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Toshio's Song (Japanese:トシオのバラード) is a 1992 Japanese anime sports comedy-drama film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and was the first feature film animated by Oriental Light and Magic (later OLM), it tells the story of a High School senior who gets into Boxing in the hopes of winning prize money for his college tuition and saving his father's buisness from foreclosure.
The title is a parody on the famous Osamu Tezuka manga The Ballad of Tobio. the film was initially released in English in 1995 by The Samuel Goldwyn Company in association with Streamline Pictures, later in 2005 another dub was produced by LIVE Entertainment. much of the team behind the movie would later be better known for their work on the popular Pokémon anime.
Plot[]
Toshio Takerada is a 17-year old senior ready to graduate from his Osaka High School, his father, Ishiro, is a widowed convenience store owner, his wife having died while giving birth to their youngest son, 12-year old Koshi, who tends to be more energetic than his older brother. after his graduation is done and over with, Ishiro is hit with hard news from his father that their business is under threat of foreclosure due to a lack of revenue, which could threaten Toshio from entering college.
Distraught at the thought of potentially entering a life of poverty, Toshio had to find a job, only to receive rejections from various clients (including OLM themselves in a form of meta humor). on the brink of giving up, Koshi sees an ad for a Boxing gym, prompting Toshio to join despite the fact he's not a fan of the sport, with no choice he reluctantly accepts knowing partaking in such a sport is the best way he can earn money. the next morning, he enters the gym and is greeted by various boxers who are more physically built than the scrawnier Toshio, eventually he meets Coach Tsukai. Tsukai is a no-nonsense trainer who is known to have a bad temper and being an alcoholic, when at his most angry his 16-year old daughter Hana comes in to calm him down.
Toshio goes through various unorthodox training methods such as chasing pigs, wrestling with bulls, jogging during rain showers in muddy environments and tempting him with his favorite dishes like Ramen and Hamburgers as rewards, eventually Toshio gains enough strength and is assigned his first match, on a Friday night after his father's shop closes for the night, Toshio sneaks out of the house, but not before Koshi follows and tags along much to his brother's concern. Toshio is up against Hatori Kanzo, a slugger from his hometown in Osaka, Kanzo initially has the upper hand due to Toshio's clumsiness, but eventually in the second round, Toshio launches an uppercut on Kanzo's chin much to his surprise, sending Kanzo down to the floor, resulting Toshio being declared the winner by KO.
Toshio gains 75500 yen from his fight with Kanzo, but not wanting to reveal all this to his father, he stashes it away in his room with Koshi sworn to secrecy. all while making up stories of how Toshio got his bandages, in the meantime, Toshio wins more and more fights (and thus more and more prize money) shown in a montage all while developing a relation with Hana, who eventually starts coming to his matches, rooting for him. meanwhile, Koshi is visiting the gym when he's threatened by one of the boxers, Koshi however manages to beat him by hitting him in the gut, pulverizing him. this was enough to impress a TV Producer who was window watching the whole thing, offering Koshi a deal to appear on a Children's TV show where he would face off against kids his age in the ring, knowing this would help his father's debt, he immediately signs without Toshio's awareness.
On a Thursday night, the day of Koshi's televised matches, Toshio and Hana go on a date while Ishiro is at the bar (they tend to leave Koshi to guard the house whenever they go on errands), and soon they turn on the TV and see Koshi on the screen with other young boxers, much to their surprise and anger, with Toshio concerned this will reveal his secret to his father as well as his safety, despite this, Koshi manages to defeat all of his opponents, eventually going toe to toe with the undefeated Little "American" Joey, the son of a stationed African-American lieutenant G.I. Joey, Koshi knocks Joey out of the ring, winning his title. by the time Koshi comes back home with his prize money, he is greeted to less enthusiasm by his father and brother before going to his room so that Ishiro and Toshio have their "adult" conversation, there Toshio reveals his secret to his father as well as all the money that he stashed from his fights and explaining the reason why he joined, from there they spend the rest of the night not talking to one another.
In Tokyo, undefeated champion Takashi "Gamera" Honda decides pick a local fighter for his exhibition fight after his scheduled opponent got in a car injury, thus making him unable to fight, by pure luck he chooses Toshio, when he gets the memo, he debates with himself before Ishiro comes and tells him "Do this, for me, for you and for Koshi", with enough energy, Toshio trains 24/7 for the big fight set to take place in the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, the day of the fight arrives, Hana, Koshi, Tsukai and the many boxers from the gym are there whilst Ishiro is at the bar watching on the TV, Honda is dressed in Samurai Kimono complete with Geisha women by his side. Taking advantage of his overconfidence, Toshio knocks him down in the first round—the first time Honda has ever been knocked down, Honda starts taking Toshio more seriously for the rest of the fight, yet Toshio keeps fighting on despite his multiple beatings. The fight goes on the full twelve rounds, with both combatants sustaining various injuries. Toshio with hits to the head and a swollen eye. Honda with internal bleeding and a broken chest, struggles to breathe along with his hair turning white from the intensity. in the last minutes of the round, Toshio and Honda deliver a cross counter, knocking both of them out with no chance of getting up, thus ending the fight on a tie.
As both fighters are helped up by their cornermen, Hana and Koshi come into the ring and lock him in an embrace whilst Ishiro shows proudness in his son at the bar along with the other patrons. since it being a tie, Honda is still considered the champion whilst Toshio is given the prize money, finally with enough to cancel his father's foreclosure and fulfill his college tuition, before he could leave, Honda calls out to Toshio, complimenting him for his refusal to give up and calling him "A Damn Good Fighter", from there, Toshio, Koshi and Hana leave the stadium on a freeze frame that dissolves to white.
Cast[]
Original Japanese[]
- Yūji Ueda as Toshio Takerada
- Makoto Tsumura as Hana Kitano
- Katsuji Mori as Ishiro Takerada
- Miki Nagasawa as Koshi Takerada
- Unshō Ishizuka as Coach Tsukai Kitano
- Yuko Kobayashi as Takashi "Gamera" Honda
1995 Streamline dub[]
- Steve Bulen as Toshio Takerada
- Joan-Carol O'Connell as Hana Kitano
- Robert Axelrod as Ishiro Takerada
- Lara Cody as Koshi Takerada
- Michael McConnohie as Coach Tsukai Kitano
- Jeff Winkless as Takashi "Gamera" Honda
2005 LIVE dub[]
- Tony Oliver as Toshio Takerada
- Lia Sargent as Hana Kitano
- Jeff Bennett as Ishiro Takerada
- Spencer Fox as Koshi Takerada
- John DiMaggio as Coach Tsukai Kitano
- Lex Lang as Takashi "Gamera" Honda
Production[]
Takeshi Sudo was a fan of Tezuka's The Ballad of Tobio and the movie Rocky growing up and wanted to create a film like them. the newly established Oriental Light and Magic considered doing a new adaptation of the manga but couldn't get the rights due to legal issues between Tezuka Productionsand Paramount who had exclusive film and TV rights to the property, Sudo then pitched them his idea which was initially called "Ring" (リング), later on this was changed to Toshio's Song to avoid confusion with the recently published Koji Suzuki horror novel of the same name.
Originally intended as a television movie for Fuji TV, producers at Daiei Studios was so impressed with the project they offered to further finance the film and bump it to a theatrical release with Toho handling theatrical distribution. this allowed OLM to use the name of Daiei's daikaiju Gamera as a nickname for the final opponent of the film.
Manga Adaptation[]
A Manga adaptation was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype from Feburary to May 1992, illustrated by the manga duo Akira Himekawa, who would later go on to illustrate the 2003 Astro Boy manga, it was collected into a single volume. in later years, Kadokawa would later purchase the Daiei library, including this film, thus putting it and the manga under the same roof.
US Release[]
The film was purchased by Streamline Pictures for US release, however feeling that it had some potential, The Samuel Goldwyn Company purchased the the theatrical distribution and released the film in select areas.
Home Media[]
In Japan, the film was released on VHS and Laserdisc by Daiei Video, after the purchase of Daiei, Kadokawa released it on DVD for the first time and later on Blu-ray in 2014.
In the US, it was released by Orion Home Video through their deal with Streamline Pictures, there were plans to release it on DVD through Image but those plans were scrapped due to Streamline's financial issues. In 2004, LIVE Entertainment announced their license to the film in North America for home video release. The film was released on DVD for the first time as well as on VHS on May 17, 2005 by Paramount Home Entertainment with a new English dub. This dub featured Tony Oliver as the voice of Toshio, John DiMaggio as the voice of Coach Tsukai and Spencer Fox of The Incredibles as the voice of Koshi. this dub would later be released on Blu-ray in 2013.