I’ll be damned if Mix isn’t on course to be the best series of the spring, or at least in close running for it, in classic Adachi “tortoise and the hare” mode.  It didn’t exactly shock and awe in the premiere, but the gist of it is, Adachi really knows his way around a story like this.  It’s as comfortable for him as slipping into a nice warm bath, and that’s what it feels like for me as a viewer too.  There are certainly flashier series this season, but none nearly so consistent and insistent (and don’t discount the latter as a factor in Adachi’s appeal).

Speaking of appeal, it does my heart good to see Mix pulling frankly tremendous TV ratings (not compared to Touch of course, but that was another era) – which for a show airing when it does (at 5:30 PM on Saturdays) is still very important.  Especially here, as Mix is in what’s normally a two-cour timeselot and with Boku no Hero Academia set to return in the fall, that’s a near-lock here.  While the manga is ongoing two cours isn’t enough to adapt even what’s already out there, so it’s vital that the series gets a continuation (which I think it will).  Not just for the sake of the plot, but because that will be necessary to really allow its charms to show.

As I said last week, Cross Game was a torrid love at first sight (and miraculously a love that lasted, which rarely happens with torrid love affairs) but Mix is the pleasant first date at a flea market and the cafe afterwards, where you think they seem pretty nice but you don’t see fireworks.  Adachi protagonists don’t show you all their charms immediately either – you need to get to know them to appreciate why they’re special (special enough that they have posters of themselves).  Touma, for example, refuses a classmate’s challenge to see who can score higher on the exams, with a date with Otomi as the prize.  Not because he’s worried he’d lose, but because he knows he has no right to make such a promise.

That could be taken two ways – obviously it could be a deference to the biological brother (that’s how Touma plays it) but I always felt it was out of respect for Otomi.  As for said Souichirou, he has no problem saying “fine”.  Yeah that’s a douchey thing to do, which fits as Sou is a douche a lot of the time.  But the truth is he’s not concerned – he knows that if there are stakes he considers worth the effort, Touma will perform at a very high level.  He can’t be bothered to study most of the time, but with Otomi’s honor on the line he leaps all the way into the top 5 in the class rankings.

Meanwhile, we get a darn sight more baseball here than in any other episode so far.  It still doesn’t involve Tou pitching, though.  Meisei is continuing their miraculous run through the qualifiers, with Nikaidou getting by seemingly on smoke and mirrors.  And after the team somehow qualifies for the main Tokyo qualifier for the first time in 20 years, the ace (or at least the guy in the #1 uniform) starts showing up for practice less and less.  Given how calm Tou normally is, it’s easy to see that this is the one thing in his life that really, really gets under his skin.

The opponent in the first round of the Tokyo tournament is Seinan Mizukami Middle School, and their ace is someone who’ll seem naggingly familiar if you’re a Touch fan (unlike the kids doing the preview narration).  That would be Nishimura Takumi (Nara Tooru), but Mizukami elects not to use him against Meisei, who they see as a weak opponent.  And Nikaidou doesn’t start either – in fact doesn’t even show up on time.  The manager (rather than turn to his best pitcher) gives the ball to the rag-armed third-year Yasuno-kun, who managed with Souichirou’s help to keep Meisei in a seesaw battle with Mizukami for four-plus innings.  At that point Seinan’s manager realizes that things aren’t going quite as smoothly as he’d hoped, and puts his ace on the mound.

It’s pretty obvious that there’s more to all this than meets the eye, but unlike in Cross Game we’re not privy to why the baseball club is shrouded by shady dealings.  That’s a function of Mix‘ role as a follow-up to a legendary original, I suppose – Adachi really has to maintain the mystique however possible, whereas with Cross Game he was free to take the story wherever he wanted it.  Again, the rewards may take a little longer to be reaped, but Mix is a series where patience is definitely a virtue both for the protagonists and the audience.