Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection” is a pretty pivotal moment in the story. Both for Taiki and for Chinatsu. All with a certain Hina and her long-awaited love confession playing a pivotal role in this pivotal moment.
Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection”: Details
Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection” is the second episode of the second cours (you can read my review of Ep. 13 of cours 2 here) of this romantic comedy and sports anime, and is the 13th episode overall. You can read my reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, Ep. 10, Ep. 11, and Ep. 12 of the first cours here.
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
Hitomi Ezoe is the director behind Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection”, with Yuka Yamato and Yūichirō Yano as the storyboarders. 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. 14 “What’s the Connection” features the voices of Shōya Chiba (Zach Aguilar in English dub) as Taiki Inomata, Reina Ueda (Xanthe Huynh in English dub) as Chinatsu Kano, Chiaki Kobayashi (Caden Shaffer in English dub) as Kyo Kasahara, and Akari Kitō (Kayli Mills in English dub) as Hina Chōno.
When and Where to Watch
Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection” made its airing and streaming debut (aka. simulcast) on January 9, 2025. 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. 14 “What’s the Connection”: Synopsis
Alas, Blue Box’s second cours only recently began its run. In fact, Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection” only just made its debut six 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:
While Chinatsu faces immense pressure at the nationals, Hina cheers up a worried Taiki with a game where the loser shares an embarrassing secret.
Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection”: The Good
Again, it’s the story of Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection” that continues to be the most captivating thing about this episode, as well as the anime in general. All because of that wonderful romantic comedy by Kouji Miura. Although, in this episode, there’s a bit more drama than usual. All due to a combination of Hina’s love confession to Taiki being intermixed with Chinatsu’s basketball game.
There’s actually a pretty clever interweaving of story elements here. Elements of that confession correlate with what’s going on in Chinatsu’s game. They obvious have no correlation with each other in-story, but from a narrative sense, it’s quite symbolic of the tug and pull going on between Hina and Taiki, with Chinatsu getting caught up in it regardless of whether she acknowledges it or not. Classic love triangle stuff, basically, but with Kouji Miura’s distinct art style and adorable characterizations to liven it up.
Of course, let’s not forget the contributions of Telecom Animation Film and TMS Entertainment to this episode. Their animators continue the splendid work they did in the previous cours, again giving this episode feature-length anime film levels of animation quality. Of particular note is the just-as-amazing lighting, and the food. Seriously, that taiyaki ice cream Hina is eating in this episode looks amazing, and this isn’t even a food-centric anime. I do still believe that Black Butler -Public School Arc- has met its animation match this time.
Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection”: The Bad
Alas, while there is plenty of action to go with the romantic dramedy in Blue Box Ep. 14 “What’s the Connection”, it may not be the action you’re looking for. The action here is all sports action, and very finely animation basketball action to boot. However, if you’re looking for some bloody action, then this isn’t the anime for you. If that’s the case, then might I suggest watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, and/or DAN DA DAN?
Tune back in to THS to find out more about Blue Box and other anime when we do.
