(Unrelated: I kind of saw Keri Hilson & Ne-Yo in concert today. Only kind of b/c I couldn't actually see the stage. *mijikai'd*)
Holy damn, I have a ton of anime to write about. I guess I'll have to do one post per anime per day. I've been an anime-watching machine; other than Touch, I now have two other series to review as well. @_@;
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In the end, it's the characters that make Touch compelling. Tatsuya and Minami are among the strongest-willed, most admirable people to ever fall in love in anime form. Their tireless efforts to better themselves is inspiring, their passions are involving, their triumphs, exhilarating. It's the sort of anime that makes us strive to be better, ourselves.
---Justin Sevakis, Buried Treasure (Oct 11th 2007) (warning: major spoilers in the series synopsis)
That last sentence perfectly states why I've quickly grown to love this series so much. It's very rare that I see a story, anime or otherwise, with characters who I feel people could legitimately idolize. The characters feel less like characters and more like real people--the type of people who you would respect, look up to, and learn from.
A while back, I remember writing a post where I mentioned that characters in anime and movies tend to have grandiose problems, whereas in real life, people stress out over small things that may even seem inconsequential to others. Most writers don't bother to recreate real-life and real-life problems because of just that fact; getting bad grades, being rejected by your crush, and other normal, everyday issues aren't the type of things to bring someone to tears if it's not happening to them personally, and especially if all this is occurring within a story and not in real-life.
Adachi, the mangaka who originally penned Touch, is famous in Japan for being a master at recreating real-life onto paper in a way that is compelling and readable. Many instances throughout Touch, when a character felt upset over something, I found myself thinking I know how that feels or even I went through something exactly like that before. (e.g. There is a scene later in the series where Minami is trying to study, but has difficulty because she can hear Tatsuya and another girl goofing off in his room. Minami knows this girl could never replace her, but she's bothered by it anyway. Cue DHB flashbacks for moi.) Not even Honey & Clover depicted life as accurately as this show does. This is character complexity at its finest.
The lead character Tatsuya is the most impressive of all; I've never seen a character who develops so drastically, but done so well that it almost creeps up on you. It's similar to how the lead character of Twelve Kingdoms, Yoko, develops from a weak teenage girl to a strong-willed woman... but whereas Yoko has clear turning points (e.g. defeating the spirit in her sword --> overcoming her distrust of others), Tatsuya has no singular moment where he suddenly matures. Instead there is a slow build-up of many landmark moments of change, until a respectable and dedicated person emerges from his much less determined self at the beginning. (At one point, Tatsuya describes himself as an earthworm rather than a caterpillar, the latter of which is capable of evolving.)
Of course, this show wouldn't be nearly as interesting if the leads were all average Joes with mediocre lives. Tatsuya, his twin brother Kazuya, and Minami all find themselves in a very complex and at times extraordinary situation. Even putting the dramatic events of their lives aside, the character relationships in and of themselves could carry the entire show, as can be seen here in what I thought was one of the most notable scenes in the whole series:
DHB once told me he thought it would be cool to have a twin. My response was, "I think I'd hate it. People would compare the two of you all the time. You wouldn't be your own person. You'd just be the smarter twin or the meaner twin or whatever." Which is the exact problem in Touch, except in a way I hadn't anticipated. In the above, Minami is complimenting Tatsuya by saying the he has matched the high ability of his twin brother, yet he scorns the comparison anyway. Herein lies the biggest hurdle Tatsuya must overcome throughout the series: confidence in himself. He is so troubled by the mere prospect of high expectations and responsibilities that he would rather shuffle the burden off to his more dependable, "genius" younger brother than deal with it himself. Rather than go down the expected path and have Tatsuya resent his talented twin, his reaction is much more personality-specific: he welcomes the attention his twin receives even though it's at his expense.
And that's just the beginning. The series is complex from the start, but becomes even moreso as it progresses. Despite the slice-of-life nature of this show in its first arc, it does not stay stagnant; things do change in dramatic ways that serve to make the show even better.
A quick word on the baseball itself: even though Touch isn't really about sports, some of the games in this show had me more excited than any of the basketball matches in Slam Dunk (which IS really about sports). During the final game of the series, I was literally cursing in excitement. ("WHAT NOW, BITCHES? WHAT. NOW.") And from what I've heard, even the way the pitchers hold the baseball is accurate in accordance to the pitch they throw. :)
Final verdict: If you are at all interested in things that are amazing, then this show is worth checking out. :P
