Touch Movie 4: Miss Lonely Yesterday

Touch Movie 4: Miss Lonely Yesterday

Directed by: Gisaburô Sugii

Animation: Group TAC

Original Creator: Mitsuru Adachi

Currently Unlicensed

12 years after the TV series ends, the first true Touch movie is released.

As the movie begins, we get a narrative by Minami that talks about their childhood and about the fateful summer day when Kazuya was killed and about how many years have passed since that time, and the fact that for both Tatsuya and Minami, part of their hearts still remain in that summer season.

We find out that two years have passed since the end of the TV series.  Tatsuya took Meisei all the way to the finals of the Koshien and won it all.  Having fulfilled his promise to Minami and Kazyua, he has quit baseball altogether.  In fact, there seems to be a drift forming between the two as they are even going to seperate colleges, thanks to a cold Tatsuya got before his entrance exam.  Tatsuya even makes a remark that it doesn't feel as lonely as he thought not being around Minami all the time.  If that isn't all, there is a girl at Tatsuya' college named Kaori that has taken an interest in him.  She's a rather outgoing girl, but she has a bit of mystery surrounding her.  Not the least of worries is Nitta Akio, who is now playing college baseball, and is set to break a homerun record.  Nitta is still after Minami's heart all this time.  What will happen between Tatsuya and Minami?  Will their love continue to blossom, or is it to be just a fleeting memory?  What about Tatsuya's relationship with Kaori?  For that matter, Nitta and Minami? What happened to the others?  This movie is about dreams ending, dreams beginning, and dreams changing.

Despite being nearly 12 years since the TV series ended, the first true sequel movie does not disappoint.  For the record, the first three movies were recaps of the TV series with newly added footage, and different viewpoints.  Any questions that were left at the end of the TV series is answered here.  The original cast is brought back to revoice their roles, and despite the long gap, it doesn't feel like anything was changed, which made it all the better. 

Animation-wise is really great.  Since this is a newer film with a bigger budget, the animation studios decided to go with a more cel shaded look for the characters, which may throw some off at first, but the designs stay pretty true to Adachi's originals and the tv series.  Of course being two years after the TV series, and most of the characters either in college or off doing their own thing, the characters do look older.  However, the only designs that seem to be off are those of the Nitta's.  For some reason, I had a harder time adjusting to Akio and Yuka's designs versus the others.  I might just be nitpicking here :)

Music is really well done as well, for the opening theme to the movie, we get a remix of the original tv opening "Touch- Friday Night Version".  The other vocal tracks "Miss Lonely Yesterday" and the ending theme "Hi Hi High" really set the overall tone of the movie and were really great to listen to.  If you listen carefully during the movie, you'll also notice some remixed BGM that was used during the TV series.

Even though it's only been a few weeks since I've caught the end of the TV series and seeing this movie, it was almost a 12 yr gap between the two for Japanese fans.  This movie serves as a fond look back on a wonderful cast of characters, as well as expanding on their storylines into the future.  I felt that the director conveyed that message well, and I'm sure this was a real treat to the Japanese fans who waited such a long time to catch up on their favorite characters.  Highly recommended, but definately watch the TV series first to get the real impact of this movie.

Final Grade....A