Scorching Ping Pong Girls

Suzumegahara Municipal Junior High

Koyori Tsumujikaze (旋風 こより, Tsumujikaze Koyori)

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori A shy transfer student who joins Suzumegahara's table tennis club. She loves table tennis and was a prefectural semifinalist in her previous school.

Agari Kamiya (上矢 あがり, Kamiya Agari)

Voiced by: Minami Tanaka A second year in the table tennis club and the ace prior to Koyori joining the club.

Hanabi Tenka (天下 ハナビ, Tenka Hanabi)

Voiced by: Marika Kōno A second year table tennis club member who is classmates with Koyori and Agari. She is an energetic girl who possesses an offensive playstyle involving fast returns.

Hokuto Itsumo (出雲 ほくと, Itsumo Hokuto)

Voiced by: Yūki Kuwahara A second year table tennis club member who is friends with Hanabi. She generally uses a calculative playstyle, allowing her to manipulate how her opponents hit the ball, and can guess what type of underwear someone is wearing from their paddle. Her family runs a table tennis specialist store.

Mune Ōmune (大宗 夢音, Ōmune Mune)

Voiced by: Ayaka Imamura A third year and the vice-captain of the table tennis club. Nicknamed Munemune (ムネムネ) due to her ample breasts.

Kiruka Ushirode (後手 キルカ, Ushirode Kiruka)

Voiced by: Hisako Tōjō A third year and the captain of the table tennis club. She generally uses a playstyle that involves a backspin chop that forces her opponent to make errors when returning shots, and enjoys imposing penalties on her clubmates during practice.

Mozuyama Junior High

Kururi Futamaru (二重丸 くるり, Futamaru Kuriri)

Voiced by: Shiori Izawa A third year and the vice-captain of the table tennis club. She's the ace of the club, and along with Zakuro, lead their team to the Nationals. She has a pension for using the word "death" when speaking, and has a crush on Zakuro. She uses a playstyle that involves a curve drive that forces her opponents to return shots that miss the table and turn to the left.

Zakuro Zashikiwarashi (座敷童 石榴, Zashikiwarashi Zakuro)

Voiced by: Nozomi Furuki A third year and captain of the table tennis club. She started playing after witnessing Kururi defeating all of the seniors in their team and became inspired to play like her. She has a tendency to be clumsy and act like a klutz when speaking.

Sachiko Sasorida (蠍田 幸子, Sasorida Sachiko)

Voiced by: Rika Tachibana A second year table tennis club member who sees herself as the future captain but feel underappreciated by her teammates. She uses an off-rhythm playstyle that throws her opponents off from their usual playstyle.

Yura Yuragi (由良木 ゆら, Yuragi Yura)

Voiced by: Yoshino Aoyama A second year table tennis club member who's nicknamed Pendulum (振り子), due to her playstyle of forcing her opponents into rallies that drain their stamina and predicting what shots they'll deliver.

Mayuu Kanenashi (鐘梨 まゆう, Kanenashi Mayū)

Voiced by: Ayumi Takeo A second year table tennis club member who is friends with Kimiko.

Kimiko Hamu (羽無 公子, Hamu Kimiko)

Voiced by: Yuka Ōtsubo A second year table tennis club member who is friends with Kanenashi. Nicknamed Nom-Nom (名ノミ) due to her constant chowing down of food in her mouth.

Tsumebame Girl's Academy

Kumami Tsukinowa (月ノ輪 紅真深, Tsukinowa Kumami)

Voiced by: Reina Ueda A second year who was formerly part of Suzemegahara's table tennis club, before transferring to Tsumebame after being enticed by their captain. On the day she left, Agari asked her to play one match with her before leaving but refused. She has a talent for ventriloquism that involves talking with her hairpin she calls Kumanosuke.

Manga

Asano's manga series began its serialization in 2013 in the Jump SQ.19 magazine published by Shueisha, until it switched to the Tonari no Young Jump online platform in 2015 after the end of Jump SQ.19's publication. Between March 4, 2015 and April 4, 2016, the series has been compiled in three tankōbon volumes.

Anime

A television anime adaptation of the series was announced in March 2016. The anime is produced by Kinema Citrus, directed by Yasuhiro Irie and written by Hideyuki Kurata, featuring character designs by Junko Sugimura and music by MONACA. The series aired on TV Tokyo between October 3, 2016 and December 19, 2016 and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. The opening theme is "Shakunetsu Switch" (灼熱スイッチ, Shakunetsu Suicchi, lit. "Scorching Switch) by Suzumegahara Chūgaku Takkyū-bu (Yumiri Hanamori, Minami Tanaka, Marika Kōno, Yūki Kuwahara, Ayaka Imamura, and Hisako Tōjō), while the ending theme is "Bokura no Frontier" (僕らのフロンティア, Bokura no Furontia, lit "Our Frontier") by Wake Up, Girls!. The anime will be released across six Blu-ray & DVD volumes.

Critical reception

Anime News Network had four editors review the first episode of the anime: Theron Martin said that despite the bland production, workmanlike animation and typical moe designs, he commended the show's writing for its charming humor and moe elements, and leaving enough room for character development between its two main leads; Nick Creamer was initially unimpressed by the show's aesthetics in the opening scenes and described it as "meaningless club activities plus clumsy fanservice", but was hooked by the conflict setup between Agari and Koyori's differing viewpoints on playing table tennis and its adequate delivery of a sports narrative; Paul Jensen found the series conflicted with its jumbling of both school comedy and sports elements and preferred that it went with the latter genre to focus on both table tennis and the Agari-Koyori relationship. The fourth reviewer, Rebecca Silverman, criticized the art direction and character designs for being generic and annoyingly simplistic, and the animation of the ping pong scenes for lacking excitement for the viewers. Silverman added that the series has potential by putting its focus more on both the explanation of ping pong and Agari's conundrum of wanting to excel at the sport while wanting to have friends, concluding with, "So right now this episode stands with as a big question – will it learn to balance its elements? Will the sports drama win out, or will the moe? I'm not sure it's worth finding out."