Touch

**Scourge** · 13 Mar 2007, 04:50 PM

Touch is Adachi Mitsuru's romantic comedy/drama about three friends: Minami, Kazuya, and Tatsuya, a girl and twin brothers who have grown up next door to each other since they were babies and are very close. Kazuya is one of those guys who can do no wrong; he's a gifted athlete and his sport of choice is baseball. Tatsuya is kind of a fuck-up who lives in his brother's shadow. Minami is the girl between them who is practically betrothed to Kazuya, but has a very large soft spot in her heart for Tatsuya. It's around this relationship that the majority of Touch revolves as these main characters struggle through the end of middle school on into high school, trying to find themselves as adulthood quickly approaches.

The show takes a little while to get going. Everything is introduced and the wheels start to pick up speed by the 13th or 14th episode. One thing I didn't expect going in is how complex and subtle this show would be, or the characters and relationships within it are. It's incredibly well written.

Kazuya and Tatsuya's parents (as well as the whole community) feel like Kazuya should marry Minami when they grow up; Minami and Kazuya are even voted best couple in their freshman class. But despite expectations, no one seems concerned about what Minami wants. Though she willingly stands by Kazuya, she might actually want Tatsuya.

At one point, when Kazuya openly asks for her to be engaged to him for the future, she goes silent in an almost horrified way, unable to speak because she can't bear to say "no" out loud to him, and she's obviously thinking of Tatsuya. Tatsuya, Tatsuya... who asked her recently for a kiss, her first kiss... and she bravely gave it to him. Kazuya brushes off her silence, understanding that his straightforwardness might have been a mistake.

However, Tatsuya knows he's treading on thin ice if he actually pursues Minami. He gives her an out. "We can just forget about what happened," he says, referring to the kiss, ‘pretend we didn't and go on with our normal lives.’ But Minami won't have it. "No. I will not let you take away my first kiss. I won't." She's steadfast in her feeling as her voice trails away and she gracefully dances up the side walk remembering the kiss while Tatsuya watches after her, somewhat amused, but moreso touched by her endearment ~ things have gotten complicated.

Yet Kazuya is aware of what's going on. He understands his brother's attraction to Minami, and he faces it like friendly competition and reserves no bad blood for his brother. Kazuya and his baseball team are in the running to go to Koushien (World Series for the High School set). Minami is the team manager. One of her biggest dreams is to get to Koushien and Kazuya is determined to fulfill it for her. Meisei (their high school) makes it through the playoffs and all the way to the finals and the community is in an uproar.

The day of the finals, Kazuya leaves the house to head for the stadium where the game's about to be played. Kazuya's mom realizes she forgot to give him the family good luck charm and asks Tatsuya to go after him. Tatsuya is in no hurry as he traipses along the route to the stadium, frequently bugged by the amount of attention his brother gets. But he arrives at the stadium somehow before Kazuya and is forced to retrace his steps to find out how this happened.

It's here that he learns that a horrible accident has taken place. Kazuya has been killed by a truck as he tried to help a young child get out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. In an instant, everything changes. Everything. How would your life change in similar circumstances? Adachi Mitsuru takes that realism into account and everyone in the show is forced to deal with this tragic turn of events, and how it shapes their lives from that point on (about 25 episodes in) and that's what the show is really about.

I highly recommend this show for 80's anime fans and fans of highschool romance comedy/drama. It's also a sports anime. You can find the series in its entirety on ebay but be forewarned, the subtitles can be horrible. As long as you're paying attention, they shouldn't be debilitating though.

**mcarocks2003** · 13 Mar 2007, 05:13 PM

Touch was fansubbed by Central Anime.

All the episodes can be gotten from here - Click here for the 'Touch' torrents

Great anime, perhaps the 2nd best sports tv series of all time. Great mix of characters, romance and baseball.

The only anime that's above it in my opinion is the legendary Ace Wo Nerae tennis anime from 1973 which helped inspire Gunbuster. Thankfully it is also being fansubbed by a group called ILA.

Click Here for the 'Ace Wo Nerae' torrents

**Bacon McShig** · 14 Mar 2007, 02:37 PM

I watched the first episode the other day, have had a couple eps on sitting my HD for a while now. Pretty good.

I liked Adachi's Short Program that ran in Animerica Extra for a while.

**Scourge** · 14 Mar 2007, 03:07 PM

I like Short Program too. My son had picked it up a while ago before I'd ever heard of Touch.

I was kind of lukewarm on Touch for the first 13 or 14 eps (thought it was good, but was wondering if it would meet or surpass my other favorites in the genre), but after that, the relationships really get involved, the baseball is in full swing etc. I'm about 35 eps in now and am enjoying it thoroughly and consider it up there with my favorites.

There's a good write up on the series at animeondvd.com in their review of the Japanese boxset (excerpt):

"Touch" focuses a lot on character development and growth within the story throughout the course of the series. Tacchan is portrayed from the start as a slacker and yet we find out a bit more of his hidden qualities that he has suppressed to be in the shadows of his younger brother. His continued selflessness in letting his brother shine results in his severe lack of self-confidence. In turn, we learn that Kacchan is not as clear cut a prodigy as thought. He has worked hard and persistently applied himself to get where he is as a top student and an ace pitcher. He also suspects that his elder brother has been purposefully losing out to him whenever they compete. The contrast between the twins are played up and their passive competition for Minami's interest with Kacchan showing a greater interest and Tacchan stepping aside, although at times, he shows his deeply harboured interest.

The girl at the centre of it all, Minami, is a breath of fresh air as it's refreshing to see in an anime series where an ordinary girl is no pushover in studies, sports and, most notably, in relationships. She speaks her mind and freely at that too. Being close friends and a long time neighbour with the twins throughout their lives, she is the main person who sees the brothers as who they really are. While Kacchan is continuously praised and Tacchan is popularly referred to as the “baka aniki” (i.e. idiot brother”) in school, Minami comes out advancing Tacchan's cause, like volunteering him for a mixed gender run. We slowly get to see what she knows, i.e. that he is no slouch when he seriously puts his efforts into it.

With so much focus on the main characters, the fair number of supporting characters in the series are not neglected and are given their due time in development. They start off looking like cookie cutter characters but they are developed with depth and often turn out differently from the expected cliches with a real world believability that is not commonly found in anime. The main supporting characters are Matsudaira Koutarou, the baseball catcher, who is Kacchan's baseball battery partner; Harada Shouhei, the big thug who is close to the three; and Nitta Akio, a baseball slugging ace who is a rival to the twins. As a rival, Nitta Akio is no caricature of a rival as his character would qualify as the classic hero type in any other show. He is smart, calm, confident, considerate and kind. During the series, Minami is tempted by what he offers as he presents her with a very compelling alternative.

The most interesting of all the supporting characters though is Harada Shouhei as the cliche of a clueless dumb big thug is really turned on its head in "Touch". Harada, who for all appearances of a big thug, has great perception and is real savvy. His trademark phrase of "Naruhodo" (i.e. "I see") is often a prompt to the viewers to take note and during the course of the whole series, he provides a lot of insight into the lead characters.

**Dunlap** · 18 Mar 2007, 10:51 AM

I've avoided this because I'm not a big fan of sports anime, but with the way you've been recommending it and, from the looks of it, not being focused on baseball, I'm starting my downloads now.

**Finch** · 19 Mar 2007, 03:20 AM

I... can't think of any sports anime that i've gotten too into, but what little of sports manga i've read, i absolutely love. I don't even like sports, but make it into drawings that appeal to me, and i'm there. Dokaben's all baseball, all the time, but it's so freaking good even in j language. I've been picking up 1 book at a time every time i go to Book Off (which Scourge found for me).