I first saw Touch quite late, maybe in 2004. I think I found it because I loved Kimagure Orange Road. Both shows have big ’80s hair, love triangles, and that nostalgic, citypop vibe that makes everything feel a little more romantic than it has any right to.
If you’re just wondering if it’s good: Yeah. It’s good. You should watch it.
Two Brothers, One Dream
Touch, a classic sports manga by Adachi Mitsuru, is the story of the Uesugi brothers. Twin Tatsuya is the slacker. He oversleeps, has messy hair, reads manga, never tries. Twin Kazuya is the opposite. Ace pitcher. Popular. Focused. Polished. Between them is Minami, the next door neighbor, childhood friend, and focal point of the love triangle.
Kazuya’s dream is stated early and often. He wants to take his team, and by extension Minami, to the Koshien, Japan’s national high school baseball championship tournament. It’s the dream of a hero.
Tatsuya, if he dreams at all, dreams of being left alone.
Two Brothers, One Shared Dream
However, the dream isn’t Kazuya’s alone.
Tatsuya’s not untalented. He’s Kazuya’s twin. If Kazuya can do it, so can Tatsuya. In fact, when they were younger, Tatsuya was better. But Tatsuya doesn’t try. He can’t try.
Because if he tried, he might find out he’s not as good as Kazuya, and that would be awful. Or he might find out he’s better than Kazuya, and that would be even worse.
Tatsuya loves Kazuya. He doesn’t want to beat him. Doesn’t want to steal Minami. Doesn’t want to step into the spotlight only to cast a shadow. So he opts out. Hides his light. Keeps things easy.
Kazuya doesn’t share that hesitation. He encourages Tatsuya, even scolds him, but he chases what he wants without flinching. And Tatsuya lets him.
Because the dream isn’t only about the Koshien. It’s really about Minami. The next door friend, the loving companion, the ride or die supporter who only wants to manage the baseball team but still finds her competing at the national level as a rhythm gymnast. She is kind, and supportive, and she is the dream.
They share the same dream, but only one of them is just willing to reach for it.
This is what happens when you dream big
One day, Kazuya doesn’t show up for the big game. Everyone worries. Kazuya is responsible. Punctual. Early, even. You can tell where this is going.
Kazuya is dead. He died pushing a child out of the way of an oncoming truck. A heroic death for a man with heroic dreams.
The emotional impact is absolutely brutal. Even if you found him a little too perfect, a little too preachy, you still liked him. He wasn’t smug. He wasn’t cocky. He was just good, and he worked hard for it.
And now.. he’s gone. He isn’t coming back. It’s unfair and it’s devastating.
Over time, Tatsuya changes. He decides to take his brother’s place as Meisei’s ace pitcher. At first, the team doesn’t accept him. Not just because he’s a slacker, but because stepping onto that mound feels like he’s erasing Kazuya. Tatsuya isn’t just proving himself, he’s forcing the team to move on.
Eventually, he earns their trust. Not as Kazuya’s replacement, but as his own person. Uesugi Tatsuya.
How do you compete against a ghost?
All Tatsuya ever wanted was to avoid being compared to his brother.
But by stepping into Kazuya’s shoes, he guarantees that will happen forever. Except now, he’s not being compared to a person. He’s being compared to a ghost. A perfect brother frozen in time. A brother who never fails, never doubts, never has a bad game.
And somehow, Tatsuya manages to surpass that ghost. Meisei makes it to the Koshien. Kazuya’s dream is fulfilled.
The hardest part, though, wasn’t reaching the Koshien. It was believing he had the right to love Minami. I can only imagine his thoughts, his hesitation.
“What if she is settling for me because Kazuya is dead?”
“Am I an asshole for stealing my dead brothers girl?”
“Will it ever be OK for me to love her? To let her love me?”
To the reader, it’s obvious that Minami has always loved Tatsuya. To him, much less so. And I feel that.
What if he had tried?
Touch explores themes which often show up in Adachi’s manga. How do I handle survivors guilt? Am I being noble or selfish by trying to realize others dreams? Should I set my dreams aside to allow the dreams of others to flourish? At what point have I grieved enough that it becomes OK to say “I want something new”?. Its exploration of these topics is a little shallow, but it does a good job planting those thoughts in the reader’s heads for them to explore.
The core question I have about this dynamic, though, is: What if Tatsuya had tried?
What if, when they were kids, Tatsuya said “I want to be the ace pitcher too!”
What if he worked as hard as Kazuya did?
What if he told Minami how he felt when they were young?
Would they both be superstars? Bitter rivals? Estranged? Would they have pushed each other to greatness far beyond either of them actually reached?
Would Kazuya still be alive?
I think Adachi’s been asking himself the same question for decades. Many of his works are, at their core, just Touch with some of those dials tweaked. He explores the same themes of grief, loss, and brotherly rivalry in most of his stories, to the point where I wonder if he’s working through some real life trauma, telling the same story over and over, wondering if this time it will end to his liking. In some ways Touch, Cross Game and Mix remind me of The Beaver Trilogy, vignettes made years apart trying to tell the same story just right.
Is Touch worth reading today?
Yeah, I think so. Touch is old, but it’s iconic status is deserved. I binge read it in 2024 and I don’t regret it.
There are some caveats, though. First, Adachi is kind of a weird dude. I’m not sure how much is editor interference and how much is just Adachi, but there are some themes in Touch that are unfortunately Adachi staples:
- Weird romantic dynamics with somebody you perceive as a sister (I’m especially looking at you, Miyuki)
- A woman getting slapped by a man, then apologizing for making him slap her
- The humor is pretty corny and dated.. even when it was new
Honestly though, overall Touch is pretty free of things like that, and Adachi (mostly?) avoided his worst trope: Parents or teachers being pervy towards high school students. I understand Japan is a different culture and time has moved on, but I’m over that whole trope thank you very much sir.
But, if you can overlook the above, what you’re left with is a compelling sports manga about brotherhood, grief, perseverance and self-reflection. It’s flawed, but a masterpiece.
Is Touch Adachi’s best work?
Maybe.
H2 is also a masterpiece sports manga (and the topic of an entirely different blog post), and it just might be better. I’m not sure if there’s a right or wrong answer: Touch and H2 are both great, both worthy, both flawed.
But, for me, Touch is the pick. Maybe because I saw it first. Maybe because I get Tatsuya better than I do Hiro. Or maybe because Touch asked me the question that I still don’t know the answer to:
What if he had tried?