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’s moving really well through its third year as it’s only getting better and better. Mangaka Kouji Miura definitely has some talent here in the storytelling and the visual design side, presumably with her team of assistants, to give us something that feels really rich and detailed. 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. 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.
With the series reaching a hundred chapters here, there’s not much in the way of an actual celebration or anything, which is pretty normal for most manga properties but feels weird coming from an American comics perspective. The story moves us a bit further through the vacation period until things get moving again and we get to spend a bit more time at the shrine event that the kids are at. Taiki’s able to connect up with everyone again, getting a little grief, while Hina and Kasahara aren’t too far behind him. He does try to change the narrative to talking about them but they’re able to easily shut down that distraction a nice bit. What’s amusing is that Ayame gets a bit called out for her watching those two with a nod that she may have an interest in Kasahara. She does at least feel honest in that she’s more concerned about Hina because she’s gotten closer to her and understands her and what she’s going through more.
What we get going past this is that Taiki has a few days to wait until he can talk to Chinatsu in person as she’s agreed to it but he also has to deal with the ski trip first that’s for the two days before she’s back. So he’s all in his head, especially with the letter from her and her family for the New Year that arrives. Lots of pent up energy is fun to watch play out as he just can’t settle, so that gets him to go running. Which at least makes sense. But it also serves well as a kind of minor recap because everywhere he goes he sees her. All the places they’ve intertacted, talked, practiced… it’s all there. There’s a decent mixing of panels from past works that helps to smooth things out a bit but it’s also a fairly standard kind of flashback piece and something not entirely unexpected for a hundredth issue. It’s focus on Taiki and how he’s dealing with the impending talk unfolds pretty well all told.
In Summary:
This is one of those calm before the storm kind of chapters and most of what’s going to dominate the series for a bit now is going to be this skip trip. You can already see all the misunderstandings and problems that will come from it and lead to Taiki likely unable to talk with Chinatsu as he wants to when she gets back. I’m hoping it’s not as predictable as it seems like it’s going to be and that there’s a decent twist for some of it, however. There’s a good bit to like in this chapter as we see how Taiki is struggling with everything in the days before the talk, however, and that’s certainly fun to watch.
Content Grade: B Art Grade: A- Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+ Released By: Shonen Jump Release Date: May 14th, 2023
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
