(Spoilers up to Chapter 60.)

On my right, Taiki Inomata. A badminton player lacking skill, but with a heart dedicated to improvement.

On my left, Chinatsu Kano. A basketball player talented enough to make the magazines, but intends to give up.

While they are aware of each other due to being the earliest people at their school’s gym and even sharing brief interactions, the distance between the two couldn't be further (in Taiki’s mind, anyway). That is…until everything changes for them, and he suddenly finds himself seeing his crush on the daily in his very own home.

From the opening tip, Blue Box tells the story of this duo’s journey to the promised land, nationals, while also spending time together, learning about each other, and growing closer every time. All the while, the two give their all in their respective sport, knowing that the other is following and doing their best too.

Taiki and Chinatsu are the heart of this manga, and I absolutely adore them. The two always being in each other’s corner is something I’ve always enjoyed.

The plucky badminton player always lacked a person who took his goal of nationals seriously and struggles with self-confidence, but here comes Chinatsu, who doesn’t hesitate to give him the push he needs, either through kind gestures or even unintentionally through wise words. By seeing Chinatsu’s frustration, he learned to work harder, resulting in the grit that caught the eyes of his rivals.

A kind and spirited boy with eyes on the top, who can’t help but be anxious on the front lines. With those characters, I can’t help but wanna root for them, and it’s no different here. While he’s still far from reaching nationals, his growth has been nice to witness.

After a tough loss and little success afterward (the manga focuses on her middle school exit, but there’s nothing about her first year, for some reason), Chinatsu’s about ready to throw in the towel and go overseas with family, but Taiki reminds her of the frustration she felt, and she realises she wants to try once more. Chinatsu passed on the dedication bug, and it came right back to bite her!

Though Taiki hasn’t been able to come through for her nearly as much (only Chapter 46 comes to mind), life at home was a lot more comfortable for her because he was there. Her life’s always been about sports, so her being able to open up to and rely on someone is real sweet.

Right now, Chinatsu remains stuck between pursuing her romantic feelings and strictly fulfilling her goals. God knows when that issue will be resolved…

Speaking of issues, the two do face their fair share of misunderstandings that disrupt their calm. That’s no cause for concern, though, as it usually ends up resolved in that chapter or maybe the next. Emphasis on usually, but that’s a topic for later.

Anyway, to me, Blue Box’s greatest strength lies in the moments between the two in and out of school, and the fact that they play different sports, yet don’t want to lose or be left behind by each other makes them special to me.

A chapter about them is always a fun read and I’ve enjoyed seeing them grow more comfortable. Taikinatsu for the win!

While those two are Eimei High’s earliest visitors, it’d be a lie to say we don’t see faces along the way. Said faces definitely help to fill that empty gym with life, and go along with our main two along their different paths.

On that front, my favourites are easily Haryu, Karen, and Nagisa.

Ever since his formal introduction, Haryu’s antics have never failed to entertain. He’s like the total opposite of Chinatsu. While they’re both supportive role models for Taiki, Haryu takes a tough-love route with Spartan practice, never letting up in their practice games (Taiki’s only held him to full sets once), and offering anything but compliments most of the time. But, it’s helped Taiki to toughen up, and he wouldn’t have been able to get this far without him. Not to mention, he’s really funny too.

Karen was a surprising addition to the cast, but it was nice for what it was. While Blue Box is a story about Taiki and Chinatsu, when it comes to seeing things from her perspective, Chinatsu always gets the short end, a very unfortunate constant. So, during the summer period, it was nice to get some kind of insight into how she’s feeling, and also advise Taiki during the Nationals Arc.

While all that has amounted to nothing as of now, getting to see how her relationship with Haryu came to be and what they mean to each other was great. There was a point where I didn’t care much for what was going on with Haryu despite liking him, but the match he got brought me right back. Those two are very good for each other.

I’m usually not a big fan of established side ships since I feel like that energy coulda gone to the main pair, but I can put that aside for the sake of enjoying them more. A very cute pair, indeed.

Last of all, is Nagisa. Again, because of the issue of Chinatsu’s perspective lacking, I was excited to see the first actual character in her circle, and overall she did serve her purpose by being a nice person in Chinatsu’s corner, like with how she was so close to chewing out Kagohara for their opinions.

The conversations they had after her introduction, like in Chapter 28 were kinda shallow, but Miura ended up improving my impressions when she showed a lot of understanding towards Chinatsu’s situation as the top player and came through for her after being given a new role. As a partner-in-crime, Nagisa’s a good character. It’s also good to have a sillier character to interrupt Chinatsu’s usual calmness.

As for everyone else…overall, it's alright. The parents are very kind folks. Nishida, like Nagisa, is another goofball.

Kyo and Kishiro aren’t good, though, the former just spoon-feeding you info you already knew or giving queues to take note of something that just happened (so much for being a best friend character; more like a robot…), and the latter lost a game and then dipped.

Finally, Hyodo and Yusa are enjoyable rivals whenever they show up. They aren't super interesting characters, but they’re a force to be reckoned with, always helping to bring the best of badminton, which is awesome!

Minus Kyo and Kishiro, all the other characters are great additions to the cast and add a lot of value to this story. A lot of people make the argument that the story should be more like the one-shot, but that would mean losing out on these characters, which ain't worth it to me.

Ah, yes, Blue Box has sports.

Let’s get this out of the way first. Badminton folks have it the best.

I don’t just mean that because of the amount of time it gets and how it helps the characters, I also mean the people who are fans of badminton enjoy the action here. Heck, I’ve seen people who got into badminton because of this manga.

And it's clear to see why. Miura is really, really, really good at portraying badminton, and it’s been this way from the beginning. The action is dynamic, easy to follow, and uses all sorts of different angles to make the action as cool as possible. You can feel the impact of every hit as each player rushes around to keep the birdie flying.

Miura has it down to the point where she can convey the power and dominance of a character with just one panel. Badminton being a sport with a low amount of players helps, but this is something only a person who loves the sport and is super skilled at art can do consistently. Incidentally, she is that person!

Yes, the time badminton gets is brief with few exceptions, and that can be super egregious (see, Chapter 23) but badminton has never been done badly in Blue Box, and that deserves praise. You don’t even need to understand the sport a whole lot to enjoy it.

Best of all, Taiki, Haryu, Hyodo, and Yusa get to look like badasses while doing their thing, and it’s so much fun every time!!

In conclusion, badminton folk have it the best. With that in mind, you can probably guess how things are for basketball people.

Not pretty.

The sports being brief or skipped has irked me for a long while, but I’ve kinda accepted that’s the structure Miura chose to take, it’s more about the thoughts and feelings of the characters as they do their thing. And, of course, romance and slice-of-life.

That being said, while she shines every time with badminton and in turn makes the characters (no matter how simple they are) who play it shine by showing their power, determination, intensity, and grit…the same can’t be said about basketball, which in turn hurts those that play it. In particular, Chinatsu.

Personally, that fact is even more fatal considering its girls’ sports (fun fact, this was the manga that first made me think about the idea), which I don’t think has any representation in Weekly Shonen Jump besides Kaito’s Cross Manage which happened ten years ago. I mean, are there any well-liked girls’ sports series right now that were going on before Blue Box? Only Uma Musume comes to mind, and that’s a one-of-a-kind dynasty that can’t be duplicated.

What I’m saying is that showing the Chinatsu and the team in action would be a chance for something fresh and fun, and we’d get to see her journey towards getting the victory she’s always wanted and exploring her more, it’s just an obviously good thing to do. Let’s not forget the fact that basketball is cool as hell, too.

Remember, Taiki and Chinatsu reaching for nationals together is something that’s been set up since Chapter 2. Chinatsu’s even said that she feels her coolest in that No. 10 uniform (Chapter 35), the court is her special place.

But, due to how Miura does basketball, we end up at the “except not really” part of the review caption.

The panel above is from Chapter 20, where Chinatsu comes off a blowout win and ends up getting trash-talked behind her back by Eimei’s next opponent, Kagohara Academy. Taiki says she shouldn’t let that talk bother her, but Chinatsu thinks the opposite.

It was a cool moment for her, and an example of her being a role model for Taiki. Instead of answering the team that sent her packing in the past with words, she decides to simply put her head down, use those words as fuel (“take it personal”, if you will), and let her skills do the talking.

If there’s one thing that draws me to characters who are athletes, it’s their defiance and will to win, and that was on full display here. And, if we see them play and win, it’ll be proof that the team isn’t the same and are way better. Proving their statements wrong, getting revenge, and finally fulfilling their dream of going to nationals. On paper, it’s incredibly satisfying.

Take a wild guess at what happened next.

We never saw it. Chinatsu and the team won, but we never saw them do it.

This pretty much sums up Miura’s style. Blue Box is always about what Chinatsu says rather than what she does, and that’s honestly really lame, even more so when she’s built up as this talent that never took the next step.

What’s the point of rooting for a character if you never get to see them back up their talk, and show how strong they are?

By rarely focusing on the biggest part of Chinatsu’s character, Miura’s just limiting what can be done with her. We don’t see that fire in her in action, no expressions of determination, struggle, joy, or…literally anything that we see with the badminton boys. Even now, that’s still the case.

As a result, people constantly knock Chinatsu, calling her boring or saying she shows no emotion and such. I don’t agree with any of those takes, and the last one is especially dumb, however, Miura doesn’t do her many favours, there’s not much going on with her outside of her relationship with Taiki. The romance.

As for the action that does happen, there’s not much good to say either. Uh, it sure is basketball…

Okay. Any of that flow, excitement, and sense of motion that I love seeing in badminton…isn’t there with basketball.

Take Chapter 43, the only match that’s ever happened, for example. It’s just a really questionable montage, with a bunch of stuff thrown together. It failed to show the fun things about the sport and portray Chinatsu as that ace character.

In fact…she looked bad in that chapter, with her most major moment being a missed game-winner that looks like a shot by Joakim Noah…

(This comparison was so true that it hurt my feelings. Thanks, KushiKuritikaru.)

…along with some goofy defence at one point!

Chinatsu’s team being non-existent doesn’t help matters either. We never see them function as a unit, so it’s hard to even see them as a good team. It looked more like Chinatsu was carrying them and happened to come up short this time.

It wasn’t cool or fun at all, and just like that, Eimei High was bounced out of nationals in the second round. Sure, she was never gonna win it all, I didn’t think so either, but while Haryu got a match spanning a few chapters, Chinatsu’s was over before it even really started. Very, very lame.

But, wait, wait. It gets worse.

While reading some chapters again, I ended up finding out that the chapter before had Chinatsu describing what happened in the first round.

So…they can play together well, and Miura does know her stuff, she just refuses to show it through visuals. Or, more likely, she can’t.

This kind of writing does not mesh well with a sport that has ten players on the court at all times and constant movement. Especially since all the things you might see in a basketball game like drives, fakes, floaters, layups, free throws, crossovers, steals, double teams, etc etc, all that stuff that anyone associates with basketball, just isn’t there.

Like, take Tsubame Tip-Off!, a girls’ sports manga also with basketball, for example. It portrays the sport perfectly by showing each action and having said actions flow well, so you’ll always be able to tell what each character is doing. The difference in quality is insane.

(Anyone disappointed with basketball here should read this manga, by the way.)

You just can’t rush this sport, or it looks lacklustre! That’s not just the case for this one chapter, it’s like that every time practice is shown. It’s probably okay for the average viewer, but the more I got into basketball, the more I get bothered whenever I read these bits.

It’s to the point that I don’t even like how Chinatsu only ever shoots. C’mon, is that all she ever does? Aren’t there other skills that players can work on alone, like ball handles, maybe her fitness, or watching a game? You could even put Nagisa in, who’s literally Chinatsu’s right-hand woman, and do stuff like 1-on-1s.

There’s so much potential with basketball, and Miura doesn’t seem able to tap into any of it, so every character involved is lacking.

All of that is really, really, really lame and disappointing, it makes any moment where Chinatsu’s shown as inspiring seem weaker because we never see that fire when the chips are down. In moments like these, actions speak louder than words, no matter how wise the words are. It’s not been good getting excited about her playing since Chapter 20 dropped, only to be disappointed over and over.

Some might find it weird that I’ve been criticising basketball’s portrayal so much considering the sports are secondary. But, to go back to the original point, badminton players like this manga partly because of what’s been shown, and that should also be the case with basketball. It’s not.

Instead, what actually happens is basketball fans making fun of Chinatsu, like that comparison earlier. That includes me, as well.

By this point, I would’ve just wrapped things up and concluded this review, but there’s one more sport in Blue Box I haven’t mentioned: rhythmic gymnastics.

It’s another cool pick by Miura, a sport that’s impressive and captivating to watch. I was excited about the potential art and performances that could happen since the first chapter.

Well, do you wanna know the last time we saw resembling that?

Chapter 17, nearing a year ago, with no performances to show either. So, as far as now is concerned, nothing’s happened. Then…what’s the character who does this sport even doing if gymnastics is irrelevant to the story, despite this character being established as a prodigy?

You realised it already, but there was one side character I neglected to mention the whole time. If Chinatsu doesn’t have much going on outside of romance, then this character has, without a doubt, absolutely nothing going on outside of romance. And it hurts this manga…a lot, a hell of a lot.

Introducing: Hina Chono.

God, I hate Hina. But it wasn’t always like that.

In the beginning, I was instantly fond of her (I liked Kyo as well…that’s scary). Though Blue Box is considered a romcom, the humour is a lot lighter compared to others, and Hina was the biggest contributor with her infectious quirkiness.

You can tell Miura has a lot of fun drawing her, with every new expression she showed being a highlight, even now I can’t help but admit that part is nice. Since he’s a dork with no romantic experience and she wants to be entertained, they’re perfect companions. And so, that’s how it was for a few chapters.

The people who came in later might not know this, but the possibility of a love triangle happening was a topic since Chapter 3. I didn’t agree with it at all. It didn’t make sense, I felt there were better things to do with them, and it’s a grating cliche that’s rarely done with success. In the early days, I only liked one love triangle, and now I only like two, those being Bloom Into You and Love In Focus.

Chapter 4 further proved to me that she was just a friend helping out, along with showing some nice gymnastics panels, so I just enjoyed things as normal. And that was that for a little while, until…

Turns out I was just a tiny bit off, and a love triangle was happening, after all! But, while other people were bothered, I wasn’t unhappy.

One thing about her character that’s been emphasised is that she’s always facing pressure as a result of being a prodigy, the school’s ticket to victory, and the daughter of an Olympian. In public, she takes all of that in stride, but it eats at her inside and nobody seems able to stand by her because her unbothered attitude gives everyone the impression she’s fine. Not even her best friend Taiki could understand, because she showed the teasing side of her personality more than anything else. And all of this left her feeling isolated and lonely.

Another thing that was emphasised during Hina’s arc was the difference between Taiki’s interactions with her and Taiki’s interactions with Chinatsu. All Hina did with him was tease him, which made it hard for them to have a genuine interaction when it mattered. Taiki couldn’t even take her real compliments seriously (see, Chapter 13).

On the other hand, as I said at the start, Taiki and Chinatsu understand each other and have a positive and supportive relationship, and have played a big part in each other’s lives, each giving something the other person didn’t have prior. That would make Taiki and Chinatsu the better pair, whereas Taiki and Hina are dead from the get-go.

(That’s still true too, as shown by Taiki’s match with Yusa. Hina’s surprised by Taiki's dedication and grit, whereas Chinatsu knew it from the start, and even competes with him. Ain't nobody who gets Taiki like Chinatsu does!)

At the end of this arc, she gets back up thanks to Taiki and intends to aim ever higher next time. This was all good, at the time. Miura took the details we got early on, fleshed them out perfectly, made a mostly comical character into a genuinely great one, and made me think a bit about Taiki’s relationships with each of the girls. Really, this was the best Miura had to offer with writing so far, and Hina became the best character in the cast if she wasn’t already.

Well, that was where she peaked. Because ever since the next time she got major focus, I’ve just gotten more and more irritated with her.

Remember how I had a problem with Chinatsu getting side-lined whenever there was a good chance to focus on her? Despite all the compliments I gave at the start, this also happens outside of sports.

For example, the drama after Chapter 29. To prevent any more awkward incidents, Chinatsu draws a line between her and Taiki, and this is a big turning point for their relationship, and they’re essentially cut off until Chapter 47. Since the main two aren’t interacting, everything’s changed for the story.

The decision does make sense, Chinatsu wants to remain focused on fulfilling her goals and doesn’t want to take more than what’s given, deciding to act more ‘maturely’ and hold back on romance. Of course, this is wrong as she’s just a kid, she deserves to enjoy herself and be with who she wants to be. Chinatsu shouldn’t have to cut off a very important connection in her life for that.

Since this was the wrong move plain and simple, you’d think that Miura would show how things are with Chinatsu after. Miura did show Taiki feeling down, trying to act natural but obviously being bothered, and Chinatsu is the other half of this pair and the reason this happened, so there’d have to be a point where she shows a little regret, right?

Well, there wasn’t, because all that time was given to Hina instead.

Like before, I didn’t have a problem with her being in the spotlight again. She still had zero chance of getting with Taiki, but it wouldn’t hurt to try for a bit. The backstory she got was nice, too. However, as the story went on…I started to wonder what the point was.

Since Taiki and Hina’s interactions are always so romantically one-sided and weak (especially compared to him and Chinatsu), I just didn’t care for what they were doing and wanted the whole thing to end so Chinatsu could return and fix things. To put it bluntly, this was a waste of time.

Back when Chapter 30 dropped, Chinatsu’s chokejob had yet to occur and the only other named character on her team was Nagisa, so there could’ve been screen time for the team as they got ready for nationals, Miura already didn’t focus on them at all after Chapter 20, so this was a perfect chance.

Well, again, that didn’t happen. So, we have a ship that ain’t going anywhere unless the story takes the contrived route of outright downplaying Taiki and Chinatsu’s relationship…and the source of this whole situation, Chinatsu, is being completely ignored.

Instead, all she does is smile, and smile...and smile again, like this doesn't even matter (when it clearly did, if Chapter 47 is anything to go by). I don't like Miura's attempts to make Chinatsu seem all mysterious, it's only fooling people who never cared about her in the first place!

Okay then. They do end up meeting each other and watching the fireworks at the end (which was the best part of this whole time sink), so maybe then Chinatsu’ll come clean on why she created distance between them and they can make up or even get together…?

Hell, no!!

It was during that time that I realised the only reason all of this happened was for Hina to have more screentime. The main two and the other characters didn’t matter at all.

I don’t like the ship and Hina was irking me, so there was nothing for me to like about this arc as far as those things were concerned.

(Side note: it also didn’t help that any time Taiki did anything that deviated from Hina, fans would make a big stink about it and act like Hina’s this victim, it was very dumb. Self-insert much?)

Even now, it’s still my second least favourite arc, only beating the god-awful preliminary qualifiers which had Miura’s sports-skipping issue on full display. And since then, the manga has followed this kind of mindset, pointlessly drawing out the romance more and more as a result.

Whenever there’s a big chance to focus on Chinatsu’s end, don’t, and just have more Hina instead. If there’s nothing bad happening between Taiki and Chinatsu, put Hina in to spice things up.

Chapter 43 already sucked with that disappointing mess of a game, but even worse, it happened in the background while Hina and Taiki were hanging out, and she confesses right as Chinatsu misses. If the match hadn’t happened in that chapter, I would’ve just brushed the whole thing off and waited for Chinatsu’s game, but the fact that Miura shoved a whole match in, instead of just making it the primary focus in another chapter just kills it!!

People can tell me that chapter was about both of them “shooting their shot”, but that'll never not sound like a really bad joke. It was a terrible decision to do that period.

Eventually, Taiki and Chinatsu make up in Chapter 47, and things go back to normal...for about one chapter, only for them to separate again (can you leave them alone, please?)! It was a fun idea at first because they no longer have convenience on their side and have to try a little harder to see each other. It was adorable to see them miss each other.

Well, it didn’t take long for the fun to end because more unnecessary scenes with Hina followed.

Chapter 52 had her revealing she confessed to Taiki, which had no reason to happen outside manufacturing more drama and bringing Chinatsu down (which happens all the time in this manga). She even left out the very, very key detail that Taiki rejected her, which is very telling of how pointless this was.

After that, Chapter 53 ended up having the most egregious Hina moment yet because she claimed to respect Taiki continuing to work on his chances with Chinatsu (this means he rejected Hina, in case that wasn’t painfully obvious) one time, only to put him in an uncomfortable position and then play it off as a joke. With no absolutely consequences.

On paper, there’s nothing wrong with that happening, not like it’s the first time a character in this manga has made a bad move, I like manga where characters mess up (How Do We Relationship? comes to mind), but here’s the thing: Hina felt no regret towards pushing her feeling onto him and disrespecting her own friend.

It’s all presented to us like this is Taiki’s problem, like he has to go with this or he's the bad guy, and Hina did absolutely nothing wrong. Yes, Taiki's not really done anything since their conversation in Chapter 45 to up his chances, but that’s just another facet of Miura slowing down this “will they, won’t they” situation, it doesn’t justify this garbage!

Those scenes made me hate her more. Hina went from this entertaining and endearing go-getter that does gymnastics...to an annoying, unlikeable brat that’s only around to hold Taiki & Chinatsu’s relationship back at every chance. A complete shell of the character I enjoyed seeing every chapter.

It makes me regret the times I defended the love triangle happening and even I question Hina’s first arc, that arc I praised a lot, being necessary. All that stuff about sports and pressure, none of it mattered. It was all for the sake of starting a crappy love triangle.

My rule for love triangles, before anything else, is that I need to like every character involved. As you can tell, Blue Box flops hard on the first hurdle because I don’t like Hina, she doesn’t even have any decent interaction with Chinatsu either. Bloom Into You had three excellent characters, and Nanami was even able to grow because of Sayaka. Love In Focus made me like a character I originally started off disliking, Kei, and it didn’t waste time by being short. They told compelling stories.

But with Blue Box, any time Hina appears and interacts with either character, it feels like any progress made is dashed in the bin, and I have to waste more time waiting for things to get back on track. Take the love triangle aspect away, and there’s no reason for Hina to be here. She gets in the way, and no character benefits from that.

It’s so frustrating to see such a good pair be treated like this in favour of a ship that’s dead on arrival and a character I despise, especially since Miura is capable of much better.

Even currently, with Chapter 60 out, there’s no doubt in my mind that nothing will go right for Taiki and Chinatsu because that’s what I’ve come to expect from this manga. That Miura will take the drama route and drag out the story more instead of having them get together. Regardless of if the manga gets a good stretch of chapters or not, I can always count on Hina to become prominent and kill the good vibes.

Clearly, I have a very love-hate relationship with this series, as someone who's been reading from the start. Despite its stellar art and fun characters, one time it can go and release multiple great chapters, and then drop a really bad chapter that makes me question even having faith in a good one was coming. When I think it can't get worse, it does. It’s really all over the place, and it ain't fun at times.

Going back to Chapter 14, or even the start, Blue Box feels like a completely different story, and I can't help wanting to back to then. The fall from a really charming story of two competitors reaching for the dreams to two competitors but only one actually gets proper focus and there’s this other girl that gets more substantial screentime than the main one somehow and does everything to stop the two so the drama gets milked more has been disappointing, to say the least, and I don’t think things will improve either.

Despite everything I’ve said, it’s still pointing in the best direction success-wise. It’ll sell two million copies by the end of this year, it’ll have a strong run for a few years, it’ll get an anime, it’ll be a seasonal hit, considered an anime of the year, and it’ll even be seen as the gold standard of modern romance by some. None of that will change.

For better or worse, I'm too deep in this manga to stop reading it, because when Blue Box is good, it's really good, if the recent Taiki VS Yusa match is anything to go by.

In the end, all I can do is just take the good moments as they come.