The series focuses on Taiki Inomata, a student at Eimei Junior and Senior High who is a member of the boys' badminton team. Every morning, he trains alongside his upperclasswoman and fellow crush Chinatsu Kano, who is on the girls' basketball team. However, Chinatsu moves in with Taiki's family when her parents leave Japan to work abroad. With Chinatsu now living with him, Taiki aims to slowly develop his relationship with her as they both strive to make it to the national championship with their respective teams.[5]
Written and illustrated by Kouji Miura, Blue Box began its serialization in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump on April 12, 2021.[7][8] Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on August 4, 2021.[9] As of March 4, 2024, fourteen volumes have been released.[10]
On August 3, 2020, the one-shot version of Blue Box had been published on Weekly Shōnen Jump.[11][12]
Blue Box has been licensed for simultaneous publication in North America as it is released in Japan, with its chapters being digitally launched by Viz Media on its Shonen Jump website.[13] Shueisha also simulpublishes the series in English for free on the Manga Plus app and website.[14] In February 2022, Viz Media announced that they had licensed the series in print format; the first volume was released on November 1 of the same year.[15][16] The manga is also licensed in Indonesia by Elex Media Komputindo.[17]
In August 2021, the first volume of the manga had over 170,000 copies in circulation in less than a week after its release.[40]
In June 2021, Blue Box was nominated for the seventh Next Manga Award in the Best Print Manga category;[41] it placed eighth out of 50 nominees, but won the Global Prize.[42][43] The series ranked fourth on the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2022.[44]
Critical response
Anthony Gramuglia of Comic Book Resources (CBR) stated, "Blue Box is a sentimental story about human connection. It's beautifully drawn, at times resembling a shōjo manga more than a typical shōnen. If Blue Box continues, it will likely become an earnest, sincere entry in Shōnen Jump's romantic catalog".[45] Timothy Donohoo of CBR compared Blue Box to Kenta Shinohara's Witch Watch and Shigure Tokita's Don't Blush, Sekime-san! due to both series having concepts and romantic aspects similar to Blue Box's.[46]