Blue Box, Vol. 15

アオのハコ [Ao no Hako] #15

by Kouji Miura

Taiki Inomata loves badminton, but he has a long way to go before he can reach nationals.

When Taiki sees upperclassman Chinatsu Kano practicing her heart out on the girls’ basketball team, he falls for her hard. After an unexpected turn of events brings the two closer together, sports might not be the first thing on their minds anymore!

With nationals approaching, Taiki looks for ways to push himself harder than before. He decides to turn to Hyodo, who puts him through a spartan training! Then, qualifiers begin for the girls’ basketball team. Chinatsu leads them through the bracket without breaking a sweat—until she faces off against Yumeka for a spot at nationals!

Genres: Manga, Romance, Sports, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Slice Of Life

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 4, 2024

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there’s a moment that elevates this volume for me, it’s when Taiki takes Chinatsu down to the river because it’s a place where nobody can hear them. And it isn’t for the reason you might think, until you have the context.

This volume is definitely leaning far harder on the sports than the romance side of things, which isn’t the worst thing (although the place where it ends the volume is positively criminal - I nearly yelped when I realized I was out of pages).

Oh, your romance is bubbling away there, make no mistake. Akari continues her crush on Taiki, which Taiki continues to feed by being himself. Chinatsu trusts him, thankfully, but she’s also far more aware of the situation than he is.

No, the real love here is love of the game, as both Taiki and Chinatsu push themselves hard to make it to nationals. For Chinatsu, this suddenly means going up against her old friend Yumeka, who Chinatsu encouraged to start playing again in an earlier arc.

While she was happy doing that for her friend, Chinatsu soon learns that Yumeka hasn’t missed a step after taking time off and what should have been an easy win quickly turns into a far more dicey affair.

We see a lot more of Chinatsu’s internal narrative this time than we ever have and it does show how basketball became her thing when it just came into her life and then slowly took it over. Her goal is to win and, Taiki aside, it’s her primary focus.

If you think this might be showing up a little suspiciously, you are indeed correct and this is probably foreshadowing how things are going to go a little too hard. But, it’s Blue Box, it knows how to work its struggles well.

The irony is not lost on me that this is the sort of thing I had predicted for Hina probably a dozen volumes ago. Honestly, it works better as a development for Chinatsu. What do you do when your thing suddenly isn’t your thing? It’s a problem she’ll be facing for a while.

Chinatsu’s identity crisis comes amidst Taiki’s attempts to get better faster in order to actually hold his own at nationals himself. There’s a lot of strategy and philosophical musing about the nature of badminton that’s pretty okay.

It’s a strong volume, basically, like all the rest. The basketball action is less exciting to me than the badminton, but it gets the job done. Although I’m still not sure about the way sweat is drawn. Again, gets the job done.

Still, it makes for a good change of pace from its usual focus, not that the sports side is ever that distant, that keeps everything I love about the series going while mixing in a little more drama. There’s a lot both done and set up here and it still does pretty much everything real well.

5 stars - I love this series. The way it portrays the struggle of competitive sports and also gets in all the romance it needs, and then some, is always great. And this volume handles its newest drama with aplomb. Stellar stuff.

[Hisgirl85 · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Wow. I loved the scene by the water.

[Reece Simmonds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another volume down. I enjoyed this one. My heart aches for Chinatsu. Interested to see how Kyo and Ayames relationship will develop however the introduction of Saki, who we can assume was the crush Kyo was talking about in an earlier volume, definitely throws a spanner in the works.

A section I really liked from this volume was a dialogue between Hyodo and Haryu:

“In life we come upon a lot of different crossroads. I’m staring at one of those crossroads right now. There are so many times when you’ll tell yourself ‘I should’ve don’t this or that back then.’ Or ask yourself ‘What if I had taken that other path?’ With all those choices ahead of me, I don’t want to end up lost.”

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
Another great volume! This one has a lot of emotions since it features the first basketball game with Chinatsu vs Yumeka since Yumeka came back to playing. It's nice to see more of Chinatsu playing.

[Leslie Loredo · Rating 5 out of 5]

made me cry ngl

[Valeria · Rating 4 out of 5]

127-135. Básicamente un 70% fue la preparación de todos para sus campeonatos/partidos que definirían si iban o no a las nacionales, del resto vimos el partido de Chinatsu (que justo era con el equipo de Yumeka) y todo bien hasta que mi bebé se lesiona, no puede seguir jugando el partido y pierden :((( Todo muy triste pero además a esta persona se le ocurre ponerme la escena en que Taiki la lleva en hacha hasta la orilla de un río y ella se quiere hacer la fuerte, pero él le dice que suelte no más y Chii se pone a llorar diciendo que perdieron por su culpaaaa ajfhasf ayuda :(

[Latifah S Ningrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the volumes that makes me get carried away in the story. I will always support Chinatsu for everything that happens to her. And btw it seems that the female character who appears and knows Kyo at the end of the chapter will be the main topic in the next volume. Can't wait to read the next volume!

[Luke Larson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars. A little more focused on the sports aspect this volume. What brought it up a bit wasthe last two chapters. Definitely relatable to feel like all our efforts are wasted, but the truth is that all the work we put in is not wasted. Those last two chapters did a good job portraying that. Would have been 5 stars if it had actually gotten me to cry (it brought me close to crying).

[Kristin DeGarmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

And so Kyo’s first love arrives! I’m curious how Ayame will respond. Also I feel bad for Chinatsu for not being bale to go to Nationals. That’s hard to lose because of an injury. I’m glad Taiki is trying to make her feel better. I’m worried about Taiki not making it to Nationals since he has to beat Haryu in the semi-finals.

[Katie Parfitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars for me! Surprisingly, I discovered I'm more into the badminton action than the basketball action. However! The scene by the river at the end had my whole heart. It feels like Chinatsu has often been put on a pedestal, so it was genuinely beautiful to get such a human moment from her. Protect this sweet angel girly at all costs!

[Joselin Orrillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encanta como las tramas se siguen desarrollando sin sentir que alargan la historia en vano. En este tomo me di cuenta que ya quiero mucho a los personajes, tanto como para derramar un par de lagrimas en empatia a su frustracion ante algunas situaciones injustas, pero asi es la vida a veces.

[Andrea Legarrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ch. 127-135

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

ups

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ch 127-135, read on SJ app

[bea 🪴 · Rating 4 out of 5]

why was i truly sobbing chi :( she worked so hard man this is giving me flashbacks to haikyu

[catherine ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Injuries are the worst part of sports animes and even though I knew it would be a plot point at some point, I didn't expect it to come so soon, and in the middle of such a good match-up.

[bookishlife23 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so happy we're getting more of this :)

[★☆★Glowingz★☆★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

[Justin Perucca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noooooo, poor Chinatsu 😭😭

[MIL · Rating 3 out of 5]

不管男女主角，總是要有一個人在重要關頭受傷，這樣才夠老套，呵呵