Spring 2019 First Impressions – Mix: Meisei Story

26 years after Meisei High conquered the Kōshien, a promising pitcher-catcher battery was formed in its middle school by the Tachibana step-brothers, Touma and Souichirou. – ANN

Streaming: Funimation and Hulu

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: 26 years ago, Meisei High School did the near-impossible – they managed to win the nation-wide high school baseball tournament held at Koshien Stadium. In the ensuing years the school never made another play at the title, and the school’s fame and ambitions cooled. The Tachibana brothers, born 10 minutes apart on the same day (but who aren’t twins), seem to have an obvious synergy with one-another, along with a keen interest in baseball. Even as young kids they had a goal in mind to one day reach Koshien.

As students of Meisei Middle School, they find that baseball team ambitions are somewhat lacking. Still, there are a few talented students chomping at the bit, and Touma and Souichiro Tachibana make an obviously talented pitcher-catcher pair. Could this be the latent beginning of a new era for Meisei?

Impressions: I recall some years ago when Funimation took a chance on licensing the baseball-focused anime series Big Windup! (Ookiku Furikabutte). The series didn’t do well for them and the company vowed never to take that sort of gamble again. Back then, sports anime was a tiny, niche sub-set of what was popular in anime fandom, and otaku (including myself) seemed more likely to turn their noses up at the genre entirely. Things have changed a lot in 10 years – there’s now plenty of sports anime being simulcast each season and the genre seems to have shed its undeserved stigma among many anime fans. Heck, Big Windup! was even rescued by Nozomi, who released the second season of the show on disc. And now Mix, a straightforward, earnest baseball drama from famous author Mitsuru Adachi, is even being simul-dubbed by the previously gun-shy Funimation. It’s interesting how things can come full circle like that.

I mention the series’ apparent earnestness, not because it’s detrimental to this episode or the story, but because it differs quite a bit from what’s become “popular” in the realm of sports anime. When I think of some of the sports series that have garnered a lot of attention over the past few years, they seem to have had some success due to crossover appeal and their willingness to dig deep into aspects of realism. Yuri!! On Ice is one of the bigger examples, not only capturing the look and feel of real-life figure skating, but also portraying some powerful emotional drama and featuring a prominent same-sex relationship. Haikyuu! contains a lot of the same emotionality and character drama while also featuring both the tactical aspects of volleyball alongside some of the best, full-throttle animated sports sequences in modern anime. And Run With the Wind is powerful in its depiction of characters working toward a common goal without shying away from the ugliness of what sports can do to the human body.

While it’s of course difficult to make too many assumptions this early on, judging from the first episode, Mix doesn’t seem interested in conforming to modern expectations of the sports anime genre. It doesn’t bank on animated flashiness and it doesn’t seem interested in breaking new social ground. Instead it seems to adhere to a framework that’s more focused around the pure, bittersweet feelings that come with the cultural ideals around its character’s goals – to achieve victory at Koshien and bring fame back to their school, all the while engraving something indelible into their own life experiences. On paper that sounds sort of corny; I think nowadays we are often drawn more toward surprising or shocking stories, but while I don’t always choose to seek out feel-good entertainment, there’s a part of me that’s happy it exists.

One thing that may be a stumbling block for some viewers is the fact that this series is a spiritual sequel to one of Adachi’s much earlier tales, Touch. Touch was certainly “known” in some of my earlier fandom circles, but the fact that it was never officially available in the United States in any form that I know of, and that it clocks in at 101 episodes (nearly 44 hours of anime!) means that the majority of fans around my parts will not have had the experience of watching it. This episode does a decent job of providing some of that background; it begins with a flashback to what I assume are the final story beats of Touch, along with a bit of narration that catches us up to the modern day and Meisei’s current situation. I feel that I got as much out of this episode as I could have despite not being willing to download 101 episodes of anime to fill myself in ahead of time, but I suspect whatever happens in this series will likely have a deeper meaning for those who’ve enjoyed its predecessor.

While this series doesn’t look like it’s very animation-forward, it does indulge in its fair share of visual gimmicks, to mixed results. As you can see above, when important characters make their appearances it’s made extremely obvious through the use of on-screen graphics. While it’s nice to know where to focus my attention, I found this a little bit hand-holdy. I think the same goal could have been accomplished through character actions and dialog without these intrusions into the episode itself. This series also really wants you to know that its story has its basis in the 1980s; the opening flashback is presented in 4:3 with a VHS tracking effect muddling the image. A VHS fast-forward effect also shows up during a couple of scene transitions. For someone like me who was alive during the bulk of the 80’s, it’s amusing to see this kind of stuff, but even though it does a lot to cultivate a certain mood and sense of nostalgia, it’s very heavy-handed and could have been skipped entirely without losing the show’s particular flavor.

I feel I should mention the fact that a certain story element crops up a couple of times, and its implications might give pause to some viewers. At quite a few points, it’s emphasized that Touma and Souichiro are only 10 minutes apart in age (and this is a point of contention over who’s the older or younger sibling and who should listen to whom), but they aren’t twins. I assume the answer to this riddle is that one of them is adopted, and knowing what I know of Adachi’s storytelling, there may be some tragic familial circumstances being hinted at here. There are no answers provided yet, but the fact it’s been repeated several times leads me to believe that this is a Big Deal™, so those with sensitivities to this topic might do well to tread carefully.

For those who have been in anime fandom for a while, this series seems like it could be a nice nostalgia trip (and perhaps motivation for some company to pick up Touch). For newer fans, this might have the distinct feel of something old-fashioned and possibly uncool. That said, I think there are always those fans who will be curious about the transformations that occurred within fandom before they were involved, and this might turn out to be one of the better ways to get a taste of that in the modern day.

Pros: Earnest, straightforward storytelling about a universally-understood goal. A classic take on the sports anime genre.

Cons: Might seem corny or old-fashioned. Some of the on-screen visual gimmicks are too much.

Grade: B-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJsdWzr7fNo