These are the times that try men’s souls. This man, anyway. And honestly my soul is fine, I just get aggravated when I see so many romcom tropes heaped into one pile. I mentioned earlier that there were times when I struggled some with Ao no Hako as a manga. It so often dances this fine line with cliche and frankly it’s miraculous that it seems to fall on the right side of it as often as it does. But it still loses me for stretches. Not as often these days, fortunately.
In execution all this comes out pretty well, I don’t deny that. And that’s the story with Blue Box, really. It’s such a prototypical shounen romcom that it feels bound by it sometimes. Being in WSJ probably doesn’t help (though this is a pretty atypical WSJ romcon in a lot of ways). I liked this episode to a point, but – as with the chapters it adapts – I felt at times as if I were seeing a bunch of boxes being checked off in succession.
The summer festival and fireworks are the canvas for all this. And there’s certainly no more classic a setting in shounen romcon. Hina gets all dressed up in Yukata. She plays her usual tsun routine with Taiki, who’s used to her by now. She gets bitten by a mosquito, he provides balm. He fecklessly compliments her, she can’t help but take it the wrong way. They have an easy familiaity between them, there’s no denying that. But at this point the evidence suggests any romantic feelings are strictly one-way traffic.
Of course, Chinatsu comes to the festival too. And of course Taiki runs into her (she’s already spotted him with Hina, but he doesn’t know this). She’s in the process of helping a lost little girl named Yume, and good boy Taiki jumps in to offer assistance. This is all pretty low-hanging fruit to be honest, but the gist of it is Taiki leaves Hina alone for a rather extended period of time (did he not take his phone?). She gets a visit from their middle school friend Ito and his group, and he invites himself to join her in their viewing spot (and judging by his blush he’s got a thing for her). But Hina refuses, which says all we need to know (but we knew that already).
This is messy of course. Hina is allowing herself to feel like she has a chance, maybe for the first time. But Taiki seems to have no sense of her as a potential romantic partner. Chinatsu believes Taiki lied to her when he said he was going to the fireworks with a group (which he believed to be true). She reveals her feelings when she later stumbles upon Taiki taking a nap during practice in the eaves of the gym, but the real headline is not her mistaken belief that he lied, but that it bothers her as much as it does. And when she asks the sleeping boy if he and Hina are dating, she adds that the answer will change her feelings towards him as a “roommate”.
I won’t say anybody is in the wrong here, but this triangle element is the part of Ao no Hako that feels very generic. It literally exhausts me – I just want it to be over. There’s a lot of interesting stuff happening even in an episode like this one but it can be hard to appreciate it when things get this derivative. It’s easier for me now, knowing that soldiering on is worth it – I had no such assurances reading the manga as it was being released (which I still do). But new viewers seem to be loving this side of the show, so as usual my tastes are squarely in the minority here.
EthelTheFrog
December 14, 2024 at 1:25 amI feel that the best part of this episode was the appearance of Karen. That bit where Taiki assumes that she’s heard of him from Haryuu when it was actually from Chinatsu was rather charming. But then they had to flash-back to the actual conversation between Chinatsu and Karen which kind of spoiled the subtlety. Oh well.
I think this Hina arc thing would work better if it was accelerated a bit. They aren’t fooling me into thinking she has a chance, but the collapse of their status quo is probably going to contribute significantly to their developments as young adults. So let’s get to that, yeah?
ahnold11
December 14, 2024 at 5:26 pmNascent. That’s the word that keeps coming to mind watching this show, especially crystalized in this episode. Incredibly developed and dedicated athletes, that are just absolutely nascent in terms of romance.
Is this even a love triangle? A love triangle implies conflict, but honestly these characters are so loosely involved with each other, it really isn’t affecting them much at all. Hina seems less interested in Taiki particularly and more exploring just the very idea of herself in romance. What it’s like to have all these new feels, shy, embarrassed, both emboldened and also afraid at the same time. She doesn’t care that her “date” is gone for a super long time, she wanted to be called cute and got that, and essentially that’s all she was looking for, or rather all she’s capable of experiencing a this point. That overflowed her cup. She knows Taiki doesn’t know he was on a date, and just the idea of it is almost too much for herself.
Then there is Taiki, he’s on a date, that everyone other than him realizes. But he honestly doesn’t seem capable of that yet, he’s still at the “girls” level of romantic development. Any pretty girl is enough to fufill and consume him. Just seeing/meeting one is enough. It’s not that he’s immature, he’s just not *there* yet, the butterfly has yet to emerge from the cocoon.
And Chinatsu, she seems to be the one of the three most invested in their date. But rather than be emboldened, and let that strengthen her resolve and feelings, it’s just another excuse to pull back further. It can’t be much of a date if he spent the entire time with her, but she sees this as being lied to. But she’s also nascent, in that she doesn’t consider herself to really be available for romance anyway. Too clumsy, too busy with sports, “not that kind of girl” etc. Unlike Hina who is discovering a new part of herself, China seems to have considered it and dismissed it outright, despite obviously feeling otherwise. The tease at the end of the episode suggests this internal romantic emotional conflict might start affecting her sports performance. Which, while unfortunate for the team/nationals, might actually be helpful for the plot.
Ironically I was expecting fireworks from this “triangle”, but all I got were literal ones. These characters really need to apply just half of the determination they bring to the court, to their personal lives and they’d be much more productive. Still, the show is “patient” and so as a viewer I will continue to be. I enjoyed this enough to warrant another cour. The nice thing is, things are moving slow enough that no one is really making any capital W-rong decisions, so as a viewer I”m not super upset. Just a bit impatient, but that just leaves me wanting to tune back in.
These aren’t criticism mind you, just my read on the characters and their romantic development. It’s still early days for these 3. The show seems to like contrasting it with their athletic development, how they persevere through challenges, and don’t wallow in defeat but instead rise to the occasion and be inspired to improve. I’m wondering if this contrast is intention, showing how such a mindset *could* be useful in romance, if they ever tried to applied the same strategy.
Everyone was doing there own thing on this one. Hina watching the fireworks having got what she needed, taiki cluelessly wandering from event to event, and Chinatsu