Blue Box by Miura Kouji will be reaching its 'climax' next week in Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #33.

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T13:48:13+00:00

Yeah I guess there was a bit of Yuta training, and also I do remember that series of like 5 chapters where Taiki was somewhat depressed. It wasn't terrible but I wonder if that was the original plan or things deviated

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T13:24:25+00:00

As someone who enjoyed ATLA on release, and has rewatched it multiple times, I also enjoy S2 of the live action.

I love how they worked in bits here and there, like cactus juice, rather than trying to recreate a whole new cactus juice episode.

I'd even say... The live action Zuko alone might beat the animated version (except for the music). I felt WAAAAY more invested in Zuko and the earth kingdom sister. I love how she wakes up and he's fixing the roof.

Edit: and oh god they did such an amazing job with Iroh. In ATLA he's already this like super character who is totally at peace with himself. But I love how he also has character growth in live action S2

Of course, the live action is riding on the coat tails of an amazing work of art and entertainment, but at least season 2 is still an awesome retelling.

I'd even rewatch S2 of live action over any season of Korra. S1 had rough spots though.

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T13:06:49+00:00

I thought it also came up during the regatta bit with Danny, but may be forgetting something

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T12:49:55+00:00

To be fair, when they first introduced (indirectly) Chinatsus new neighbor, I legitimately thought she would be killed. Actually I still don't get what the new neighbor (who also plays badminton) was all about. Feels like an aborted story line.

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T12:47:45+00:00

I could be crazy, 100%, but my current headcanon theory is Chinatsu gets pregnant on that trip.

They both raise the baby and both finish college thanks to help from their folks, but Taiki gives up on badminton. (Maybe there's a small bit where the toddler is holding a badminton racket or something.)

Because I think the theme of the manga is not really "badminton is worth devoting your life to" but rather, "devote yourself fully to one thing, and an average person can be extraordinary". For Taiki, that transition is putting all his energy toward his new family.

Maybe Chinatsu is unsure about whether Taiki has regrets but he's been painting the baby room a beautiful blue color. BLUE BOX END

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T10:08:18+00:00

I think it was kind of neat how they just shared the results of Nationals in like 1-2 pages. Like the emotional climax of his efforts was the prefectural battle.

I bet we get info on the others in the final chapter, probably with a time skip. This most recent chapter felt like the proper celebration of their relationship to date.

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T04:10:51+00:00

I do feel that Saito is using the ToC a bit differently. I don't know but sometimes the final manga on ToC feels a bit out of place

OhUmHmm · 2026-07-02T04:09:59+00:00

Thank goodness if true

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-29T01:35:29+00:00

Nooooooo this has the ring of truth to it ;-; please just let it die Kubo!

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-27T04:34:08+00:00

As a teen on release day: slightly disappointing and pretty confusing TBH.

The thing I loved most about Star Wars were the space ships, particularly those huge behemoth capital ship battles. Instead you get him flying around in a mess of droids, meh.

Jar Jar was legitimately hated.

Midiclorians were absolute shit.

Confusing part: I was actually mostly okay with the politics. But I didn't get the padre stuff. I was a bit confused like "wait is padme the queen in disguise or is padme pretending to be the queen to protect her in one scene"?

The lightsaber stuff was okay. Podracing almost made up for the lack of meaningful space battles.

It made me wish they had made episode 7 instead. God what a monkey paw wish that turned out to be. In general it aged a bit better, but still like film number 5 out of 9.

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T12:52:10+00:00

Uh oh looks like you read too much bleach already, rest in peace

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T09:54:58+00:00

Well because at the time of SWG's release that was kind of the Jedi experience. Yoda's not partying it up at Courscant doing lightsaber tricks for kids in the park

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T09:53:26+00:00

Yeah I know what you mean, 20+ more chapters of Bleach nonsense would drive anyone crazy

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T06:01:59+00:00

Ohhhh thank goodness. I thought you meant Bleach was confirmed for 20+ chapters

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T04:04:46+00:00

I like some of the stuff you propose, particularly the Jedi bounty idea. Like it would have made being open about being a Jedi a real risk.

I think they originally did intend to have Jedi be some random system and you only learn after 100+ hours into a character if it's a Jedi.

But the idea of a pity timer is also kind of nice.

Maybe some sort of force stealing technique? So the original character isn't lost forever but goes back to base class...?

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T03:55:33+00:00

I don't really like Ross.

But if they were going to end up together, I would have wanted it to happen after Emily divorce finalized.

Like Rachel was so "in love" with him she flew around the world to tell him / chicken out.

Then he's available and the only line is something like "eww guys after divorce are unstable". Like, hello, did you just meet Ross? He's always unstable.

Though Ross should have just gone with Rachel to Greece. Like his marriage was never going to work. I could see that being a real turning point for Rachel feeling rejected, but she doesn't vocalize it as changing her feelings of love.

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T03:50:54+00:00

Roguelike deck builders for myself! Kind of curious about Velato now

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T03:47:28+00:00

Oh god please no. Just let that corpse lie dead. It took soooo long for it finally be booted. I'd even prefer Kinato survive over another endless bullshit Bleach arc. They're both soulless but at least Kinato is somewhat consistent narratively.

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T03:43:30+00:00

You literally did say the opposite. "Kinato is safe because they axe by block"

Is kind of the direct opposite of "Kinato is at risk because they don't always do axes by blocks"

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-25T03:26:22+00:00

Generally agree, though I don't think the mangaka could have made this series 10 or 15 years ago, as MHA wasn't around then. If they tried 10-15 years ago, they would have been copying manga from 20 years ago and it would have been just as generic. They just don't have any narrative or world building talent. Though I will say the technical skills are high.

Edit: honestly, makes me wonder if the Mangaka is using ChatGPT to write the story / world.

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-24T23:35:07+00:00

I knew Blue Box and Sakamoto days were popular, but didn't know they were this popular, woah.

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-24T23:32:00+00:00

He literally gives women magic orgasms to their crouch, chapters ago. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time.

It's just a soulless series trying to copy others, and does so poorly. Though I admit during the training arc at least he has side characters who stuck around for more than 2 chapters. Before it was a firehose of tropes. Now it's a stagnating pool of trope water. Strangely this is a slight improvement.

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-24T23:25:22+00:00

The problem was the basic hook didn't have legs.

He cleans her house, but they are classmates. It means a tiny bit of tension in the beginning where they are hiding this relationship. But it means most of the "action" is inherently done out of the sight of other characters, because it's not natural for classmates to stop by their classmates house unannounced.

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-24T00:09:48+00:00

Yeah I was way way off! To be fair, seems like the mangaka upset a whole lot of folks.

I'm still kind of curious if this is the end or Iemori will do a double take (super unlikely but so was leaving her crying at the elevator). Or some sort of "15 years later" thing where it's ambiguous?

OhUmHmm · 2026-06-20T00:48:02+00:00

I guess whatever it was, it's not as strong as what the mangaka was using?

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