The Blue Box presents Taiki’s new rivals

There is no doubt that 2024 is being an incredible year for anime fanswith great novelties such as Kaiju No. 8, a science fiction anime in which its protagonists must exterminate giant monsters that attack Japan, or Tastewhich is shaping up to be the most popular shonen released this year.

The Blue Box is another of the best anime released recently. It is also one of Netflix’s big bets and its story follows in the footsteps of Taiki Inomataa young badminton player who has been secretly in love with a girl from his high school basketball team: Chinatsu Kano. She has earned the admiration of others due to her talent and our protagonist, motivated by his feelings towards this young woman, has decided become a better badminton player.

Watch The Blue Box on Netflix

The eighth episode of La Caja Azul, one of the most important so far, has meant an unexpected turn of events in Taiki’s story. In it, the moments of romance that have been so present in the previous episodes were pushed aside to show viewers the exciting knockout matches in which Taiki and his partner Haryu participated, giving us what is probably the most dramatic episode of the series so far.

The following lines include spoilers from episode 8 of the Blue Box anime.

The failure of Eimei’s team against Sajikawa’s stars

Hyodo has defeated Haryu on several occasions

In this episode, Taiki and Haryu joined forces in the doubles matches and, right in the final of the playoffs, they had to face 2 excellent players: Hyodo y Tateyamathe stars of Sajikawa High School. Taiki and Haryu, representatives of the Eimei Institute, witnessed the incredible talent of Tateyama and, above all, Hyodo, who had already been mentioned in previous episodes due to his great skills as a badminton player.

Hyodo, Haryu’s great rival, made it clear in the match that His fame was more than justified. He and Tateyama quickly took control of the match and were victorious in both sets, which meant a clear victory for the Sajikawa institute against Eimei. Taiki and Haryu were officially eliminated from the doubles division, and our protagonist had to bear the pressure of having been defeated despite having had a player as brilliant as Haryu on his team.

Eimei’s team failed to live up to its rivals

Taiki, willing to fulfill his goal of reaching the nationals and still affected by the defeat suffered against Hyodo and Tateyama in the final of the doubles division, he had a duel in the first round of the singles qualifiers with Yusaa seemingly calm boy whom he ran into casually before the game. Yusa, also a member of the Sajikawa Institute team, He won with a wide point difference over our protagonist in a match that unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to see beyond a couple of important moments.

After Taiki’s defeat, many spectators were confident that Haryu could achieve success in these qualifiers, and the truth is that could reach the final. Unfortunately, his rival Hyodo was waiting for him once again, who once again snatched victory from him. In this way, in this episode we were able to witness for the first time the incredible skills of the stars of Sajikawa High School and how Taiki’s dream is actually much more complicated than he imagined.

While it’s true that Hina and Chinatsu didn’t have much screen time in this episode, His contributions were key to the development of Taiki. Chinatsu accompanied Taiki when he decided to train first thing in the morning, before participating in the double eliminators with Hyodo. In addition, Taiki also had Hina’s company shortly after being eliminated against Yusathe Sajikawa player who defeated him in the first round.