What an episode. And it needed to be. These were some of the most important chapters in the entire manga (and favorites of mine). It was crucial that the anime get them right, and it really did. We’re coming off a couple “times that try men’s souls” episodes for me and right into one of the best. But that’s Blue Box – it can whipsaw from annoying me to enchanting me like no series since Chihayafuru, possibly. Having lived through that with the manga it’s easier now that I know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an oncoming train.

It’s Chinatsu’s birthday, and that thrusts her back into the spotlight for reasons that range from obvious to quite subtle. She’s still enduring a crisis of confidence after bricking the game-deciding shot at the inter-high. Topping that off she’s been named vice-captain, which carries with it the implication that she’ll soon be wearing the armband herself (yeah, I know they don’t do that in basketball). It’s natural – she’s already the best player on the team, and the seniors are about to check out. But as Nagisa notes, Chinatsu is not the natural leader type – her gaze tends to be inwards where motivation is concerned.

Seeing Chinatsu’s teammates shower her with birthday festivities gives license to Taiki to do the same, which he’s been avoiding given her obvious doldrums. But there’s unfinished business with Hina to deal with first. Taiki is totally straight with her, which to be fair is all he ever has been. Credit to Hina for being forward and forcing Taiki’s hand, but that means she has to deal with the consequences. Being liked by Hina hasn’t lessened Taiki’s attraction to Chinatsu, and that means his answer is not the one she wants to hear.

Chinatsu has a timely talk with her mom, who offers some mainstream parental bucking-up. But the key takeaway is that Chinatsu needs to lean on the people she feels closest to rather than try and shoulder her burdens herself. If she’s honest with herself, there’s one person in her life that best meets that description. This time it’s Chinatsu taking the initiative with Taiki, declaring on the spur of the moment that she wants to go somewhere for her birthday with him. He suggests the seaside in Chiba, though he seemingly doesn’t tell Chinatsu that until the train arrives.

I note not infrequently that Ao no Hako is a series that often leans heavily into romance manga tropes. But it also deserves credit for subverting them, something it can be very good at. This was a situation fraught with potential for cliche – a beach trip, a birthday, an unexpected stay at an inn. But it’s handled with so much deftness and originality that it’s one of the high points of the series. I’m hard on Hina as a character, I won’t deny that. But in part it’s due to how great Chinatsu and Taiki are, both individually and as a pair. When they’re in their element Hina just can’t compete on any level.

I can’t overstate how good the chemistry between these two is. And how natural the flow of their relationship. After his mishap in the sea Taiki pulls out the cake he’s brought for Chinatsu, and it’s a reminder – she’s now 17, and he won’t be 16 for another five months. “Two years isn’t that big a gap”, he declares in a far more assertive moment than he realizes. But in truth it is at that age, it’s an eternity. He’s so much a child still, even as she herself struggles with the terrifying encroachment of adulthood. It’s hard enough for a 15 year-old kid to deal with the person he’s in love with – that she’s a year and a half (almost) older just makes Chinatsu that much more of a figure of awe.

I’m a sucker for romances between two really nice kids, no denying that. But this scene at the inn is just so good – the video call, the apologies, his sleeping in a chair. Somehow what should be tired and played comes off as fresh and charming. That it hits the reset button on their relationship can’t be denied, especially her retraction of her assertion that they should maintain their distance. And Hina has unwittingly given Taiki a sense of urgency to comprehend just what his relationship with Chinatsu is – and what it can become. For both Taiki and Chinatsu the answer to those questions surely looks very different than it did before they boarded that train.