Touch!
June 30, 2007 on 10:17 pm | In Random | 9 Comments
To be honest, my interest in anime has been declining for the past year. Why you ask? Simple, lately I have been reluctant to pick up any new series at the beginning of each season. In the past, I would download anything that catches my eye. However, I have decided against using this method because the success rate has been low (I mean actually finishing the series). There is nothing worse than picking up a series and discovering it’s crap midway through. So have I stopped watching anime? The newer series yes, but not the older ones. Before I was never inclined to watch a show that was produced in the 80’s or the 90’s. Yet that changed, after watching this one particular series. Usually the animation during those two decades are a major turnoff, but if you get past that than it might turn out to be major hit for you. Touch did that for me. Now don’t get me wrong, this series isn’t for everyone. If sports anime bore you than I wouldn’t recommend this, but if you are an avid watcher of sports series than this is a must-see. Now you may ask how did I come across this? My good friend KT introduced it to me.
Summary taken from ANN.
The story centers around three characters - Uesugi Kazuya, his twin older brother Tatsuya, and Asakura Minami. Kazuya is the darling of his town as he’s talented, hardworking, and the ace pitcher for his middle school baseball team. Tatsuya is a hopeless slacker who’s been living the life of giving up the spotlight to Kazuya, despite the fact that he may be more gifted than him. Minami is the beautiful childhood girlfriend and for all intents, sister from next door who treats both of them as equals. Society largely assumes Kazuya and Minami will become the perfect couple, including Tatsuya. Yet as time progresses, Tatsuya grows to realize that he’s willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of his brother, except at the expense of giving up Minami to Kazuya. And thus the story is told of Tatsuya trying to prove himself over his established younger brother, how it affects the relationship between the three, and both brothers’ attempts to make Minami’s lifelong dreams come true.
Ideally, the main focus is on baseball, but as the show progresses it focuses more on character development, relationships, and overcoming adversity. From time to time, something unexpected would occur and it would leave me dumbfounded. Most shows wouldn’t dare do what Touch did because it would cause an uproar (I’m not going to go in detail because that would ruin everything). Yet with their gutsy crew, they managed to produce an amazing piece.
Overall I had no complaints and if I were to give it a rating…I would rate it 9.6/10. Yet the so-called fanservice was absolutely atrocious. One of the main character was asked to join the rhythmic gymnastic team. I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in girls in leotards. For ex. During some of Minami’s performances, they would pause briefly when the angle was focused near her chest area. Or they would start the scene focused on her chest area, which is equally annoying.
Yet despite the horrid fanservice, the baseball scenes left me speechless. Near the end, I thought my heart would pop out of my chest. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. To be honest, I wished there were more baseball scenes and if they did incorporate more than the show would truly have been epic.