Shows Like Touch
For those captivated by Touch, are likely to find resonance in stories that questions the purpose and weight of our choices while maintaining targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this a solid addition to your watchlist.
Standard feature-length experiences.
Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.
★ Top Picks

Cross Game
Kō Kitamura, whose family owns a sporting goods store, has known the Tsukishima girls since he was born. The Tsukishima family runs a batting center and cafe, and they have four daughters. There's Ichiyo, the responsible eldest; Wakaba, Kō's cheerful best friend; Aoba, who doesn't get along with Kō; and Momiji, the energetic youngest daughter. When Kō enters high school, he aspires to lead his baseball team to the Koshien National High School Championship as their ace pitcher and make Wakaba's dream come true.

Love and Lies
In a futuristic society, Japan has implemented a complex system referred to as "The Red Threads of Science" to encourage successful marriages and combat increasingly low birthrates. Based on a compatibility calculation, young people at the age of 16 are assigned marriage partners by the government, with severe repercussions awaiting those who disobey the arrangement. For Yukari Nejima, a teen that considers himself average in every way, this system might be his best shot at living a fulfilling life. However, spurred by his infatuation for his classmate and long-time crush, Misaki Takasaki, Yukari defies the system and confesses his love. After some initial reluctance, Misaki reciprocates his feelings in a moment of passion. Unfortunately, before the two can further their relationship, Yukari receives his marriage notice. He is then thrown into a confusing web of love and lies when his less-than-thrilled assigned partner, Ririna Sanada, becomes fascinated with his illicit romance.

Blue Spring Ride
At the end of her first year of high school, Futaba Yoshioka suddenly has a chance encounter with her first love, Kou Tanaka. Three years ago, he transferred schools before she was able to say how she felt about him. After meeting each other again, Futaba realizes that he has gone through many changes. He acts more cool and even had his last name changed to Mabuchi. Gradually the two rekindle their love while piecing together what had happened in the time that they were apart.

Kuroko's Basketball
In the story, Kagami Taiga has just enrolled into Seirin High School when he meets Kuroko Tetsuya of the school's basketball team. Kuroko happens to be the shadowy sixth member of the legendary Generation of Miracles basketball team. Together, Kagami and Kuroko aim to take their team to the inter-high school championship - against Kuroko's former teammates.

Kokoro Connect
Five members of the school culture club—Taichi Yaegashi, Iori Nagase, Himeko Inaba, Yui Kiriyama, and Yoshifumi Aoki—encounter a bizarre phenomenon one day when Aoki and Yui switch personalities without warning. The same begins to happen to the other club members, throwing their daily lives into chaos. At first the five students find some amusement among the confusion, but this connection also exposes the painful scars hidden within their hearts... When their calm lives are shattered, the relationships between the five students also begin to change!

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity
When the intimidating Rintaro meets the open-minded Kaoruko, the unlikely duo grows closer. The issue? Their neighboring high schools hate each other.

The Dangers in My Heart
Kyotaro Ichikawa, a boy barely clinging to the bottom rung of his school's social ladder, secretly believes he’s the tortured lead in some psychological thriller. He spends his days dreaming up ways to disrupt his classmates' peaceful lives and pining after Anna Yamada, the class idol. But Kyotaro's not nearly the troubled teen he pretends to be…and it turns out Anna's a bit odd herself!

His and Her Circumstances
In His and Her Circumstances, like a drug, Yukino Miyazawa was addicted to admiration and praise from those around her. She worked hard to become the perfect student, the perfect girl. But that was before… him. Souichirou Arima. The instant she met him, she hated him. Without even trying, he snatched the very glory from her hands by easily acing the high school entrance exam that should have made her the class representative. To take back what is rightfully hers, Yukino is putting all her efforts into plotting her revenge – but was love part of the plan?
More Shows Like Touch

True Tears
Shinichiro is a student living in what would be a dream come true for most high school boys, but for him is mostly a frustration. A well liked girl in school named Hiromi has lived in his house for a year along with his family. Her father was a close friend of the family, and when he died they immediately took her in. She is popular and well liked, always smiles, is talented in sports- but Shinichiro knows there must be tears inside her. Having an artistic tendency, he makes watercolours of her and thinks about wishing to ease her tears. Yet he cannot bring up the nerve to talk to her even in his own home. She, too, is quiet and withdrawn in their house, quite unlike at school. Shinichiro is also distracted by teasing from his friend Nobuse for watching Hiromi from afar, a curse of bad luck from a strange girl named Noe, and being forced to perform Muhiga dancing. By helping Noe he hopes to ease his own problems, yet he seems to have difficulty helping himself.

Horimiya: The Missing Pieces
A new anime project that adapts popular side stories that were left out of the main anime series As the graduation ceremony at Katagiri High School comes to an end, Kyouko Hori, her boyfriend Izumi Miyamura, and their friends begin to look back on their time as students. The moments they shared together may be fleeting, but each one is a colorful piece of their precious memories.

Slam Dunk
Sakuragi Hanamichi is a junior high punk used to getting into fights and being rejected by girls but upon entering high school he meets the girl of his dreams, Haruko Akagi. He will do anything in order to win her heart including joining the school basketball team that is aiming to conquer the nation lead by Haruko's brother. The problem is that Sakuragi has never played basketball before and a freshman sensation is stealing the spotlight and Haruko's affection from him.

Just Because!
At the end of the second semester of third year of high school, four students are prepared for graduation and feel the ending to their high school life. But that changes a little with the arrival of a transfer student.

ORESUKI Are you the only one who loves me?
Kisaragi Amatsuyu is invited out alone by the cool beauty upperclassman Cosmos and his childhood friend Himawari. Expecting to hear their confessions, he triumphantly goes to meet each of them in turn. But Cosmos and Himawari both instead confess to Amatsuyu that they like his friend. Amatsuyu fights this lonely battle, but there is another girl who is looking at him. She is a gloomy girl with glasses and braids. Amatsuyu finds that he hates her, because she's always turning her sharp tongue only on him and finding enjoyment in his troubles. But it turns out that she's the only one who actually does like him.

Honey and Clover
Takemoto Yuuta, Mayama Takumi, and Morita Shinobu are college students who share the small apartment. Even though they live in poverty, the three of them are able to obtain pleasure through small things in life. The story follows these characters' life stories as poor college students, as well as their love lives when a short but talented 18 year old girl called Hanamoto Hagumi appears.

Toradora!
It’s Ryuji’s first day as a junior in high school and it seems as if things are looking up. He gets to sit in between his only friend, Yusaku, and, more importantly, the girl he’s secretly crushing on, Minori Kushieda. But just when he thinks the stars are aligned in his favor, he unwittingly crosses the most feared girl in school, Taiga Aisaku, making her onto his arch enemy. To top it off, Taiga has moved in right next door to Ryuji and happens to be Minori’s best friend! Can this school year possibly get any worse?!

Real Girl
Tsutsui Hikari (a.k.a "Tsuttsun") is a high school student who is content with his virtual life of anime and video games. One day, he gets stuck cleaning the pool with Iroha, a real live girl who is stylish, sassy and known to be easy with boys ... and she aggressively approaches him! Tsuttsun, who has few friends and lives in his own world, finds himself smitten by the confident and wild Iroha ... and his whole world is turned upside down!! It's the awkward and pure love story of a boy who experiences relationship for the first time.

The Hill Dyed Rose Madder
Junichi Nagase was a real delinquent in middle school, one nasty enough that he earned the nickame "Geno Killer," and it's by this less than flattering epithet that Yuuhi Katagiri first comes to know him when he rescues her from two thugs one evening. Needless to say, both are stunned when not only does Yuuhi find herself transferred into the same high school class as "the Killer," but that shock grows into outright stupefaction when Yuuhi shows up at Junichi's house with the mind-blowing announcement that she's supposed to move in with him! It seems that they're engaged, and since this is the first that Junichi and his younger sister Minato have first heard of the arranged marriage set up by their parents, it's an idea that's going to take a little getting used to. Get ready for ties that bind and gag as bad boy and good girl collide cohabitationally while the entire school gets to watch!

Maison Ikkoku
Godai is a ronin (someone who has failed university entrance exams) living in a run down apartment house called Maison Ikkoku. Among the other residents are the nosy Ichinose, the sexy Akemi Roppongi, and the mysterious Yotsuya. The others are given to having wild parties which makes it difficult for Godai to study. Into this mayhem comes the recently widowed Kyoko as the new live-in manager. Godai falls for her, but doesn't have the nerve to tell her. As time passes, their relationship slowly develops amid life at Maison Ikkoku, despite all sorts of romantic hurdles.

Seiren
For high school students like Shouichi Kamita, university entrance exams and the future are common concerns. It is also during this time in life that a mysterious emotion that vexes people of all ages may begin to weigh upon one's mind—love. At this point in his teenage years, Shouichi finds three girls he could see himself having a future with: the ever-cheerful Hikari Tsuneki, who teases Shouichi without mercy, but actually has a softer side; the competitive gamer, Tooru Miyamae, who has difficulty communicating with others; and Shouichi's childhood friend, Kyouko Touno, the sometimes immature shoujo manga enthusiast. Seiren follows Shouichi's relationships with these three girls across three separate arcs, as their feelings grow from mutual interest and blossom into something more beautiful.

Captain Tsubasa
Tsubasa Ozora loves playing football since he was a little child. After moving to the japanese town of Nankatsu together with his mother, the 11-year-old boy quickly finds friends and joins the local football team of his elementary school. Together with his newly made friends and Brazilian mentor Roberto, Tsubasa starts his exciting journey to chase after his most desired dream - one day winning the FIFA World Cup.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Touch (1985): Animation and Drama themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of Touch.
See full details for Touch (1985)



