Spoiler warning: this review covers all of Blue Box season 2, episode 2, including its ending. It does not spoil the manga beyond what the anime has shown.
Blue Box season 2, episode 2 is called "Admiration", and it is the 27th episode of the anime overall. Last week ended with Taiki one breath away from confessing to Chinatsu when her old teammate, Yumeka Kido, walked up and cut him off. I expected this week to get straight back to the confession, or at least to Hina.
It does neither. This review of episode 2 is mostly about why that turns out to be the right call, what the episode tells us about Yumeka, and where it leaves the Taiki, Chinatsu and Hina triangle that the show is supposedly about.
The short version
Blue Box season 2 episode 2 puts the love triangle on hold and spends its time on Chinatsu and her former teammate Yumeka. Taiki learns that Yumeka quit basketball because of Chinatsu, pushes her about it and gets shut down, then hears Chinatsu's side on an evening walk. The triangle does not move, but Chinatsu finally becomes a full character. I give it 8 out of 10.
Where the story stands
Taiki Inomata is a first-year in the badminton club at Eimei, a school built around its sports teams. He is in love with Chinatsu Kano, a second-year and the star of the girls' basketball team, who has been living with his family since her parents moved abroad. His childhood friend Hina Chono, a rhythmic gymnast, confessed to him during season 1. At the end of that season he turned her down.
Season 2 opened last week with Taiki and Chinatsu's first outing that was clearly a date. A basketball player called Kazuma Matsuoka crashed it and told Taiki that someone losing at badminton had no business chasing romance. Taiki tried to confess anyway, on a rooftop at sunset, and Yumeka appeared.
What happens in Blue Box season 2 episode 2?
The episode picks up on that rooftop. Yumeka is cold to Chinatsu and asks whether she has given up on basketball. Taiki does not know who this person is, but he can tell the two of them have a history and that it is not a happy one.
Some days later he runs into Yumeka again, at a local dental clinic where she works at the reception desk. She wears glasses there, keeps her hair in a braid and is polite in the way people are at work. Taiki asks her why she quit basketball. Her answer is that the reason was Chinatsu, and that she came to hate both her and the sport.
Taiki does what Taiki does. He tells her that if she loved the game she should not give it up. According to Soap Central's recap, Yumeka slaps him for it and tells him that people who have never been in her position find it very easy to hand out confident advice.
That evening Taiki and Chinatsu go for a walk, and Chinatsu tells him her side. As a child she watched basketball, met Yumeka, who was already very good, and decided she wanted to play alongside her. She was bad at first, bad enough that other children laughed at her. Yumeka was the one who stepped in and then taught her. They trained together all the way through junior high. The episode's title is Chinatsu's word for what she felt about her.
My review: the Chinatsu episode this show needed
My biggest problem with season 1 was that Chinatsu was more of a goal than a person. We saw her through Taiki's eyes: beautiful, kind, good at basketball, hard to read. One of Anime News Network's reviewers made the same point about last week's premiere, that the show rarely gives her point of view.
This episode fixes that with one flashback. The girl everyone at Eimei looks up to turns out to have started as the kid the others laughed at, and the thing that drives her is one specific person she wanted to stand next to. That makes her the same kind of character Taiki is. He chases her across the gym; she spent years chasing Yumeka across a different one. The parallel is not subtle, and it does not need to be.
The best scene, going by everything I have read about the episode, is the clinic. Blue Box has been a gentle show. Its conflicts are misunderstandings between nice people. Yumeka is the first character who is openly hostile, and the cast said as much before the season, describing her in an interview with Mantan Web as the first real malice the story has had. Putting that hostility behind a reception desk and a customer-service voice is a smart way to introduce it.
I also like that Taiki is wrong. His speech about not giving up on something you love is the speech a sports anime hero is supposed to give, and in a different show it would work. Here it lands on someone whose situation he knows nothing about, and the episode sides with her.
What didn't work for me: Yumeka walking up at the exact second of the confession was a convenient device last week, and this episode leans on a second coincidence by having Taiki bump into her so soon. And anyone watching for the romance gets very little. That is a fair complaint, even though I think the trade was worth it.
Does the Taiki, Chinatsu and Hina triangle move forward?
No. The triangle is stalled this week, and on purpose. Taiki's confession is still unsaid, and nothing I have read about the episode describes a scene between Taiki and Hina. The official preview images include one shot of Hina looking close to tears, so she is in the episode, but she is not what it is about.
There are two ways to read that. One is that the show is dodging: it ended season 1 on Hina's heartbreak and now refuses to deal with the fallout. The other is that it is doing the groundwork. Taiki has been in love with an idea of Chinatsu, and a confession to an idea is not worth much. After this episode he knows something real and unflattering about her past, and she chose to tell him.
I lean towards the second reading. The walk does more for Taiki and Chinatsu than the whole date did last week. But it only holds if Hina gets proper time soon. One teary shot a week is not a storyline.
Who is Yumeka Kido in Blue Box?
Yumeka Kido is Chinatsu's former teammate from mini-basketball and junior high, and the player who made Chinatsu take the sport seriously. She no longer plays and works at a dental clinic. She is voiced by Yoshino Aoyama, who joins the cast this season.
Why did Yumeka quit basketball?
The episode gives the reason but not the story. Yumeka says she quit because of Chinatsu and that she ended up hating her and basketball both. What actually happened between them is left for later.
What the flashback does show is the shape of it. Yumeka was the natural talent. Chinatsu was the beginner she protected and trained. By junior high Chinatsu had become very good. The episode stops there and lets you draw the line yourself, and I think the line is obvious: it is hard to be someone's hero once they no longer need one.
Why does Yumeka turn on Taiki?
Because he gives advice he has not earned. Taiki has known Yumeka for a few minutes in total, and he tells her what she should do with her life on the strength of one fact, that she used to be good.
The slap itself appears in only one recap I could find, so treat that detail with some care. Her point stands either way. Encouragement from someone who does not know what you gave up is just a way of telling you that you were wrong to stop. Taiki means well, and that is exactly what makes it insulting.
Blue Box season 2 episode 2 ending explained
The episode ends on the walk, with Chinatsu telling Taiki how she met Yumeka and what she has felt about her since. There is no cliffhanger and no confession. I found no report of a scene after the credits.
What matters is who now knows what. Taiki has heard both halves: Yumeka's resentment and Chinatsu's admiration. As far as the episode shows, Chinatsu has only her own half. She still talks about Yumeka as the person she looked up to. Taiki is left holding something that would hurt her, and the season's next problem is what he does with it.
Details that are easy to miss
- Yumeka looks like two different people. On the rooftop she is sharp and direct; at the clinic she is in glasses and a braid and barely recognisable. The disguise is the point: she has built a life with no basketball in it.
- The storyboard for this episode is credited to Yūichirō Yano, who directed season 1 before Daisuke Sakō took over. That may be why the flashback feels so much like the first season.
- Last week Kazuma told Taiki that results come before romance. This week Yumeka is a picture of what happens when the results stop mattering. Taiki is being squeezed from both sides.
Theories: what I think happens next
These are guesses from the anime alone.
Yumeka quit because Chinatsu overtook her. The flashback is built to show the gap closing. The alternative is that something outside the court pushed her out and Chinatsu is simply who she blames. I lean towards the first, with some of the second mixed in, because hatred that specific usually starts as comparison.
Taiki will not leave it alone. Being told to mind his own business has never once worked on him. I expect him to go back, and to get it wrong at least once more before he gets it right.
The confession waits for this to finish. The show interrupted it with Yumeka, so it will not return to it until Yumeka's story has gone somewhere. I would not expect it in the next episode or two.
Which manga chapters does episode 2 adapt?
I could not find a confirmed chapter list for this episode. What is known is the starting point: Anime Filler Guide puts the end of season 1 at chapter 80 of Kouji Miura's manga, so season 2 begins at chapter 81, the first chapter of volume 10. This episode sits in the early part of that volume, in what the fan wiki calls the Yumeka's Return arc.
The manga finished in July 2026, so the whole story is available if you want to read on. I am not going to say here how the Yumeka story resolves.
What the episode changes for the season
It changes what season 2 is about. Season 1 asked who Taiki would choose. He chose. Episode 2 suggests this season is asking a harder question: what do these people do when the sport they have built themselves around stops loving them back. Yumeka is the answer nobody at Eimei wants to look at.
Against the premiere, I think this is the stronger episode. Last week was a date with a third wheel and a tease. This one has an actual subject. It is also quieter, and Taiki's own sport has had little room so far this season. Badminton has to come back soon.
Rating: 8 out of 10
For this episode alone: 8 out of 10. It gives Chinatsu a past, introduces the show's first properly prickly character and lets its hero be wrong. It loses marks for leaning on coincidence and for leaving Hina on the bench.
Blue Box season 2 episode 3 release date and time
Episode 3 is due on Sunday 18 October 2026. Blue Box airs in Japan at 4:30pm JST, which is 1pm IST, and Netflix carries the season worldwide, India included, with the episode arriving around the same time. I could not find a title for episode 3.
Expect more of Yumeka, and I hope a proper scene for Hina.
FAQ
What is Blue Box season 2 episode 2 called?
It is called "Admiration" ("Akogare" in Japanese). It is episode 27 of the Blue Box anime overall.
When did Blue Box season 2 episode 2 come out?
It first aired in Japan on Sunday 11 October 2026 at 4:30pm JST, which is 1pm IST, and is streaming on Netflix.
Does Taiki confess to Chinatsu in season 2 episode 2?
No. The confession that Yumeka interrupted at the end of episode 1 is not picked up again in this episode.
Is Hina in Blue Box season 2 episode 2?
She appears in the official preview images for the episode, but the episode is about Chinatsu and Yumeka and the love triangle does not advance.
Who voices Yumeka Kido?
Yumeka is voiced in Japanese by Yoshino Aoyama, who joined the cast for season 2.
Why does Yumeka hate Chinatsu?
The episode does not fully explain it yet. Yumeka says Chinatsu is the reason she quit basketball, and a flashback shows that she taught Chinatsu as a child before Chinatsu grew into a top player herself.
Why did Chinatsu start playing basketball?
She became interested by watching the sport, then met Yumeka, who was already a strong player, and started practising seriously so that she could one day play alongside her.
Where does Yumeka work?
She works as a receptionist at a dental clinic near where Taiki lives, which is where he runs into her again.
Who animates Blue Box season 2?
Season 2 is animated by Electric Circus and directed by Daisuke Sakō. They replaced Telecom Animation Film and Yūichirō Yano from season 1.
How many episodes will Blue Box season 2 have?
The count has not been officially confirmed. Schedule listings show 12 episodes, running weekly to 20 December 2026.
Where can I watch Blue Box season 2 in India?
On Netflix, which streams the season worldwide with new episodes every Sunday.
Where should I start the Blue Box manga after season 1?
Start at chapter 81, the first chapter of volume 10. That is also where season 2 of the anime picks up.
My verdict
If you came for the triangle, this episode gives you nothing, and I understand being annoyed by that. I think it is the best thing season 2 could have done second. Blue Box was a romance about a boy and a girl he admired from across a gym. After "Admiration" it is a story about two people who both know what it is to chase someone, and that is a romance I am more interested in watching.
