OP: “Starting Over” by sumika

What promises to be a truly overwhelming season for me (and it doesn’t pull any punches, with five big premieres in the first 24 hours – including the biggest) gets off to a pretty mellow start here.  I confidently predicted Mix would get a sequel when the first season ended three years ago.  “2021 or 2022, assuming Adachi doesn’t take any extended breaks” was what I said then.  He did take a couple, so the timing was pushed back a bit.  But this manga simply sells too well in Japan for the anime not to continue (though it gets almost no attention in most Western countries).

Adachi Mitsuru is certainly capable of some very intense material, both in terms of plot and emotional drama, as fans of Cross Game or Touch would tell you.  But he takes his time to build up to it, and this episode served as a reintroduction to the cast and premise more than anything.  There was no season break in the manga at this point of course, but it was certainly a transitional phase.  The first major arc of the story came to an end with Meisei losing to Toushu thanks to Touma’s errant throw (in turn thanks to a numb hand).  And with the story’s ties to Touch still mostly shrouded in mystery.

None of that was clarified here, of course.  Adachi is up to around 120 chapters now with no indication an end is imminent, and you know he’s going to wait to play his hole cards for as long as possible.  That leaves us with a lot of setup.  Touma is clearly still bothered by what happened, though he’s so naturally stone-faced that it’s hard to tell.  The team is facing the loss of several third-years, and given that they were pretty much a two-man operation anyway they can hardly afford to take any steps backwards.  The crop of new applicants is mostly “shallow” (in Souichirou’s words) lads who want to cash in on Meisei’s newfound baseball nostalgia kick to score with the babes.

There is one exception – Nishiki Kenji (Fukunishi Masaya).  Both his talent and his bad reputation are well known to Captain Imagawa, who turns down Nishiki’s application on the grounds that he’s too dangerous.  Not only is he a notorious brawler, he punched out the coach before quitting the team as an eighth-grader.  But Meisei needs an influx of talent from wherever it can get it.  Natsuno is the only legit prospect on the middle school team, though one suspects that Akai Ryou is going to overcome his brother complex at some point and finally throw over soccer for baseball.

If anything the romance side of things has moved along at an even more leisurely pace than the baseball.  Touma is obviously interested in Otomi (ick), but then, everyone is pretty much.  Haruka is out there and clearly much more into Touma than his brother (who wouldn’t be interested in her if that weren’t the case).  There seems a fairly obvious course for this main foursome to take in the romance department, though as with the Touch connections I suspect it’s going to be a good while before we get much clarity on that front.

Mix has 24 episodes to tell its story once more, and a little patience goes a long way here – some major developments are coming.  I don’t think this season will catch up to the manga, but it’ll likely get close enough to where we’re looking at another multi-year break until Season 3 (and let’s not forget Adachi-sensei is 72 now).  There are few mangaka whose stature at home stands in such stark contrast to their stature abroad – in Japan he’s a legend and still one of the biggest names in the business.  Mix is not on a par with Adachi’s best for me, but it does capture the essence of why fans like me appreciate his work so much – and how unique his sensibility is.  It’s easy to overlook Mix in a season packed with so many flashier titles, but it’s definitely a series to be reckoned with.

ED: “Haru no Oto” by miwa