The clue to as what Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning” is all about is in the title. Taiki is basically spinning in place as he goes into emotional turmoil over his feelings towards both Chinatsu and Hina. It’s torture for him, but good entertainment for us.

Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning”: Details

Blue Box JP key art
There’s a reason why Taiki looks so troubled in this key art.

Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning” is the 11th episode (you can read my reviews of Ep. 13, Ep. 14, Ep. 15, Ep. 16, Ep. 17, Ep. 18, Ep. 19, Ep. 20, Ep. 21, and Ep. 22 here) of this romantic comedy and sports anime, and is the 23rd episode overall. You can read my reviews for 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. 23 “Spinning”, Yūko Kakihara as the writer, Yūko Horikawa as the storyboarder, and Miho Tanino, Manabu Nii, Aya Miyajima, and Shinobu Ikakko all as the chief animation directors. 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 second cours now features as the opening theme song “Shikaraba” (然らば) by Macaroni Empitsu. Meanwhile, “Contrast” (コントラスト) by TOMOO is the new ending theme song.

Voice Cast

Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning” 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, Akari Kitō (Kayli Mills in English dub) as Hina Chōno, and Kana Ichinose (English dub voice unknown) as Ayame Moriya.

Other notable voice roles in this episode include Yuma Uchida (Daman Mills in English dub) as Kengo Haryū, and Shogo Sakata (Jacob Hopkins in English dub) as Ryōsuke Nishida, Anna Nagase (Emi Lo in English dub) as Nagisa Funami, and Asaki Yuikawa (Kira Buckland in English dub) as Niina Shimazaki.

When and Where to Watch

Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning” made its airing and streaming debut (aka. simulcast) on March 13, 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. 23 “Spinning”: Synopsis

At long last, Netflix has a second official trailer.

Alas, Blue Box is still an ongoing anime series. In fact, Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning” only just made its debut today 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:

An exciting card game with friends leaves Taiki’s head spinning. He mulls over his feelings for Chinatsu and Hina as the training camp continues.

Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning”: The Good

Blue Box Ep. 23 "Spinning" screenshot 1
Taiki’s troubles are practically popcorn for us.

As with previous episodes, it’s the story of Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning” that’s the best part of it. It’s all due to the emotional turmoil Taiki goes through in this episode. Kouji Miura turns out to be very good at depicting this kind of romantic drama even in the midst of romantic comedy. We see Taiki go directly from facing the possibility of admitting the subject of his romantic affections to him agonizing over who he’s actually in love with as he realizes that he might very well be in love with both Chinatsu and Hina. There’s such a contrast in terms of tone in those situations that it ends up amplifying both of them.

Of course, it’s a story that’s all enhanced by the efforts of Telecom Animation Film and TMS Entertainment. Their animation team continues to give us a very good-looking anime series, especially in terms of lighting once more. I’m not sure why they’re so obsessed with giving us such good lighting. All I know is that it results in an anime that’s as gorgeous as a feature-length anime film, and is quite the eye candy to watch as a result. Special mention goes to the puddles of sweat forming on the floor as Taiki and his team practice badminton. While a bit gross, it’s also incredibly high quality animation there for something seemingly so trivial.

Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning”: The Bad

Blue Box Ep. 23 "Spinning" screenshot 2
Taiki, your inner monster is showing.

Alas, if you’re looking for sports action, then Blue Box Ep. 23 “Spinning” may disappoint you just a bit. Yes, it’s got some intense practice scenes involving Taiki’s badminton practice matches with his team. However, you can tell just from a few minutes of watching that the sports action isn’t the main focus of the episode. The romantic drama and romantic comedy are definitely the stars of the show.

If that isn’t enough action for you, then I might suggest watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, and/or Zenshu? Those anime series should contain enough action to satisfy your inner action junkie until the next time Blue Box returns to that sports action.

Do you agree ot disagree about the quality of the romance story? Do you think Blue Box would be better if it was more sports-focused? Please share your opinions with us below in the comments section.