I got my friend and I into Haikyu!! properly earlier this year, and immediately became enthralled by its approachable yet brilliant premise, of the lovable teamwork of Karasuno High School's volleyball team. While the series prominently focuses on Shōyō Hinata, an energetic and short middle blocker for Karasuno with aspirations to play like his idol, the Little Giant. While the series is phenomenal and bingeworthy, as its adaptation will conclude after the final film, I couldn't help but think of my true favorite sports manga-turned anime now streaming, Blue Box, and what it offers.

Blue Box, much like Haikyu!! follows its athlete protagonist as he strives for greatness among his school's best athletes, and in Taiki Inomata's case, it's with his bton team, the world's fastest racket sport. While Taiki and the Eimei Academy bton team push for their best players and doubles teams to reach the nationals, another crucial sports-themed element emerges to spice up the formula: Taiki's love interest and ace of the girls' basketball team. Despite both series being sports and coming-of-age anime, Blue Box improves its human drama with genuine romance instead of bait for fan shippers.

Blue Box Defines Its Characters Through Sports Like Haikyu!!

Similar Yet Crucially Different

High school sports anime and manga are legion, with Slam Dunk or Eyeshield 21 being definitive examples of how popular they are, generating tens to hundreds of millions of units in sales. Haikyu!! is an exceptional recent case of this, selling 60 million copies by Fall 2023, while Blue Box, with a brand-new anime after starting its manga in 2021, has sold 5 million copies as of September 2024. These series are emotionally resonant, using sports to not just define its characters fundamentally but also to bring them together.

In Blue Box, Taiki's motivations to grow as a bton player are somewhat always there, but the chance of playing at the nationals alongside his high school crush, Chinatsu Kano, is what largely drives him. Blue Box's other ing characters have their lives similarly shaped and influenced by sports, such as Chinatsu staying home while her parents are abroad to bring her team to the nationals and Hina Chono living up to her father's Olympian legacy. Meanwhile, Hinata pursued volleyball in Haikyu!! as his ion after seeing the Little Giant of Karasuno inspired him to overcome his shortcomings.

This is a large part of what endeared me to both series; neither has overly convoluted premises, and both entail the highs and lows typical of a great coming-of-age story. While Blue Box uses sports to bring its main characters together, its character backstories make an enticing experience, enabling viewers to figure out their favorite. But perhaps thanks to Taiki's blisteringly fast sport of choice, the experience of Blue Box entices me more than Haikyu!! not just with its additional romantic spin but also due to its inherently strong use of pacing.

The Pacing of Blue Box Is Refreshing Compared to Haikyu!!

Taiki's Matches End Freakishly Quickly

As the Blue Box anime is still brand-new and several episodes away from its first cour ending, one may greet my take with a grain of salt, but I enjoy the pacing of this series a bit more when it comes to handling its matches. Bton is meant to be fast, with shuttlecocks considered the quickest projectile in sports, so the series' execution of these matches is appropriately fast and sometimes ruthlessly so. The matches can be over in the blink of an eye, perhaps most meaningfully so when they end in a crushing defeat for its main characters, as it occasionally does.

My reason for bringing up the pacing largely emerges from my issues with Haikyu!! It is largely related to how it renders its volleyball matches, where significant character development happens. While I appreciate the weight of the moments, Asahi Azumane pondering his cause-and-effect relationship with volleyball as his team's ace in the middle of the match in episode #9 is a lot to watch. It occasionally feels more like Haikyu!!'s way to pad out the runtime while maintaining the anime status quo of glacial pacing in favor of dramatic internal monologues, stopping time in its place.

Episode #8 arguably used this to painfully full effect, with Taiki's match over before anyone, including Hina and the viewer, could see how badly he lost.

However, I could see people taking issue with Blue Box often presenting the opposite alternative to this; Chinatsu's basketball scenes are few and far between, while Taiki's matches are never shown anywhere close to full length. One can easily hand-wave this as the series reminds its viewers that sports are one mere component of the story; I'm impressed by the detail, realism, and geometrically satisfying moments with Blue Box's thrilling bton rendition. Blue Box Episode #8 arguably used this to painfully full effect, with Taiki's match over before anyone, including Hina and the viewer, could see how badly he lost.

Blue Box's Romance Angle Fixes a Classic Haikyu!! Complaint

Kouji Miura Has an Armada of Sailing Ships Compared to Haruichi Furudate

Given that Blue Box is explicitly classified as a romance on top of being a sports and coming-of-age anime, it's unsurprising that it handles its romantic pairings, offering gratification for fan shipping. It's a spoiler to outright say whether Taiki and Chinatsu get together. Still, it's not a spoiler to say that viewers will be introduced to other character pairings that are adorable, possible, and have genuine potential of becoming real. With the love triangle forming between Taiki, Chinatsu, and Hina, and Kengo Haryu's excellent relationship with Karen Moriya, romance moves in touching and even painful directions in Blue Box.

In a fandom context, fan shipping refers to readers or viewers wanting particular romantic pairings, regardless of sexuality, due to perceived compatibility onscreen or on the page.

While it's great to see predictable pairings such as its male and female leads, part of the fun of fan shipping is, by its nature, predicting how other characters will pair up. Kyo Kasahara is one particular character onto whom I latched, especially for his surprising maturity as a Blue Box ing character, and the current fan shipping fixation in the ongoing manga. But with real progress in Blue Box's ships, there's more than can be said about Haikyu!!, especially considering the time skip.

I hadn't realized it and was perhaps naive in being surprised, but even a glance at the most popular ships in Haikyu!! show BL pairings on the excellent The Dumpster Battle movie; it's not a replacement but a wholesome, gorgeous alternative.