Blue Box's director and composition writer explain the surprising challenge of creating a sports anime.
Blue Box is one of those rare anime that can blend two seemingly juxtaposed genres, taking the best from each while also delivering something new for fans of both to enjoy. Based on the manga by Koji Miura, published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, Blue Box follows the blossoming romance between two high-school sports obsessives, Taiki Inomate, a decent badminton player, and Chinatsu Kano, the school's basketball star.
Blue Box is animated by Telecom Animation Film, and releases weekly on Netflix. Cour 1 of the first season debuted in 2024, and Cour 2 recently premiered on the streamer. The series is directed by Yuichiro Yano, with series composition overseen by Yuko Kakihara. The pair do an incredible job of not only entrancing audiences with Taiki's crush on Chinatsu but also creating an entertaining and engaging depiction of their respective sports. There's just one problem: neither of them has actually played the sports featured in the series.
During an interview with Anime News Network, Yuichiro Yano and Yuko Kakihara explained how they created such a realistic depiction of high school sports, despite neither of them knowing much about badminton or basketball. "As I'm not a person who has played sports, it's difficult to portray them," said Yano. "Whenever someone with [basketball or badminton] experience was around me, I would ask him or her what would happen in some given situations. I would ask them about everything I could."
Yuichiro Yano initially thought about reaching out to elite athletes to act as sports supervisors on the show. However, they later re-strategized, as Blue Box focuses on badminton and basketball at a high school level. "Since it is a story about high school students, we felt it might be better not to make them seem too professional," explained Yano."We had it in mind that it might be better to make the anime based on the experiences that normal people had in high school and add a little extra to that."
As well as speaking to and learning from their friends and colleagues, Yuichiro Yano and Yuko Kakihara also went back to the source, manga creator Koji Miura. "She was very cooperative, though it wasn't like frequent consultations," recalled Kakihara. "Also, there are characters who don't really say what they really think, so I would check with her and ask her what they actually thought when they said that line."
Kakihara also received expert consultation from someone who is currently experiencing the high school sports scene, their niece. They said: "I have a niece who is a member of her junior high school's girls' basketball team, and she seems to love Blue Box. So, I think the anime's portrayal of basketball is alright since a member of a basketball team is saying so."
Blue Box Season 1 Cour 2 began streaming on Netflix on January 2nd. New episodes will be released weekly on the streamer. Cour 1 ran for 12 episodes. Cour 2 will run for a further 13 episodes, resulting in a 25-episode total for Season 1.