This is such a cute manga!! I am sucker for a good sports manga and I absolutely love the forced proximity trope. I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here!

3.5/5

Blue Box Vol 1 is the beginning of the story of 2 high school students who are aiming to excel in their respective sports. Chinatsu, a second year basketball player, is well liked by all and has amazing potential to go far in her basketball dreams. Taiki, a first year badminton player has decided that this year he will take badminton more seriously and aims for the nationals.

The art is well done and the character design is simple but lovely. So far the characters are interesting. I’m really invested in Hina (gymnastics) and I’m hoping that in the end she gets a happy ending. I’m super into individual sports more than team sports, so seeing into the badminton world a little more is also intriguing.

It’s kind of hard to talk about this book without going into spoilers because not much happens so…

SPOILER ALERT

Taiki has decided to go for nationals, but also likes Chinatsu and is eager at any chance to get closer to her. The problem though (if you can call it a problem) is that they end up having to live together (Chinatsu moving in with his family).

This manga (or at least this volume) focuses heavily on the sports and dream aspect, and what it takes to become excellent and move forward in their respective field. This particular volume is a little light on the romance (at least for me). So I do hope that it picks up in later volumes and there’ll be a more even mix of romance and sport.

I really have nothing else to say other than I look forward to reading more volumes of this, and hope for a cute romance to ensue.

Great start to a new manga series, perfect for high schoolers! I can't wait to recommend this one to students as I think it will go for a long time as a series.

Blue Box Volume One introduces the reader to the series’ main characters: Taiki Inomata and Chinatsu Kano.

Blue Box Volume One
Written by: Kouji Miura
Publisher: Shueisha Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: November 1, 2022

At the beginning of the volume, we are introduced to third-year middle school student Taiki Inomata and first-year high school student Chinatsu Kano. They’re both athletes at their combined middle school and high school (Taiki plays badminton and Chinatsu plays basketball). It’s quickly established that Taiki has developed a crush on Chinatsu, and he has invited himself to the high school’s badminton practice in the morning so he can see her while she practices in the gym. Chinatsu is popular, though, so Taiki’s friend Kyo thinks Chinatsu is out of Taiki’s league.

It turns out that Taiki’s mother and Chinatsu’s mother used to play on the basketball team together at the school their children attend, and Taiki learns through his mother that Chinatsu’s family is moving due to a job change. Taiki, who’s concerned about Chinatsu, runs to see her and asks her about it. She replies that while her parents are leaving, she’ll be staying in the area with the family of one of her mother’s friends. And guess whose family she ends up staying with? If you guessed Taiki, you’re right.

And this sets up the crux of the story for Volume One. Taiki decides he needs to hide the fact that Chinatsu is living with his family in order to avoid earning the wrath of the other boys at school… but he doesn’t tell Chinatsu about his plan. So when Chinatsu almost spills the beans to Taiki’s female friend, Hina, and Taiki cuts her off, Chinatsu assumes he has a crush on Hina. And after Taiki and his class move up to being first-years in high school, he sees Chinatsu acting chummy with an upperclassman on the badminton team named Haryu. And while all of this is going on, both Taiki and Chinatsu have a goal of making it to nationals in their respective sports. But as see in this volume, this is some good chemistry between Taiki and Chinatsu, which helps the reader want to root for the two of them to get together.

Maybe it’s just me, but there are points in Blue Box Volume One where it almost feels like Hina might have a crush on Taiki that she’s just not willing to admit to. I could be reading more into certain interactions between Hina and Taiki than were intended, though.

If there are any characters I have any issues with, it would be Kyo. While we see him hanging around Taiki a bit in this volume, I really don’t feel he’s terribly developed as a character. By the end of the volume, Kyo feels like an average person who tries to provide a voice of reason to Taiki, and that’s it. I hope future volumes of the series can help develop Kyo’s character more, so that he’s more than just “Taiki’s average best friend.”

In a lot of respects, there are some tropes that are going into establishing this series, such as the main character’s love interest moving into their house and the misunderstandings about interactions with members of the opposite sex. However, I think the main characters are interesting enough in their own right that it’s a little easier to overlook these tropes. Hopefully now that the story is established, the next volume will see Miura relying less on the tropes. Also, I think including the sports element into the story helps to make it stand out a little more in comparison to other stories that rely on similar tropes.

When it comes to the art, I have to say that Miura does give Taiki some good faces, especially in close-up panels. There was also a great panel of Hina doing rhythm gymnastics on page 115, and it felt like Miura went to a bit of effort to depict her face and hair. Chinatsu also gets an occasional panel that makes her stand out. However, I do notice that it seems like Miura has more of a comfort level with drawing male characters than female characters, because I’m finding more panels where the guys have more detail than the female characters do.

Overall, Blue Box Volume One is off to a decent start. I hope I can have the opportunity to read the next volume of the series in order to find out how the characters and the story progress from here. But if you’re a reader who enjoys both romantic comedy and sports, you might find that you enjoy Blue Box.

I really liked what I saw of Blue Box! Part sports story, part romance, it's a combo I wasn't sure about as I started reading, but I found myself pleasantly surprised at how balanced it was. The story is hovering around clichés of both genres, (potential love triangles already forming, promise of of doing a big sports event, my crush lives with me now...) But so far, none of these have become a crutch.. This is a strong start to an interesting series that I could easily recommend it to fans of either genre.

"Blue Box" is a fluffy and light sports romance read. The main character, Taiki Inomata is a badminton player with a secret crush on the future MVP of the girls' basketball team, Chinatsu Kano. I enjoyed reading Taiki's flustered inner monologue whenever he thought about Chinatsu and felt jealous or embarrassed. I am excited for the next volume because this left me looking forward to Taiki's determination to reach nationals alongside Chinatsu. I was left hopeful and eager to see what comes next. Again, the manga does not have a complicated plot, but if you are looking for a light quick read this is the one!

I was pleasantly surprised to see this for Jump Comics, which is usually more known for action-oriented shows targeted to boys. Blue Box takes the trope of "oh no, I am now living under the same roof as my crush (but with parental supervision) and mixes it with the best of sports manga. This is less about the relationship and more about both lead characters working towards their goals. There's no fan service to cheapen the relationship with the crush or the potential rival (ok, there is a gymnast, but there are no gratuitous depictions of leotards). I am motivated to try doing crunches whenever I feel frustrated now. I look forward to reading volume 2! (I received a copy of Blue Box v.1 from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange or my honest opinions.)

This manga is a good mix of sports and romance, the inclusion of both tones down some of the typical plot points in both genres. In particular, this is a very chill sports manga compared to most others that tend to be very high stakes and dramatic. The story revolves around Taiki, a freshman on the badminton team, who loves the sport but isn't even a regular on the team. His high school is very sports oriented, and many teams share the gym for morning practice, including Chinatsu, a second year, star of the basketball team, and Taiki's crush. The two form a friendship before suddenly being thrown into a shojo trope: Chintasu's parents are moving abroad for work, so she'll be living with Taiki's family to finish high school (their mothers were friends and teammates in school). The set up is fun, the pacing is good, and the characters are interesting, though I wish the side characters had a bit more interest and attention paid to them. This is a good start to what promises to be a good series.

"Blue Box" is a really cute manga about a high school crush between a first year boy on the badminton team and a second year girl on the basketball team. I really like Taiki, the boy's, character as he wants to push himself to go to nationals not only for the girl, Chinatsu, but just because he really loves badminton. His hard work and dedication is invigorating and I like the story mostly because of his character.

This is SO cute! I'm glad to find a manga series that is sports, but also focuses on that fluffy falling in love storyline that is captured in those light-filled art panels usually found in shojo manga.

I will definitely be recommending this to the Maverick List.

It's cute!! Very chill lowkey storyline; I'm interested in knowing what happens next. Definitely not super fast paced since its a slice of life/sports themed manga with romance.

With a comfortable blend of romance and sports, this is a nice, gentle read. While it does lean into some familiar story beats - such as the protagonist suddenly finding himself living with his crush when her family goes overseas and it turns out that her mom is his mom's friend even though he didn't know it - it does so with a facility that makes it very enjoyable to read. The art is at its best when Taiki is playing badminton, but it's nice overall, if not a little generic, and really, this is simply a nice story for a cozy day.

3.5stars

Tropes:
High school sports
Forced proximity
Roommates
Sunshine romance

Oh, this was so genuinely cute!