“Beach Shack and the Kubo Problem”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kouji Miura
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
A badminton guy falls for a basketball girl. Do these sports-crossed lovers have a chance?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Getting underway earlier this year in Japan as Ao no Hako as part of a number of new Weekly Shonen Jump titles, it’s from creature Kouji Miura who has had a handful of titles over the last few years since getting formally published back in 2015. With a one-shot that lead to a series pickup, the 19th chapter just hit this week and we figured we’d give it a try since it combines some of our favorite things. The innocence of a high school romance, badminton, and basketball. There’s a charm to these kinds of stories and with the artwork that Miura brings to the page here, it just makes it feel all the more authentic and nostalgic.
With it still the very early stages of the relationship, and friendship, between Taiki and Chinatsu, there’s definitely a lot ot like in seeing how they have to navigate this aspect of it. We know Taiki’s keeping track of her qualifiers for the tournament for the nationals, since he wants to support her while also having to be aware of his schedule, so it’s a delicate balance. He’s pushing himself hard for his own competitions and we see that early on here when he’s trying to get some practice in with Haryu but really struggling against him to get any sort of win. Haryu’s not exactly wrong with some of what he says during this but there’s also just the problem of how far you take competitiveness. While the two play together in the doubles and have to play well there, there’s always a chance they’ll face each other in the singles competition and Haryu makes it clear that he will decimate him and hard.
Amusingly, when their practice ends they see the basketball team nearby where they’re all exhausted and Chinatsu looks pretty wiped as well. There’s a touching moment from Taiki in his mental train of thought that I like here too as he wonders if she follows his schedule like he does hers, hoping that he’s important to her. But the back half of the chapter is where things are really fun as he catches up to her on the walk home, only to step into some awkward stuff he said a while ago about walking with girls. Chinatsu, to her credit, gives him a second chance to try here after he apologizes and it’s really nice just to see the two walking, talking, and the lack of drama to it. Taiki is making sure he’s clear of ulterior motives here for the moment, since he wants to show her something important to him, and it works well to see how he’s trying to be cognizant that not everything he thinks, says, or does in regards to Chinatsu is about specifically trying to woo her.
In Summary:
Jumping into the series with this chapter, Blue Box works pretty well and left me feeling quite good about it. There’s a charm to the characters here that definitely hits a good spot as I like both Taiki and Chinatsu almost instantly with how they present themselves. We get some decent time on the badminton court and a little time with the basketball team so things are covered well there. But the real focus is on the characters themselves and Miura’s artwork definitely delivers some good-looking pages, locations, and designs overall that make it engaging and a whole lot of fun to read. Definitely worth paying attention to for those that like sports and romance works.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: September 5th, 2021
