There are two issues that I ought to most likely point out right here. The first is that I’m not a lot of a sports activities man. I do not dislike sports activities per se, and I take pleasure in watching soccer and basketball video games from time to time, however maintaining with participant stats and what sorts of methods are simplest has all the time felt like one thing that requires extra time and power than I care to place in, so I’ve been okay with having fun with them from a distance.
The second is that I’m a giant sucker for many sports activities anime. Now, which may sound prefer it contradicts the primary level, however whereas I’ve had a tough time entering into sports activities on the technical degree, I’ve a a lot simpler time getting behind tales about somebody’s journey with a selected sport finally ends up essentially altering their life, or how one can deliver a gaggle of individuals with clashing personalities collectively. Heck, some anime piqued my curiosity in a sport via sheer enthusiasm. As lengthy as a sequence can ship that enthusiasm or have sufficient components to compensate elsewhere, there is no restrict to what sorts of tales could be advised via sports activities. I deliver all this up as a result of whereas Tonbo! is not an outright horrible present, it fails at making golf really feel thrilling. It is likely one of the dullest sports activities anime I’ve ever seen.
The fundamental gist of the story right here is fairly easy. We comply with a person named Igarashi who strikes to the distant Tokara Islands for a recent begin following a scandal that ended his professional golf profession. There, he meets and befriends a mischievous younger woman named Tonbo, who provides him the nickname “Igaiga” and divulges that she has an uncommon degree of expertise for golf. Realizing that she might have a promising profession as a professional golfer, Igaiga tries to persuade her to depart the island for the skin world, however after dropping her dad and mom at a younger age and dwelling together with her grandfather on the island ever since, she has no intention of leaving.
For most sports activities anime, what I simply described right here would most likely play out all through the primary one or two episodes earlier than transferring onto the true meat of the story, however someway, all this performs out over its 13-episode runtime. It’s not the worst set-up for a prologue, however it’s not almost fascinating sufficient of a battle to justify sitting via for that lengthy. It might have been a few third of the size with out dropping a lot of something.
A sluggish begin might work if the present have been good at making golf really feel thrilling (as a lot as you actually can, anyway), however its largest downside is in committing what might be the one gravest sin any sports activities anime can commit: having an absence of excellent rivals for the protagonist to sq. off in opposition to, or on this present’s case, virtually none in any respect. Since a lot of the story right here is about whether or not or not Tonbo will pursue a profession in golf, a lot of the precise {golfing} is her messing round on the island’s course by herself whereas Igaiga provides her recommendation. But since she’s virtually all the time taking part in alone, it is exhausting to get a visible grasp on what precisely units her aside from different golfers. There are solely so many instances the story can cease to touch upon some uncommon method she’s performing earlier than it will get repetitive. The solely time we see her face off in opposition to anybody else for this whole season is when one of many different residents brings her niece Tsubara to the island as a method to assist encourage Tonbo, however even that fails to be fascinating as Tonbo additionally lacks any aggressive spirit and solely begins feeling the need to win after their match ends. It lacks actual stakes and feels barely much less boring than Tonbo’s solo escapades.
What actually drags this down as a sports activities anime, although, is how overly technical it’s. Golf is not probably the most thrilling sport to observe, so sequence like Birdie Wing and Rising Impact compensated by being as flashy and excessive as doable with their presentation (even when stated presentation normally concerned overly elaborate golf programs and {golfing} superpowers). This present goes for a way more practical strategy to golf. There’s nothing inherently flawed with that however stated strategy typically includes each motion Tonbo performs being adopted up by a prolonged rationalization of what made it particular. It’s not precisely exhausting to comply with, and it definitely emulates the sensation of listening to sports activities commentary, however on the subject of truly displaying off what’s thrilling in regards to the sport, I can not consider a worse method to do it. I discovered myself tuning out of it almost each time.
Now, a few of this might be remedied if the present have been compensating for it elsewhere since there are many good sports activities anime the place the game performs second fiddle to character relationships or interpersonal drama (Cross Game or (*1*) are some fairly stable examples). Unfortunately, there is not a lot going for it there, both. Tonbo and Igaiga are the one two characters who get any vital focus, and between them, most of it’s on Tonbo and her discovering the braveness to depart the islands and go into the skin world. While her arc is not precisely horrible, and the present does sufficient to get throughout why she’s so hooked up to the remainder of the islanders, however there’s not sufficient there to stretch it out over all the season. Even once we lastly reached the climax, I used to be extra glad to see it over with than emotional about Tonbo leaving her family and friends behind.
What would not assistance is that, whereas his intentions aren’t malicious, there are factors the place it seems like Igaiga is extra involved with seeing Tonbo stay as much as her potential as an athlete than eager to do what’s in her greatest curiosity. While they’ve an honest sufficient dynamic, this motivation looming overhead makes it exhausting to get behind Igaiga’s provide. Igaiga additionally simply is not all that fascinating, as probably the most we actually get from him past his coaching with Tonbo th his previous as a former professional and the way he was disgraced when one other golfer requested him to repair a match just for the each of them to get caught when Igaiga hesitated to not take a bribe. Aside from that, he is largely simply right here for comedic aid as Tonbo both pulls pranks at his expense, or he fails to know some facet of island life that the others are used to. While fish-out-of-water gags aren’t fully unfunny, there’s solely so many instances you are able to do them earlier than they begin to put on skinny.
We do not get a lot out of the remainder of the island residents as a supporting forged, and whereas they’re all likable sufficient, they largely perform as a part of the background relatively than as precise characters. The one exception is Tonbo’s grandfather, who tries to steer her in the direction of determining how she’s going to handle to stay with out him when he finally passes, however even that is largely an extension of Tonbo’s arc than something that truly units him aside. Beyond that, probably the most we get from the villagers is in the direction of the top of the present when one in all them needs to get married to the island’s nurse, however she’s incapable of getting youngsters, and the 2 of them must put aside their fears of how their relationship could be judged to have a contented life collectively. While I did discover myself getting fairly drawn into this, the truth that it got here close to the top of the present solely made me want it might have had extra facet tales like that with the opposite islanders. The incontrovertible fact that the most effective issues it had on provide had completely nothing to do with golf does converse to how badly this fails at being a compelling sports activities present.
On the technical entrance, the anime’s manufacturing by OLM is suitable, if largely unimpressive. The present by no means dips into wanting outright dangerous however lacks any fascinating visible path or aptitude to assist make any of {the golfing} segments stand out, and it solely serves to tug them additional down on the subject of making golf look thrilling. Some poor subtitle work additionally hinders the present because it lacks subtitles for any of the on-screen textual content, and the interpretation suffers from being a bit overly literal in locations, which often ends in some clunky sentences that may be somewhat powerful to parse.
The tough localization additionally extends to its dub. While just one episode of it’s legally accessible on Tubi, that episode left loads to be desired because it was riddled with awkward pauses, stiff line reads, and performances that typically felt like they have been barely making an attempt to match what a personality was emoting on display screen (that the dub can be fully uncredited additionally would not do a lot to encourage confidence). It’s not precisely unlistenable, however even talking as a man who normally defaults to dubs, there’s most likely not a lot purpose to verify this one out past easy curiosity. Since the remainder of it is not accessible right here within the States for some purpose, it is not even a very good accessibility choice.
I can not fairly say I hated Tonbo!, however I used to be fairly uninterested in it, and in some methods, that makes it extra of a letdown. Nothing about it’s significantly disagreeable, however it fails to promote the enchantment of golf and being an honest sports activities drama normally. Since this season is kind of simply an prolonged prologue, the sequence might get extra thrilling as soon as we see extra of Tonbo’s {golfing} profession. But even when it does enhance, I do not know if it would be value slogging via all this to get there. There’s no actual purpose I can consider to exit of the way in which to observe this one, and with how little it has to supply as a sports activities drama, you are most likely higher off watching an precise golf match as an alternative.
