Touch

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Touch is the first of three notable baseball manga made by Adachi Mitsuru, and is easily the weakest of three, which is reflective more so of my good opinion of H2 and Cross Game than any faults of Touch, though Touch does have several faults, chief of which, its insanely slow start. The first sixty or so chapters are a monument to boredom. One slice of white bread (Kazuya) and another slice of white bread (Minami) compete to see which one of them is the more perfectly flawless gift to humanity. Kazuya has a twin, and supposedly he’s got greater talent for baseball, but the ... author is more concerned with teasing the audience over whether or not he’ll join the team than actually doing something with him. Characters like Harada seem to pop into existence whenever the plot demands it (if a plot even exists), the love triangle progresses with excruciating slowness for how predictable it looks on paper, there’s a load of two-dimensional, one-off thuggish villains thrown in randomly for the sake of having something happen, and for the baseball manga, there isn’t a whole lot of baseball being played. The only meaningful toss in these sixty-odd chapters is Kazuya’s body as it’s hit by a truck.

And so, the story really begins. Uesugi Tatsuya is compelled to take up his dead brother’s dream to take his middling highschool baseball team to the summer Koshien. It is an excellent idea that lends a great amount of weight to each match, but it takes far too long to set up, and most of the set-up is superfluous to the rest of the manga. A new rival shows up to reinstate the love triangle, and somewhere along the way Minami and Tatsuya’s relationship seems to reset, as if they had never kissed. While I’m on the subject, Minami and Tatsuya’s relationship is the worst thing in the story. They have no chemistry together and their interactions are unbelievably dull. I was always rooting against Minami, yet I wanted Tatsuya to be with her, and this, I think, just barely justifies her presence in the story – it gives Tatsuya another reason to try, and gives the reader disinterested in baseball a relevant goal to see through to completion. Outside of this function, she’s simply too perfect, too flawless, too bland. She would be more believable as the Koshien trophy.

Minami’s hectoring and lecturing may only provoke a series of terse one-note responses from him, but Uesugi Tatsuya is otherwise the most complex and endearing character that Adachi Mitsuru has created. Forced to play the role of his dead twin brother, Tatsuya’s situation represents a whole lot more than just stepping into the role of being Meisei’s ace pitcher. Like a child forced to shoulder the responsibility of adulthood in one way, or someone pushed to do something unsuitable to who they are in order to please the expectations of others – either way, his honesty in expressing his unwillingness to conform to expectations, and his selflessness in sacrificing who he is for the benefit of others, is sympathetic, even heroic. Anyway, it lends a lot more depth and richness to what, in another author’s hands, would be a straightforward story about loss and baseball. Tatsuya’s predicament could’ve been easily spelled out, but Mitsuru respects the reader’s intelligence. This may not seem anything special, but in the medium of manga, this sort of subtlety just doesn’t exist. On a more basic level, Tatsuya gratifies the belief (or delusion) that “I can do it if I tried.” He’s lazy, but when the chips are down, he gets the job done, and this is clearly you! The reader! Regardless of the realism of this sort of thing, it is great to see Tatsuya’s transformation from a lazy guy to a hard-working member of the baseball team. Watching this unfold is one the main reasons to keep reading, aside from the natural progress of the plot.

The plot, after the death of Kazuya, picks up the pace. Characters still pop into existence without any foreshadowing, but there is a lot less of the one-off two-dimensional villains required since there’s some actual baseball matches that are played to focus on instead. None of the matches are particularly memorable aside from the final game, but they don’t progress too predictably for them to be dismissed entirely before their respective conclusions. Akio and his sister liven things up even if they are stereotypes, and even if it reintroduces the love triangle. The conflict they introduce is completely artificial, but at least it keeps the ball rolling in a direction related to baseball instead of the arbitrary conflicts that were before.

Mitsuru must’ve been worried that there wasn’t enough excitement because he also introduces a major villain, who happens to be Meisei’s new coach. His inclusion is so completely unnecessary, but regardless, he exists, he stirs up trouble, he’s comically evil, and has a comically tragic backstory. His development is so predictable, and trite, yet he still manages to be a great character, who contributes to some of the most tense and exciting moments in the story. In the end I don’t know if Mitsuru justifies his inclusion but I can’t deny that he adds a redemptive quality that raises the emotional quality of the narrative. Other developments of this nature happen throughout, and have a similar quality to them, where they’re ham-fisted, and are clearly contrived, yet still, are undeniably effective in moving certain parts of the story forward.

None of this really matters though. The story could’ve gone to the dogs and I’d still read it through to the end because once Kazuya dies you are locked in with Tatsuya whether you like it or not. You have to see him succeed so badly that you’ll endure any number of bland conversations with him and Minami, or the numerous fanservice shots, or the innumerable faceless, nameless side characters who exist to waste space, or the fourth wall breaks that are nothing but filler. Touch manages to work in spite of all its flaws for this very reason: 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 all out in as perfect a way as it can manage, and is as satisfying as you could hope, with Tatsuya defying the expectations of everyone, even the reader. Though it is less polished and overall less enjoyable than the following two baseball stories Mitsuru penned, Touch has a literary quality to it that neither H2 nor Cross Game retain, and for that reason, it is worth reading. Worth reading over a book is debatable, but books are books, and manga is manga. You can’t expect one to be the other, and you wouldn’t want that anyway.

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 works ... not 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 10/10
...
This 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.