http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Touch1.gif
->''Our family, the Uesugis, and our next-door neighbors, the Asakuras, had three kids born in the same year. This cute kid is Uesugi Tatsuya. that's me. This is my younger brother, Kazuya. We're twins. and this is our neighbor, Minami. We've always been good friends...but one day we noticed that one of us was a girl...''

A baseball/romance/SliceOfLife {{manga}} by Mitsuru Adachi, which follows the lives of twins Tatsuya and Kazuya Uesugi and their neighbor Minami Asakura, as they experience triumph and tragedy both on and off the baseball field.

Tatsuya, the elder twin, is a lazy, perverted kid with no apparent ambitions or goals in his life. Younger twin Kazuya, on the other hand, is mature, intelligent, and a brilliant athlete, from whom everyone expects wonderful things. Their neighbor, Minami, is a bright and spirited girl, whom both brothers have known and loved their whole lives.

Everyone believes that Kazuya and Minami would make a perfect couple, and that they're destined for each other - too bad he's not the one she's in love with.

----
!Examples

* TheAce: Kazuya Uesugi is kind, polite, hard-working, a sports star, makes good grades, and is popular with girls. Akio Nitta is cut from the same mold. Minami Asakura seems to be a female version.
* AdaptationExpansion: As might be expected from turning a 26-volume manga into a 101-episode TV series, three theatrical movies and two TV-movies.
* [[spoiler:AngstySurvivingTwin: Tatsuya. Oh, so much.]]
* BeYourself: Tatsuya eventually learns to step out of his younger twin brother's shadow, [[spoiler: and also learns to favor his own unpredictable pitching style, rather than imitating him.]]
* BrattyHalfPint: Yuka Nitta.
* CanNotSpitItOut: '''''Yes.'''''
* [[spoiler:DeathOfTheHypotenuse]]
* DoggedNiceGuy: Sasaki to Yuka Nitta. He even changes schools and joins the baseball team in spite of a lack of talent just to be around her. [[spoiler:By the end of the manga, she's willing to give him the time of day, but not much else.]]
* DontYouDarePityMe: On top of everything that's gone wrong in life, [[spoiler: Coach Kashiwaba's going blind. But he's not going to let anyone else know it.]]
* DrillSergeantNasty: Coach Kashiwaba. [[spoiler:Due to his bitterness at being unfairly kicked off the Meisei team over 20 years ago, he seeks to break his former sempais' hearts by breaking the current team's spirit.]]
* FriendlyEnemy: Akio Nitta.
* FoeYay: [[spoiler:Yoshida considering the one-sided HoYay he had with Tatsuya]]
* GeckoEnding: Just ''barely'', and there's nothing all ''that'' different.
* HappilyMarried: Shingo and Haruko Uesugi.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Averted in Tatsuya's case. Although he is an amazing natural athlete, even better than Kazuya, years without exercising or practicing mean that [[spoiler:when he eventually joins the baseball team]] he has to train hard to even come close to his brother's standard, let alone ''surpass'' him. [[spoiler:Played straight, however, with Minami, who goes from not being particularly interested in gymnastics to winning a championship ''very'' quickly.]]
* HiddenEyes
* HoYay: Some one-sided HoYay for both Koutarou and Yoshida. Both almost seem in love with one of the Twins (Kazuya for Koutarou and Tatsuya for Yoshida). Tatsuya even jokes that Koutarou is like Kazuya's wife and tells Yoshida he's "just not into that kind of thing."
* ImageSong
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: All Tatsuya wants is for he, Kazuya and Minami to be happy together, even if it means letting Kazuya have Minami. [[spoiler:Even after his tragic death, Kazuya still remains the elephant in the room, as Tatsuya continues to think himself unworthy of Minami.]]
** [[spoiler:Tatsuya still feels guilty about "taking" Minami from his brother, too; probably even ''moreso'' because Kazuya is dead and unable to compete with him.]]
* JerkAss: Coach Kashiwaba.
* [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice: Early on in the story, Kazuya dies saving a kid from being hit by a truck.]]
* [[spoiler:KilledOffForReal]]
* [[spoiler:KissingDiscretionShot: In both manga and anime. Dammit.]]
* TheLancer: Koutarou Matsudaira, arguably Shohei Harada.
* LethalChef: After [[spoiler: taking Minami's place as team manager,]] Yuka Nitta's cooking is like this, due to being too exotic. she eventually tones it down.
* MegaManning: Takeshi Yoshida is able to learn how to imitate a person's pitches perfectly just by watching them. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[GlassCannon he lacks in physical and mental endurance.]]]]
* MissedMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:We never actually see the Koshien match in the manga or the anime, and only Tatsuya's trophy in the manga.]]
** Less potentially awesome but still disappointing: tension builds for the showdown between Tatsuya and admirer-turned-enemy Yoshida... and at the last minute, Yoshida is [[LongBusTrip put on a bus to South America]].
* MistakenIdentity: [[spoiler:Partway through the manga the baseball team's coach fall ill and hires a replacement. Rather than E'''ichi'''ro Kashiwaba, a kind man with a deep love for baseball, he accidentally hires Ei'''ji'''ro Kashiwaba. HilarityEnsues]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Tatsuya doesn't even want to bother ''trying'' to compete with his brother in any respect, so he hides his own considerable talents under a bushel and gives the impression that he has no ambition in life.
* PaintingTheFourthWall: A fairly common trope in Adachi's works.
* PantyShot
* ThePaolo: Yuka Nitta would like to be this, but Tatsuya ain't biting.
* PetTheDog: Kashiwaba never even touches the poor thing on-panel, but still...
* [[spoiler:ReallyDeadMontage]]
* TheRival: Akio Nitta to Kazuya Uesugi [[spoiler:and later Tatsuya Uesugi.]], Isumi Nishimura to Nitta (One-sided), [[spoiler:Takeshi Yoshida to Tatsuya Uesugi, also one-sided.]]
* [[ScaryBlackMan Scary Asian Man]]: Shohei Harada. He's actually an [[GeniusBruiser uncommonly perceptive and wise]] GentleGiant however.
* SiblingTriangle
* SiblingYinYang: Deliberate on Tatsuya's part.
* TheSpartanWay: Coach Kashiwaba's training methods are cruel and even outright criminal. [[spoiler:But they work, whether he likes it or not.]]
* SpeechImpairedAnimal: "Punch" the dog, though technically the closest thing he does to speech is snickering.
* TearJerker
* TriangRelations: Type 9. Both Tatsuya and Kazuya are in love with Minami, who loves both of them in return. [[spoiler:She's ''in'' love with Tatsuya, however.]]
* TwinSwitch: Tatsuya often pretends to be Kazuya for laughs. [[spoiler: And [[DudeNotFunny pulls this once after Kazuya dies.]]]]
* [[spoiler:VictoriousChildhoodFriend: And not just the main couple, either.]]
* WellExcuseMePrincess: Tatsuya and Minami's relationship starts out this way. She treats him somewhat harshly because she ''knows'' he's being lazy and immature on purpose. [[spoiler:As he grows more mature and confident, this fades.]]
* WhamEpisode: Guess.
* WideEyedIdealist: Takeshi Yoshida starts this way, [[spoiler: but quickly becomes TheResenter.]]

----
<<|{{Manga}}|>>
<<|NoteworthyAnime|>>