Reviews for Touch

Stories about sports in the anime and manga genre nowadays have been mostly dominated by popular series such as the Prince of Tennis, Eyeshield 21 and Hajime no Ippo, to name a very select few. These are your standard shounen sports stories where its basically the coming of age party of a shounen hero from a place of mediocrity to the path of greatness. As heart-warming as these stories sound, their execution are somewhat similar and highly predictable. And they rarely try to touch on deeper themes. That is where the magic of Adachi Mitsuru comes into play. His worksnot only tell of a story about an everyday kid entering the sports world, they not only involve a deeply rooted romance that the story hinges upon but they also touch upon aspects of everyday life that people may take for granted. That is where the true beauty of Adachi's "Touch" comes into play.

Touch can be best described as a story where, similar to most of Adachi's other works, combine a touching romance story with sports. In Touch's case, its baseball. Uesugi Tatsuya and Uesugi Kazuya are twin brothers, and along with their childhood friend, Asakura Minami, are as close as friends can be. Kazuya is the sibling who excels at baseball, gets the good grades while Tatsuya is the lazy twin who steps out of the limelight willingly so his brother can receive the accolades, even when the topic comes to Minami. While all three of these characters can be seen as the main characters in this story, the plot is driven around Tatsuya. Any more information would ruin the stunning plot twist that Adachi is brazen enough to introduce. You'll wonder whether or not that was the correct move to make in terms of progressing the story. Rest assured, it works well.

The art that Adachi implements is a style that is extremely simple and light, contrary to most other shounen sports manga. There are no crazy hair styles, absurdly figured bodies, but just simple, every day, run-of-the-mill people. This works well because Touch can also be seen to fit under the slice of life genre as well. However, as simple as easy to understand, Adachi does seem to have a hard time showing emotions of character's faces, even in some of the more touching scenes. Whether that's on purpose because of keeping the manga as light and easy to read or if its something he does struggle with, its something to be argued about. However, he still gets the job done exquisitely and stay extremely consistent from start to finish.

The characters in Touch are both the strongest and weakest aspect of the story (if this story has a weakness). As stated previously, the story centers around Tatsuya and the development he undergoes from beginning to end is immense, and done perfectly. The same can be said for the other two main characters, Minami and Katuya, although not to the extent of Tatsuya. Adachi also introduces a lot of side characters - many of which are rivals on the baseball field or rivals that vie for the hearts of Minami and Tatsuya - which really help justify the development seen in the main characters. However, sometimes these side characters are introduced extremely randomly and Adachi will bring them back into the story just as randomly. It's funny because Adachi - in the story - actually pokes fun at himself because he knows he's doing it.

Though Touch is a perfect example where sports and romance meet in earnest, and supporters of both genres will be highly satisfied with what Adachi uses, Touch also falls into the category of slice of life. Adachi creatively weaves in many life lessons, both in a surreptitious manner and a straight-in-your-face manner. Throughout the manga, Adachi also pokes fun at himself many times too and the reader will definitely chuckle at some of the panels in which he does this. Basically, Touch is a highly touching story about the lives of Tatsuya, Kazuya and Minami as they go through middle school all the way to the third year of high school and is a story that any anime or manga fan will enjoy immensely.

This is first review.So i hope do it good :] well here goes. I give the story a 9.The story is a great read.Touch is mostly about 2 boys who are twins.and 1 girl who are all childhood friends.the younger brother kazuya is exceptionally talented and good in sports and studies.And tatsuya is the boy who is the twin of kazuya,kazuya tends to be tardy.But he has talent as well.but He is too tardy to use it. Overall I rate this a 10/10This manga is a great reads for sports fan and it has lots of charachter development.But patience is required because it takes a good while to advance to the story.Even so u shuld read it slowly and go with the pace of the manga. :]

:/ im gonna right more later on.Seeing as im on the 30 chapter.I should not comment on it now.Im going to finish reading and then finish my review.

if i change my opinion ill change the rating ive given it as well.

The first sixty or so chapters are a monument to boredom. One slice of white bread and another slice of white bread compete to see which one of them is the more perfectly flawless gift to humanity. Kazuya has a twin, but he doesn’t do anything. Characters like Harada seem to pop into existence whenever the plot demands it. Who knows if a plot exists. The love triangle progresses with excruciating slowness. There’s a load of two-dimensional, one-off thuggish villains thrown in for the sake of having something happen. There isn’t a whole lot of baseball. And then Kazuya dies. And then the story really startsafter all that set-up, with most of it being in excess to the rest of it. A new rival shows up to reinstate the love triangle, and Minami and Tatsuya’s relationship resets. They have no chemistry together. Minami is dull.

Tatsuya’s been forced to play the role of his dead twin brother. His honesty in expressing his unwillingness to conform, and him sacrificing who he is for the sake of others is selfless and even heroic. The situation lends a lot of depth and richness to the straightforward story.

Watching Tatsuya’s transformation is the main reason to keep reading. Characters still pop into existence without any foreshadowing. None of the matches are particularly memorable. Akio and his sister are stereotypes. The conflict they make is artificial. There’s also a villain, and his development is trite and predictable. Other developments happen, and have a similar quality, where they’re ham-fisted, and contrived. But the manga manages to make it work.

It works because Tatsuya is someone worth rooting for: for who he is, who he wants to be, and what he wants to achieve. The ending closes this out perfectly. Tatsuya defies the expectations of everyone, even the reader. It’s something you have to see.