Ping-Pong Club

Ping-Pong Club (行け!稲中卓球部) is a Japanese manga by Minoru Furuya about the members of a middle school ping-pong club. It was adapted as an anime television series in 1995. In 1996, the manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga. . The anime series was released in the U.S. by Central Park Media. Some episodes were first released on VHS in 2001, but it was never fully released on VHS. Later that year it was released completely on DVD in individual volumes, with both an English dub and the original audio track with subtitles. In 2002 was also re-released as a box set.

Characters

 * Maeno
 * Somewhat the 'leader' of the Ping Pong Club. He has a strange demeanor and enjoys any conversation or subject involving his glorious 'ass', of which he is very proud. Contrary to the belief that his strange and perverted attitude would repel girls, it actually attracts them (as well as his good friend Izawa).


 * Hiromi Izawa
 * Izawa's strange hairstyle is constantly the 'butt' of many a joke in the series. He is a kind and caring person, although quite perverted at times, and he lives his life by the laws of chivalry. He is a huge boxing fan and wears his shoulder length hair in the style of Joe Boxer from the popular manga Ashita no Joe. He and Maeno constantly play little games in which Izawa almost always acts as the woman, be it a mother, child, or love interest. His relationship with Maeno can be debated. He is pretty much Maeno's very close friend but he has a very strange adversity to Maeno's getting a girlfriend and he even went so far as to dress up as a woman to repel Maeno's soon-to-be lover. He is also the only one in the show who has freckles.


 * Takeda
 * One of Ping Pong Clubs two 'pretty boys'. Takeda has a bowl haircut with short bangs, and he is also the crush of female character Kiyoko. He even has a whole episode devoted to him fondling her breasts (in which Maeno, Izawa, and Tanaka are all hiding naked in a locker).


 * Yūsuke Kinoshita
 * The quintessential 'pretty boy' out of the two in Ping Pong Club. He, like Izawa, has hair down to his shoulders and is the most popular and cool guy in the whole school, constantly having girls chase after him. In one episode however, Maeno and Izawa dress him like a girl and it's now Tanaka who's chasing after him. In the English dub of the series, Kinoshita is shown as having a slacker 'surfer-boy' accent.


 * Tanaka
 * A tiny little pervert coming from a long line of 'Panty Masters'. Under his clothes, he has a very shapely feminine body that is mistaken for that of a girl's from the back in an episode. He is constantly tricked into playing along with Maeno and Izawa's schemes. He also constantly refers to girls he likes as 'Mommy'.


 * Mitchell Gorō Tanabe
 * The token American of the series. Hairy, blond, and blue-eyed, Tanabe is always looking out for people in trouble and for ways to help his good friend, Tanaka. He is known for his exponential stench and bad B.O. The only thing that has been able to destroy his horrible smell is pool disinfectant.


 * Kyōko
 * She's a tough-as-nails, and landed the managerial job because the principal of the school hoped it would be a way to keep her out of trouble. She barely tolerates the antics of the room of adolescent boys trying constantly to get in her panties. In the episode "the Burning Spirit," she proves to have incredible motivational skills for the boys when she offers a "sex pass" to the best player on the team: "The holder of this pass can do anything they want with my body for a month!" The offer powers the below mediocre team into the city finals.


 * Chiyoko Kamiya
 * Shows up in later episodes as a shy girl who has a crush on Kinoshita, and figures if she can improve her ping pong skills, she'll catch his eye. A good plan, but her mistake is going to nerdy freak Izawa to unquestioningly enlist him as her ping pong sensei. Izawa's fondest dream is to have a beautiful girl that obeys his every word, and not abusing his new-found position of power proves to be impossible.

Anime
The episodes in Ping-Pong Club are actually split into 12-14 minute segments, combined together to form a typical 25 minute single episode. Seeing that there are 26 full episodes, when in fact all are split to a total of 52 episodes released on 5 DVDs.

Changes for North American release
When localizing the Anime for release in North America, Software Sculptors neglected to follow the 52-Episode numbering, deciding instead not to count the five two-part episodes as two separate episodes. Their official episode count on the DVDs is instead 47. Also, volumes in the series have had name changes when re-released, with Discs 4 and 5 in the series being renamed from "Ping Pong Club - Goes for Broke" and "Ping Pong Club - Assorted Shorts" to " Ping Pong Club - Goes Too Far" and "Ping Pong Club - Rots in Hell".

List of Episode Titles
Disc 1: Make Way for the Ping Pong Club

1. School Boys/Evil Plot

2. Half-Baked/The Worms

3. Maeno Germ/Seductive Snob

4. The Purchase/Hot Summer

Disc 2: Love & Comedy (Die! Die! Die!)

5. Training Camp/Curse of Takeda

6. Sixty Years/Burning Spirit

7. Inachu Vs./Sex Ticket

8. Love & Comedy/Love & Comedy Part II

Disc 3: Ping Pong Club Goes For Broke/Goes Too Far

9. First Love/Loser's Community

10. Dress-Up Dolls/Ultra Tanabe

11. Winning the Lottery! Part 1/Winning the Lottery! Part 2

12. Shibazaki's Plan/Survival

Disc 4: Ping Pong Club Losers' Club

13. Friendship/Tsutomu

14. Saturday Hare/The Wimp

15. The Outcast/Shorty

16. Dr. Maeno Part I/Dr. Maeno Part II

17. Find Happiness/Sheds His Skin

18. Partner? Part I/Partner? Part II

19. The Unfortunates/May I Have It?

Disc 5: Ping Pong Club Assorted Shorts/Rots In Hell

20. A River/Retirement

21. Loan King/Flaming Perverts

22. The Invasion/Into the Big Sky

23. I've Got Guts/A Dramatic Photo!

24. Fake Drunkard/Takeda Fondles

25. Wanted Part I/Wanted Part II

26. Dandy Principal/The Drifters

Trivia

 * The characters Maeno and Izawa often play a game called "Lupin and Fujiko", where one of them dresses as Fujiko Mine whilst the other dresses as Lupin the 3rd and gropes the other. This is a clear parody/reference to the anime Lupin the 3rd.


 * Izawa starts the anime with heavily gelled hair and is often seen sporting a style similar to that seen in Ashita no Joe.


 * Maeno does the Bruce Lee warming-up from "Way Of The Dragon" in episode 22.