That was certainly an eventful episode. If I hear a complaint most often about Blue Box, it’s that everything (generally they mean the romance) takes too long to develop. Not unsurprisingly that’s actually one of my favorite things about the series – these are kids after all. They’re still figuring out how to navigate these shark-infested waters, and I appreciate how realistically that’s depicted. The stuff that annoys me about Ao no Hako unsurprisingly seems to be what most like best about it. That’s how things roll with me where a lot of series are concerned.

Confessions and basketballs were flying through the air thick and heavy this time, though, which should make the complainers (I hear “not enough sports” sometimes too) happy. Chinatsu’s team is facing the defending champions at the inter-high, which is already a lot of pressure on her. Add in the fact that the sempais are leaving the club as soon as their tournament is over and the weight on her shoulders is even heavier. Taiki and Haryuu are dealing with trying to be the best in an individual sport, but it’s a different challenge in a team game – there, the seniors have to depend on the junior if that junior is the best player.

There’s no question where Taiki’s heart lies, and he’s never tried to deceive anyone about that. It’s Chinatsu he’s thinking about as he pensively shoots baskets in the gym. He even let himself utter a confession out loud – and then is horrified that he’s done it. It’s not entirely clear whether or not Hina heard him, but she kind of behaves as if she did. With Hina it’s hard to tell, because she doesn’t concern herself with decorum where such matters are concerned. She (eventually) tells Taiki she took third at nationals, does her dutiful bit about being dissatisfied, and Taiki marvels that an underclassman could achieve so much.

Again, this is Hina – it’s hard to know whether she planned all along to confess to Taiki here and now, or accelerated it because she heard his confession to the absent Chinatsu. The shoe-tossing punishment game was obviously a setup, and Taiki walks into it blissfully unaware. You certainly have to give her credit for seizing the moment. While Chinatsu and Taiki dance around the elephant in the room, Hina embraces it. She even tells Taiki that she knows he’s in love with Chinatsu (which is no news) and that’s she’ll wait for his response. But that rings a bit hollow.

That said, is what Hina’s doing here really something a friend would do? She knows Taiki is in love with someone else, but she muddies the waters anyway, knowing how badly this will knock Taiki for a loop. Then she forbids him to think of her as a friend from there onwards, only as a girl who’s in love with him. I don’t know – I admit I’m agnostic at best on Hina. I find her tsundere bit pretty annoying and for me, she’s the most tropey character in Ao no Hako. But I do get why she’s popular – she checks a lot boxes. And she certainly drives the plot forward even as she makes a messy tangle out of it.

Again, I think Taiki’s reaction here is very believable for a 15 or 16-year old boy. Basically, it’s “WTF – I didn’t do anything wrong so why do I feel terrible?” He hasn’t done anything wrong of course. He has no obligation to have been more perceptive than his experience justifies and seen through Hina’s behavior. He’s really only guilty of being nice, no more. And Hina’s confession has put him in a no-win situation. He feels the way he feels about Chinatsu, but he doesn’t want to do anything to hurt Hina. And he doesn’t know how Chinatsu feels about him.

As for Chinatsu, her team loses – by a single point, and she misses a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer to boot. The facade she wears most of the time really comes down here as the reality of the moment (and what it implies) hits her hard. And then, arriving back home, overhears Taiki telling Hina to hush up about having confessed to him. For the moment the balance of power has tilted in Hina’s favor – she acted, while Chinatsu didn’t. But now inter-high is over, and that’s one less excuse to leave things unsaid and unsettled.