Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Brian checks in with “Blue Box.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Blue Box, Chapter 111
Written and Illustrated by Kouji Miura
Translated by Christine Dashiell
Lettered by Mark McMurray
Reviewed by Brian Salvatore
It would be pretty easy to write this review as one sentence: “Blue Box” has become blue balls. That’s it. That’s the review.
For a story that has always been about romantic feelings needing to be tamped down, the last few months have seen “Blue Box” change focus to something a little different. Instead of hiding feelings, the story is now more about the inability to act on those acknowledged feelings. Sure, Taiki and Chinatsu are now a couple, but they’re a couple who are living together, but separately, under Taiki’s parents’ roof, and they are also both preparing for sports finals, and so don’t want ‘distractions.’ And so, instead of the tension arising from emotional obstacles, the story has shifted to tension from physical obstacles. And, since Taiki is the point of view character, the story has gone from love-lorn to straight up horny.
Now, this is manga, horniness is not something new or unexpected. Taiki’s veins aren’t exactly bulging from his neck, nor is he getting nosebleeds in every scene, but visually, Miura is drawing Taiki with wider eyes and (perceived) pouring sweat throughout this entire chapter. This is a bit of a transitional chapter in the narrative, as it is the first time these two are home alone together, and it is also Taiki’s birthday, and so the novelty of the day takes center stage and heightens the feeling of unconsummated, physical feelings.
Miura centers the chapter around a bath that Chinatsu encourages Taiki to take, and then her insistence of blowdrying his hair for him. The actual bath sequence is one of the most neurotic scenes ever illustrated, and it is followed up by pages of anticipation for something that never actually happens. It almost feels like the scene in Jarhead where the planned sniping gets aborted at literally the last second; these characters come to the precipice of actual romance, but are yanked back at the last moment.
Again, “Blue Box” has become blue balls. That’s it. That’s the review.
Final Verdict: 7.3 – The intention behind the story is clear, and the art and story are well executed, however as an individual chapter, there is no catharsis or release, and so the reading experience is not very enjoyable. Imagine how bad it is for Taiki?
