Chinatsu and Taiki, carrying their sports equipment of choice
Every morning, there's this one person who I'm always dying to see.
Taiki Inomata is on the boys' badminton team at sports powerhouse Eimei Junior and Senior High. He's in love with basketball player Chinatsu Kano, the older girl he trains alongside every morning in the gym. One Spring day, their relationship takes a sharp turn ... And thus begins this brand-new series of love, sports and youth!
Blue Box by Kouji Miura is a romance manga running in Shonen Jump, but notably more grounded and also way less prone to fanservice than the usual examples of that genre in the magazine. Additionally it also includes elements of sports manga as part of the lead characters personal motivations, namely Badminton, Basketball and Rhythmic Gymnastics. It can be read legally in English here
, and Viz Media began releasing the physical volumes in fall of 2022. An anime adaptation by Telecom Animation Film is set to premiere on October 2024.
Not to be confused with Blue Lock, Blue Exorcist, Blue Period or other manga of the "Blue"-variety.
This manga provides examples of:
- Accidental Kiss: During a production of Snow White at the culture festival, Taiki is roped into playing the prince at the last second while Hina plays Snow White. While they only pretend to do the kiss at the end, a stage accident occurs which causes Taiki and Hina to fall onto each other and kiss for real. Averted later as they still didn't actually kiss and rumors that they did cause trouble for them both.
- Beta Couple: Haryu and Karen. While Taiki and Chinatsu suffer from a pretty bad case of miscommunication on both ends, Haryu and Karen are very open with each other at all times. Additionally, while Chinatsu and Taiki worry about disrupting the other's sports career by coming out with their feelings, Karen and Haryu are able to easily balance both their love lives and their aspirations.
- Friendly Rivalry: Taiki and Haryu, although it does occasionally veer closer to Vitriolic Best Buds from Haryu's side.
- From Roommates to Romance: Chinatsu has to stay with Taiki while her parents are away on business, causing their relationship to grow.
- Love Triangle: Obviously the central premise of the series. Taiki loves Chinatsu who is rather unsure about love and relationships in general while Hina loves Taiki who mostly sees her as a friend.
- Eventually said love triangle is resolved with Hina getting rejected and Taiki and Chinatsu becoming a couple. After the fact, however, a secondary love triangle between Ayame, Kyo, and Hina emerges.
- Mysterious Waif: Chinatsu at the start of the series. While she isn't exactly "mysterious," being a hardworking Nice Girl from the get-go, the reader rarely gets to see her perspective for the most part, making it unclear if she reciprocates Taiki's feelings or not. However, Chinatsu receives more POV chapters as the series goes on. As it turns out, she does have feelings for Taiki; she's just very awkward at expressing it.
- No Social Skills: Chinatsu is a more downplayed example. While she isn't socially inept per se, she isn't very good at reading social situations, which leads her to think that Taiki and Hina have started dating.
- Oblivious to Love: A more justified example with Taiki and Hina; the two of them are longtime friends, and as such Taiki doesn't pick up on the many obvious signs because he simply doesn't see her in that way.
- The Rival: Yusa, a badminton player from Sajiikawa High School, serves as Taiki's biggest rival in his goal to get to nationals.
- Romantic False Lead: Subverted with Haryu. He's initially set up as another guy who seemingly has feelings for Chinatsu... only for it to be revealed that he's just classmates with her and that he actually has a girlfriend.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Deconstructed. Ayame roots for Hina and Taiki to get together, and assumes they will if they're only pushed in the right direction, unaware that Taiki is interested in someone else. When she does give them that push, it results in Taiki rather bluntly telling Hina that he just doesn't feel that way about her, leaving her in tears.
- Kyo acts as a bit of a Romantic Wingman for Hina when she tries to go out on a date with Taiki at a fireworks festival, pretending to be sick so the two of them can have some time together. But just like the above example with Hina, Kyo turns out to have feelings for Hina, and expresses some disappointment when Hina confesses to Taiki.
- Ayame likewise acts as a massive wingwoman for Hina, repeatedly trying to get her and Taiki to hook up. In contrast to Kyo, though, who is very much hands-off about the whole thing, Ayame gets directly involved between them and practically tries to force them together. It does not go well.
- Secret Relationship: After Taiki and Chinatsu finally start dating they both agree to keep their relationship secret from (mostly) everyone due to their living situation, even Taiki's family.
- Sports Story: Although a romance series first and foremost, the series does have a secondary plotline concerning the characters' progress in their respective sports.
- Trickster Mentor: Haryu tries to give Taiki extra motivation during his match with Kishisho by agreeing to give Kishisho Chinatsu's contact information if he wins. Chinatsu understandably isn't too pleased upon finding out about Haryu's wager.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 43. Chinatsu's team loses at nationals by one point after she misses a buzzer beater, and Hina confesses her feelings to Taiki. Much later in Chapter 133 Chinatsu is injured during the following year's National Qualifer game and is unable to keep playing. Her team loses dashing Chinatsu's last chance to get to Nationals.
- Wham Shot: When Hina finally breaks down it sobs after Taiki finally turns her down. Also later in Chapter 134 when the normally cheerful Chinatsu finally breaks down into sobs after she gets injured leading to her team losing the National Qualifer game.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Taiki's dad is a more positive example. He doesn't appear too much due to being busy with his job, but when he does show up it's clear that he's a genuinely good parent who just isn't able to spend as much time with his family as he wants to. He even acts as a bit of a Romantic Wingman for Taiki.
- Will They or Won't They?: While Taiki's and Hina's feelings are more or less an open book, Chinatsu's feelings towards Taiki are purposefully left ambiguous. It isn't quite clear if she only sees him as a friend or as anything more than that. It's eventually shown that she does in fact like him, with the mixed signals she sends out being more a result of awkwardness than anything else.
