Blue Box (Ao no Hako)

Badminton addict Inomata Taiki is in love with basketball club ace Kano Chinatsu, who’s a year older than him. One day Chinatsu’s mom has to leave Japan and leaves her daughter in the care of her old friend… who happens to be Taiki’s mom. So begins their cohabitation and blossoming romance, while they both pursue their sports dream.

But it wouldn’t be fun without Taiki’s childhood friend and genius gymnast Chôno Hina added to the mix. =D

A Shonen Jump series that started this year to take the fluffy romance spot left vacant by We Never Learn.

Edited by Lyendith on Aug 9th 2021 at 4:47:54 PM

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Chinatsu and Taiki are so cute together. Super feel-good romance overall. And the sports stuff ain’t half-bad either. There are some amazing shots of Taiki playing badminton.

Edited by fillerdude on Aug 9th 2021 at 10:28:06 AM

Interesting how all the main characters play some kind of sport, including the love interest and her for-now unknown rival. It's obviously not the actual focus, but there's still at least some dialogue about dedicated they are to the game.

Oh no… Please not the Game-Breaking Injury…

Adolescence, always kicking in at the worst moments.

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Yeah I hope Hina only got a minor injury, and just needs a couple days of rest. Would be real kick to the shin if she loses her chance in gymnastics at the same time she realizes her hopeless one-sided attraction to Taiki.

New chapter out.

Taiki inadvertently convinces Hina to go after him. Which Chinatsu notices, and she thinks Hina and Taiki make a good pair. It seems that Chinatsu does not have any romantic feelings for Taiki yet. So Taiki has his work cut out for him.

Hmm, you know what, I wouldn't mind a little bit more focus on the sports in this series. A bit more 'action' to go with the romcom.

This chapter makes it increasingly hard to pick a side here… That infirmary scene was great.

Can’t it end as polyamory or something?

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When does that happen outside harem stories?

‘My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’

There’s that recent yuri manga by Canno called "An Easy Introduction to Love Triangles", but I can’t think of any other examples.

I was (mostly) joking though. X)

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It barely ever happens in harem manga.

And let's not get ahead of ourselves. The situation so far is Hina->Taiki->Chinatsu. Cho->Ino->Shika, if you will.

…Wait, is the "ka" in "Kano" the character for "shika" ?

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Yes, you were being played since day one.

Edited by thatother1dude on Sep 3rd 2021 at 11:46:57 AM

Chapter 19: Little moment of bonding between our two leads before they head into their respective prefectural qualifiers.

Taiki redoing his encounter with Chinatsu was funny, what a dork.

She played along perfectly too.

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Are were finally go to see Chinatsu actually play basketball?

Chapter 20 is out. Chinatsu is such a cool gal Taiki would let her step all over him. Wait, what

I hope we get to see considerably more of the finals. Need to see Chinatsu proving the naysayers wrong in action.

Wish granted… a little.

Seems like Taiki’s on the right track too.

I have no doubt he’d be the bottom in their relationship.

Edited by Lyendith on Sep 12th 2021 at 3:59:08 PM

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Suddenly, Chinatsu feels like way more of a character apart from Taichi. I hope this keeps up.

Chapter 21: Chinatsu and Hina get some of Taiki’s fried chicken. It’s totally not a metaphor.

Edited by fillerdude on Sep 17th 2021 at 10:00:28 AM

…Wait, it’s out already?!

Oh yeah. Not much happening in this one, but the fried chicken scene was still cute.

Edited by Lyendith on Sep 18th 2021 at 3:53:07 PM

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Chapter 22: Chinatsu becomes Taiki’s private cheerleader for a bit and almost gives the guy a heart attack.

We’re seeing some rival players so I hope the next few chapters will be more sports-focused.

The scene where they watch the rival’s match was a bit confusing. I wasn’t sure who was talking…

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I wanted to start a page for the series, but I'm having trouble finding tropes and writing a description.

Use one of the Shonen Jump series with a newer page as a template for basic information and a series synopsis.

I can fill in some tropes once you've got it made.

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Taiki already missed his first of two chances at nationals and Chinatsu already made it. What are we gonna do until next year? Chinatsu actually at nationals? Haryu or the guy who beat him?