It was definitely a change-of-pace week on Mix, as Adachi-sensei follows his usual in-tournament narrative pattern.  No mangaka has mastered the art of the Koushien scramble like he has (though to be fair I don’t think anyone has had as much practice).  Adachi is a master of pacing to begin with, but tournaments in sports manga are especially tricky – Ookiku Furikabutte comes to mind as a series (and a good one) that never quite got this right – and it’s during these spells that his effortless dexterity as a writer really manifests itself.

With Kenjo (the former Sumi Tech) in the rearview, the focus turns to Sanko High School (Adachi, you shameless name-dropper you), a school about which we (theoretically) haven’t heard much (unless we have a very good memory).  Haruka is despatched to spy on them, which she finds rather difficult due to the anti-spy tarp the school has placed around their practice field.  Haruka avails herself of a rusty old tennis umpire’s chair (unconcerned, apparently, about being so open in her activities) but that decision will have repercussions later in the episode.

Meanwhile, the focus of most of the episode turns to the middle school division of Mix, as Adachi – as he so often does – pivots to the relationship side of the ledger while the baseball side is in a lull.  With his usual spate of fourth-wall breakage he lets us know that the girls are once again in swimming practice (while the boys are stuck playing soccer in the sweltering heat).  This means a rematch of the grudge race between Otomi and Arisa – though truth be told Otomi doesn’t really care one way or the other, and the race Arisa is concerned about isn’t being held in the pool.  And she’s already lost it…

I guess it says something about Otomi and her athletic genes that she can dive to the bottom of the pool and find a teacher’s missing car key (how it managed to find the bottom of the pool I’d be fascinated to know) and still almost beat Arisa.  And it says something about her priorities that she doesn’t bother to throw this is Arisa’s face.  But Ryou-kun (whose birthday this is, though he claims to have forgotten despite his older brother saying so last week) has seen all of this, and he declares to Natsuno that he’s in love with Otomi.  This sets poor Natsuno (I’m rooting for you, Natsuno-kun) off in rather a tizzy, and hands a giant “Tsuzuku” sign on this part of the story.

Meanwhile Haruka has managed to break her arm when she broke the chair.  This gets her out of rhythmic gymnastics, which to be honest she never seemed all that concerned about anyway, and leaves her free to become the manager of the baseball team (more in-joke work here).  The reactions of the boys on the team are fairly predictable, but if there were any doubts as to Souichirou’s feelings they’re out the window now.  I kind of like seeing him laid low in this fashion, because his usual imperious and implacable manner makes him rather hard to like a lot of the time.