Blue Box

Episodes 22-23

You know, I think this Ayame girl is alright. Sure, she seems to go through boyfriends like I go through those cheap $30 sneakers you find on the Target clearance rack, and she's as gullible as all get-out, but lass has moxie, and that counts for something. She can pester her sister into making up a fake exchange-student crush for Chinatsu that is apparently willed into existence like some kind of hot anime tulpa; she'll rig the hell out of a friendly round of King's Game if it means getting her friend Hina a shot with Taiki; and she doesn't even bat an eyelash when Kyo covers for Taiki by suggesting that our protagonist's true love is that hunky tulpa boy I mentioned earlier. Spunky, cute, and open-minded at the notion of being roped into a bisexual teenage love triangle? Somebody get this gal a spinoff, ASAP!

It's a good thing that Ayame is around to liven up the proceedings in these two episodes of Blue Box, too, because the rest of the proceedings honestly feel pretty aimless and meandering. It's a shame, too, because a class overnight trip is just the sort of thing that is just rife with juicy romantic possibilities (but not that kind of “juicy,” you perverts). Man, I remember when my girlfriend and I spent a weekend in Denver with our theater club, playing saucy card-games and getting just a little too personal with the gossip and the daring. I know that Japanese standards for public displays of affection are different, and that Blue Box is about as racy as a crocheting club for elderly snails, but can you blame me for hoping that the show might do something kind of bold or interesting with this setup?

It even threatens to play things a little spicy, for one hot second, which just makes it sting that much more when nothing comes of it. I don't even care that Blue Box is probably the only anime around that would consider “A bunch of kids play the most tame round of King's Game imaginable” a risque turn of events; for crying out loud, Ayame's big scheme to hook up Taiki with Hina is to force him to stare at her for a few seconds. Still, when Taiki drew that “Confess your love!” card, I foolishly tricked myself into getting excited for the show to do something with all of this love-triangle tension. Naturally, it is immediately resolved with that silly joke about Taiki crushing on the new badminton guy, and Hina spends the rest of the episode pining for Taiki while Taiki spends some awkward-yet-kind-of-intimate-but-also-very-casual time with Chinatsu. Again.

I'm trying not to get so down on the show when we're this close to the finish line, but I have to be honest, y'all: Blue Box is burning me out. I can only stand to sit through so many shots of Chinatsu's feet as she turns to think about maybe, possibly, sort of whispering a partial sentence of feelings to Taiki before immediately turning back around and walking away. I can only listen to so many ambivalent monologues from Taiki while he gazes longingly at Chinatsu as she sits open-mouthed and stares vacantly off into the distance. We've officially reached the point of the story where, if this were a manga, I would just look up the wiki entries for future chapters and find out when the hell any of these kids are finally going to make out already.

Wait a minute…the Shonen Jump app is sitting right there on my phone, a couple of inches away from where I am typing this very review. I could easily just…No! Be strong, James. This show is going to be over in just a couple of weeks! Surely, you can hold out for that much longer. Then, when the anime inevitably ends on another emotional cliffhanger…that is when you can blow past the rest of the manga and spoil the ending of this story for yourself. Just like God intended.

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.