After Taiki just had the time of his life with the girl he likes, a girl that likes him has now taken center stage.

Video Review

What Stands Out About This Episode?

After Chinatsu and Taiki just had one of the most memorable dates, Chinatsu is now going to be forced to watch Taiki play the prince, while Hina plays his Snow White.

Friends Before Lovers?

At least, that is what Hina is hoping for… Anytime a story swings one way to one of the happiest moments of the MC’s life, the pendulum must swing back to the biggest dilemma he must face. This is one of the biggest decisions that we are all waiting patiently for Taiki to finally relieve us of…

MAKE A GODDAMN DECISION ALREADY!

This entire episode was all about the anticipation of what Taiki will eventually do with this “body heat-to-body heat” moment when the prince wakes up Hina with a kiss. While that moment looms, there was some clear foreshadowing early on that something was going to go wrong with the confetti ball. The episode did a great job building that anticipation, which resulted in the misdirection of the “kiss” at the end.

With the plot unfolding within this episode in particular, there is actually one of those philosophical romance questions the author wanted us to engage in: What really is friendship between a guy and a girl?

In this particular case between Taiki and Hina, they were always friends first before a certain pink-haired girl realized she was actually in love with the MC. It’s an episode that tries to drive that wedge between our understanding of friendship and romance between the opposite genders. Taiki doesn’t want to let his friend down, so he steps up to the plate to fill in as the prince of the Snow White play. Although the story tries to somewhat lead us to believe that he has stronger romantic feelings for her than he does, his actions—always denying the one critical point where he could have taken advantage of Hina in that moment—show that he consistently rejects those potential romantic advances.

It’s another episode that drives home the point that Taiki must resolve his decision between Chinatsu and Hina already. However, where something within the plot starts to linger, fresh new blood must be introduced. That fresh blood? AYAME! Coming in with that popular girl energy, she has already stated that she’s into the casual nature of relationships. She is certainly being teased to help act as this important plot device.

Overall, Blue Box is at the point where the character arcs themselves have not changed, but many potentially BIG compelling moments have been introduced that could change the story in a big way. However, it just hasn’t yet. With Ayame’s introduction, the story brings a new level of excitement for what it will do to Taiki’s situation.

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