I think it’s safe to say that we haven’t got as much AniManga content that speaks to the inner sport in us, especially when you see that niche sports like golf hasn’t nearly surfaced as much. From Bandai Namco’s series of Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story, to the upcoming Sorairo Utility for the Winter 2025 season, we need to look back at how much of a particular series, that a decent following in Japan has, that literally no one outside of the Land of the Rising Sun has ever seen before. Of course, I’m talking about mangaka Ken Kawasaki’s Ooi! Tonbo, the massive juggernaut of a 50+ volume series that already has the set-up prequel back in Spring earlier this year.
With Season 2, Tonbo growing up, both out of her comfort zone and into the world of professional golf, with the former pro golfer of Kazuyoshi “IgaIga” Igarashi to expand her horizons out of Tokara in the Toshima Islands into Kumamoto, this is only but the starting point for Tonbo to manage more than just her trusty 3-Iron club and hand-me-downs from other people whom they deem will find much usage out of the growing spectacularism of the girl who can find shots by instinct, though much of it is on the basis of just having fun, competition or otherwise. And the biggest challenge moving out of her home, is to get her affiliated with coaches that could help train her upstage herself in the world of professional golf, as is the case with one that Igarashi knows: Hajime Udo. The long line of succession golf players who’ve achieved various accolades of their own, comes with yet another rising star: Hinoki Otowa, whose family is the epitome of your typical Asian family where achievements must start from young and cultivate from there.
Aside from Tsubura Adaniya (which was seen competing against Tonbo in Season 1) being yet another prestigious winner of her own regard, there’s the older golfer of the 4 girls: Ema Kurisu, also another accolade winner, but with a condition that strikes at the very heart of what she loves to do, that would decide their success going into the first tournament arc of the series: the Kyushu Women’s Open. All the golfers, the 4 standout girls included, who are winners of various golfing tournaments (except Tonbo), vy for one more glory to add to their growing career list, and will test each of their strengths, weaknesses, and abilities to foreshadow and foresee how the course dynamics will go, with practice that makes perfect. And that shows thoroughly in Season 2, where the set-up of the decent Season 1 pays off to become a show that’s just as enjoyable as it is thrilling to see what Tonbo comes up with her trusty unorthodox methods of golfing that keeps on surprising even the heavyweights going into the competition.
Otherwise, everything I’ve said about Season 1 can be applied here, from OLM’s minimalist animation to the OST, which has since been an improvement, though a few tidbits here and there. The theme songs, again from both Sacra e sole and Tokyo Groove Jyoshi, on the other hand, is a significant downgrade compared to the prequel.
If you’ve been pandering on the side to want to try out Ooi! Tonbo, now’s the perfect time to do so. Season 1 may be a hard sell, but Season 2 creates the perfect foil for a show that gets better progressively with time.
This could easily be a series worth the long run with the humongous amount of content from the now-54 volumes of the manga, though I would just bet to see more whenever future seasons of the show would drop to continue this epic journey of a girl who doesn’t play by the standard but yet excels with her very best.
