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Originally Posted by Jazzrat
Personally, i think it might be him seeing Kazama's performance might have push him over to train seriously for once since last episode, even himself was pretty shocked by Kazama's performance. Eventhough he took care not to wound his opponent's pride in matches back then, he doesn't seem like the type of guy that blames himself for what others do. He didn't even try to stop Peco when Peco wanted to quit ping pong in tantrum after getting dominated by Kong.
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Yes, I also think this is the case. Remember him watching the China vs Dragon match, and then Dragon being all "hey Tsukimoto, your school sucks, come to us and you'll play better!" From how I see it, Smile thought "Dude, what. I could defeat you."
Basically, he's started breaking out of his shell. He gained some competitive spirit, got a taste of "blood", and whether he's aware of this or not, he's started growing some pride and taking control of his own life.
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Originally Posted by SinsI
It still makes it far less believable. Surely Kong knows all the best world players - and if he knew that the strongest player was from Japan he wouldn't belittle Japanese ping pong the way he did.
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Maybe, but this makes things more dramatic, so.
FYI, according to the official site all changes were made after consulting with Matsumoto Taiyou, based on ideas that Matsumoto had while writing the manga, but he never got around adding them to the story. This includes Dragon who will apparently have a larger role in the anime.