“August 26”
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):
With this series launching back in the spring of 2021 in Japan as Ao no Hako, it was as part of a number of new Weekly Shonen Jump titles added last year. This series comes from creator Kouji Miura and they’ve had a handful of titles over the last few years since getting formally published back in 2015. I had randomly picked the title in the late teens from the Shonen Jump site as something to try out a few chapters ago and got hooked on it – which is why I’m still here talking about it. Part of the appeal is the generally shorter chapters, often coming in at 16 or 18 pages, but we’ve been getting longer chapters for a bit now and it’s definitely helped a lot. Though the relationship aspect is simple and the sports elements aren’t deep, the combination of what we do get with the artwork ended up delivering something that made me want to keep coming back for more.
There are a lot of things at play at this point and the bulk of this does focus on Chinatsu, though Taiki gets some key time as well. With the summer break close to ending and the focus on getting things done before going back, basketball practice is still going as the shift to what happens next is underway. Chinatsu is taking on the position of vice-captain as it’s clear that she’ll be captain next year and that’s a lot of pressure, especially for someone who doesn’t actually like leadership positions. She’s done it as a class rep before and handled it but it wasn’t her thing. Chinatsu is also continuing to put a lot of pressure on herself for how things went at nationals and is, in her own way, beating herself up a lot over that missed shot.
We even get that coming out in a phone call with her mother as she’s checked in since it’s Chinatsu’s birthday. Initially, we get some fun moments with that with the team and friends there, but the conversation with her mother tries to shift things in how Chinatsu views what happened as Chinatsu talks about her needs to improve and grow up. Her mother offers a good piece of key advice in that these things are not things you do alone and that she really should have someone to lean on. This takes us to where Taiki is for most of this chapter. He’s still struggling over what to give her for her birthday because of the way their relationship is and it also has him really stepping up in another way. He takes Hina to the side and makes clear to her that he’s trying to make things work with Chinatsu and wants her to understand that. Hina, to her credit, figured that out already and reminds him of that, and that she understands, but you see how she feels that it won’t work out and that she will bide her time.
In Summary:
Blue Box continues its strong run of storytelling and character development in all the right ways. All while delivering some fantastic artwork and designs. It’s a really good work in general that continually elevates itself with each installment to deliver a compelling and engaging story. This chapter moves things forward for Chinatsu in a really good way while at the same time pushing the Hina and Taiki story in a way that you don’t normally see explored. I’m still in that space where I don’t think Taiki and Chinatsu are right for each other but you can see how they can change things in a lot of ways to make it work even more. There are a lot of uncertainties ahead for how all of this will play out.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: March 18th, 2022
