Ao no Hako
Blue Box

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This looks really good...

So first off, I really like the concept of a mix between romance and sports series and it feels fresh (although there are probably other series with the same concept). It looks like it's going to be more focused on the romance side. I don't mind because after We Never Learn was finished, I was waiting for a romance series from Shonen Jump, but it would be nice to be focused on sports also (60% romance and 40% sports) because after reading Haikyuu!!, I was craving a new sports manga.

I already like the characters. The two side characters that were introduced ... look funny and interesting and for the main characters, the girl is really cute and has a great personnality and the guy looks and acts like a lot of male shonen protagonists in a romance series, but somehow, I really like him. Maybe it's because I am also a badminton player, so I can relate to why he likes badminton and it's funny when he's flustered.

Also there was a one-shot of this and before the guy played volleyball, so maybe the author changed to the guy playing badminton because badminton is a one player sport, so there could be a clash of ideals between playing alone and playing with a team and by the end, the main characters could understand why the other likes to play alone and with a team.

The art kind of looks like a shoujo manga and it looks really good. There were few panels where they were playing sports, but it looks like the panels and the spreads where they'll be playing sports continuously in the future will be top-notch.

The only thing I'm kind of worried is how the author is going advance the plot forward. Having read the one-shot, even though I wanted more, I thought there was no need to have more than a few other chapters, but still, I'm optimistic.

Other than that, it looks really wholesome and cute and I'm really excited for the future of this series. If it goes the way I think it will, it could easily be one of my favourites series.

P.S.: Sorry if it sounds a bit clunky, I don't really speak or write that great in english.

This manga would be decent, if not for the fact that one-shot of it exists.

The one-shot sets up high expectations for what is to come, which had me in high hopes and overflowing excitement. Characters were brave, the story was very enjoyable and the romance, oh my god, let me tell you. The romance had actually accomplished more in those 40 pages than the whole manga in 91 chapters. One may say that the one-shot was a huge success. Only to be baited by another long-ass slugfest romance shounen, but this time with a sports setting, which constantly goes back and forth and nothing ... really happens.

Well that is not completely true, 'cause on some occasions, when something is finally happening and you think the story is progressing forward, you will get hit by the enemy called 'story trope' followed by a huge sigh of despair.

But not all is gray, because when this manga hits, it hits right, you just need to wait for it and wait some more.

So would I recommend it? Ehh, I guess maybe for the art and two or three side characters, otherwise no.

TL;DR - Read the one-shot and be happy with your life

(Second review made after reading chapter 83)
This is trash.
Heavy spoilers ahead. I'm gonna give some line breaks so you don't end up accidentally reading just in case.







... As of chapter 83, when Taiki is at the cusp of declaring his feelings to Chinatsu at the end of a date, the mangaka INTRODUCES A NEW CHARACTER JUST TO INTERRUPT THE CONFESSION. Just when Taiki was gonna talk.
Just explaining a little bit further: until this moment in the manga, this is by far THE most pivotal moment of the series, when the two main leads would start their relationship (y'know, the thing the whole manga is about?). It doesn't really matter if they end up together later on or not, what matters is that this is undoubtedly the mangaka buying time for a new development. That by itself is bad, because it denotes that the mangaka has no freaking idea of what they are doing and that the manga has not been planned at all.
But what really gets to me is that by just throwing a new character out there to halt the progress of the manga implies that the mangaka did not even dignified themselves to try and find something previously mentioned on the manga and using that in this situation.
They were lazy. And if they are this lazy with their work I will also be lazy and not freaking read it.

You can check my first review down there on other aspects that I don't think are particularly good but chapter 83, unfortunately, confirms my theory on the first review: this is just lazy writing (and I really mean the 'unfortunately'. Specially because I'm not the type of person who keeps doing something that they don't like. So I read till chapter 83 because I was still, somewhat, enjoying the experience.).

(First review made after reading chapter 78 down below. Originally I gave a "Mixed feelings" and a score of 6)
Just about at the middle point of the current released chapters (at the moment of writing there are 170-ish chapters) I thought I had to sort out my feelings for this series prior to moving on, so here we are. Mild spoilers ahead thorough the whole review, but I will not quote the event, just gonna talk about the structure in general.

It's unfortunate that once again a mangaka does not have confidence in their writing, but that would be +80% of the romance writers of this media, and that is my main frustration with Blue Box.
We have Taiki, good normal protagonist (straight forward, honest, hard working, the normal package. Not saying that this is bad!). We have Hina, in love with Taiki and the focus of, sincerely, +60% of the manga, which does make you sympathize with her more, specially her being the absolute amazing girl that she is. We have Chinatsu, the good normal protagonist (hard working, seemly stoic, not sure about her feelings, sense of distance f up. Basically the cool beauty archetype).
Now here's the problem, the mangaka expects you to like and ship Chinatsu and Taiki. Chinatsu appears first, is the crush of Taiki, and destiny puts them together at every corner to deepen (or confuse) their feelings.
So how do you make a love triangle out of that? Chinatsu is the one Taiki likes, and he is a honest man that knows what he wants.
Here's how you maintain Chinatsu as the main lead: you don't.

The mangaka tried to compensate the overwhelming advantage that Chinatsu had by making Hina the center stage for most of the manga. She is the one well developed, she is the one with more natural day to day events happening with Taiki, she is the one the reader was made to root for. While Hina is having all the good stuff Chinatsu is having events with Taiki here and there to make us and Taiki never forget their ('supposedly', for the reader at least) feelings for Chinatsu. Most of these events, however, are supported by a myriad of coincidences that makes it seem like destiny wants both of them together.
Hina is fighting, Hina is step by step closing the distance, Hina is doing her absolute best to deal with the situation of having her most beloved person absolutely in love with another while not giving up her chances.
Chinatsu is doing nothing, she exists as a perfect and complete being that does not need any development, so she will always be first choice.

That doesn't fly.
The mangaka is so confident of the feelings Taiki has for Chinatsu that this end up being the only thing Chinatsu has going for. Meanwhile Hina is absolutely killing every chapter, being amazing.
We readers are not given reason to like Chinatsu more than a "she is romantically awkward". She is not the main character, Hina is.
If this was just an arc, then so be it, but this goes on for almost 80 chapters.
Now, remember the events I was talking about? The ones with Chinatsu? That is the only thing the reader has to cling to if they like Chinatsu. These lazily written damned things (I hate myself for calling the sweat and hard work of others "lazy" but the events that happen between Chinatsu and Taiki are straight out of a harem manga. Any of them). Hina and Taiki events are mostly day to day interactions besides one occurence. Chinatsu and Taiki events are the romance manga equivalent of a protagonist falling atop a girl in a harem manga: it may happen once in a lifetime in real life (probably not tbh), but never twice. And it just keeps happening here.

I am tired of the cowardice that some mangakas have in making their characters not ever ever ever pivot. Like it happens in real life, because feelings are not rational and definitely not things you can just keep blindly pursuing. They are mutable, specially when you are a teen.
And if your only way to make the main lead still be the main lead is keep making they " fall atop each other" and you think that's good enough I sincerely don't even have the patience to discuss with you.