“Winning”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kouji Miura
Translation: Christine Dashiell
Lettering: Mark McMurray
What They Say
Taiki Inomata loves badminton, but he has a long way to go before he can reach nationals. When Taiki sees upperclassman Chinatsu Kano practicing her heart out on the girls’ basketball team, he falls for her hard. After an unexpected turn of events brings the two closer together, sports might not be the first thing on their minds anymore!
Taiki admires Chinatsu from afar, but he doubts that she sees him in the same way. Yet somehow, he musters up the courage to tell her to never give up on her dreams! After such a bold declaration, will Taiki’s fleeting high school romance finally begin?
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 into its fourth 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.
The previous chapter ended with a pretty key question with Taiki’s father asking Chinatsu of she and Taiki are in a relationship. It was a point-blank question with Taiki passed out on the floor between them. What works so well here is that the two are treating each other clearly because they understand that it needs to be talked out, even if a little. So Chinatsu admitting it straight off is the right thing to do and his talking about overhearing that Taiki had a girlfriend while at nationals helped him to put two and two together, especially their shift in coming back at different times instead of together like they had been. There’s a sense of something of an apology from Chinatsu for hiding this as well but he ends up handling it pretty plainly because, as he says, something like this wasn’t exactly inevitable but the chances were certainly high because of it and as adults they were likely aware on some level.
What becomes interesting is that Chinatsu reveals that her real fear is that her father is the one that will change everything if he finds out since she was only reluctantly allowed to stay here because of her basketball goals. Taiki’s father does try to allay those fears a bit but this is what a father and child dynamic can be like and Chinatsu’s fears are understandable for a whole host of reasons that could take her away from Taiki for a long time. I do like that Taiki’s father basically says that he understands that, and that her father may surprise her, but that he’s willing to turn a blind eye to this for the moment – and makes a nod to Taiki that he better behave, which is the first moment where we get it made clear that Taiki has been awake during all of this and just quietly letting it play out less he mess it up. To be honest, Chinatsu had the best bet of the two of them to smooth things over in the short term.
In Summary:
This chapter isn’t all character drama as we do get some changes at school the next day as the third years are moving on from their positions and new team leadership has to be set up. I do like that Kyo gets the captaincy nod with Taiki as second to help rally the team going forward and Ayame is pretty pleased by it as well from the sidelines. Amusingly, we do get a bit more time with Haru and Hina as they clash a bit more over tone and the like and I’m curious to see these other releases are going to start moving forward now that we’ve crossed another major hurdle with Chinatsu and Taiki’s relationship.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: July 7th, 2024
