Wind Breaker Season 2

Episodes 14-16

Sometimes my called shots aren't entirely accurate. Reviewing Wind Breaker's second season premiere for the Preview Guide, I predicted that this arc with the KEEL brawl was going to be another long haul, like the massive one involving Shishitoren that took up so much of the first season. So, naturally, the blustery boys of Bofurin have things done and dusted by the very next episode. It's fine, I can admit when I'm wrong, and Wind Breaker is best when it feels like it's breezing by in a flurry of fights anyway.

It makes sense in the scale of this story just as well as it improves the pacing. The fights with Shishitoren were all about pitting the boys one-on-one against opponents so the audience could learn more about them through those pugilistic interactions—it was the beginning of the story, after all, this was where the introductory character development had to happen. The fight with KEEL, meanwhile, comes after viewers and Sakura have found out more about his new found family, so it's more focused on cohesion and group dynamics and crowd energy, to say nothing of demonstrating how bigger, less organized throwdowns go down in this delinquent-driven universe.

Of course, this warehouse battle royale still allows for some character expression in matches. It's just spread about to be touched on intermittently. So things can't go as in-depth as during the Shishitoren fight, but it round-robins to touch on everyone quicker. Thus I get to see how my favorite cutie-patootie Kiryu's laid-back approach extends to his fighting style and desire not to exhaust himself—and how that's rooted in perspective he's picked up from the girls he's charmed. Meanwhile, something like Suo's more vindictive side, which was previously hinted at, makes itself visible, in how he starts going so hard on his opponent that even the ordinarily over-angry Sakura has to step in and restrain him. It's an improvement from the previous episode's more plateaued presentation of the fighting. Even the lighting feels like it's brightened up a bit and the scenery has more character.

The ultimate focus, as it indicated it would have in the premiere, is on Kaji finishing his fight with Natori. It's a bit more insight into Kaji than was given to him back towards the end of Wind Breaker's first season, but more an expansion than fresh new information. Kaji also understands perspective, and defers as a leader to others to handle things he knows simply aren't his specialty. It's the opposite of Natori's tyrannical, all-controlling style, which ironically limits his own visibility. That's demonstrated in how it applies to the battlefield as well, and the way Kaji is able to spot the chain he can jump to that lets him ultimately win the fight; to say nothing of how Natori totally failed a spot check on his own crew that becomes clear at the end of this season's third episode.

The beginning of that episode, after the dust has settled, is dedicated to settling things between Anzai and Nagato after the latter got KEEL-hauled in the first place. On some level it does feel uneven that the pair were basically bystanders in a fight that ostensibly revolved around them, but the theming stays on-point anyway. Here Natori's predatory leadership style can be put on display to contrast with Sakura's self-conscious approach he's still developing. He worries that he's not doing well in needing to rely on others, but as shown by Natori, denying your crewmates agency is not the road to camaraderie. It reflects Sakura's trust issues that he's still working through, but provides him a path to growth as he realizes everyone has something to offer. Even Nirei.

A lot of the visual and verbal metaphors communicating the ideas in these episodes are blunt, as Wind Breaker is wont to be, but just as effective. The expanding glow from Suo to Sakura to the rest of the crew is cute. Umemiya's explanation about the value of eating together is obvious, but it needs to be to get through to these meatheads and that doesn't make it any less true. That's the speed this series is best when it operates at, not getting too lost in its own sauce to drown out the charm of these boys being good around each other, or dragging things out so long that viewers forget the main point of why they're here.

If I do think one concept trying to be communicated in all this came off undercooked, it's the conflict between Sakura helping Anzai thinking it shouldn't be a Bofurin problem, as a "personal affair." The people of the town have always been shown to be the primary resource the boys watch out for—they were introduced protecting Kotoha, after all. So Anzai and Nagato being on their own naturally makes them fair to watch out for as well, and this is basically what the higher-ups in Bofurin reiterate. It feels mostly like another excuse to play up Sakura's trust issues, but an unnecessary one since his base doubts about his leadership style and uneven managing of the massive brawl do that efficiently enough on their own.

Still, these episodes represent an otherwise solidly balanced return for Wind Breaker. While I was wrong about the length of this specific section of the story, there does seem to be a bigger plot brewing with the appearance of the mysterious fancy-shoed, tattooed tough I'm going to nickname "FRANK" until further notice. And aside from the rough CGI background extras and monochrome warehouse filter, the series still looks sharp enough, with many of Kaji's moves, like that chain-swinging maneuver, standing out. It took an uneven road across more than a cour already for Wind Breaker to get to this point, but like a crew of boys who all have something to contribute, it feels like it's built up a good assembly of elements to work with.

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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.