Originally scheduled for release this week on the UK, Anime Limited delayed to an unspecified date their Ping Pon the Animation release. It was set earlier this month for just sometime in the first quarter 2016. That’s now been cleared up a bit as the series is scheduled for a January 11th, 2016 release with more details to come soon as apparently they’re going to add a little something extra to it in order to “make it up to the fans” for the delay.
The series is based on the manga that ran for five volumes between 1996 and 1997. The original manga came from Taiyou Matsumoto, which spawned a 2002 live action film as well, and Tatsunoko Productions brought this anime form in the spring of 2014 with Masaaki Yuasa directing it. FUNimation dubbed and released the show in North America.
The English language adaptation is directed by Christopher Bevins and stars:
Yutaka Hoshino/Peco – Aaron Dismuke
Makoto Tsukimoto/Smile – Micah Solusod
Jo Koizumi/Butterfly Joe – Mark Stoddard
Ryuichi Kazama/Dragon – Marcus D. Stimac
Manabu Sakuma/Demon- Anthony Bowling
Kong Wenge/China – Alan Chow
Ota – Tyson Rinehart
Masayuki Sanada – Ian Sinclair
Shuji Nekota – Clifford Chapin
Yurie – Lindsay Seidel
Egami – Eric Vale
Michio – Jeremy Inman
Plot concept: Smile and Peco. Peco and Smile. Besties from the beginning, both with a badass backhand. Peco is known for his arrogance on the table tennis court, and Smile for his silence. But with a new school year and a new high school table tennis team, both boys are in for a challenge, on – and off – the court.
Peco’s slacker ways are hurting his game, and after getting crushed in a tournament, he decides to quit. Smile is finally learning to harness his natural talents, but can he squash his sympathy for his opponents enough to beat them?
