Ping Pong Omnibus

Even at the top, there's always someone better.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I know next –to-nothing about ping pong. Despite not having a frame of reference for the manga's main theme, I never really felt like I was at a disadvantage when reading this manga. In typical Japanese sports manga fashion, all of the action is dialed up to 11, and I was surprised at how engaging this over-the-top presentation made ping pong. You're introduced to Makoto Tsukimoto (“Smile”) and his friend Yutaka Hoshino (“Peco”) early on, and through them are introduced to the wild ride of intramural ping pong tournaments. I especially liked how “noisy” this manga was, lots of onomatopoeia in the form of shoes squeaking, balls hitting paddles, and crowd noises all worked together to really put you there.

My only real complaint about this manga was the art style. It's very stark, very gritty, lots of dark contrast with light. I typically like more free-flowing lines and manga-esque style and shading, which you won't find here. That said, the story was more than enough to carry me through all 500(!) pages of this first volume despite my personal art style hangup.