This season of Ooi! Tonbo is clicking for me to a surprising degree. On the whole I’d place it just a hair behind the first, just because Season 1 was so much more unconventional. But it’s pretty notable how little the show has lost. As a traditional sports anime this is working a treat. The focus is more on the sports now but the personal side has still staked out a role. Up til now that’s been largely through satellite characters (Hitomi, Shima-san). But now that Tonbo is facing some adversity on the course – and taking it with her off it – that’s about to level up.

One of the really fun things about this season is watching “normal” golfers watch Tonbo. Just try and take her in. I imagine it was probably something like that when Seve first starting playing competitive golf as a junior in Spain. Whatever analogy they use – Ema-san said she plays like a little child this week, and Tsubura noted how her fearlessness was both her strength and weakness – she’s like nothing they’ve ever encountered. The marshal raves about how Tonbo celebrates her rivals’ good shots as much as her own. She tries stuff no sane golfer would try (like that 90 degree hook she pulled). Tsubura has the most exposure here, and even she’s taken aback.

But, you know, on some level they’re all enjoying it. How can you love golf and not enjoy someone like that? Of course the question of whether Hinoki does love golf is part of the story here. That’s not true of the other three, to be sure. One of the fascinating things about this foursome is how different they all are in style. Tsubura is all measure and restraint (including her three-quarter swing). Everything is about limiting stress and opportunities to screw up. Hinoki is a “beautiful” golfer, a classic swinger who plays the classic way. And Ema is a unicorn, taking what’s been given her and trying to manufacture a golfer out of it (with a lot of success, obviously).

Tonbo does struggle this day. The ladybug on the first hole made the others laugh, but Tonbo’s decision not to step back and restart her routine was, in a word, nuts. Then that sprinkler which ruined her Seve special over the bunker. And she has the ball move on her not once, but twice. That’s dumb, but you can at least chalk it up to inexperience. Hinoki has no such excuses – and trying to move a pine needle under her ball is just inexcusably risky. Even more inexcusable is her decision not to announce it and take her penalty stroke. Did it effect the next shot? No – obviously those few millimeters didn’t matter – but that’s not the point. Golf is played on the honor system, and cheating is cheating. Now, if she gets found out (even by confessing), Hinoki will (deservedly) be DQ’d for signing an incorrect scorecard.

For Tonbo, it’s a rough day. She winds up shooting a 77, 10 strokes off her opening round pace. That includes the two penalty strokes of course but still, that’s her inexperience showing. We don’t know where that places her in relation to her playing partners (and everyone else) but judging by how they were going along when we had our eyes on them, it seems a safe bet they all broke par for the day. Of course with the baggage Hinoki is going to be carrying around after doing what she did, who knows how she came out of the round mentally.

I can only say that Tonbo’s reaction when she heard Igarashi-san would be returning to Kagoshima was beyond adorable. It’s hard to know exactly how she feels about Igaiga – Gon-ji has filled in a parental role but he’s too far removed to seem like a father, and Tonbo was old enough (though she didn’t look it) when Igaiga arrived to develop a puppy crush on him. He’s her golf mentor too, of course. Whatever it is, it’s definitely love – and definitely mutual. And her concern that he’d be less happy to see her after she had a bad round couldn’t be more absurd. She’s never needed him more than now, and her going to the station to meet him – and how she acted when she saw him – said that loud and clear. Whatever happens in the final round it’s great that Igaiga will be there to lean on.