The relentless manga industry has
just crossed the finish line with one of the most popular works of the last
decade. After keeping readers hooked for five years with its perfect blend of
sports drama and teen romance, the original Blue Box manga (known
to Japanese purists as Ao no Hako) has officially come to its
conclusion. The work written and illustrated by the talented Kouji
Miura published its 250th chapter in the 33rd edition of Shueisha's
emblematic Weekly Shonen Jump magazine this Monday,
definitively closing the story of Taiki and Chinatsu.
What started as a modest one-shot in
August 2020 exploded in popularity so aggressively that it became a full-fledged serialization in
April of the following year. Miura's work rhythm has been impeccable throughout
this time, managing to release the twenty-sixth compilation volume at the
beginning of this month of July. For collectors who are already preparing their
wallet to complete their shelf, the publisher confirmed that volume 27 will
land on shelves on October 2, while volume 28, which will mark the definitive
closure of this franchise in print format, will go on sale on
December 4.
Although the pages of the manga have already
finished their run, the production committee behind its
successful animated adaptation still has a lot of fabric to
cut from. After a solid first season produced by Telecom Animation Film at the
end of 2024, the animation baton passed into the hands of the Electric
Circus studio, who have already scheduled the imminent premiere of the
second season for this coming October 4. So we still have a good while to see
Taiki Inomata smashing his knees on the badminton court to try to make himself
worthy of Chinatsu Kano, the unattainable star of the basketball team who, by a
crazy whim of fate, ended up living under his own roof.
Considering that stories that combine school
romance with sports tend to stretch their love drama excessively,
