This article is part of a directory: Fall 2024 Anime Season: Previews, Episode Reviews, & Lore Discussions

Summary

Taiki faces a new rival, Shoichiro, for Chinatsu's heart, adding tension and drama.
Episode 4 introduces serious sports action, showing off the show's potential to be a sports anime.
The episode ends with Taiki earning a reward from Chinatsu if he wins, setting up potential romantic development.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Blue Box, Episode 4, "If He Wins", now streaming on Netflix.

Title	Blue Box, Episode 4 "If He Wins"
Studio	Telecom Animation Film
Air Date	October 24, 2024

Quite a lot happens in Blue Box episode 4, "If He Wins". It even starts with a little time-skip, happening one month after the previous episode, with Taiki finally getting used to living with Chinatsu. Plot-wise, episode 4 has a nice balance of comedy, drama, and, for the first time in the series, some serious sports action. The big stand-out in episode 4 though, is the appearance of another character with eyes for Chinatsu.

Visually, Blue Box is still as stunning as ever. Beautiful still scenes showcasing how pretty each character looks are sprinkled across the show. The audio presentation and voice acting are consistently decent. Nothing groundbreaking, but certainly not bad by any means. The visuals are where Blue Box has always shined.

Taiki Gets a New Competitor for Winning Chinatsu's Heart

Unlike Haryu, This One's Not a Red Herring

In episode 3, Taiki learns that Haryu already has a girlfriend and only sees Chinatsu as a classmate and friend. Just when you thought Taiki could finally have Chinatsu all to himself, a new challenger arrives: Shoichiri Kishi, Haryu's former doubles partner and current player for Shimotomi High. He's apparently had a crush on Chinatsu all the way back to his time as Haryu's partner, long before Taiki had even met her.

Shoichiro's appearance is a pretty big deal, considering Taiki's never had a real rival yet. Although it's been established since episode 1 that Chinatsu has tons of admirers, they've never been significant characters, and Taiki's never really had the chance to interact with any of them.

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By Jake Buchalter

The new rival's arrival triggers the event that leads to why the episode is called "If He Wins". Haryu bet Shoichiro that he'd give him Chinatsu's phone number if he could beat Taiki in their singles match next week. To be more specific, Haryu only promises he'll ask Chinatsu if it's okay to give her number out.

However, Kyo tells Chinatsu all about their bet during the fated match. He says that, unlike Shoichiro, Taiki won't be getting anything for winning the match, and suggests that Chinatsu take Taiki out to the aquarium as a reward for winning. After some thought, Chinatsu agrees to take Taiki to the aquarium "If He Wins". Episode 4 ends there, but the next episode's title is "Aquarium", so viewers can probably connect the dots on what's about to happen.

More Trouble in Paradise

As if a new rival in love wasn't enough, more drama pops up when Chinatsu tells Taiki that he doesn't have to train so hard since there's always next year and the year after. Sounds harmless enough, except Chinatsu is a year ahead of Taiki, so she'll have graduated after Taiki's second year. The thought immediately crosses his mind, causing him to lash out.

The year after? But that's after you graduate... That's not good enough for me.

Chinatsu seems to blame herself for the incident, thinking she was being insensitive and was implying that it was okay to lose. It's a nice change of pace to finally see some tension between the two, and it makes fans look forward to some sort of resolution.

Taiki's First Official Matches

Blue Box Is Starting to Feel like a Sports Anime

taiki vs shoichiro — The singles match between Taiki and Shoichiro

One tiny issue with Blue Box is that it's never really felt like a sports anime despite most people and media platforms classifying it as one. Even Netflix, the only platform the show is currently streaming on, has "sports" and "sports anime" as two of Blue Box's genres.

Well, episode 4 starts to actually dive into the sports aspect of the show with Taiki and Shoichiro's match. There are some neat scenes where Haryu analyzes the match and explains the strengths and weaknesses of both players. Sure, they're not as in-depth as scenes from something like Haikyu!! Or Kuroko's Basketball, but at least there's something to tide over the fans who watched thinking sports was a big element of the show.

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Oddly enough though, they didn't do the same thing with the doubles matches Taiki and Haryu participated in earlier in the episode. Those matches kind of breezed by, with barely any scenes covering them. Taiki and Haryu's opponents didn't even get names, which is a weird decision for Taiki's first official match in high school.

Blue Box will clearly always be romance first, sports and slice-of-life second. The sports are primarily just vessels that allow the plot to move forward.

Cute Clothes Shenanigans

Featuring Clothes Swaps and Six-Pack Abs

blue box chinatsu clothes swap — Chinatsu about to change into her gym uniform.

Near the beginning of the episode, viewers get a cute little bit where Taiki and Chinatsu accidentally bring the other's gym uniform to school by mistake. The whole bit was pretty hilarious, especially the scene where Taiki convinces Hina that he's never washed his gym clothes since last summer to keep her from finding out it isn't his. That was one of the funniest and most creative scenes in Blue Box so far, and hopefully, there are more scenes like that to come.

Then, in the middle of the episode, it was Taichi's turn for a goofy clothes scene. Chinatsu mentions that Taiki wore his shirt inside out, and without thinking, Taiki takes off his shirt to invert it, completely forgetting Chinatsu is still watching. The result? An adorable scene with an embarrassed Chinatsu and Taiki getting to show off his six-pack unintentionally.

Blue Box is now available to stream on Netflix. The release date for the next episode of Blue Box, episode 5, is set to be on October 31, 2024 at 8:30 AM PT.

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