The first thing that I want to talk about is how absolutely great the characters are. I changed my best girl a few times as I was watching it and it took me a bit to actually settle on one. Outside of that besides one character whom I dislike due to personal bias everyone else is fantastic. Every single 1 you get it named character is a blast to have on screen at any given moment. Their interactions with one another and just their general portrayal is great. Theyre far and above the strong carrying point for this series. Beyond that the music choice is pretty great. While I didnt notice it as much during the calmer segments the music during the matches really picks up. The series uses some pretty dope EDM style tracks to hype up the games and it works. Theres something strangely appealing about the mix of EDM and something I see as traditionally boring like table tennis. They killed it with that. However my main gripe is how short the matches feel. While I know that it doesnt necessarily fit in with the others I cant help but see it as a sports anime. It tries to build up the hype of each match it tries to give you the tense heartstopping moments. It tries to really portray each person as a valid competitor. In a number of ways it falls short in doing so. The matches typically play out in a fashion where theres a couple of hype moments maybe someone unleashes their traditional sports anime super duper awesome but actually kind of normal technique and then... Its over. The amount of times that theres a good scene of a match something to really get the blood pumping and then we fastforward to the final score or to the final points of the match is annoying. Its frustrating because the series tries its best to get you into the idea of it and then just kills all that hype as it is reaching its climax. If it werent for the characters themselves being fantastic the constant cuts to them and their reactions would be a huge detriment to the series as a whole. I am undoubtedly a little bitter as we never get to revisit this.https://i.ur.com/n6ZkVPN.png That whole introductory scene serves absolutely no purpose except perhaps to introduce an endgame villain that we...never end up seeing again. Id have understood if we get even a tiny shot of her confronting the main characters saying something like ha try and make it to nationals so I can crush you too but we dont get even that. The following scene has the girls fawning over a newspaper article where its like championship team loses hue hue hue and the anime could have just as easily opened up on that scene. I prefer my teases to be tittilating not to induce hype blueballs. One small thing that I was actually largely fond of during the course of the series is...sweat. They seem to put a lot of care into showing wet spots on the characters clothes after a practice or a match. While it doesnt mean much in the grand scheme of things I think it adds a lot of atmosphere. It shows us that the characters are actually working hard that theyre pushing themselves and their bodies striving for something higher and better. Its easily one of the little things that Ive noticed which Id say I appreciate the most. Overall I think theres two different people who could get into this and thered be two different takeaways. If youre the type of person who likes cute girls with a side dose of actual plot Id highly recommend this series. Its enjoyable all the way through with some positively adorable girls. If youre the type of person who likes sports anime with hype boners Id still say that SPPG is worth a shot just prepare to not go into maximum overdrive with the hype as one would with something like Haikyu or Hajime no Ippo.
70 /100
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