Touch--revisited!

(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

Life: 07/02/09 | Posted By: bellpickle | 2 comments | Tags:

I'M A DISGRACE

SHAMEFUL

MIYAZAKI DIRECTED ANOTHER MOVIE AND I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT???

AND IT'S ALREADY BEEN A YEAR SINCE IT WAS RELEASED IN JAPAN! WHAT THE CRAP HOW DID I NOT KNOW.

Life: 06/30/09 | Posted By: bellpickle | 6 comments | Tags:

Lists.

Yesterday, I gave some serious thought as to what, exactly, my favorite anime series are. I haven't had a no.1 anime for the past three years, not since I watched RahXephon a whopping 3rd time through and realized that I liked figuring out the show more than I liked the show itself. And since then, I've found it difficult to rank anime; I often feel that the anime I like most are comparable in quality as well as in the enjoyment I felt while watching them. Thus I usually group anime into clusters instead of ranked lists... but after finishing Touch yesterday, I think the no.1 position is finally filled. For reasons I'll go into when I write about the show in greater length, I feel that Touch stands just a head taller than the other anime I like most both in terms of how much I respect what the show accomplished and how much I loved the sheer experience of watching it. (A balance of the two is more difficult than it may seem.)

So here are the lists. I decided to restrict the manga and anime movie lists to my fav. one or two, since my selection pool is admittedly small for both. ^^;

Manga
1. Berserk
2. Angel Sanctuary (Despite being a bottomless fanservice pit.)

Anime Movie
1. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (OMG IT'S NOT GHIBLI!!!!)

Anime Series
1. Touch

First Tier (*closer to the top of the list)

• *Berserk (Manga's better, absolute mindfuck that it is, but I think the anime still deserves this spot. And at least Griffith's voice is hot?)
• Claymore
• Gankutsuou
• Kaleido Star
• *Monster
• *Princess Tutu (Before Touch, this was closest to being on the top, period. But sometimes I feel that this show is almost too precise and carefully executed. And if only I liked Mytho and Rue more...)
• Rose of Versailles
• Twelve Kingdoms

Hon. Mentions because I'm weak (Second Tier, but worth mentioning.)

• Gurren Lagann (Almost got bumped up. I respect the hell out of this show, but the last arc was the only one I *loved* as much as I did any of the first-tier series. Case in point, I pressed the pause button on this show for a whole year b/c, after the bathhouse episode, I thought this anime was too Gainax-y for my apparently sensitive tastes.)
• Honey and Clover
• Ouran HSHC (I don't think this show is all that great on a technical level [the Kyouya-centric episodes are the only ones I rewatch for anything other than a good laugh], but there are few other series I enjoyed watching as much as this one.)

Oh. And my favorite live-action movie is The Dark Knight and my favorite video game is Resident Evil 4. (Haven't gotten around to playing the fifth one...) Factor in Berserk as the top manga and a baseball series as the top anime, and hey--I'm practically a guy!

I also started up an anime queue at the end of the school year, though turns out it's less of a queue and more like a randomized list of shows that I think I should check out eventually. Since summer began, I think I've added more shows than I've crossed off!

Anime
H2
Slam Dunk
Koko wa Greenwood
Maison Ikkoku
Marmalade Boy
Simoun
Daughter of Twenty Faces
Kanon
Kurenai
Big Windup!
Toradora
Baccano!
Victorian Romance Emma S2

Manga
Vinland Saga
Red Blinds the Foolish
The Key to the Kingdom
Sand Chronicles
20th Century Boys

If anyone has a fervent recommendation for any of the above, feel free to voice it. :)

Life: 06/26/09 | Posted By: bellpickle | 12 comments | Tags:

Tatsuya Uesugi

*Note: Tatsuya is the soda-drinking boy/grown-up baseball player. Kazuya is his twin brother exercising in the beginning. ...

Read the full post »

Life: 06/25/09 | Posted By: bellpickle | 0 comments | Tags:

I've applied to part-time jobs at, like, nine different companies.

HIRE ME, MOTHERFUCKERS.

.

.

P.S. I stumbled upon this website last night and LOVE it already. Careful where you highlight; due to the nature of the website, every page is filled with spoilers.

And Touch is amazing. Have I mentioned that already?

Life: 06/22/09 | Posted By: bellpickle | 6 comments | Tags: