You would be hard-pressed to seek out an anime that is extra ignored within the English-speaking world than Ewe Tonbo. So many strikes… It is a sports activities anime, which causes issues at first. It is golf (the manga was printed in a golf journal). It would not have superpowers or “Starvation Video games” ripoffs. There are not any bishounen and though the heroine is a cute woman, she shouldn’t be sexualized. It is not too shocking that not one of the main streamers picked it up, as it will most likely have been virtually as ignored if that they had.
But right here we’re, in a season stuffed with bubble collection, and Ewe Tonbo is the primary non-sequel I am confirming. If the factors have been totally different, it will be the form of present I’d simply watch – these posts will go largely unread. However typically it’s important to do one thing for your self, particularly in case you put within the hours that I do. They’re extra enjoyable running a blog packages that I like, that is a given. From time to time a collection I write for my very own satisfaction finally ends up constructing an area following right here, like Ginga and kick-off. This isn’t the case Loopy – that collection was on one other degree, however it’s nonetheless probably the most entertaining entries of the season up to now.
The geeky golf stuff right here is actually enjoyable for me, however we’re additionally beginning to unpack Igaiga’s story a bit. He is beginning to let his guard down a bit, just like the skilled means he mows the greens on the course (which is much more advanced than non-golfers think about). Tonbo can also be bragging to the others about how good a golfer he’s, and after they all inevitably play a spherical, he realizes he’d higher do some sandbagging or their suspicions can be aroused. He does so (he lifts a finger from the bat throughout his drive), however Tonbo shouldn’t be fooled for a second.
Understandably, Igaiga turns into more and more fascinated by this wild baby who works wonders with a golf ball purely by intuition. Her grip, her swing aircraft, the clubface – she’s all the time adjusting one thing to compensate for the truth that she solely has the one membership. However there’s solely so many issues you are able to do with a 3-iron, and there is not a lot you are able to do – like goal straight for the pin on a brief strategy over a bunker from a sand-filled grass area. He desperately needs to see her hit a wedge – the membership with which a real golfer can work magic. However Tonbo simply is not – even after seeing him execute that strategy from the divot.
Igaiga’s ultimate trick – changing the torn grip on the three with a model new one and putting her outdated grip on a 58-degree wedge – is intelligent (if a bit presumptuous). However there’s extra to this story: the wedge he used belonged to his son Rintaro (Hatanaka Tasuku). Igaiga wasn’t precisely the daddy of the yr, let’s put it that means. I believed it was the difficulty on the courtroom (possibly the yips) that drove him into self-exile, however it looks as if these bother on the courtroom seeped into his private life, and that will have been the true cause he fled. He actually appears to have destroyed his son’s love for the sport, and positively regrets it.
I am fairly conflicted about what we see taking place after that reveal. On the one hand, it is nice to see how the bond between Tonbo and Igaiga continues to deepen – a bond that they each get one thing out of. Tonbo restores Igaiga’s personal love for golf, and he even says she’s the primary “good friend” he is ever had on the course (which is definitely fairly unhappy). Alternatively, that should not be a substitute or perhaps a proxy for making issues proper with Rintaro – who’s the one who has actually been wronged right here. It will be good if Igaiga did not overlook that, and the place his actual obligations lie.
All these difficult issues that Igaiga reveals Tonbo with the wedge are proof of his newfound sense of enjoyable. And it is clear she’s entranced by all of it, however there is a methodology to his insanity. That two-ball trick is an actual studying instrument, however even right here she finds a technique to outsmart the problem, Tonbo model, not by the guide. Golf certainly has an insane variety of guidelines and theories about method. However she will just do fantastic with out it. But Tonbo refuses to entertain the concept of being an expert – and returns to her obsession with by no means leaving Hinoshima. There isn’t any technique to spend cash on that anyway, so why would she attempt to get wealthy by changing into an expert golfer?
This truly jogs my memory of immediately’s baseball manga Diamond no Kouzai (Days of diamond) – and this subject is mentioned within the episode ‘My style is healthier than yours’ that talks about it. If somebody is a genius at one thing, does that imply she or he has an obligation to carry out at that degree? Is it unsuitable for Tonbo to ‘waste’ her expertise by hitting the ball round on her small residence courtroom when she has the potential to compete on the highest degree? Why is she comfortable the best way she is? These are usually not straightforward inquiries to reply, and I think this is among the themes Ewe Tonbo asks us to assume.
