club
The Ping Pong Club (行け!稲中卓球部, Ike! Inachū takkyū-bu)[1] is Japan's answer to South Park cranked Up to Eleven.
That's the short version. This manga by Minoru Furuya is about the 8th grade class, section 5, and their awful antics and growth towards attempting to be the best ping pong club.
They weren't willing at first - the girls' team was far better and their room was threatening to be taken over, until the principal convinced the resident cool delinquent girl, Kyoko, to whip the boys into shape. She manages to do so by offering a "sex ticket" - "whoever wins may do whatever they want with my body for a month!" to the boy that wins the most and becomes the best. Complications occur when she realizes that Takeda and her have feelings for each other, and they are torn apart at every given opportunity.
Can Kyoko turns these losers to winners? Will Tanabe ever get rid of that obnoxious stench? Will you ever see sea turtles in the same way after watching this series? Just how far will this show go?! These answers (and many more you did not want to know) lie ahead. Not for the faint of heart.
See Cromartie High School for a similar series.
- Attention Whore: Maeno, whose acts wear thin to the point where the club won't even pay attention to him when he dresses up like Adolf Hitler and marches around.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted hard and disturbingly.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Of course between Kyoko and Takeda, though any time the show displays Romantic Comedy elements something is going to counter it.
- Bishonen: Kinoshita is revealed to be "more beautiful than any girl" when wearing a dress and makeup, and the only girl immune to his smile is Kyoko.
- Black Comedy Rape: The meek Meganekko reveals, "I knew I only had one chance to have sempai speak to a girl like me. So I beat him with a daikon radish and had my way with him...!"
- Butt Monkey: The noodle shop owner's kid in one episode, and the rest of them take turns harassing each other.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Maeno watches a Film Noir and a Western and sees how cool drinking seems, and makes outrageous claims of how much he can drink, until he is put to the test and revealed to be this.
- Creepy Physical: Engineered by Maeno, naturally.
- Delinquent: Kyoko has the traditional sukeban habits and is hired so she stays out of trouble.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: Tanebe and Maeno take a picture of a boy who crashed his bike while delivering noodles, and the rest of the episode is spent discussing different scenarios and taking pictures.
- Engrish: All over the place, most noticeably in Maeno's "Propellor Song"
- Fan Disservice: to start with, saggy, prehensile boobs... let's not finish.
- Five-Finger Discount: One episode
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Chiyoko goes from "cow" to "heartstopping" when Izawa demands she takes off her glasses.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: Maeno and Izawa, Japan's answer to Beavis and Butthead, though certainly with questionable heterosexuality.
- Important Haircut: Izawa insists on making a big ceremony when he cuts his hair after a girl he likes makes fun of his hair.
- I Want to Be a Real Man: After watching a documentary on customs of boys becoming men, Maeno and company decide they must do something manly and first try to hit Kyoko, until things get... squickier...
- Kawaiiko: Chiyoko, the childish contrast to Kyoko.
- Love Potion: The boys give the girls pills that are supposed to make them horny for the people that wear the corresponding spray. Things go awry and Hilarity Ensues.
- Nightmare Fetishist: When asked what moment they would like to get a photograph of, Kyoko says, "I'd like to see when a suicide hits the ground!"...
- Panty Thief: From a long line of "Panty Masters" that use The Force to take women's panties off while they sleep without disturbing them.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Mitchell Tanabe is tall, overmuscled, hairy, blonde-haired and blue-eyed... and half-American, of course.
- The Power of Love: One substitute teacher finally breaks down the obnoxious Losers' Club's will by emanating love beams through his enormous shoujo eyes.
- Pandaing to the Audience: Their famous panda-shaped vehicle.
- Pool Episode: Of course, more perverted antics than Fan Service.
- Refuge in Audacity
- Refuge in Vulgarity
- Shout-Out: Maeno and Izawa's somewhat disturbing Lupin and Fujiko game; also, Izawa's hair is based on the hero's hair in Ashita no Joe.
- Toilet Humor: As written in one review, "It appears to be written by 14-year-olds for 14-year-olds... not to say it's a bad thing!"
- Tsundere: Kyoko as well as Takeda
- Victorious Childhood Friend: Kyoko and Takeda, and of course the idea of the trope is mocked by the rest of the team.
- Widget Series
- ↑ Go! Inahō Middle School Ping-Pong Club