Ping Pong is a Japanese coming-of-age manga series written and illustrated by Taiyo Matsumoto.

The manga was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1996 to 1997. It’s chapters are compiled and published into 5 separate volumes. In 2021, the manga was nominated for the Eisner Award and the anime series received the Grand Prize at the Tokyo Anime Awards Festival.

An anime television series adapted by Tatsunoko Production was released in 2014, consisting of 11 episodes.

The story begins with introducing Tsukimoto Makoto, alias “Smile”. His classmates are nagging him to bring his friend, Hoshino, alias “Peko,” to ping pong practice, but Smile insists it's not his concern if Peko doesn't show up.

We cut to a scene of Peko loitering around at his Grandma’s ping pong club. His grandma tells him to stop wasting time and attend school, but Peko refuses, claiming that he is going to become the finest ping pong player in the world and that education will be useless to him.

We return to the scene of Smile practicing ping pong at the school ping pong club. When the coach asks a student about Peko, he discovers that he is absent. Despite his failure to attend practice, the coach is unable to discipline Peko as he is the school's greatest player. He easily outperforms Smile.

Back at his grandmother's club, Peko accepts a wager from a stranger to beat him at ping pong. The game begins, and Peko has a massive skill advantage over the new kid, and is dominating him. Smile arrives at the club as the match is underway.

Peko’s grandmother inquires Smile about the situation at the school ping pong club. She tells Smile to avoid those small school clubs and to step out of Peko's shadow in order to reveal his genuine ability.

Smile tells her that she was overestimating him and that he feels embarrassed by the comparison between him and Peko. Meanwhile, Peko won his game with a remarkable lead.

After witnessing Peko’s match, his grandmother asks Smile to become an instructor for the Kabou at her club. Smile denies the offer, claiming that he cannot effectively educate others and that he doesn’t like children.

Peko jumps at this offer to make money, saying that he could do it in place of Smile. His grandmother, on the other hand, chastises him, claiming that an offensive player like him couldn’t teach the Kabou properly.

Smile exits the club, advising Peko to attend the school practice session. He claims that he came solely to give this message and not to play.

After Smile leaves, Peko reminisces about his childhood, when he used to play together with Smile. But now things have changed, he says to his grandma. He claims that they are no longer kids anymore.

In the closing scene, we see Smile humming to himself, as he walks through the city, clutching his ping pong paddle.

What is Smile thinking, and how will he overcome the talent gap between himself and Peko?