Bad Touch! BAD TOUCH!

Review: Hands Off!/Sono Te Wo Dokero/Off Your Hand!
Updated: 10/17/04

Manga/Drama CD/Fandom

Reviewed by: Lianne

Title rating: Never below PG-13, sometimes R

-8-volume manga (comic) series (1998-2000), complete, currently being published in English through Tokyopop
-2-volume manga prologue series, "Ore-tachi Wo Tenshi To Yobuna" (2001), complete
-1 Audio Drama CD (1999), complete
-Act 0, published in the back of Hikari no Ko #4 (2002), complete

After three solid years of dropping "You should buy Sono Te!" to various Tokyopop employees, guess what's now available in English? Now known as Hands Off!, Sono Te can be found on better North American bookstores--and featuring a brilliant English adaptation, no less. *cough*

Kotarou Oohira, a very effeminate lad of 15, unknowingly leaves a mark on the people he touches. For some reason or another, Kotarou has some sort of ESP ability that is transmitted via physical contact; he accidentally gave his cousin and childhood friend, Tatsuki Oohira, the ability to see the past when the two were quite young. Tatsuki is aware of this as well as very aware of his own postcognition, but Kotarou has no clue as to what's going on--as far as he knows, he's perfectly normal and Tatsuki's just good at finding lost keys. Unfortunately, Tatsuki hates his postcognitive ability and cuts his friendship off with Kotarou because of it, which leaves a confused Kotarou without a best friend and wondering how he screwed things up so badly.

Kotarou shows off his super-special Oohira decoder ring, while Tatsuki, more embarrassed about this sort of thing, hides his own in his pocket and sulks.

Separated for most of their lives after Tatsuki gained his powers, the two cousins are reunited as teenagers when Kotarou transfers to a new high school and must move in with his grandfather and Tatsuki in Tokyo. Tatsuki still holds a grudge against Kotarou and still doesn't say why, so Kotarou must now deal with his frustration and anger on a daily basis. A happy living arrangement, yes indeed.

But wouldn't you know it, Kotarou's quite the danger magnet. He has the bad tendency to fall into trouble with scary people, and Tatsuki, with his mixed feelings regarding Kotarou, can't stay away when his little cousin's being beaten or kidnapped or whatever the case may be. Along with a friendly classmate with the psychic ability to see people's emotional auras (Yuuto Urushiyama), Tatsuki forces himself to use his hated postcognition in order to protect Kotarou from danger. Little does he know this will become a common occurrence, and little does he know there is far more going on with his and Kotarou's powers than he realizes.

A close-to-home fantasy with action, intrigue, and very interesting relationships, Sono Te delivers on a variety of levels. The mangaka (manga writer/artist), Kasane Katsumoto, is a veteran of the manga world and has some of the best storytelling skills I've ever seen. Her art is charming and pretty without being overly fancy, and her humor is topnotch. If she fails at anything in this series, it's her color art--for some reason, her color choice is usually awkward and unflattering--and her overuse of the "Kotarou's been snatched, gotta save him" plot device (she goes through it quite a few times in the 8-volume story). Still, despite the formulaic episode structure, Katsumoto-sensei's characters do go through some excellent trials and interplay throughout, and if you don't mind the formula, she deviates enough within it to keep you entertained through the majority of the series. She probably would've been better off if she'd stopped expanding her cast earlier than she did, though; new characters are introduced up through Volume 7, and as a result the manga feels a little drawn-out. Also, some dragging on of the story is present, particularly through Volume 5.

Tatsuki destroys years of what mothers' nagging for helmets has done by looking so damn cool without one.

What really impresses me about this manga is how it stays away from multiple shoujo manga clichés. The lead is male, the female love interest is actually very nice, quite maternal, and selfless, playboy Yuuto never puts his hands where they don't belong, and the strongest love story in the series is the platonic one between Kotarou and Tatsuki. Sex is an activity of bad guys and jerks--the main cast is rather chaste, they believe in the importance of friendship and family, and their emotional scenes are very moving. Katsumoto-sensei honestly succeeds at weaving an interesting story with an intriguing cast, and the good values are surprisingly intact for an older-girl shoujo. Hard to find that nowadays.

Backstory Manga

Although they enjoyed eluding me, I eventually picked up the two volumes of Ore-tachi wo Tenshi to Yobuna ("Don't Call Us Angels") and gave them a spin. The short series ran in Shoujo Teikoku magazine instead of Sono Te's Asuka and takes place 5-odd years or so before the beginning of Sono Te--but rather than outlining the adventures of tiny Tatsuki, instead the story focus is placed on high-school-aged Udou and Kiba (the two older, developed psychics from the Sono Te series). Ore-tachi is edgy; the soft underlying touch of the good-kids-that-just-need-love-to-straighten-out Sono Te boys is replaced with the salt of truly jaded, screwed-up, dangerous youths. Ore-tachi features a touch more sexual content and is a bit more honestly freaky than Sono Te, but its unique tone makes it an excellent read still in the thread of psychic-fantasy. Plus the picture on the back of Volume 2 features Udou and Kiba with age-appropriate little Kotarou, Yuuto, and Tatsuki--one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Sono Te's Act 0 is an exclusive extra in the back of the final volume (4) of Katsumoto-sensei's horror/fantasy series Hikari no Ko. At 30+ pages, Act 0 is a little prologue set shortly before the beginning of Sono Te and follows Kotarou and Tatsuki's first meeting after their years of separation. It's sweet, the art's nice, and the mangaka's skill of aging her characters is prominent--these slightly-younger representations of Kotarou and Tatsuki look great. Act 0 is a tasty extra for fans and further proof that Tatsuki's a softie who just needs a little love.

Audio Drama CD

Seeing as how this audio drama is basically just a few of the manga chapters read out loud with sound effects and music and such, there's nothing really remarkable here. It's fun to hear the Sono Te boys come to life (since this show will never be animated, I'll take as close to animation as I can get), so if you really like the manga you'll probably enjoy the CD. Just keep in mind, though, casting/acting isn't always the best (though Kotarou is absolutely perfect) and the music is really bad. The lyrical song "Off Your Hand" is so horrendous you'll either laugh uncontrollably or tear your ears off when you hear it. Either way, you'd be best off skipping that track second time around--if you can hear the CD second time around. Y'know, with no ears and all.

Kotarou's gonna be real sorry when he realizes he's leaning on thin air.

Sadly, not many people in The West have heard of Sono Te, and even fewer give more than a passing reference to it on their websites. For this reason, I've officially made the biggest Sono Te fansite in English, and yes, I'm a total nerd. Kings atop the fandom are the first truly coherent Sono Te sites: version 1 and version 2 of Kristin's, and although it has a bit of spoiler info in it, JanimeS' review (link fixed) is also worth a mention. And hey, this girl (link fixed) even writes great Sono Te fanfiction, and is really nice to boot. I guess there are a few fans out there, if you look hard enough.

Sono Te isn't particularly edgy, and it does have its faults, but it's a strong manga that's quite good at making up for its mistakes. I'm sticking with 4 stars out of 5. And trust me on this one--if you like your shoujo intrigue with moral fiber and some good old-fashioned platonic love, pick up a copy of Sono Te. You won't regret it.

Actually playing sports is for chumps--the girls just want the posing, baby.

NotHayama: Although the plot is a little episodic and depends on the suspension of disbelief that one kid could have that many crazies out to kidnap him, this is a strong manga with a good balance between action and character development. Plus, the characters actually exhibit proportionate angst. 4 stars.