Oi! Tonbo: 2024’s Golf Prodigy Story!

There’s always been something special about sports-themed anime. Sports range from the mainstream like baseball and basketball to the fringe like judo, racing, and boxing. Golf, in particular, appears to be rising in popularity among these.

The golfing anime Birdie Wing -Golf Girls Story– has returned for a second season this year. Another sports-themed anime is currently in production.

The front cover of Oi! Tonbo Volume 44 was revealed on Friday at the Kikuya Shoten bookstore (Sendai Branch). The cover proudly proclaims, “The Anime is Set to Premiere in 2024!”

Ken Kawasaki and Yū Furusawa created the manga Oi! Tonbo. Launched in 2014, it was first featured in Golf Digest Sha Co. Ltd.’s golf magazine, Weekly Gold Digest.

A professional golfer is disqualified from competition and the manga follows his journey to redemption. After that, he retires to the remote Tokara Islands and disappears from public view. There, he meets a young lady by the name of Tonbo who displays remarkable golfing ability.

This appears a little closer to the Hollywood classic Happy Gilmore, even though Tonbo seems to be comparable to Eve in Birdie Wing. If the animation is handled properly, this may be a good time at the movies. The timing of those pinpoint shots must be impeccable for us to keep up.

Oi! Tonbo

Written by Ken Kawasaki and illustrated by Yuu Furusawa, Oi! Tonbo is a popular manga series. Launched in August 2024, it was distributed initially by Golf Digest Sha Co., Ltd.’s Weekly Gold Digest.

An incident causes professional golfer Igarashi to be disqualified from the tournament. He retires from public life and sets up house on the Tokara Islands in Kagoshima. Tonbo, a naive girl he meets, surprisingly displays exceptional golfing ability.

The islands are the last uncharted wilderness in Japan, and he finds out that they also feature a makeshift golf course. Tonbo’s ability to play every hole with a 3-iron leaves Igarashi both amazed and skeptical.