Hina Chono’s Five Stages of Grief

Key Takeaways

• Blue Box, episode 6 focuses on Hina’s emotional journey through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
• Hina finally accepts her feelings for Taiki after a heartwarming conversation that helps her embrace her emotions.
• Chinatsu’s true feelings are revealed as she sees Taiki as just a friend, also gaining a misconception that he may like Hina.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Blue Box, Episode 6, “Wish Me Luck”, now streaming on Netflix.

Blue Box, episode 6 “Wish Me Luck” is a first in the series because the episode, for the most part, is seen from Hina’s perspective rather than Taiki’s. This comes as a blessing and a curse for fans of the character because although she gets more screen time than anyone else in this episode, a lot of that screen time shows her confused, hurt, pressured, and feeling left out.

The episode starts right where episode 5, “Aquarium” ended, with Hina outside the Inomata residence. It’s nice when an anime wastes no time to push the plot forward. Instead of Hina running away and confronting them another day, she remembers that she has to return Chinatsu’s phone, so she decides to face them right then and there. Again, Blue Box wastes no time and has Hina go through what is basically an entire character arc in just one episode, starting with her unsure of her emotions, to fully accepting them and coming to terms with her situation.

If there’s anything to nitpick about episode 6, it’s that there were several scenes of Hina practicing her rhythmic gymnastics routine for the prefectural qualifiers, but doesn’t show the actual event. It would have been nice to see the entire routine, but it is what it is.

Hina Goes Through the Five Stages of Grief

In real life, the stages of grief do not necessarily happen in order, and they certainly don’t in the show. People can also circle back and experience a stage they’ve already been through, which Hina also experiences. It’s why you’ll notice that the events mentioned below didn’t all happen chronologically.

Stage 1: Denial

When asked if anything’s wrong, she denies it or deflects the blame onto something trivial, like her gaining a little weight or staying up late last night. She doesn’t just deny it to the people around her though; she legitimately tries to convince herself that Taiki and Chinatsu being together is for the best.

If Chinatsu Senpai sees Taiki getting along with a girl, she might decide to back off. It’d be one thing if they were only acquaintances, but since they’re living together, he doesn’t need my help.

Stage 2: Anger

Anger might be the stage that manifested itself the least, if at all. Sure, at certain times, Hina admitted that she was annoyed by Taiki, Chinatsu, and the people pressuring her, but it was in her usual teasing and playful way. It didn’t seem like she was truly mad at any of them and was just venting.

The only time she might have been close to getting sincerely mad was when she told Taiki she was pissed off at a judge (secretly referring to Taiki himself) because he was biased towards another athlete (Chinatsu). She could have been mad at the situation she’s in and how she feels like she can’t do anything about it.

Stage 3: Bargaining

Hina tells herself that she can’t allow herself to be emotional or sensitive because doing so will cause her to lose focus and slip up in her rhythmic gymnastic performances. Telling herself that her performance needs to be perfect gives her an excuse to suppress her emotions, which is easier than facing them head-on.

Stage 4: Depression

Though it’s only shown in brief glimpses and signs, Hina is definitely hurting in this episode, hiding it all behind smiles and teasing. She knows the person she loves is in love with someone else and only sees her as a friend. She tries to distance herself from Taiki even though she likes him, thinking that she’ll only get in the way of him and Chinatsu. She doesn’t even allow the possibility that maybe she stands a chance with Taiki as if she’s already given up.

Stage 5: Acceptance

Fittingly enough, the person who helped Hina come to terms with her emotions is the same person who her emotions are directed towards: Taiki. After taking Hina to the nurse’s office and confirming that her injury was nothing serious, they have a heartwarming conversation. Hina lets out everything that’s been troubling her lately, such as the pressure for her to do great in the prefectural qualifiers. She even tells him about her frustrations at not being able to beat a certain someone.

In response, Taiki tells her to keep pushing forward, calling her a fighter and someone whose pride won’t allow her to give up or run away. Later, she asks Taiki to wish her luck, willing to accept encouraging words from the friend she’s grown up with.

Taiki. Could you… wish me luck?

Hina uses Taiki’s words of encouragement to finally accept her feelings for him, even though the odds are against her. She even hints that she’ll be putting up a fight, telling Taiki that her charms haven’t even begun to peak and that he had better keep a close eye on her. Blue Box might not give Hina her time right away, but you can bet that she won’t go down without a fight. For now though, she’s genuinely happy with her friendship with Taiki, and that’s a very healthy way of looking at things.

As a side note: These discussions on the characters and scenarios of Blue Box are purely for entertainment and should not be seen as a serious psychological analysis. If you are experiencing, or believe you are going through grief, do not use anime as a way to diagnose your psychological state, and please seek professional help.

Chinatsu’s True(?) Feelings Revealed

And They Aren’t the Romantic Kind

Blue Box episode 6 ends with the focus going back to Taiki and Chinatsu. They talk a little about Hina and how amazing it is that she won the prefectural qualifiers. When Taichi complimented Hina, calling her a rhythmic gymnastics fangirl, Chinatsu realized that it echoed Hina’s way of looking at Taiki, calling him a badminton fanboy. So, Chinatsu understandably gets the misconception that Taiki might like Hina as well, and thinks that she’s just getting in the way between the two of them.

Surprisingly, it seems that Chinatsu truly doesn’t see Taiki in a romantic light at all. To her, he’s just a friend who just so happens to also be a schoolmate and housemate. That, or maybe Chinatsu’s just in denial herself.

Blue Box is now available to stream on Netflix. The release date for Blue Box, episode 7, is set to be November 14, 2024 at 8:30 AM PT.