There’s one thing that should be said about Mix.  If there were ever a series that would suffer from being graded on a curve, it’s this one.  It’s a sequel to the most successful TV anime of all-time, and the Adachi follow-up to one of the best TV anime of all time.  So when it has a relatively indifferent episode as it did this week, there’s a tendency to be a little harder on it than it probably deserves.  But Mix isn’t Touch, and it isn’t Cross Game, and holding it to a more objective standard it fares far better.

Fortunately that’s what seems to be happening in Japan, where the series is scoring outstanding TV ratings and so far has been very well-received.  If you’re an Adachi fan, an ep like this one must give you an even greater than usual sense of deja vu, because we’ve definitely been down this road before.  Middle school is over with (for the protagonist, anyway), an injustice had been confronted and a new coach is in place, and the prologue has done its job and made way for the main storyline.  And hey – we got all the way through it without anybody dying (in the present timeline, anyway).

Given that this is indeed the beginning of the story proper, that’s Adachi’s cue to hit us with a swathe of new characters.  The first one we meet is Nango Shiro (known to rhythmic gymnasts everywhere as Nan-chan) another 15 year-old going on 50 who’s followed “the coach” (yeah, right) all the way from Kyuushu to West Tokyo.  It’s Haruka Nan-chan is primarily focused on, though he does seem to have a genuine talent for hitting a baseball.  He’s also terrified of bugs, especially cockroaches, though his main focus is in making every guy who looks at Haruka terrified of him.

Also making an appearance is Arisa Mita (Mariya Ise), second place in the “Miss Meisei” popularity poll (to you know who), who likes to talk about her brother a lot.  There’s also Akai Ryou (Nishiyama Koutarou), Otomi’s fellow class rep (which makes him an object of some concern for Natsuno-kun).  Natsuno, meanwhile, has become the new ace of the middle school team, though unfortunately for him in the absence of Touma’s presence on the practice fields, Otomi has taken to spending her time in band practice actually practicing with the band.

As for Haruka, she’s spending a fair amount of time at the Tachibana home since the bath at her and Goro’s place is broken.  This leads to a bit of unintentional peeping from Touma (girigiri safe peeping), which drives Souchirou quite around the bend, and an interesting question (both in the asking and the implication from Otomi which Haruka pointedly declines to answer.  On the diamond, Goro-san has decided to hold back on letting Touma pitch so as not to crush the pride of the third-year hurlers.  But they’re tired of losing, and all they want to do themselves is see Touma pitch.

Touma is so hyped up at the chance tp pitch that he collapses into bed as soon as gets home, which prompts Otomi to go check on him despite Sou’s assurances that he’s fine (which annoys Sou almost as much as the bath incident).  I don’t know why, exactly, but I love seeing the implacable Souichirou as discombobulated and annoyed as he was for most of this episode…