Reviews

I initially was convinced to watch this by my younger sister, and she told me this series had beautiful animation. "Ao no Hako" is one of the most gorgeous looking shows to come out all year, with beautiful animation. I really like looking at it. However I do not like watching it.I feel like this show offers me very little not done better in "Touch" and "Mix: Meisei Story" both by Mitsuru Adachi. The balance of romance, slice of life and school was all done better in both of those series, and the writing was a lot better and less generic. I know unfair seeing that this series is almost certainly inspired by "Touch" or a series inspired by "Touch", but aside from the beautiful animation I can't see a reason to watch a series that does most of the same things but worse. I appreciate some interesting things, like showing sports less commonly represented in Japan, and a decently executed romance. "Ao no Hako" benefits from great presentation, but that can't salvage this story using a watered down version of a formula Adachi already perfected when he was mixing sports and romance together years earlier making one of the biggest anime/manga of all time. Unless "Ao no Hako" makes a left field decision out of nowhere to make it more interesting, I can't see it getting anything more than 3/10 stars from me, 2 of those stars being for presentation.