Although Taiyo Matsumoto desired a career as a professional soccerplayer at first, he eventually chose an artistic profession. He gained his first success through the Comic Open contest, held by the magazine Comic Morning, which allowed him to make his professional debut. He started out with 'Straight', a comic about basketball players. Sports remain his main influence in his next comic, 'Zéro', a story about a boxer.
In 1993 Matsumoto started the 'Tekkonkinkurito' trilogy in Big Spirits magazine, which was even adapted to a theatre play. He continued his comics exploits with several short stories for the Comic Aré magazine, which are collected in the book 'Nihon no Kyodai'. Again for Big Spirits, Taiyo Matsumoto started the series 'Ping Pong' in 1996. 'Number Five' followed in 2001, published by Shogakukan.
'Ping Pong Vol. 2' en el que se conoce la historia de Butterfly Joe (el Viejo) y su trágico final, empieza la eliminatoria del torneo de institutos, Smile se enfrenta a sus miedos para cambiar de aires y se sincera de su relación con el ping pong, donde se presenta el partido como un combate mental, psicológico, vemos las amargas derrotas y las dulces victorias del campeonato. Y vemos el enfrentamiento entre Kong y Smile, rivales antagónicos. Y se enfrentan Akuma y Peko, enemigos íntimos. Y también el enfrentamiento entre Kazama contra Kong, dos estilos opuestos. Y conocemos la amarga cara de la derrota y la dura recompensa de la victoria.