<5-minute audio> [Voicy EPISODE AWARD 2025] The broadcast I want you to listen to most this year is <To those whose youth was driven mad by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>

As a business person of the millennial generation, I have been repeatedly subjected to words from adults since I was young, such as 'You haven't even read 'Touch'?' It is half-intimidation, and in today's terms, it is close to harassment.

However, I have no regrets about reading 'Touch'. There is no room for argument that it is a wonderful work. Harassment is not something that should be forgiven, but at the same time, it is also a fact that I was given the opportunity to encounter an excellent work.

Even if I did not choose it myself, and precisely because I was not allowed the option of 'getting by without knowing it', it can be said that I have inherited a 'work' that can later be shared as a cultural common foundation.

Therefore, I am not part of the so-called 'Touch generation'. Since the serialization of the manga 'Touch' began in 1981 and the television anime broadcast began in 1985, the core readers and viewers are thought to be those born around 1970, that is, between 1965 and 1975. They are likely the generation currently around 50 to 60 years old. Therefore, it is impossible that my voting motive was 'because Touch was featured'.

Then, why on earth did I vote for <To those whose youth was driven mad by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>--.

Am I a 'comedy lover' after all, or am I in a 'state of comedy deficiency', or is it for an entirely different reason? Regarding Voicy, the only broadcast I can carve out time to listen to is Master Shu Yamaguchi's, but when I looked back on this year in my spare time, I ended up voting for the above broadcast as the 'best of the year' in the Voicy EPISODE AWARD 2025.

As I will explain later, it was a vote made after truly agonizing over two broadcasts related to music. The heartstrings of my aesthetic sense were clearly pleading with me to 'vote for one of those two', but when I excluded my emotions and judged solely on the evaluation axis of 'best of the year', I inevitably had to vote for <To those whose youth was driven mad by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>.

If I may explain based solely on my subjectivity, regarding Master's Voicy posts, 85% are stories about 'Business = Management Science x Humanities', 14% are stories related to art fields such as 'Music' and 'Movies', and 1%—yes, only this post attached above is finished completely as 'comedy'.

Let me explain simply. First, this broadcast has a 'two-part structure'. Imagine the first half is the 'M-1 Grand Prix' and the second half is the 'King of Conte'.

Recent 'comedy show races' seem to have become festivals that are unwatchable, with judging that panders to the audience and viewers, perhaps for fear of bashing in the media and on social media after the broadcast. However, originally, tension should have been born there because the 'subjectivity' of each judge clashed. Even if it was sometimes unsettling or unreasonable, that was precisely why it was exciting.

Therefore, since I don't watch them anymore, my analogies are from tournaments over 10 years ago. And generally, these show races are often described as 'difficult years to judge' because the contestants' routines are evenly matched. However, there are rare years that are described as 'easy to judge'.

Speaking of the 'M-1 Grand Prix', good examples of the rare 'easy to judge' years that remain in my memory are 2004, when Untouchable won, and 2006, when Tutorial won. It is obvious when compared to other years, but I can assert that these two years were clearly years where it could be said that 'the winner was already decided before the final'.

In many years, the winner is decided as a 'result of the final judgment' by the judges, and then we viewers follow up by endorsing it. But in these two years only, the outcome was decided in less than four minutes on stage—they were such unique years. That is the structure of the first half of <To those whose youth was driven mad by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>.

And the second half. Regarding this, I conclude that it is 'completely intended as a structure'. Even though he himself says he is 'confused'. Then, why on earth do I conclude that?

I will liken the second half to the 'King of Conte', but there exists a 'legendary year' for this tournament that is so clear it needs no explanation. Even for those who are not well-versed in comedy, if you hear the phrase 'What a day!', there should be a year that comes to mind almost reflexively. Yes, it is the 2012 tournament where Viking won.legendary year

From here on is a literal summary of the 'spoilers'. That year, Viking entered the finals with two routines: 'Graduate' and 'Homecoming'. In the 1st stage, 'Graduate' scored 967 out of 1000 points, and in the 2nd stage, 'Homecoming' scored 974 points, for a total of 1941 points. It was a victory that set the highest score in the tournament's history at the time.

The 'Homecoming' routine performed in the finals begins with the setting of a 'daughter' who left home long ago returning to her father after a long time. However, the 'daughter' who returned has somehow become a 'son', has debt, is married, and even has a child. Every time a fact is revealed, the situation worsens, and there is no turning back. The situation does not stop, and the shout 'You won't stop!' becomes a phrase that adds fuel to the fire, not a brake.

The son (formerly daughter Keiko), indignant at his father's lack of understanding, demands, 'Father, you're impossible! What about Mother!?' Then—to his surprise, his mother had eloped and left that very morning. They say misfortunes come in succession, but this is just too cruel—.

After a moment of silence, the father finally explodes. That is—the legendary, iconic retort: 'What a day!'

He had lived desperately, believing only in wishing for his family's happiness. Yet, his wife left after an affair. Moreover, on that same day, his daughter, who had been living independently, returned, but her gender had changed, she had debts, and she even had a child. What on earth is going on? What went wrong, and where?

Let's re-examine this by shining a light on <To Those Whose Youth Was Driven Mad by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>. The 'first half' I compared to the 'M-1 Grand Prix' skillfully uses the comedy theory of "setup and punchline". By strongly forbidding it at the start—'Stop it!' 'Absolutely not!'—it creates a setup, and by actually doing it as expected later, it delivers the payoff of 'He actually did it!' Doing exactly what you know will happen. It invites laughter through the way it betrays the expected harmony.

And to talk about the second half, I will briefly recap the story of 'Touch'.

'Touch' begins as a youth sports story about three childhood friends—twin brothers Tatsuya and Kazuya Uesugi, and their neighbor and classmate Minami Asakura—who reach puberty, start seeing each other as the opposite sex, and advance to high school while caught in a delicate love triangle.

Tatsuya, the older brother, is clever but can't take anything seriously. Kazuya, the younger brother, is a hard worker who gives his all to sports and studies. To fulfill Minami's childhood dream of being 'taken to Koshien,' Kazuya excels as the baseball team's ace in his first year, and Minami supports him as the manager.

However—the one Minami loved as a romantic interest was not the younger brother, but the 'useless' older brother, Tatsuya.

But Tatsuya is aware that he has neglected to put in the effort. Therefore, even though he and Minami share mutual feelings, he cannot face those feelings head-on. Furthermore, he harbors a fear of destroying the relationship of the three who grew up like family because of himself.

Meanwhile, Kazuya does not hide his feelings for Minami and begins a full-scale romantic approach. At the same time, he urges Tatsuya to face him head-on, saying, 'Don't run away from this battle of love,' and vows to both of them that he will 'take Minami to Koshien first' to score the first point in this competition. However, on the way to the regional tournament final, fate cruelly throws the gears out of alignment.

—And up to this point, it is a legendary scene in manga history that everyone, even those not of the 'Touch' generation, knows. In <To Those Whose Youth Was Driven Mad by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>, the first half talks through the 'behind-the-scenes circumstances' surrounding this scene with uproarious laughter. And this 'hilarious behind-the-scenes story' is, in fact, an all-too-cruel and all-too-clever 'setup' for the events that follow in the second half—that is what makes it so hateful. In a good way, of course.

Truly—'Something is wrong!'.

As for the rest, please verify it with your own ears.

About 'The Best of the Year'

The year I learned that 'talking takes so much energy'

<What to do when you get bored of yourself?>

The moment the Voicy EPISODE AWARD 2025 was announced, it was such a wonderful broadcast that I almost decided instantly, 'The best of the year has to be <What to do when you get bored of yourself?>!'. As for the reason I didn't vote for it in the end, it is because I chose <To Those Whose Youth Was Driven Mad by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>, but in this broadcast, the story is told that 'When you were in your teens, the world would teach you wonderful things even if you left it alone'.

Since these things are about 'personal values,' it's fun to trace back your memories and think about them. If you'd like, why don't you join me in thinking about 'new discoveries from the past'?

Looking back at movies, in my case, I see 'the unreasonableness that accompanies justice' in 'The Dark Knight,' 'the awakening of the long-oppressed weak' in 'Joker,' 'the ultimate foolishness of the elite' in 'The Big Short,' 'how to cultivate enemies for success' in 'Sekigahara,' and 'a real man and my immature self' in 'The Blood of Wolves,' and I watch them on heavy rotation. They are all wonderful works, but since these are viewing experiences from after I became an adult, they don't count.

'The Shawshank Redemption,' 'The Godfather,' and 'Once Upon a Time in America' are also wonderful works, but these are also works that I 'had to summon the energy to watch' myself after becoming an adult.

'Back to the Future,' 'Sister Act,' and 'Ghost' are also wonderful, but it's different from the feeling that 'when I was a teenager, the world taught me wonderful things even if I didn't do anything.' There are various works that come to mind, such as the 'Harry Potter' series and Studio Ghibli works, but I don't have the feeling that 'the world taught me' them.

'City of Angels,' 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,' and 'Cinema Paradiso' fit, but I've written and talked about these many times before, so oops... 'new discoveries from the past' is quite difficult, isn't it? (laughs). Let's make this a different project in a different article.

<I don't want to say that old anime songs were better>

Do you have any anime songs that you 'loved' in your childhood? For my generation, the theme songs for works like 'Dragon Ball,' 'Slam Dunk,' and 'YuYu Hakusho' come to mind first. If we broaden the age range a bit, 'Nintama Rantaro' and 'Doraemon' would also be added. If we include special effects, 'Kamen Rider' and 'Ultraman' cannot be left out. Or, some might mention 'A Cruel Angel's Thesis' or 'Senbonzakura'.

As for myself, if I had to choose just one song, it would be the ending theme for 'Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter,' Mai Kuraki's 'Togetsukyo ~Kimi Omofu~.' In truth, it wasn't that I particularly liked Kuraki's singing ability or musicality. If asked why I like this song, I can't explain it well myself.

Before I knew it, I had also come to like the place called 'Togetsukyo,' which is the origin of the song title. Oh, this was a song I came to like after I became an adult. That's how much I can't remember (Note: I remembered 'Lupin the Third Theme' after posting).

Now, let me change the 'angle' of the question a little bit.

'What is an anime song that you actually encountered in your childhood and still think is truly wonderful musically today?' If asked that, could you answer immediately? To be honest, I can't think of one easily. I knew it because it was popular. I listened to it because I knew it. When I listened to it, it was either to my taste, or it broadened my worldview. So I have had the experience of 'liking' it many times. But if asked, 'Is it musically wonderful?', I wonder.

There are songs like 'Gurenge,' which became an explosive hit and a social phenomenon in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is loved by many people and remains in their memories. However, if asked, 'Is it musically wonderful?', I inevitably get stuck for words. I don't dislike it. I understand why it became popular. But if asked if it can be unconditionally called a 'masterpiece,' I hesitate. Isn't that the extent of the distance I feel?

As I mentioned at the beginning, I explained that I was repeatedly pressured by adults of the older generation who said, 'You haven't even read 'Touch'?', and as a result, I was forced to read it. That was by no means a gentle 'recommendation,' and in today's terms, it's close to harassment, so I don't forgive the process, but I am satisfied with and grateful for the result of having read 'Touch' and being moved by it.

However, even for the same person, now that they have become 'modern adults,' the situation has changed completely. They can no longer stand on the side of pressuring young people for 'not knowing.' Conversely, they have become the side that is impatient with not knowing the trends and fears being left behind. The forced cultural inheritance that once existed has disappeared, and instead, only the anxiety of 'not wanting to be thought of as behind the times' has entered deeply into the inner lives of individuals.

The 'Old Man A' of the past was probably inwardly irritated, thinking, 'Young people these days are outrageous. Chasing trends and whatnot, aren't they soft?' In fact, he was saying it as if spitting it out. However, that same 'Old Man A' is now chasing trends more than anyone else, worrying about the eyes of young people, and fearing being left behind. We encounter such scenes in our daily lives now.

If we think calmly about this phenomenon, perhaps there were hardly any 'mature adults' in reality to begin with. Most of them were, in fact, children who just grew older. They are beings whose brains remain those of children, while only their bodies have become those of old men. They chose 'popular music' rather than aiming for 'wonderful music.' They traced only the sounds that seemed likely to be liked by children and the mothers listening with them, and tailored them into a form that would sell. And before long, they began to call this 'creation = creativity.'

That kind of creation doesn't even need to be human anymore. Learning from past hit songs, extracting patterns of trends, and re-synthesizing them in an optimized form—regarding that work, AI is already more accurate, faster, and—'overwhelmingly cheaper' than humans. We have become able to almost replace what can be 'reproduced' with machines.

What on earth was the creation that was once believed to be something only humans could handle? For example, in the world of film music, there are songs like 'My Favorite Things' that have been played and listened to repeatedly for over half a century. Such music is engraved in our memories and becomes a part of us. Can we still produce such music now? Or have the conditions for that already been lost?

Saying 'there is no one left who can write a symphony' might be an exaggeration. But at the very least, has the practice of assembling sounds based on the criterion of 'whether it will remain in a hundred years,' separated from the question of 'whether it will sell,' been almost driven out of the center of society?

The fact that I was able to obtain such a complex and structural question is the reason why I was torn between voting for this and <To those whose youth was driven wild by Mitsuru Adachi's 'Touch'>. At the same time, since I personally like 'My Favorite Things' to begin with, I find myself thinking, 'In a premium plan, how about talking only about things you personally like?' There must be quite a few people who would want to listen to that.

New discoveries from the past

If we only look toward the future and stare intently at moving forward, our vision becomes obscured by the speed of scientific and technological progress, the world ends up looking narrower and shallower, and our thinking gradually becomes linear. In the midst of that, we unknowingly end up carrying only anxiety.

Isn't it a 'problem' that this current situation is not being pointed out by anyone? That is why it seems to me that we are moving forward without being able to stop and choose again.

If you stop once and look back, turning your perspective toward the past, you will find a history with mind-boggling depth layered over and over, spreading out like a vast ocean. I believe that looking out over that ocean before moving forward, versus rushing ahead without seeing anything, holds completely different possibilities, even if both are 'moving forward'.