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| Advance screening event. https://aonohako-anime.com/news/detail_240805_1.html Remember picking up the manga for this one a WHILEEE back, but put it on-hold for a while, and here we are now lol. Not that it was bad or anything per se, just by the time I had made it to chapter twenty or something, the anime got announced, so just decided to wait for that, and here we are. The story always did interest me, and I did like it, as a former basketball player and as someone who still does love to watch it occasionally. Badminton though... story lost me there ngl lol. Though, from the little I did read, I do remember them making it somehow kinda interesting, and it did transfer here thankfully. Right off the bat though, much like manga, this first episode doesn't feel like a typical Jump anime, which isn't a problem at all. In fact, that's something I really liked about the manga too. But enough about the manga—the anime is what we're here for, and... what the fuck? Did I watch the right episode? There's no way the infamous Telecom made this... it actually looks good... HUH? I thought it would look like Nagatoro—pretty generic and bland—but I like the unique art style they chose; it actually matches the tone of the manga in a lot of ways. Taiki looks and seems like your standard romance mc, but at least he has a goal and works hard, while Chinatsu comes across as the oneesan type, always there to support others, but I’m sure she’ll learn to open up more and ask for help herself. And Chinatsu playing basketball in those baggy hoodies is just perfect. Love that detail because it feels accurate, and she isn't being sexualized every two seconds like other romcoms would do by now. The romance seems sweet so far, which is a nice change from the more unrealistic stories or the ones full of risqué misunderstandings. Which, ofc, leads us to the big plot twist the whole story revolves around—them moving in together. Great start, honestly. Really surprised me. Nice job, Telecom. I just hope they can keep this up for the whole season... fingers crossed. P.S. Hina best girl. No debate. |
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| The Fall season's premiere sports romance series is finally here, and it's one of Weekly Shonen Jump's current mainstays: mangaka Kouji Miura's Ao no Hako a.k.a Blue Box. Official HIGE DANdism's OP is just as expressive as Eve's ED, what spendid songs with captivating visuals. Eimei Private's 3rd Year Junior High's Taiki Inomaki of the badminton team being a wimp against the angel that is 1st Year Senior High's Kano Chinatsu of the basketball team, he already wishes that he would marry her after seeing her every day, early in the morning for their individual practice. but the criticism from his teammate of Kyo Kasahara has both good and bad points, aside from same aged Hina Chono of the rhythmic gymnastics team hearing his romance rant. But when he faces her alone, he stutters from thinking of how to start a communcation with her, which instead leaves her to take care of him like a maiden. Taiki still has a long way to go, and Hina teasing him is just hilarious. Chinatsu is just too good for Taiki trying his hand on basketball despite his mother once being on the basketball team but that the son could not handle, it's a matter of fact when it's her efforts that brought her to being the prodigy that she is now, even after suffering in the midst to reach Nationals. And Taiki's sentiment pretty much is true, when the connection between him and Chinatsu gets closer with their mothers once being in the same basketball team, though it's pushed back when her parents are going abroad for their work...except that he jumped the gun again into misunderstanding that it's only her that would be staying behind and living with someone else to pursue Nationals. And while Chinatsu giving the encouragement to Taiki is one thing, staying at a relative's place is another...and he finds her at his house instead, living with him and his family. Well, what fate for Taiki. This is going to be a great romance show. |
KANLen09Oct 4, 5:46 PM
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| Now with this, most of the stuff which has been going on in WSJ for a while has gotten adapted… Sakamoto days will next year as well, so yeah. Now first of all, this series may advertise itself as a sports series, but man, that aspect takes the second seat most of the time, as I mean this a ROMANCE, first and foremost. You literally see the main guy fawning over a girl in the very first minute of the episode lol. Dude comes early to the practice just to see Chinatsu after all… … who is the prettiest girl in the town, as anyone could guess. So yeah, it’s one of those “a plain guy fell in love with the Madonna kind of thing”, where they play sport. Now yeah, girls are cute… both Chinatsu and Hina and the guy, Taiki is… what every protag in such a series is, if you know. Now yeah, development between the leads will take a good amount of time, let them be red from talking to each other or whatnot, but yeah. Anyway, I had slight doubts over how this would look, but man, this looks stunning, really unlike to what Taiki made himself look like in the end xD That embarrassment sucks, but hey, she’ll live with them. I still do wonder what did author even read before thinking this. Fine start, and it’s going to be a long journey. |
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| Been following the manga to the latest chapter on this. The PVs already were promising so I had high expectations. This looked gorgeous animation wise. Chinatsu is how I pictured would be like in the adaptation. I kinda like her competitive energy and chemistry with Taiiki already. It's great to see this being animated since we get to see also see basketball gameplay. The background scenes and character emotions are also adapted well imo. They set a high bar for this, at least compared to other school anime that aired this year so far. Looking forward to more. |
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Yeah🔥✨ finally Ao No Hako has begun. inomata got hit with basketball and those cute reactions 🤭. Chinatsu Senpai 😍 the OPENING song Visuals are so Beautiful 🤩. Inomata dreaming about living a life with chinatsu lol 😂. Hina-chan she's so adorable also & she's teasing our inomata a lot as many chances as she gets 😂.  Chinatsu-senpai is a hard worker and well she seems to love basketball & our boy gets a chance to play with her and greatly lost the one on one play with her. We don't want to see chinatsu crying ever again 😿. I'm so happy to watch this getting adapted into a great quality animation. 😲😲 Chinatsu's mother and his mother they are old friends and teammates. Taiki getting worried for nothing 🤭 Still it's very emotional watching him trying to reach her. Yeah My boy!!! that declaration got us pumped up 🔥 but then The fire vanquished 😂 🤣 as Chinatsu revealed she's not going to go abroad. "Arigato Inomata Taiki-kun" 🤩 The next day his dream of living a happy life with her came true 😂. |
Ricky16Oct 3, 9:30 AM
| Very pleasing first episode. The animation is on point. |
| “Do what feels right in your heart. You will be criticized either way.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) |
| they are living together ahhhhhhhh😍😍😍 |
| im going to cry this is looking to be an amazing adaptation. it's been a long road since the one shot, but we made it :--) chinatsu best girl, bar none. |
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| Dude was worrying about making it to the second round when he was already shortlisted for nationals (or whatever better metaphor there is for having your crush move in with you) Man these visuals are breathtaking. |
| IM GONNA CRY, I CAN DIE HAPPY NOW |
 "You fought to the end. You survived. That's why you're here now. I think that's something you should be more proud of." - Vladilena Milizé |
| Finally! After 3 and a half years of waiting, peak WSJ romance anime has arrived! From the day its first chapter came out, I abso-fucking-lutely knew it was gonna get an anime adaptation. The use of 3D CGI may be a bit debatable, but I ain't complaining. So far, I love it! |
| यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत। अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥४-७॥ परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् । धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥४-८॥ |
| Great episode the animation is superb |
| We're back with a romance with a sporty element here, and what a start it's got. Not gonna lie, Inomata Taiki is a really funny guy, how his natural attitude is really funny to see. Also Chinatsu, she's a great basketball girl, really a perfect senpai in Taiki's eyes. Anyway I like how Taiki cares for Chinatsu, and they both look really compatible in this first episode. Well, I'm curious about what will happen next after Chinatsu who will temporarily live with Taiki's family.  |
| Beatiful OP. Looks like a great adaptation fr. Maybe it will make up for the fact that I felt like the manga was pretty mid by Jump standards. Romance is admittedly not the magazine's forte and I read it for the battle shounen stuff. |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
| Love and Basketball: The Anime 😂 this one has been hyped for such a long time and after the first episode, I completely understand why it has so many fans. Telecom delivered one of the most visually pleasing shows of the year. Gorgeous art and designs really and that Higedan OP as usual bangs. Really eating good with anisong this season. As a basketball lover it’s cool seeing a love interest who’s pursuing her goals in the sport as well. Chinatsu is not just eye candy, I can tell she has a lot to her that I’m looking forward to seeing explored. Mad respect for her being the first to arrive and last to leave everyday in the gym. Mamba mentality. I remember seeing panels of this on Twitter a while ago and thinking to myself how tf is this shonen and not shoujo, but after the Hina fanservice shots and seeing how it focuses on Taiki yea it makes sense lol. Still, there’s been some good shonen romances of late so I got high hopes for this one. Hina is really cute too, both girls just seem great so far. The last 5 minutes of twists were so well done I was genuinely caught off guard. The animation of Taiki running to the gym to convince Chinatsu not to go overseas was sooo good, but the coolest part of that scene is how we don’t even realise the impact the smallest things we say to people can have. Here he is thinking he needed to convince her to stay and his passing comment about seeing how hard she worked and how hurt she was about nationals is what saved her. She’d already chosen! I went in completely blind so the reveal that Chinatsu would be staying with Taiki and his mom actually had me saying wtf lol. I’m not the biggest fan of this gimmick but we’ll see how it goes! |
Marinate1016Oct 3, 3:38 PM
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| Wow that was a great first episode. Very wholesome vibes from this, I can tell I’m really gonna like this show. Glad it’s gonna be running for 25 continuous episodes, something that’s pretty rare these days. Taiki is your average-in-every-conceivable-way MC that falls for a girl way out of his league. Well, what a twist at the end that the “acquaintance” his crush will be staying with while her family goes abroad happens to be him, or I guess more so his mom since their moms know each other. But yea with him living under the same roof, they’re pretty much roommates now. Lol that got a nice chuckle from me. The OP and ED sound good, and the visuals overall are beautiful. A nice strong start for this show. lil_pan said: Damn I thought everyone was gonna be glazing this, didn't think the score would be this low. I mean, the score right after the first episode never stays the same. It’ll likely go up as the day goes on and more people watch the episode and rate the show. |
| People on MAL refuse to actually enjoy watching anime. Your taste in anime isn't a personality trait. MAL is literally just anime Twitter as its own website lol. |
| Enjoyed watching the episode. Such a good and strong start to a romance. The visuals looked very crisp throughout the episode and the animation/direction was good too. The only thing I'm gonna nitpick about is how Chinatsu's face looked somewhat off in some scenes. Taiki's voice at first felt off too but got used to it fast. There were some really good moments with the two this episode and they'll be living together so there's more to come. Hina was amusing and Kitou Akari's voice suits her perfectly. She's kind of like Mikarin. I told myself multiple times that I won't be watching this but here I am watching it anyway lol. I seriously don't want to go through all the drama again but it is what it is. When the one shot came out it instantly became one of my favourites and was very excited when the serialised manga begun and while the overall quality of the manga had downgraded a lot as author dragged things out quite a bit with drama and stuff, it recently bounced back after a certain event which I'm very much looking forward to seeing in the anime but won't be here in the first season even with two cours. That said got excited watching the premiere. Also crazy how many animes are airing thursday night this season. This is the fifth I watched tonight and there's another 5/6 to go. Btw don't expect much on the sports aspect in this as it's mainly a drama romance. |
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| Her relentless practice despite missing nationals in junior high made him want to work hard, but his words helped her decide when she was torn. Mom was going to tell him her former teammate's daughter was to be staying with them, before he rushed to school thinking he'd never see Chinatsu again. Every time he jumps the gun, the situation resolved itself. |
 Novels I have read/am reading pending approval: since November 10 2022 |
| Read the first few volumes of it so I kinda know what to expect of it, but still looking forward very much to it. It looks beautiful so far and the fact that it's going to be 25 episodes makes me happy. |
| The new big romance anime. |
| Well firstly I'll say the animation is absolutely stunning and the music is great HIGE DANdism literally never miss and this is 25 episodes I can tell this will be good. I've known about Blue box for a few years now but never got around to reading it which I straight decided against when I heard it was getting an anime same reasoning for a Fragrant flower blooms with dignity. They're both my two most hyped romance anime of the coming seasons. I can already tell just from vibes I'm gonna prefer a Fragrant flower though. Taiki and Chinatsu are both great mc's and Hina and Kyou are good support characters. I get the feeling this shows gonna have a fairly small cast which I'm all for since the main four seem like a vibe. I'm hoping this show don't have fanservice cause while I don't mind it I really just want a romance without it. If I want fan service ill go watch an ecchi show. So I'm really hoping for none. But I get the vibe its not gonna have much of any. Personally I'm not a big sports guy, although I did like badminton to an extent so I can relate to Taiki on that. I always love to see characters with a passion like Chinatsu. How I envy her. Very strong start. |
| Well firstly I'll say the animation is absolutely stunning and the music is great HIGE DANdism literally never miss and this is 25 episodes I can tell this will be good. I've known about Blue box for a few years now but never got around to reading it which I straight decided against when I heard it was getting an anime same reasoning for a Fragrant flower blooms with dignity. They're both my two most hyped romance anime of the coming seasons. I can already tell just from vibes I'm gonna prefer a Fragrant flower though. Taiki and Chinatsu are both great mc's and Hina and Kyou are good support characters. I get the feeling this shows gonna have a fairly small cast which I'm all for since the main four seem like a vibe. I'm hoping this show don't have fanservice cause while I don't mind it I really just want a romance without it. If I want fan service ill go watch an ecchi show. So I'm really hoping for none. But I get the vibe its not gonna have much of any. Personally I'm not a big sports guy, although I did like badminton to an extent so I can relate to Taiki on that. I always love to see characters with a passion like Chinatsu. How I envy her. Very strong start. |
| So cute and so relatable. It was so adorable seeing their interactions, especially Taiki's side. He likes Chinatsu so much and I have a feeling that she likes him just as much. I was kinda scared for a second when I heard they were moving overseas but looks like she'll be staying back and on top of that with Taiki's family. LOL. Talk about coincidence. Cute start. I love it. Also, the animation looks good, and the music is beautiful. The OP looks beautiful both musically and animation-wise, and Tetsuro Araki directs it. The ED is nice as well. |
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| This gonna be best highschool romance of recent time |
| The visuals are such eye candy! I've only read the one shot but this anime adaptation really got the manga vibe. |
| Hey, this is good stuff! Quality animation and music, plus the voices are just what I expected, definitely expecting great things from this one. Lol, that cliffhanger though, feels just like a harem series starter. Just when I was thinking what’re the odds because their mothers are well acquainted, it actually happened xD. I’ve heard this will focus more on the drama romance side of things, and I’m always down for that, so let’s go! Pretty cool Op and the ED done by Eve is on point too. |
#Anime4Life be my Life Motto! #PrayForKyoAni  |
| Blue Box is one of the great romcom school manga. I didn't think that Telecom studio could make an anime with such beautiful visuals it looks like they brought good staff huh or a big budget. Tetsurou Araki again directed an amazing Opening after BokuYaba Season 2 which had amazing animation and directors. Thank you Telecom for giving justice to this very good manga, now it's just a matter of waiting whether this anime can maintain the same Art, Graphics, Visuals, Cinematography, and Lighting as this episode, here I just expect consistency especially since this is a 25 episode project. Taiki and Chinatsu seem to be an interesting couple to follow. I still can't really like Chinatsu just by seeing how she was introduced in this episode and I don't think Ueshama is too suitable to voice Chinatsu (for this episode) but I'm sure it will grow on me. Hina is the best girl in this season so far, I really like her character who is so adorable and cute OMG i really like her teasing Taiki lol, Akarin managed to make me fall in love with Hina once again because Akarin's voice is perfect for Hina's character. After the OP filled by Higedan was so amazing I got emotional seeing this OP, the ED was filled by EVE, I'm so happy that EVE got a theme song too this season after the Shoushimin Series which the OP became my favorite OP. Really waiting for the next episode.  |
NezuSwallowtail_Oct 4, 1:04 AM
| I'm really glad that I gave this series a try. Since it has badminton in the original synopsis, I was sold on checking Blue Box out and this first episode was great! The visuals and production values are impressive in many scenes and the interactions between Taiki and Chinatsu was thoroughly enjoyable. Honourable mention goes to Hina for being a tease towards Taiki many times. I have a soft spot for her cheeky personality. Both OP and ED songs were very good, as was the soundtrack throughout the episode. Overall, I have high hopes that this 25 episode duration will be completely worth it. =) |
| The visuals are simply amazing, the first episode was a lot better than I expected. |
Mr_Sai said: why does every romcom have to have the MC live with the love interest the last scene completely killed my interest Yeah, kinda lame :( |
| Peak romance has arrived. |
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