Blue Box (manga)

Blue Box (Japanese: アオのハコ, Hepburn: Ao no Hako) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kouji Miura. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump since April 2021, with its chapters collected in 20 tankōbon volumes as of May 2025. An anime television series adaptation produced by TMS Entertainment and animated by Telecom Animation Film aired from October 2024 to March 2025. A second season has been announced.

Blue Box
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Chinatsu Kano (left) and Taiki Inomata (right)
アオのハコ (Ao no Hako)
Genre	Romance[1] Sports[2][3]
Manga
Written by	Kouji Miura
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Imprint	Jump Comics
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	April 12, 2021 – present
Volumes	20 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Directed by	Yūichirō Yano
Written by	Yūko Kakihara [ja]
Music by	Takashi Ohmama
Studio	Telecom Animation Film (animation) TMS Entertainment (production and planning)[a]
Licensed by	Netflix
Original network	JNN (TBS)
Original run	October 3, 2024 – present
Episodes	25 (List of episodes)

Synopsis

The series focuses on Taiki Inomata, a student at Eimei Junior and Senior High, an athletics-oriented school, where he is a member of the boys' badminton team and is considered simply average. Every morning, he trains to get better early in the gym, often at the same time and place as his upperclasswoman Chinatsu Kano, the star of the girls' basketball team. Taiki quickly develops a crush on her, but is initially too shy to speak to her despite their continual alone time together. His fortunes change, however, when Chinatsu moves in with Taiki's family after her parents leave Japan to work abroad. With Chinatsu now living with him, Taiki aims to slowly develop his relationship with her as they both strive to make it to the national championship with their respective teams.^[4]

Characters

Taiki Inomata (猪股 大喜, Inomata Taiki)

Voiced by: Shōya Chiba^[5] (Japanese); Zach Aguilar^[6] (English)

The main protagonist. An avid badminton player, Taiki strives to succeed despite setbacks. He greatly admires Chinatsu for her dedication to basketball and harbors a huge crush on her. While he is often awkward and emotional, his unwavering determination and sincerity slowly earns him respect from others. His goal is to reach the national championship, a dream he shares with Chinatsu in their respective sports. His mother was Chinatsu's mother's teammate and friend, hence the decision for Chinatsu to move in with Taiki. He is aware of Hina being in love with him, but doesn't reciprocate her feelings and rejects her, leading to the two drifting apart. He later starts a relationship with Chinatsu.

Chinatsu Kano (鹿野 千夏, Kano Chinatsu)

Voiced by: Reina Ueda^[5] (Japanese); Xanthe Huynh^[6] (English)

The main female protagonist. Chinatsu is the star player of the girls' basketball team. She is one grade above Taiki and is often the first person at practice. Once a terrible basketball player, her dedication has helped her grow into a strong player with hopes of making it into the national championships. She moves in with Taiki's family when her parents leave to work abroad, and she and Taiki slowly become friends supporting each other. She is oblivious to Taiki being in love with her, but she enjoys his company and cares for him deeply. She later becomes Taiki's girlfriend.

Hina Chōno (蝶野 雛, Chōno Hina)

Voiced by: Akari Kitō^[7] (Japanese); Kayli Mills^[6] (English)

Hina is Taiki's childhood friend who is on the rhythmic gymnastics team. She is quite theatrical and loves to tease Taiki. Although initially only seeing him as a close friend, she slowly realizes she has fallen in love with Taiki later on, despite encouraging him to go after Chinatsu. Taiki is completely oblivious to her feelings, and is often annoyed by her playful teasing, although he does genuinely care for her. She later confesses her feelings to Taiki, and becomes rivals with Chinatsu for his love, wanting him to be her boyfriend; however, Taiki rejects her twice, telling her that he doesn't reciprocate her feelings at all, which devastates her deeply. Following his rejection, she grows cold towards him and they drift apart from each other, until she is finally able to move on from him.

Kyo Kasahara (笠原 匡, Kasahara Kyō)

Voiced by: Chiaki Kobayashi^[8] (Japanese); Caden Shaffer^[6] (English)

Kyo is Taiki's best friend and fellow badminton player. Quiet and observant, he often understands more than anyone else. Though sarcastic, especially with Taiki, he is a genuinely caring and wise person.

Kengo Haryū (針生 健吾, Haryū Kengo)

Voiced by: Yuma Uchida^[8] (Japanese); Daman Mills^[6] (English)

Kengo is a skilled badminton player in Chinatsu's grade who ends up becoming a mentor and rival to Taiki. Though he is often hard on Taiki, he slowly grows to admire his tenacity and growing skill.

Ryōsuke Nishida (西田 諒介, Nishida Ryōsuke)

Voiced by: Shogo Sakata^[9] (Japanese); Jacob Hopkins^[6] (English)

The captain of the badminton team.

Nagisa Funami (船見 渚, Funami Nagisa)

Voiced by: Anna Nagase^[9] (Japanese); Emi Lo^[6] (English)

A member of the basketball team alongside Chinatsu.

Niina Shimazaki (島崎 にいな, Shimazaki Niina)

Voiced by: Asaki Yuikawa^[9] (Japanese); Kira Buckland^[6] (English)

A member of the rhythmic gymnastics team alongside Hina.

Shoichiro Kishi (岸 祥一郎, Kishi Shōichirō)

Voiced by: Kengo Kawanishi^[10] (Japanese); Sean Chiplock^[6] (English)

Haryū's previous doubles match partner.

Shōta Hyōdō (兵藤 将太, Hyōdō Shōta)

Voiced by: Yūki Ono^[11] (Japanese); Christian La Monte^[6] (English)

A skilled badminton player from Sajikawa High who is the rival of Haryū due to having never beaten him in badminton matches.

Shūji Yusa (遊佐 柊仁, Yusa Shūji)

Voiced by: Kensho Ono^[11] (Japanese); Griffin Burns^[6] (English)

A skilled badminton player from Sajikawa High who is a teammate of Hyōdō despite appearing lethargic.

Karen Moriya (守屋 花恋, Moriya Karen)

Voiced by: Haruka Shiraishi^[10] (Japanese); Cristina Vee^[6] (English)

Haryū's girlfriend and Ayame's older sister who is a childhood friend of him and Chinatsu.

Ayame Moriya (守屋 菖蒲, Moriya Ayame)

Voiced by: Kana Ichinose^[12] (Japanese); Megan Harvey^[6] (English)

Karen's younger sister who is the team manager of the badminton team. She becomes a close friend of Hina following her being rejected by Taiki.

Kazuma Matsuoka (松岡 一馬, Matsuoka Kazuma)

Voiced by: Yuki Kaji^[13] (Japanese); Ryan Colt Levy^[6] (English)

A member of the boys' basketball team who returned to Japan from studying abroad in America.

Media

Manga

Main article: List of Blue Box chapters

Written and illustrated by Kouji Miura, Blue Box began its serialization in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump on April 12, 2021,^[14][15] after the one-shot version had been published on August 3, 2020.^[16][17]Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on August 4, 2021.^[18][19] As of May 2, 2025, 20 volumes have been released.^[20]

Blue Box has been licensed for simultaneous publication in North America as it is released in Japan, with its chapters being digitally launched by Viz Media on its Shonen Jump website.^[21] Shueisha also simulpublishes the series in English for free on the Manga Plus app and website.^[22] In February 2022, Viz Media announced that they had licensed the series in print format; the first volume was released on November 1 of the same year.^[23][24] The manga is also licensed in Indonesia by Elex Media Komputindo.^[25]

Anime

See also: List of Blue Box episodes

An anime television series adaptation was announced in November 2023.^[5] Planned and produced by TMS Entertainment,^[a] it is animated by Telecom Animation Film and directed by Yūichirō Yano, with Yūko Kakihara [ja] handling series composition and Miho Tanino [ja] designing the characters.^[7] The series aired for two consecutive cours from October 3, 2024, to March 27, 2025, on TBS and its affiliates.^{[8][26][27][b]} For the first cour, the opening theme is "Same Blue" by Official Hige Dandism, while the ending theme is "Teenage Blue" (ティーンエイジブルー) by Eve;^[26] for the second cour, the opening theme is "Saraba" (然らば) by Macaroni Empitsu [ja], while the ending theme is "Contrast" (コントラスト) by Tomoo [ja].^[12] Netflix licensed the series and is streaming it worldwide.^[29]

A second season was announced immediately following the airing of the first season finale.^[30][31]

Reception

Popularity

In August 2021, the first volume of the manga had over 170,000 copies in circulation in less than a week after its release.^[32]

In June 2021, Blue Box was nominated for the seventh Next Manga Award in the Best Print Manga category;^[33] it placed eighth out of 50 nominees, but won the Global Prize.^[34][35] The series ranked fourth on the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2022.^[36]

Critical response

Anthony Gramuglia of Comic Book Resources (CBR) stated, "Blue Box is a sentimental story about human connection. It's beautifully drawn, at times resembling a shōjo manga more than a typical shōnen. If Blue Box continues, it will likely become an earnest, sincere entry in Shōnen Jump's romantic catalog".^[37] Timothy Donohoo of CBR compared Blue Box to Kenta Shinohara's Witch Watch and Shigure Tokita's Don't Blush, Sekime-san! due to both series having concepts and romantic aspects similar to Blue Box's.^[38]

The anime series has been nominated for Best Romance at the 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2025.^[39]

Notes

1. Under the "Unlimited Produce by TMS" brand^[7]
2. The first two episodes were released simultaneously on Netflix Japan, while subsequent episodes were released a week before their televised broadcast and international streaming release.^[28]