Blue Box

Episode 9

Early on in “I'm Rooting for You,” Kyo remarks to Hina that Taiki's greatest strength is his ability to get over things quickly. In a certain sense, this isn't wrong, because we see throughout the episode that Taiki is quickly getting back into the swing of the parts of his life that exist beyond badminton and nationals. He's got friends to hang out with, finals to study for, the rest of the world isn't just going to pause and wait up for him. Still, we also see that he isn't truly over his disappointment and embarrassment, either. Sure, he's smiling and chatting and studying and all, but there are enough moments of quiet contemplation on Taiki's part to make it obvious that his pride is still hurting quite badly.

Worse yet, a lot of those negative emotions are getting tied to Chinatsu, since her string of qualifying wins (and the constant excitement around his house about her trip to nationals) is just rubbing Taiki's failure in his face that much more. It's a painful, akward, but eminently relatable situation for Taiki to be in. He doesn't resent or blame Chinatsu for her own success, necessarily, but this girl that was once the shining beacon of all things good in his world is now something a lot more…complicated.

Speaking of things getting more complicated, after several episodes focused much more on the kids' feelings about sports than their feelings about each other, our leads' simmering romance got some significant development this week. Well…it's “significant” so far as coming-of-age teen drama anime are concerned, at least. Not only does Chinatsu come by to comfort Taiki and even make him some delicious udon noodles to help with his ongoing fever, but the pair get stuck in one of those familiar “Oops! We both tripped on each other and ended up landing in a very intimate position!” traps that anime loves so much.

Now, I suppose you could call out Blue Box for sticking Chinatsu in such a stereotypical caregiver role, but to be honest, I don't mind how that whole shtick is executed here. I'm the kind of guy that becomes a doting on-call nurse for my wife whenever she so much as develops a sniffle, so I honestly find Chinatsu's gestures very endearing. Plus, all of this time with Taiki gives Chinatsu the chance to open up about her own insecurities and to validate his frustations and anxieties; it's a lovely scene that strikes the right balance between humanizing Chinatsu while also continuing to paint her as Taiki's dream girl.

Besides, the way that the show frames and edits that little rom-com trip-up at the end is just delightfully intense (again, by Blue Box's typically chaste standards). I won't be shocked if the show dials it back and paints the whole thing as being more wacky than sexy, but the blush on Chinatsu's cheeks and the slow, delicate way she reached for Taiki's face makes it seem pretty clear that she's beginning to reciprocate Taiki's feelings in a much more overt manner. That's great news for our boy! Taiki may have lost the battle for nationals, but he has a good shot yet of making headway in his quest for Chinatsu's heart.

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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.