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REVIEW: Mix Part 2 Blu-Ray




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cookiemanstah



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 546
PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:53 pm Reply with quote
wow and i heard raving good things about Touch. This seems pretty bad by comparison.
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k_dawg_3484



Joined: 18 Feb 2007
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2020 3:53 pm Reply with quote
A Mitsuru Adachi baseball story getting a release?

HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE F***ING CROSS GAME A RELEASE, DAMMIT?
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Spastic Minnow
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Joined: 02 May 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:00 pm Reply with quote
One of the last manga translations I've found features a 4th wall break that reveals a painful truth that the series fell into. The writer character in the series has decided to write a story that mirrors the story of the manga (A baseball player with a sister not related by blood) and Touma ponders to himself:
"If you take things too slow.... people will start to lose interest"

And I swear, it looks like the manga is barely at its halfway point.

Cross Game is my Masterpiece Adaichi anime though. Very touching heart, fantastic initial antagonists replaced by great friendly rivals, and one of my favorite romances. It even ADDS an original side story that greatly enhances it in relation to the manga. Damn Viz for picking it up and only releasing the manga (and for a short while, a streaming release on Hulu)- I want a Blu-Ray!

Touch has it's length and "Showa Era" problems (MC slaps main girl, main girl apologizes). I guess only watching the compilation movies is surprisingly adequate if you only watch them- but I watched the series first so, even though the story drags, I miss some of the lost details.

Mix's main problem is a complete lack of tension. It had two minor antagonists early on but they went away fast and became very sympathetic.
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WizardOfOss



Joined: 19 Jun 2018
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Location: Oss, Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2020 6:16 pm Reply with quote
I had never even heard of Adachi before until Mix last year, which ended up being one my favorite shows of the year. It gave me a strong feeling of nostalgia even though I never lived in Japan nor have I hardly ever played baseball. I can only hope this series does get another season someday.

Ever since, I've wanted to either watch or read more works by Adachi, but it wasn't until this current rather limited anime season that I started with Cross Game. Which I managed to watch all 50 episodes of within 2 weeks and now consider my favorite anime. I'm currently also reading the manga, which so far is every bit as great.

But where to go from there? First H2, which was quite fun on its own (41 eps in one week says it all...) but nowhere near as masterful as Cross Game was. Also it was disappointing that the anime adaptation was far from complete while the manga apparently didn't get an release in any language I can read. And I really don't like the idea of reading 34 volumes of scanlations. Next was Slow Step, which was......a bit weird and ended on a serious bad note.

Right now I'm watching Touch (13 eps so far), which somehow manages to feel much less dated than both H2 and Slow Step. It is rather slow, which even more emphasizes the wonderful writing of Cross Game which had me hooked after the very first episode. It is interesting though to spot the moments referenced by Mix, and I do intend to re-watch Mix after I've finished Touch.

It really is a shame so few works by Adachi get a proper release outside of Japan. Especially for the manga, just release it and I'll buy it....
(or should I consider this the perfect motivation to learn Japanese?)
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Levonr



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 807
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:03 am Reply with quote
I really liked Mix but it was very basic compared to Touch I thought. Touch has more interesting drama with the brothers, romance, rivals and that brutal coach. Mix is a picnic in comparison, its pleasant but not as powerful.
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kgw



Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 1048
Location: Spain, EU
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 3:52 am Reply with quote
There are several Italian releases of Adachi's works if you can read them. That's was how I did read Rough (quite pleasant, but unknown). Also, you can try Slow Step and Hi Atari Ryoko! which are, demographically spoken, shojo manga. If you want not sport at all, there is Niji Iro Togarashi (set in not Japan in not the Tokugawa era... but short of).

And then his other, shorter, works like Q & A and Itsumo Misora, which were too short, in my humble opinion.
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Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 881
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:52 am Reply with quote
WizardOfOss wrote:
I had never even heard of Adachi before until Mix last year, which ended up being one my favorite shows of the year. It gave me a strong feeling of nostalgia even though I never lived in Japan nor have I hardly ever played baseball. I can only hope this series does get another season someday.

Ever since, I've wanted to either watch or read more works by Adachi, but it wasn't until this current rather limited anime season that I started with Cross Game. Which I managed to watch all 50 episodes of within 2 weeks and now consider my favorite anime. I'm currently also reading the manga, which so far is every bit as great.

But where to go from there? First H2, which was quite fun on its own (41 eps in one week says it all...) but nowhere near as masterful as Cross Game was. Also it was disappointing that the anime adaptation was far from complete while the manga apparently didn't get an release in any language I can read. And I really don't like the idea of reading 34 volumes of scanlations. Next was Slow Step, which was......a bit weird and ended on a serious bad note.

Right now I'm watching Touch (13 eps so far), which somehow manages to feel much less dated than both H2 and Slow Step. It is rather slow, which even more emphasizes the wonderful writing of Cross Game which had me hooked after the very first episode. It is interesting though to spot the moments referenced by Mix, and I do intend to re-watch Mix after I've finished Touch.

It really is a shame so few works by Adachi get a proper release outside of Japan. Especially for the manga, just release it and I'll buy it....
(or should I consider this the perfect motivation to learn Japanese?)


I'd say Cross Game is one of Adachi's best works and easily could have been perfect but for his one, glaring blind spot. For stories of similar quality I'd recommend Katsu! (boxing) first and foremost, and then Niji Iro Togarashi (sengoku). I consider those three, together, his best work.

Touch gets a lot of praise/attention but it definitely drags on a bit too long, and TBH the art isn't very good compared to later works (Adachi got a lot better at making visually distinctive character designs after Touch).

...And also, yeah, i, too, am very sore at the lack of Adachi's work outside of Japan. The really bizarre thing is how little effort has gone into marketing him overseas--his fellow titans in the famous "big three" (Rumiko Takahashi and... was it Akira Toriyama?) were enormously popular overseas, but even at the height of the manga/anime boom no one bothered to license any of his work into Cross Game, just a few years ago.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:35 am Reply with quote
Fluwm wrote:
The really bizarre thing is how little effort has gone into marketing him overseas--his fellow titans in the famous "big three" (Rumiko Takahashi and... was it Akira Toriyama?) were enormously popular overseas, but even at the height of the manga/anime boom no one bothered to license any of his work into Cross Game, just a few years ago.


It's not really bizarre at all why Adachi has never really been given a giant push in North America, outside of Cross Game: The large majority of his catalog is sports manga, with some romance manga sprinkled in. Neither genre is known to really sell over here, so Adachi gets ignored. In comparison, Takahashi covers a wide variety of genres (comedy, action, romance, horror, etc.), while Toriyama really just has one major hit here... Which just happens to be one of the most popular & influential manga in the entire world.

Honestly, I'm amazed FUNimation even went after Mix in the first place, let alone released it on home video (& with an English dub!). For context, the only other Adachi anime ever given a home video release with an English translation prior to Mix was Slow Step, and that was only released in the UK during the 90s!

(Remember, Cross Game only got streamed)
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Spastic Minnow
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Joined: 02 May 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Fluwm wrote:
WizardOfOss wrote:


Ever since, I've wanted to either watch or read more works by Adachi, but it wasn't until this current rather limited anime season that I started with Cross Game.

It really is a shame so few works by Adachi get a proper release outside of Japan. Especially for the manga, just release it and I'll buy it....
(or should I consider this the perfect motivation to learn Japanese?)


I'd say Cross Game is one of Adachi's best works and easily could have been perfect but for his one, glaring blind spot. For stories of similar quality I'd recommend Katsu! (boxing) first and foremost, and then Niji Iro Togarashi (sengoku). I consider those three, together, his best work.

.


Personally, I didn't like Niji Iro Togarashi nearly as much. Definitively fun, but it couldn't find a good bad guy and the odd couple didn't have great chemistry. Interesting genre exploration though.
Katsu would probably be my second favorite after Cross Game though.
Come to think of it, I made a couple review posts and a a graded list a couple years ago in the manga reading thread down below when I went through every single scanalation I could find. (this is based on the manga quality mainly)

...Oh yeah, Bōken Shōnen (Adventure Boys) was brilliant- short stories.
H2 the manga is great. The anime oddly took out most of the humor, which killed it as a series.
Rough has raised in my estimation, very good couple, a sort of Romeo/Juliet couple. Unfortunately it stretched on a bit long after it was clear they liked each other to create unneeded drama.


Last edited by Spastic Minnow on Sat Aug 29, 2020 7:07 am; edited 1 time in total
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meruru



Joined: 16 Jun 2009
Posts: 470
PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 6:18 pm Reply with quote
k_dawg_3484 wrote:
A Mitsuru Adachi baseball story getting a release?

HOW ABOUT YOU GIVE F***ING CROSS GAME A RELEASE, DAMMIT?


Haha, I had literally the same reaction.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4787
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:30 am Reply with quote
Quote:
It's not really bizarre at all why Adachi has never really been given a giant push in North America, outside of Cross Game: The large majority of his catalog is sports manga, with some romance manga sprinkled in. Neither genre is known to really sell over here, so Adachi gets ignored
The notion of sports anime not doing well in NA has been something fans assume for a long time. And no doubt it doesn’t do as well as popular shonen action stuff (but really what else does) but we have had plenty of sports stuff brought over even beyond stuff like Free and Yuri on Ice. We’ve gotten Kuroko’s Basketball, Haikyuu, Harukana Receive, Ahiru no Sora, and Megalobox for more recent stuff. But even a quick look at Crunchyroll, they have shows like Major 2nd, three seasons of Ace of the Diamond, Hinomaru Sumo, Yowamushi Pedal, Hanebado, Run with the Wind, Eyeshield 21, Tsurune, Tiger Mask W, three seasons of Slam Dunk, and Hikaru no Go. Whether any of these are “popular,” there have been plenty of sports anime shows that have been licensed for NA streaming over the years. So it’s not that unusual that Funimation got Mix which was also initially part of the FuniRoll deal. I think it’s probably more the length of the show combined with it’s age why Touch hasn’t been brought over yet moreso than it being a sports show.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 2:31 pm Reply with quote
Cardcaptor Takato wrote:
The notion of sports anime not doing well in NA has been something fans assume for a long time. And no doubt it doesn’t do as well as popular shonen action stuff (but really what else does) but we have had plenty of sports stuff brought over even beyond stuff like Free and Yuri on Ice. We’ve gotten Kuroko’s Basketball, Haikyuu, Harukana Receive, Ahiru no Sora, and Megalobox for more recent stuff. But even a quick look at Crunchyroll, they have shows like Major 2nd, three seasons of Ace of the Diamond, Hinomaru Sumo, Yowamushi Pedal, Hanebado, Run with the Wind, Eyeshield 21, Tsurune, Tiger Mask W, three seasons of Slam Dunk, and Hikaru no Go. Whether any of these are “popular,” there have been plenty of sports anime shows that have been licensed for NA streaming over the years. So it’s not that unusual that Funimation got Mix which was also initially part of the FuniRoll deal. I think it’s probably more the length of the show combined with it’s age why Touch hasn’t been brought over yet moreso than it being a sports show.


It's not an assumption. It's been admitted by actual company reps over & over for decades that sports anime rarely make a profit. Naturally, companies still gave them the occasional try, in the hopes that they'd finally break the streak, but it almost never went against expectations. Sure, more of them are available today via streaming, but that's simply because of simulcasting, which aims specifically to make available as much new anime as possible, regardless of whether it does well or not.

The past as shown heavily that sports anime on home video has just about always bombed:
Hajime no Ippo? Infamous bomb.
Hikaru no Go? Viz never even finished releasing it on DVD.
Eyeshield 21? Sure, it's fully available via streaming, but Sentai's DVD sets were an admitted bomb.
Prince of Tennis? Mega bomb that Viz also never finished.
Big Windup!? FUNimation never touched the second season, and Right Stuf didn't pick up Season 2 up until six years after it aired in Japan.
Dan Doh!!? It's generally a well known in-joke as to how badly that one did.
Slam Dunk? This had its own bevy of problems, from both Toei & later Cinedigm, but neither release has been shown to be successful.

As for titles like Kuroko, Ace of Diamond, or Tiger Mask W, they never even were given home video releases, so once those streaming licenses expire, & Crunchyroll decides they aren't worth streaming anymore, they're gone. As for stuff like Tsurune, Hanebado!, or Hinomaru Sumo, we'll just have to wait & see how those will play out, though considering how Hanebado! is set to be re-released under FUNimation's "Essentials" label, and not it's "Classics" label, my guess is that it wasn't exactly selling like FUNi had hoped.

Sure, there are notable exceptions, like Free!, Yuri on Ice!, & Haikyu!, but all three of those specifics have "something else" beyond the sports to them that got them supportive fanbases. As for something like Megalobox, that's more an outlier than proof against sports anime bombing still, seeing as it aired on Toonami. Also, & this is completely anecdotal, I remember going to my local FYE (yes, one still exists near me) & seeing about 6 or 7 used Yuri on Ice! boxsets on the shelves. Yes, FUNi already got its money from those, but it was still a surprising sight to see for something so beloved online.

And I'm saying this as someone who has generally enjoyed sports anime. Still, I'm not going to act like sports anime is suddenly more popular than ever just because they're included in simulcasting, or because there are a few notable exceptions. It's not like Free, Yuri, or Haikyu's fanbases are necessarily going to make Mix a success for FUNimation.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:59 pm Reply with quote
I'm not saying that sports shows are suddenly popular either. I am saying that most shows that aren't in the pages of Shonen Jump magazine are usually not that popular in NA either but still get picked up for simulcast and sometimes even home video regardless of their quality or popularity. I doubt most of those generic CGDCT shows that come out every other season are all that popular in NA either but are still picked up for NA release even if just streaming. Shows like Hajime no Ippo, Hikaru no Go, and Prince of Tennis were from like 20 years where streaming didn't exist and their releases depended entirely on physical sales. There are plenty of classic sports shows that have slipped through the rocks over the years and didn't get picked up. That still doesn't change there is in fact plenty of sports anime that you can easily watch on Crunchyroll. Stars Align bombed even in Japan but Funimation picked it up, dubbed it, and even is releasing it on BD. I do wish we got more of the classics but I don't think the situation is really that dire the way some anime fans act like sports anime never gets licensed or gets home video releases ever even though it actually happens not all that infrequently and it's not that out of the blue that Funimation picked up Mix. There are probably lots of varying factors counting against why 100+ old shows from 30 years old getting licensed than simply chalking it up to the reductive reasoning that it's because it's a sports show.
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