PING PONG THE ANIMATION

Spring. The Hatase High school gymnasium. Table tennis club adviser Koizumi Jo notices a cut-man with glasses on the team. He is one of the up-and-comers who joined the team this year, Tsukimoto Makoto (Smile). Meanwhile, the other up-and-comer Hoshino Yutaka (Peco) is swindling a man at Obaba's Tamura Table Tennis Hall.

Peco is shocked when he gets skunked by "China" a.k.a. Kong Wenge. Meanwhile, Koizumi tells Smile not to play with Peco anymore. Koizumi instructs Smile to overcome his lack of competitive spirit by the Inter High.

The Inter-High preliminaries begin as though swallowing the hopes of every player. If Peco defeats his noisy quarterfinal opponent, he'll remain in the top 4 and advance to nationals. Peco's quarterfinal opponent is Sakuma AKA "Akuma".

Smile loses his match against Smile. After watching the game, Koizumi expresses his rage, saying, "A guy who doesn't even want to win shouldn't treat the game like a joke!" Seeing his fury, Obaba asks Koizumi if Smile reminds him of himself 50 years ago.

After winning the Inter-High, Dragon goes on to win the Junior Olympics singles, and makes his triumphant return. At a press conference after his return, Dragon clearly states Kaio's need for players on Tsukimoto's level. Dragon's statement creates subtle waves in the Kaio Academy team.

Having quit table tennis, Peco hangs around Tamura Table Tennis Hall eating snacks. Meanwhile, Smile polishes his skills with Koizumi in order to win, causing discord between himself and his teammates.