Blue Box Episode 10: Drawing Lines

Key Takeaways

• Episode 10 of Blue Box is more slice-of-life, showcasing mundane activities and world-building scenes.
• Chinatsu starts showing feelings for Taiki, leading to an awkward situation after their near-kiss.
• Chinatsu rejects Taiki, outlining boundaries due to their living situation, leaving room for Hina to possibly make a move.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Blue Box, Episode 10, “It’s Not a Good Thing”, now streaming on Netflix.

Like the previous episode, Blue Box, episode 10, “It’s Not a Good Thing” is more mellow than the prefectural qualifiers arc that happened not too long ago. The show got very slice-of-life-y with this episode, with scenes like the basketball and badminton club cleaning out the school swimming pool and the Inomata family having an evening barbeque. There were also some good world-building scenes, with Chinatsu recalling how she asked her parents for permission to stay in Japan and Taiki’s father having a conversation with Chinatsu, which gave the viewers a peek into the lives of Taiki’s family. These are scenes that, although they might not really have a big impact on the main plot, are still nice to have and fit nicely in a more relaxed episode with not much going on. That’s not to say that nothing does happen though, because there is some spicy drama sprinkled in near the end, and this time, it’s not just a baity cliffhanger.

Speaking of cliffhangers, you might recall that the previous episode ended with Taiki tripping, Chinatsu trying to catch him, and both ending up on top of each other on Taiki’s bed. A wild cliffhanger to be sure, but alas, it didn’t really lead to anything positive. Instead of going for the kiss, like what the show implied, Chinatsu simply reached for Taiki’s forehead to fix the cold compress that had started to peel off. Chinatsu then backed off and left Taiki feeling more flustered from embarrassment than the fever. However, that honestly wasn’t that surprising since Chinatsu never really seemed to show any romantic interest in Taiki before that, so going from virtually no interest to a kiss is a massive leap, even for a romance anime.

The Result of Episode 9’s Cliffhanger

It Was Bait, but One with Repercussions

Although the kiss never really happened, it still made the next day pretty awkward for the two. For the first time in Blue Box, Chinatsu showed some clear signs that she was starting to develop feelings for Taiki. When returning the cleaning equipment to the tool shed, Taiki came across Chinatsu and made some small talk with her. It ended with him thanking her for taking care of him when he had a fever, but bringing that up obviously made her remember their near kiss, which made her feel a little flustered.

Later, a talk with a teammate even led to the topic of romance, where the teammate said that the only way Chinatsu could probably fall for somebody was if they lived together, which led to even more flustered reactions from her.

Summer Vacation Begins

Another thing that happened that will change the pace of Blue Box from here on is the beginning of summer vacation. Now, the main characters are all on sports teams and will still train in their respective clubs during their vacation. Taiki confirmed that the badminton club still has practice almost every day, and Hina and Chinatsu are participating in the inter-high competition, so their training will likely be even more frequent. Still, moving on to summer vacation will be a great opportunity for the show to switch gears and allow for more scenes and events that aren’t school-related, like going to festivals or the beach.

Chinatsu Sets Some Lines

Right After She Told Taiki to Aim High Too…

While walking home from the convenience store, Chinatsu finally confronted Taiki about them almost kissing. If you were expecting a confession from her, you’re in for a bad time because it was anything but. Chinatsu basically flat-out rejected Taiki before he could even tell her how he felt about her. She told him that they should just forget what happened and that it wouldn’t be for the best for her to be romantically involved with someone she was living with.

“About what happened the other day… Let’s forget it… When it comes to living with a boy… I haven’t been careful enough. As someone living in your house, I don’t think that’s a good thing. I’ll be careful so that nothing like that happens ever again.” – Chinatsu to Taiki

This is the first major hurdle to come between Taiki and Chinatsu, and while something like this was bound to happen someday, it still stung badly. Especially when you consider what Chinatsu told Taiki in the last episode about staying dedicated to your lofty goals no matter what. Even Taiki realized the irony of the situation. The whole thing hurt even more knowing that early in the episode, it seemed like Chinatsu might actually have feelings for Taiki, so for her to just crush any chances of development is just… well, crushing.

“Eh? Did she draw a line?… Not fair. After she told me to have distant goals, she puts some distance between us.” – Taiki to himself

Another thing to note is Hina’s reaction to Taiki and Chinatsu’s little love quarrel, if you can call it that. In the last episode, Hina didn’t feel happy about Taiki being depressed and avoiding Chinatsu, since she knew he was only hurting himself by doing so. But now, it’s the other way around, with Chinatsu pushing Taiki away, which might make it fair game for the childhood friend to make her move.

Blue Box is now available to stream on Netflix. The release date for Blue Box, episode 11, is set to be December 12, 2024 at 8:30 AM PT.