Mix: Meisei Story

Because of the legend left by Tatsuya Uesugi, Meisei Academy High School was well-known for their strong baseball team. But 26 years after their glory, the team has not been able to keep their record and has since lost their fame.

Two stepbrothers, Souichirou and Touma Tachibana, aim to revive of the once-strong Meisei Academy baseball team and enter the National High School Baseball Championship.

Souichirou and Touma are second years in Meisei Academy Middle School. Both boys are talented baseball players. Souichirou has shown excellent skill as a catcher and batter. Though having an extraordinary skill as a pitcher, Touma no longer pitches due to a certain reason.

Once the two enter high school, they pair as a battery and aim to enter the National High School Baseball Championship!

(Source: YTV, edited)

Tachibana, Otomi Main

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Tachibana, Souichirou Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Tachibana, Touma Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Ooyama, Haruka ing

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Nishimura, Isami ing

Nakao, Ryusei Japanese

Narrator ing

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Nangou, Shirou ing

Mogami, Tsuguo Japanese

Tachibana, Eisuke ing

Takagi, Wataru Japanese

Tachibana, Mayumi ing

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Nishimura, Takumi ing

Nara, Tooru Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Itou, Kaori Producer

Kojima, Hiroaki Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Sep 28, 2019

Veronin

Recommended

For someone whose all-time favourite anime is Touch, there's a strange feeling to be had watching a quasi-sequel an entire thirty plus years after Touch originally aired. A mixture of nostalgia and of heavy emotions, of how things were and how they are, of how we have changed but not changed much at all.

But throughout it all, the one emotion that lingered strongest was: "I wish I was watching Touch instead."

It's a story that has been done thrice before, with Mix now being Adachi Mitsuru's fourth at-bat with coming-of-age baseball dramas. The biggest difference here is that Mix isn't so much a personal story ... in the way that Touch and Cross Game were, but is an entirely sports-focused series in a similar vein to H2, albeit with heavy themes of family and nostalgia. Touch in particular was focused on themes of trauma, guilt, angst, loss, and love, of trying to prove yourself and trying to be someone who you are not. There are none of these things in Mix— not even a touch of romance— which makes the entire experience pretty mild unless an already prodigy-level pitcher aiming for first place at the Koushien is all you ever needed.

The matches are engaging in typical Adachi Mitsuru fashion, as they can be over in a split-second from the tiniest of mistakes, making it impossible to reliably predict who will win and who will lose. No team is invincible, and no player is infallible. The epic music crescendos with Touma's masterful pitches, each landing with a loud thud as the innings rack up and the stakes increase. One mistake, one poor pitch and Meisei could be immediately sent home with nothing but regret and a years-long wait until next summer's tournament. While the first half of Mix is largely slice-of-life and an introduction to the characters, the second half is extremely tense and devoted to Meisei's run at the summer tournament.

As a sports anime, Mix is great. But with only twenty-four episodes devoted to a still-ongoing manga, with enough chapters to already cover several seasons worth of similarly paced content, to have things end as prematurely as they do makes the anime feel like lost potential. "Really... that's it? No sequel announcement? This is how we're ending?", I thought, as my video player reached the end of the final episode's credits. Adachi Mitsuru's anime adaptations— namely Touch and Cross Game— are notable in how they actually portrayed the entire story despite the length of their manga source material. Touch told a full story, from beginning to end. So did Cross Game. But Mix, unless things are to change, has only told about 10% of the entire story, hoping anime viewers will be OK with an ending that doesn't conclude anything or make the viewer feel at all happy with where things are leaving off. It's like a manga that was gutted and canceled with two week's notice— it simply isn't an ending.

But I guess that is the fate of anime produced in 2019. The days of fifty, a hundred episodes airing weekly is behind us, with three different seasons produced over an entire decade being the best one could hope for. Most of the time anime adaptations will simply end after the thirteen episodes and remain incomplete stories. It's a shame Mix was produced in 2019 instead of a decade ago when longer stories still had a fighting chance. Because, you know, Touch never even showed its true colors until twenty-five episodes had ed. Maybe there is more here as the story progresses, and maybe, just maybe, had it been a full adaptation, it could have had the potential to match or even sur Touch.

I enjoyed Mix. I enjoyed returning to a peaceful setting painted by Adachi Mitsuru, and hearing all the silly fourth-wall-breaking gags the characters prod the viewer with. The summer tournament in the latter half was climactic and exciting. But every time the show would reference Touch, with Touma pitching next to Tatsuya - his splitting image - I would feel a desire to simply return to Touch instead, much, I suppose, as Touma's coach is haunted by nostalgia, unable to let go of his memories at Meisei thirty years past.

So I write this review, six years after I wrote my Touch review, with manga volumes of Touch and Cross Game still standing next to my computer desk. Obviously I haven't let go just yet, but that doesn't mean I didn't give Mix a fair shot, either. I just don't think it did it best.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 2, 2020

itssimplyme

Recommended

So I started Mix for two reasons: 1) it was on the Anime Awards nominees for Best Sports Anime of 2019, and it seemed to have really good art. 2) I thought it was a sequel to Cross Game.
I found out later that it wasn't, (instead a sequel to Touch) but the art style was so nostalgic I stayed for the whole thing.

The reason I give this an 8, although I probably should have given a 7, is because I feel it gets more hate than it deserves. Writing and story aside, the animation is top tier, so good I thought it was Production IG ... for a second. The music isn't at all irritating, as it can so easily be in shows like this, and the fact that Mix was created with such love and care made me want to rate them as such.

The reasons to watch Mix are the following: if you love baseball anime (despite it being repetitive at times), if you like slice of life, and if you like calm, realistic main characters (the side cast leaves something to be desired). Oh and if you like Kaji Yuki.
It's animation is absolutely fantastic, never once dropping because of it's classic art style. I watched it all the way through, and while I definitely prefer Diamond no Ace, Cross Game and Major faaar more, I still enjoyed myself massively.

But Mix wasn't without flaws. The baseball aspect was very stereotypical (but at this point in sports anime, how can it not be?), and the ing characters were extremely bland, contributing nothing to the team. And then it's whole sister-obsession. The show focused ridiculously on Otomi being some curvaceous, voluptuous icon, where she was only 14.

Also, be warned, those who have issues with Eren/Mikasa pairing (although when the started to live together, they were 10, well aware of their separate upbringings) will definitely have problems with the main 'couple' bordering on incest. Thankfully, the show doesn't focus too much on it at all, and one can even shrug it off by saying it's brotherly love. But honestly, at 5 y/o, you don't really notice that you're from separate parents. I don't have a step-sibling, but I'm sure that being raised from 5 as siblings MAKES you siblings.

Oh Japan. Of course if that's your cup of tea, more to ya.

Regardless, I found refuge in Souichiro, the 'twin' brother. But I still liked Touma plenty.

Bottom line: give it a chance. If you like it by episode 3, you'll like it throughout. But if not, don't continue further, because it's more of the same.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 23, 2019

michinokudrvr

Mixed Feelings

As someone who has never seen or read Adachi Mitsuru's previous works, I had no idea what I was getting myself into while watching MIX. After finishing it, I'm only left feeling... disappointed. 26 episodes just isn't enough substance to wrap up what the first season was trying to create. Storylines and character development throughout the season fell flat, and the ending was inconclusive and leaves a question mark on MIX.

Though it has weird pacing throughout the early part of the first season, MIX's story is easy to follow, despite being bland at times. There are some high moments, and there are some very dull ... moments.

The artwork of MIX is one of the strongest aspects. The art style encapsulates the world of MIX greatly.

While the OP and soundtrack are generic, it gets the job done well. It reeks of "high school Japanese baseball", in a good way.

Character development is one of my biggest gripes about MIX. The characters are mostly a blank slate, with only a few instances of them showing potential for growth. I feel like there wasn't enough time taken to build up the main cast to become multi-demential. There was plenty of potential that wasn't reached. I felt the storytelling created by Adachi Mitsuru was not fully realized. Many of the opportunities for arcs were seemingly thrown out of the window every episode.

Overall, while MIX didn't reach my expectations, I have hope that a second season is made, and it expands on the universe of MIX. If you are interested in the previous works of Adachi Mitsuru, or if you are interested in baseball/sports anime, give this show a shot.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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