yep

>>133915661
i had been waiting to finish this for almost a year, to save for when i wanted to kill myself, and since /a/ doesn't talk about good anime I had been save until now.

fuck you

china got the best ending

high school tournaments mean nothing

I don't believe he did. The smiles in the photo were smiles of two players who played their best.

>>133915743
Unless ping pong is your reason to life

>>133915661
No.
The entire show, Smile was disappointed that his hero, Peco, had become weak. When Peco finally became strong enough to properly defeat Smile despite Peco's injuries, that made Smile happy that his hero was back.

>>133915814
But don't you see the parallel between butterfly joe and his friend? Joe threw their match, and his friend with the injured knee went on to ping pong greatness while he fizzled out. Granted, Smile was only playing to pass time until he died, but he genuinely liked the sport.

>>133915941
Of course. But Smile was rejecting that parallel. Letting Peco win would not have brought his hero back. Peco is the hero only because he is the strongest, and because he fought against all odds to win. Peco and Smile were in the exact same position as Butterfly Joe and Kazama, yet the outcome was entirely different. That was the whole point of the parallel.

>>133916060
I suppose that does make sense

>>133915941
That was a red herring. It makes you think that it's going to be a history repeats itself ending but it's not.

>>133916060
Never thought about it that way anon. Thanks for the input