Tonbo! (オーイ! とんぼ, Ōi! Tonbo, "Hey! Tonbo") is a Japanese manga series written by Ken Kawasaki and illustrated by Yū Furusawa [ja]. It has been serialized in Golf Digest's golfing magazine Weekly Golf Digest [ja] since August 2014. An anime television series adaptation produced by OLM aired from April to June 2024. A second season premiered in October of the same year.
By November 2024, Tonbo! had over 2.2 million copies in circulation.
Plot
The series is set in the fictional Hinoshima Island in the Tokara Islands (based on Nakanoshima).[1] A retired golfer, Kazuyoshi Igarashi, arrives there and finds Tonbo Ōi, a high school girl with a talent for golf.[2]
Written by Ken Kawasaki and illustrated by Yū Furusawa [ja], Tonbo! started in Golf Digest's golfing magazine Weekly Golf Digest [ja] on August 4, 2014.[6][7] Golf Digest has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first two volumes were released on May 30, 2016.[8] As of November 1, 2024, 53 volumes have been released.[9]
Anime
In May 2023, an anime television series adaptation was announced.[10] It is animated by OLM (with CG provided by SMDE) and directed by Oh Jin-koo, with Mitsutaka Hirota writing series scripts, Akira Takeuchi designing the characters, Keita Hattori directing the 3DCG, and Nobuko Toda [ja] composing the music.[3] The series aired from April 6 to June 29, 2024, on TV Tokyo.[11][12][13] The opening theme song is "Habatake" (羽ばたけ, "Spread Your Wings"), performed by Sacra e sole, while the ending theme song is "Let's Swing", performed by Tokyo Groove Jyoshi.[3]
After the airing of the final episode of the first season, it was announced that the series would receive a second season, which premiered on October 4 of the same year.[14][5] For the second season, the opening theme song is "Seven Pieces", performed by Sacra e sole, while the ending theme song is "Kachitaku Natchatta ne" (勝ちたくなっちゃったね, "It's Time to Win"), performed by Tokyo Groove Jyoshi.[5]
Remow licensed the series for streaming on its It's Anime YouTube channel.[15] The company also streamed the first season of the series on Amazon Prime Video with an English dub, releasing it simultaneously as it aired in Japan.[16] The second season was added to the platform as well.[17]
In 2023, Miki City, known as the "City of Golf" due to its large number of golf courses, in collaboration with the manga, offered golf balls with Tonbo design printed on them as tax return gifts, to promote the sport in the city and to contribute to its financial reconstruction.[22]
Reception
Manga
By June 2023, the manga had over 1.55 million copies in circulation (including digital copies);[22] by November 2024, it had over 2.2 million copies in circulation (including digital copies).[23] The manga placed third in Rakuten Kobo's second E-book Award in the "Long Seller Comic" category in 2024.[24]
Anime
Anime News Network (ANN) had four editors review the first episode of the anime:[25] Richard Eisenbeis wrote: "Do I think this series will be some kind of breakout hit? No, but I was entertained enough to come back for another episode next week." Rebecca Silverman felt it did "an excellent job of establishing its setting" and using the island's "casual golf culture" to display Igarashi's "presumptive past golf-related trauma", but was critical of Tonbo being portrayed more as a "non-character than a person" during her debut. She felt the series needed another episode for its plot and characters to get going, concluding that: "Don't go into this expecting Birdie Wing, but I think it might fit the bill if you're looking for a low-key sports series this spring." Nicholas Dupree was critical of the leads not being either "engaging or interesting" to entice viewers and felt the overall production had the "hallmarks of a long-running show with modest resources and modest-er vision", giving note of the "inconsistent, flat character art and a good amount of reused footage" throughout the runtime. He concluded that "nothing here is bad or doomed from the outset. This could be a slow starter that gets more engaging as we develop the characters or let the cast gel cohesively. If you're looking for a family-friendly sports show, this fits the bill just fine, even if it doesn't excel at anything." The fourth reviewer, James Beckett, criticized the "stale characters" and the overall visuals coming across like "three people animated it on a budget of loose change and broken dreams", saying "the end product is so stiff and lifeless that I felt like I may as well have just been looking at the manga anyway, except with more color and an annoying soundtrack that I didn't ask for."[25]
Fellow ANN editor Jairus Taylor reviewed the complete anime series and gave it a D+ grade, criticizing the slow start to the overall plot, the "overly technical" and "more realistic approach" to displaying golf, the lack of a supporting cast and OLM's "acceptable, if largely unimpressive" production failing to elevate the golfing scenes, concluding that: "[T]here's no real reason I can think of to go out of the way to watch this one, and with how little it has to offer as a sports drama, you're probably better off watching an actual golf match instead."[26]
^Ohkawa, Takashi (June 17, 2016). 「オーイ！ とんぼ」の聖地巡礼。"トカラ列島"はこんなとこ！. Thumbs Up Golf (in Japanese). Golf Digest. Archived from the original on June 9, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
