Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!”: The Hina Complication [Review]

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!” is basically Hina’s chance to shine after Chinatsu more or less rejected Taiki. However, the Hina complication works both ways. After all, she can’t stand to see just how uncool Taiki is being after that rejection, even if it means sabotaging her own chances with him.

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!”: Details

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!” is the 11th episode (you can read my reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, and Ep. 10 here) of the very first season of this romantic comedy and sports anime. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Kouji Miura (I Love You, My Teacher). Telecom Animation Film (Tower of God, Shenmue: The Animation, Astro Note) and TMS Entertainment (Detective Conan, Lupin the Third, Anpanman) are both responsible for the anime, with them doing the animation, and production and planning, respectively. Netflix is the company licensing this anime for its global release.

Production Cast

Mizuki Iwata is the director behind Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!”, with Masayoshi Nishida as the storyboarder. As for Blue Box as a whole: Yūichirō Yano is the director behind the anime. Yūko Kakihara is the writer, Miho Tanino as the character designer, and with Takashi Ohmama responsible for composing the music.

Speaking of music: the opening theme song for Blue Box is “Same Blue” by Official Hige Dandism. Meanwhile, “Teenage Blue” (ティーンエイジブルー) by Eve is the ending theme song for the same.

Voice Cast

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!” features the voices of Shōya Chiba as Taiki Inomata, Reina Ueda as Chinatsu Kano, Chiaki Kobayashi as Kyo Kasahara, and Akari Kitō as Hina Chōno. The other notable voice roles in this episode are Yuma Uchida as Kengo Haryū and Shogo Sakata as Ryosuke Nishida.

When and Where to Watch

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!” made its airing and streaming debut (aka. simulcast) on December 12, 2024. You can watch this episode of the anime only on Netflix. In fact, you can only watch this entire anime on Netflix due to it being an exclusive there.

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!”: Synopsis

Alas, Blue Box is still an ongoing anime. In fact, Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!” only made its debut eight days ago as of this writing. Thus, I will present to you Netflix’s official synopsis for this episode instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can read that synopsis below:

With the annual fireworks festival approaching, Hina musters the courage to invite Taiki, who’s been avoiding Chinatsu since their awkward conversation.

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!”: The Good

The story of Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!” is still the best part of it, but not for the same reasons as most of the previous episodes. Really, it all comes down to the star of the episode: Hina Chono. Her and her interactions with Taiki are just adorable, like two children just kidding around with each other, with just a touch of aggressively playful mischief on Hina’s part. And yet, there’s also a deep empathy and sense of justice in some of Hina’s later actions. Let’s just say that even though it actively works against her interests, Hina can’t stand to see someone just give up on something (or in this case: someone) without even trying. Honestly, it’s a mark of how good a writer Kouji Miura is to get me to like Hina in such a short time period.

Of course, that couldn’t have happened without the efforts of both Telecom Animation Film and TMS Entertainment. The collaborative efforts of the studios’ animators have once more ensured that we have a very good-looking episode to appreciate. Oh, and a very good-looking Hina on top of that. You can see in the screenshots that their signature lighting and reflections continue to be amazing. It’s essentially feature-length anime film levels of animation quality yet again. Honestly, I do believe that Black Butler -Public School Arc- has met its match in terms of animation quality here.

Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!”: The Bad

Honestly, if you’re here only for the sports action and literally nothing else, then Blue Box Ep. 11 “Uncool!” will be a bit boring to you. There is barely any of it here, and much of the sports action is just a bit of practice session going on between Taiki and some senpais. None of that intense sports action of some of the previous episodes here.

So if you want action, then may I suggest watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, and/or DAN DA DAN? Those anime should have more than enough action to satisfy any action junkie until Blue Box gets back to its regularly scheduled badminton and basketball action.

Tune back in to THS to find out more about Blue Box and other anime when we do.