Let’s accentuate the positive – as of this episode Hina is no longer the most problematic character in Blue Box. I wish I could also eliminate the negative, but that’s asking too much. It usually is with Ao no Hako, because it demands that you take the bitter with the sweet. Even an ep like this, with all the BS it pulls, is still entirely entertaining. It has moments of real emotional impact. Compromising on the rest of it is something I learned early on that I had to do if I wanted to stick with it, and it’s been more than worth it.

One of those compromises is the whole “Snow White” thing. It’s a dumb, cliche development but you just have to ride with it. Taiki takes in on the chin pretty good here, being that he’s supposed to have the script memorized even though he wasn’t supposed to be acting at all. He also has no stage experience and the whole kiss fiasco to think about. So yeah, it’s a nightmare (even bigger than being kissed by Hina, and that had him waking up screaming). Fortune-teller Nishida wasn’t exaggerating with the word “ordeal”.

None of this is Hina’s fault of course (apart from hyping the whole “for real” thing when running lines with him). Nor is the confetti ball thing, which is really gilding the lily where hackneyed cliche is concerned.  But there’s the play to get through first. Taiki wisely lets Chinatsu know he’s been drafted – it doesn’t eliminate the problem, but it’s removes one stress-inducing variable. Unsurprisingly Taiki seems more as if he’s in a performance of The Wizard of Oz than Snow White (Jack Haley has nothing on him). But he gets through it, line by line, and even starts to get slightly less mechanical.

Taiki does exactly what he should do with regard to the kiss – he discreetly fakes it. Then Blue Box pulls the confetti ball stunt, and the rest, as they say, is history. We don’t know if they really “kissed” behind that blizzard of paper (another cliche). But the audience assumes they did, which poses its own set of problems. Taiki is severely pissed about this, only in part because of the Chinatsu angle. The whole play got upstaged right at the climax, which the rest of them should be more upset about too, quite frankly. And then there’s the fact that it’s not really fair to Hina, which Taiki is gentleman enough to find offensive.

Hina could have tried to work this to her advantage – it likely would have backfired, but she could have. She doesn’t – she more or less takes the high road, dismissing it, confirming his story, and offering (privately) to explain it to Chinatsu (that was a poisoned chalice, but we’ll let that go). Kyou is – as is often the case – the Greek chorus figure and the one to cut to the chase. Taiki hasn’t done anything to lead Hina on, but it’s true that he hasn’t been definitive in declaring his lack of romantic feelings for her as he has in declaring the presence of them for Chinatsu. Maybe Kyou has his own reasons for doubting that someone in Taiki’s shoes wouldn’t be attracted, but he’s not wrong in pushing Taiki to give this whole clusterfrick some clarity.

And then there’s Ayame (Ichinose Kana). This is probably one of those “the less said the better” situations for me. Everyone will have plenty of grounds to come to their own conclusions about Ayame soon enough. But given that this is a moment I’ve been dreading since the anime premiered, it would be disingenuous of me not to at least acknowledge it. Much more on that subject later, unfortunately…