Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster”: Hina Ship Sinking [Review]

Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster” isn’t quite as exciting as the title makes it out to be. In fact, it varies from being light-hearted fun to being downright tragic, with the roller coaster aspect of the show bringing the emotional feels swinging up and down until it hits the ground. Alas, this is the episode where the Hina ship sinks for good.

Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster”: Details

Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster” is the 12th 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, Ep. 22, and Ep. 23 here) of this romantic comedy and sports anime, and is the 24th 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

Yoshiko Okuda is the director and storyboarder behind Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster”, with Shinobu Ikakko, Manabu Nii, Miho Tanino, and Aya Miyajima 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. 24 “A Roller Coaster” 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, Haruka Shiraishi (Cristina Vee in English dub) as Karen Moriya, and Asaki Yuikawa (Kira Buckland in English dub) as Niina Shimazaki.

When and Where to Watch

Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster” made its airing and streaming debut (aka. simulcast) on March 20, 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. 24 “A Roller Coaster”: Synopsis

Interestingly, it seems like Blue Box still has an episode left before the cours concludes. In fact, Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster” only made its own debut five 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:

“Hina experiences a roller coaster of emotions as she navigates her feelings for Taiki and, thanks to Ayame, gets a chance to be alone with him on the last night.”

Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster”: The Good

This is it, Hina x Taiki fans. This is the moment the ship slips beneath the waves of romance, never to be seen again. And yet, this is why the story of Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster” is the best part about it. This episode realy shows off how Kouji Miura is really good at writing romantic drama, especially given Hina’s own inability to reconcile her own affections for Taiki versus his wants and needs, as well as Taiki’s feelings for Hina being pretty much entirely platonic compared to the romantic one that Hina wants. You can’t really blame either Hina or Taiki for what they do and say, which results in this situation being quite tragic. Honestly, it’s this level of emotional depth that is keeping my gaze glued to the screen throughout this episode.

Of course, there’s also the animation by Telecom Animation Film and TMS Entertainment to consider. As always, their animation team has given us a very good-looking episode. In fact, the quality even jumps up a notch during the most tragic parts of the episode. When you can see moonlight reflecting off of every single tear that rolls down Hina’s cheeks and through her fingers, you know that you have some peak animation quality there.

Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster”: The Bad

Despite what I said about the story, there is an aspect to it that I’m not fond of. Surprisingly, it’s not that Hina suffers from the childhood friend syndrome that seems to plague anime. That’s just part of the drama and tragedy. No, it’s more that it feels like Blue Box as a whole is trying to convey that boys and girls can’t be close friends without being lovers. Hina grows noticeably distant from Taiki for the rest of the story afterwards if the anime is following the manga, and it comes off as their friendship…maybe not quite ending, but definitely becoming far less close than they were before this whole affair. I’m almost certain that this isn’t what Kouji Miura intends, and this issue may even be a case of your mileage may vary for everyone else. It’s just my opinion on the subject, is all.

Aside from that, action junkies might notice a distinct lack of action in Blue Box Ep. 24 “A Roller Coaster”. This is because it’s not about the action. It’s all about the romantic drama and tragedy. If you want action, then might I suggest watching Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Solo Leveling, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, and/or Zenshu? Those anime will have more than enough action to satisfy your inner action junkie until we get more sports back.

Do you agree or disagree with my issues about this episode? What do you think about the emotional feels in Blue Box? Leave your opinions below in the comments section.