Much better, obviously. And for obvious reasons. But this whipsaw quality of Ao no Hako is certainly par for the course. It strikes me, though, that the things I like about this series are the things that drive most fans crazy. And the things that drive me crazy are the things most fans like. That phenomenon is obviously not rare for me, but not to the extreme that Blue Box takes it. What I love is the authenticity with which is depicts the uncertainties of first love, and what drives me crazy – no need to belabor that.

Kyou – as usual – fulfills his wingman duties admirably in bailing Taiki out in the King’s Game. Not having to say anything, however, allows the drama to continue. Taiki has a brief encounter with Chinatsu in the hotel hallway, where she notices the scrape on his elbow and applies a bandage (such a mom thing to carry those), complete with inspirational cartoon. But on balance Chi seems to be spending more time with the basketbro Matsuoka (I guess Kaji Yuuki is finally perfectly cast, as Matsuoka is supposed to be annoying). That comes to a head when Matsuoka smugly dismisses Taiki as one of Chi’s “fans”.

That hits hard, for good reason. One of the (many) reasons Taiki feels uncertainty is that he’s not sure whether there’s an element of admiration – even idolization – in his feelings for Chinatsu. She’s 18 months older, that’s natural. The whole point here – and, I would argue, of the entire first season of Ao no Hako – is that uncertainty. I know some hate seeing romance plots dragged out and just want them to get to the point, already. But this is more realistic. How the hell is one supposed to understand these feelings with no one to explain them?

I think if Taiki were small and cute like some boys his age still are, he’d be perceived differently. But because he’s tall and athletic it’s easy to forget what a child he still is – fifteen and barely out of middle school. He’s mature and responsible in some ways, but emotionally he’s still an egg. He knows he loves Chinatsu but because he doesn’t have any context he keeps trying to convince himself it’s something else. And Hina keeps trying (with a lot of success) to confuse him even more. Yes, Taiki, it’s possible to feel something for more than one person. Welcome to reality – but he still thinks this is all supposed to be black and white and wonders why it’s all so grey.

It’s all rather sad to see this play out, I admit. Hina vainly searches the hotel for Taiki, for no good reason but just to find and see him. He, meanwhile, heads off after Chi when he hears she went jogging after practice. Yes, there are bears (even a few miles outside of Osaka I see bear signs) but Chinatsu can obviously take care of herself. Eventually he catches up to her, and the reason she’s late is that she stopped to help and old lady who hurt her leg gathering herbs (guess she wasn’t worried about bears). Eventually they wind up back at her house, where the obaa-san naturally makes a “your boyfriend” comment which Taiki denies a little too vehemently.

I was with Taiki in wishing the old lady’s husband would have let them walk back to the inn. There was something in the air and that might have been a revealing conversation. But he didn’t, so it didn’t happen. And there’s one more romcom cliche to be checked off this season, the bonfire legend. Maybe here I intersect with the zeitgeist a little bit more, in wishing Taiki would be more decisive and cut all this off. More than anything he’s putting off the moment of telling Hina the truth because he knows it will hurt her, but the hard truth is he’s hurting her more by delaying it (rip that “Fight!!” band-aid right off, Boy). It’s natural for him to do that – he’s just a kid with no experience at this – but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch.