Wind Breaker Season 2

Episode 18

So it turns out there still was some space left for this storyline of Sakura acclimating to the camaraderie of Bofurin and beating back his struggles with it. The anime probably could have condensed the repetitiousness of the previous episode to pad things out more with this portion. But the points of each episode are still parallel enough that I'm fine with their approach being more languid. It honestly sticks out less when Wind Breaker is filling out time with the boys just chilling, compared to decompressing fights across multiple episodes. Easing into that sense of belonging is a feature, after all. The hang-out-ability of this anime is as instrumental to its vibe as boys getting their faces broken.

It is kind of funny how a show ostensibly based around bad boys brutally brawling can be so…cute. The positive reinforcement that Sakura got from his seniors in the last episode was important for him to internalize, yes. But what helps him here is externalizing how the rest of his class team is made up of guys who are every bit as cringey, embarrassing, and stupid as he is. It's easy to get stuck in your own head and think you're the only one making a fool of yourself—this is where the value of dudes rocking, of all the boys making fools of themselves, comes in. It makes clear to Sakura how this is a place where he belongs, and how simple it was to get there. As his descent from his tightrope visual metaphor symbolizes, he was never as high up or precarious in his isolation as he felt.

Those rich visual metaphors framing the flashback feelings of Sakura in a space like this continue to be a strong asset even as Wind Breaker spends so much time just chilling with the fellas. The tightrope visual is a returning piece, matched against Sakura's real-world white-knuckle grip on his stress and how he eventually releases. The blank blackness of that scene creates a contrast with Sakura's colorless imagining of himself among the crowd of Bofurin boys. It comes across as not stark, but warm, signifying the unity he feels in their unconditional acceptance.

"Acceptance" is the feeling that Sakura, and the rest of this episode, settles into, alongside the formal introduction of another character. Tsubaki-chan-san has naturally been an eye-catching presence since the appearance of all the Bofurin bosses. So finally getting some details on the character is appreciable at this stage, as well as appropriate. Wind Breaker is a series founded on not judging on appearances, and Tsubaki thrives on that, while still confidently reveling in the attention.

Tsubaki is, simply, kind of awesome. On a base level this is a character assured in their identity, challenging the question of what gender even is, anyway. It's neat to see how this aligns with Sakura, who takes Tsubaki's presence and appearance at face value, while asserting that he has no problems with the presentation, beyond the initial surprise. It's a simple way to mark Sakura as a good boy, and goes all the way back to his establishing characterization. Sakura is, after all, someone with experience not being accepted for his own nontraditional aesthetics. Of course he'd have a healthy, heartening respect for Tsubaki. And it's immensely sweet to see that appreciation paid back in Tsubaki's compliments on Sakura's style. When was the last time this guy got this sort of positive affirmation for his looks?

It's all an impossibly sweet chance for Sakura, and the audience, to experience both first- and second-hand how accepting Bofurin truly is. This extends all that way to personal romantic preferences, with Tsubaki's crush on Umemiya being regarded as a matter of course by the rest of the Bofurin bunch, with Sakura giving it an emotional blush of a reaction. I do also hope that Sakura actually gets the date with Tsubaki proposed at the end of this episode. His horizons are already being broadened, in of interacting with others, and this is just one more step on the path of personal relations. It broadens the horizons of Wind Breaker itself as an anime too, with a well-paced episode about kicking back instead of kicking ass.

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Wind Breaker is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

Chris brawls his way through the mean streets of anime reviews, with a close-knit crew of co-writers he knows he can count on. You can check out his stomping grounds over on his BlueSky or see some of the tags he's thrown up on his blog.