''To-y'' is a Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written and illustrated by Atsushi Kamijo. It was serialized by

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

in the manga magazine ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, making it ...

'' from 1985 to 1987, with the chapters collected in ten volumes. It tells the story of GASP, an underground

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band, and their attempt to get a recording contract and attain stardom. ''To-y'' was adapted into an

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

(OVA) in 1987.

Plot

The story follows , lead singer of GASP, and his attempts not to sell out during his rise through the recording industry. The story also follows To-y's growing relationship with , as the two find comfort in one another while they are shunned by mainstream society.

Media

Manga

''To-y'' is written and illustrated by Atsushi Kamijo. It was serialized in

's ''

'' from April 3, 1985, to March 25, 1987. Shogakukan collected its chapters in ten volumes released from September 18, 1985, to June 18, 1987. Shogakukan re-published the series in six volumes between January 17 and May 16, 1997. Shogakukan re-released the series into a five-volume deluxe edition for its 30th anniversary between December 21, 2015, and April 25, 2016.

Volumes

Original video animation

The manga was adapted into an

(OVA) by

Gallop The canter and gallop are variations on the fastest gait that can be performed by a horse or other equine. The canter is a controlled three-beat gait, while the gallop is a faster, four-beat variation of the same gait. It is a natural gait po ...

, directed by Mamoru Hamatsu, with character designs by Naoyuki Onda, and art direction by Shichirō Kobayashi. Masaya Matsuura was in charge of the music, and his band Psy-S provided the theme songs; and "Cubic Lovers". It was released on October 1, 1987, on VHS,

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...

and

Video High Density Video High Density (VHD) was an analog video disc format storing up to 60 minutes per side, predominantly marketed by JVC in Japan. In contrast to the optical LaserDisc format, the VHD format was read with a physical stylus. Facing numerous co ...

. On June 30, 2021,

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

, who produced the OVA, released it on a limited remastered edition

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

set.

Legacy

''To-y'' was a pioneer of

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

-themed manga and has served as an influence to other manga series like ''Beck'' and ''Nana''. In 2007, Justin Sevakis of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

reported that a frame-by-frame digital restoration of the ''To-y'' OVA was being done by fans. He cited it as the first fan restoration in the anime community.

Visual kei , abbreviated , is a category of Japanese musicians that have a strong focus on extravagant stage costumes that originated in Japan during the early 1980s. Koji Dejima of '' Bounce'' wrote that visual kei is not a specific sound, but rather it " ...

rock band

Penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...

took their name from the group Penicillin Shock seen in ''To-y'', and titled their first album after the fictional band. In 2015, Atsushi Kamijo drew the album cover for Penicillin's ''Memories ~Japanese Masterpieces~''. Professional wrestler Toi Kojima changed his ring name to "To-y" in February 2024. He explained that his parents were fans of Kamijo and ''To-y'' and had named him after the series, so he will now be using the ring name to honor it and bring more attention to pro-wrestling.

References

External links

* {{Gallop (studio) 1985 manga 1987 anime OVAs Gallop (studio) Music in anime and manga Shōnen manga Shogakukan manga