Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii” gives us the rather traditional case of acute misunderstands typical of a romcom story. However, that’s not getting our hero Taiki down. No, he’s now using the frustration from those misunderstanding to get better at badminton.

Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii”: Details

Blue Box NA key art.
Taiki puts that badminton racket to good use.

Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii” is the third episode (you can read my reviews for Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 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, production, and planning, respectively.

Production Cast

Harume Kosaka is the director behind Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii”, with Yūko Kakihara as the writer, and Yūichirō Yano 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. 3 “Chii” 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 role in this episode is Yuma Uchida as Kengo Haryū.

When and Where to Watch

Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii” made its airing and streaming debut (aka. simulcast) on October 17, 2024. You can watch 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. 3 “Chii”: Synopsis

The anime is still as pretty as in this thumb.

Alas, Blue Box is an ongoing anime that only fairly recently made its debut. In fact, Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii” only just made its debut yesterday 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:

Taiki overhears Haryu calling Chinatsu by a special nickname and gets flustered. Will it affect his upcoming match against the upperclassman?

Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii”: The Good

Blue Box Ep. 3 "Chii" screenshot 1.
The animation is still jaw-droppingly gorgeous to look at.

Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii” continues the trend of having the anime’s best feature be its story. Specifically, it’s a saccharine, sweetly adorable rom-com of a story. The interactions between Taiki and Chinatsu here are just adorable. This is especially true when Taiki is panicking over the tiniest things that might indicate that Chinatsu is in a relationship with someone who’s not him. However, it’s his resolve to continue doing the things he loves that is what makes you want to root for this kid. Seriously, Kouji Miura knows how to write adorable and fascinating characters to fill in a rom-com story.

Adding to that adorable story is the animation from studios Telecom Animation Film and TMS Entertainment. Honestly, this anime continues to have some of the most beautiful animation of any anime I’ve seen in a while. Not since Black Butler -Public School Arc- has there been such high-quality animation in a TV anime. It’s almost enough to make you forget reality for a bit, especially when you see the light rays shining down into the gym through the windows in the way sunlight actually would.

Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii”: The Bad

Blue Box Ep. 3 "Chii" screenshot 2.
I swear, Kengo Haryū is such a troll. You know what I mean if you’ve either read the manga or watched this episode.

Honestly, I think the only people who wouldn’t like Blue Box Ep. 3 “Chii” are the action junkies of this world. That’s not even through lack of trying either. Blue Box is not only a rom-com but also a sports story, and it shows in the badminton and basketball action that goes on whenever Taiki and Chinatsu play their respective sport. Taiki especially gets the spotlight here with him converting his anxiety over Chinatsu into energy for badminton.

Alas, while it is action, sports action is probably what most Shonen Jump readers are looking for when they think of action. If that’s the case, then may I recommend watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, and/or DAN DA DAN? Those particular anime series should have more than enough action to satisfy any action junkie who wants high-intensity action, and perhaps some blood and gore on top of that.

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