Blue Box

Episode 14

I was stoked about this week's newest episode of Blue Box from the get-go, because we actually started off by catching up with Chinatsu and her latest big game, for once. It even seemed like we were going to get to watch her on the court! I'll be honest, I would have loved it if this entire episode had ditched the other characters to give us a much needed injection of Pure Chinatsu Drama. That's definitely not how things end up in “What's the Connection?”, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a damned fine chapter of Blue Box.

For one, the Chinatsu stuff that we do get at the start of the episode is great. After weeks of bottling up all of her stress, anxiety, and confusion, we can see the cracks start to show in her facade. She is nervous about the upcoming game, clearly, but it's also obvious that the relationship “drama” between her and Taiki is starting to bubble to the surface, too. I still think that Blue Box would have been better off if we'd gotten even more of this insight into Chinatsu as a human being earlier in the story, and more often, but the show is still out here reminding us that it can stir up a wellspring of emotions from just a few lingering shots of wandering eyes and shifting shoulders.

The best part is that the show uses Chinatsu's high-stakes game to amplify what goes on once we cut back to Taiki and Hina, and god damn does it hit like a truck. I could guess what might be happening the minute Hina showed up to steal Taiki away from the gym for an impromptu date at the park, but the way that Blue Box executes this inevitable love confession is just perfect. The clever, clear way that Hina is setting up their little shoe tossing game to lead to her opportunity to tell Taiki how she feels is paired with Chinatsu stepping up to make the winning basket of the most important game of her high-school career…and just as Hina finally shoots her shot, Chinatsu misses hers. That moment where we get a close up of Chinatsu's snapped friendship bracelet right as Hina is risking it all and making it clear that she like-likes Taiki is one of the single best moments of Blue Box so far.

The first half of this series could definitely feel like it was taking its sweet time getting to all of the mushy stuff that we crave from wistful romances, but that slow-burn approach is (mostly) paying off now that our poor boy is being put through the emotional wringer. His longtime friend is in love with him, and his longtime crush is at maybe the lowest point she's ever been. How Taiki responds to these critical junctions with Hina and Chinatsu will change his relationships with them forever. There's no going back to the way things were, after this.

Rating:

Blue Box is currently streaming on Netflix.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.