This episode did feel a bit all over the place yet the story was still quite solid here. This wasn’t as good as the previous episodes except towards the end there when Peco was getting all fired up. Continuing with the tradition that this series isn’t about the game of pong but life. Very spread out in direction here! We got a nice look at what everyone was up to outside of school. Emphasizing that this show doesn’t have just one or two main cast members but that every character is just as equally important to the heart of the story as Tsukimoto, Smile, and Kong. I did not notice how quickly the seasons were changing. This episode managed to shift the timeframe pretty quickly as it was already christmas by the middle of the episode. That song they used at that point was done so well!

The very beginning gave me the impression I was watching Kemenozume but it was a robot show on TV. Nice detail with that segment! The robots illustrated the fine point that Tsukimoto was dominating the world of pong at the school, which in turn affected Katase High just as much as the Kaio team. Tsukimoto throughout this show has looked down on others yet I really saw a jump in confidence from him this episode when he went running with the coach.

This episode delivered a refreshing take on Peco though. He was the one person this episode that shined. His chat with Sakuma proved that he did not want to give up on Pong all together just needed a venting session which gave rise to him trying to drown in the shallow end of the ocean. Nicely illustrated there! He was at his peak of being pathetic and this drove him into a corner that the player that beat him always looked up to him as Mr. Hero. Just the push he needed to reverting back to who Peco was in the beginning of this series, only with a little more edge this time. I will be curious to see how well Old Lady Obaba will handle re-teaching him how to perfect his skills even further given how he reacts with people.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 8/10

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