Ao no Hako is not doing any reinvention here. No doubt about it, this is a series very much grounded in formula. I wouldn’t say that’s a strength, but with genre series it’s not necessarily a weakness either. If anything, maybe it’s a restrictor plate (NASCAR reference, sorry). It’s possible that a formula series can only achieve so much, but I would still say the limits are pretty high. With good formulas a good interpretation of them can provide a very engaging final product. I certainly think that’s been true in this case (speaking as a current manga reader).

”Now go to sleep” – yeah, good luck with that. This episode is littered with incidents of unintentional cruelty by Chinatsu. I don’t think she has it in her to hurt Taiki on purpose, but unknowingly (I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt) she really has him twisting in the wind here. In his own words, he’s getting his hopes up – and why shouldn’t he? Even for a green kid like him with no romantic experience, to quote myself from last week: ”It’s impossible to interpret that event (the end of last week’s episode and the start of this one) as anything but proof that Chinatsu has feelings for Taiki – romantic, physical affection”. He has every right to get his hopes up.

But events conspire to plant the seeds of doubt in Chinatsu’s head. Her teammate muses on the notion of her living with a bishounen (having no idea of her true living situation). Indeed a flag has been planted here, but Chinatsu starts to see that as a betrayal of trust towards the Inomatas. The fact that Taiki is younger than Chinatsu is always the elephant in the room here, and sometimes an acknowledged one. Taiki’ a parents are constantly commenting on how much more mature she is, and this notion is constantly reinforced in her brain. And of course Chinatsu thinks Taiki is interested in Hina.

We’ve heard very little from Taiki’s dad (and some of that seems to be a self-defense mechanism). But he has rather an extended conversation with Chinatsu here. Both she and the parents are walking on eggshells a bit – is she a guest, or a member of the family? This does nothing but further plant the notion in her head that getting too close to their son is out of bounds. Taiki could disabuse her of this at any time, and he might have been hurtling towards doing that. But that trip to the supermarket put a huge spanner in the works.

What the hell is a 15 year-old boy supposed to make of that? Talk about whiplash. He begins to doubt what his instincts have already confirmed and again, for someone in his situation it’s quite understandable. He even confesses this to Hina and Kyou (which further confirms that he has no idea of Hina’s feelings towards him). It’s an acid test for Hina too – she knows how Taiki feels about Chinatsu. So what does she do with this new information? In her position it would be easy to believe Taiki never had a chance with Chinatsu to begin with.

Again, this is largely very familiar ground we’re covering here. Even the little details like Taiki pulling Chinatsu out of the way of a car – there’s a sense of deja vu to a lot of this stuff. An awful lot rides on the likability of the main couple, both as a couple and as individuals. Again, that’s OK – they pass that test. Beyond that there’s just enough of a twist or two of lime in here to keep things from being too predictable, and Blue Box is possessed of two qualities – patience and restraint – which are an essential part of its ability to succeed on these terms.