Welcome to WordPress, Mix.

It’s been a long dry spell as usual, but there was a recent dump of translated manga chapters for Mix.  And experience has taught me that when it comes to backlogged manga posts I’d better jump on them when I get a half a chance.  So here we are.

First off, let me apologize to Adachi-sensei, because he genuinely surprised me here – in defiance of my direct prediction, Meisei actually won their game with Kenjou. Touma pretty much dominated (at one point striking out seven consecutive batters), and in fact the elder Akai never got another at-bat.  And it was a lucky bloop single by the #5 hitter Ogi that plated both the tying and go-ahead runs for Meisei – Touma had nothing to do with it.

Now that this hurdle has been crossed, the stage seems to be set for Meisei to be make a deep run in this Koushien before their certain (but what the hell do I know) defeat, most likely against Seinan.  Along the way Adachi is giving us his usual inside-the-beltway humor (like the reference to the girls already having a swimming class “in the color pages”) and the potential romantic pairing continue to take baby steps forward.  Touma still seems likely to end up with Otomi (squirrely as some may find that, they at least aren’t related by blood).  Souichirou is showing definite sparks with Coach Ooyama’s daughter, who broke her arm on a scouting mission of Meisei’s next fodder opponent.  And there’s a middle-school triangle forming with the younger Akai (who’s emerged as kind of an interesting character) and Natsuno pursuing Otomi (fruitlessly, I expect).

Maybe the biggest headline, though, is that we finally saw the name “Uesugi Tatsuya” (without exaggeration one of the half-dozen most beloved characters in manga) in Mix – on the ball Ooyama holds up as the totem of Meisei baseball.  Surely this is a symbolic moment of great importance, an acknowledgement by Adachi that we’re close to a major development clarifying the connection between Mix and Touch.  I still say it’s way too early for this Meisei team to make a serious run at glory, but once the context of the story is fully in place, the character drama should really kick into high gear.