I have to assume Adachi-sensei didn’t get my memo last week about getting annoyed with the Harada situation soon.  Because he went ahead and teased it even more, in two ways to boot.  The past is looming ever-larger in Mix as it progresses – I would judge the first season as about 90-10 focused on the present (at least).  But Nidome no Natsu is probably closer to 50-50 than 90-10, which I guess isn’t surprising in that we are talking about one of the most popular franchises in Japanese history.  Sooner or later Touch was going to assert its massive gravitational pull on the narrative.

Tease #1 one finds Touma drafted to help out Oohashi-san, from the… Boxing Club.  Who still have the same sign outside their clubroom, though they’re about to replace it.  Oohashi proceeds to spin the tale of how a long time ago the boxing club let its star slip away to the baseball club, where he became the ace that led them to Koushien.  This comes as news to that ace’s lookalike, who says he thought he’d been traded for some calligraphy.  Naturally that photo wasn’t one of the ones Touma looked at – that would have put us out of our misery, pretty much.

Meanwhile, Senbongi-sensei continues to seek closure to the tragic (though that may be overstating the case) events from his abortive high school baseball career.  He pigeonholes the wrong Tachibana boy to spin his tale of woe, though Touma is sympathetic and promptly goes to fetch Sawai Keiichi’s actual son.  And predictably Souichirou is very understanding too.  Hell, his dad was too, back in the day.  Shit happens – it’s sports.  It’s sad that Senbongi-san has let this dominate his life for so long, but it seems like he was the only one blaming him for what happened.

Sou’s theory is that Sawai-san is calling home everyone he wants to see Meisei win Koushien again,  He’s not willing to extend that to Harada, however.  He’s getting tangled up in this week’s other tease, as he goes for a long stroll and winds up outside his family home.  Nothing seems to click, though – not even the name on the gate.  And of course the little girl he terrifies is too young to know he’s her uncle, and Kouhei is already gone by the time his sister comes to check what’s going on.  And so the merry dance continues for at least another week.

We also got what I’d call a side story about Otomi and Arisa seemingly taking the first steps towards friendship.  Arisa is as tsundere as it gets but not even she can resist an onsen owl, apparently.  But really, the focus here is on the prior generation, and on the soon to begin Koushien tournament.  Not coincidence I suppose that Mix has timed its airing so that Koushien will happen in the summer (the first season did the same) – its hard to overstate the pull that event has on the Japanese psyche. I suspect (well, basically know, as Adachi almost never breaks his own rules) that Meisei will go furthher this time, though not all the way.