Episode 19 – Wind Breaker Season 2

Sakura seemed to have soundly found “acceptance” among his pugilistic peers by last week’s episode of Wind Breaker. It’s a feeling the series seems dedicated to exploring for the socializing stretch of its story—what acceptance can mean, how it affects people, and why it’s so instrumental for the feelings of the good boys of Bofurin, specifically. A sense of belonging is why people join any group, really, so whether they’re ending up with a truly delinquent gang of dangerous street toughs or a glorified community service organization, how they’re accepted for who they are is going to determine the crowd these kids fall in with.

Now standing in the spotlight, Tsubaki is effectively Bofurin’s shining example of such acceptance. This is someone who is wholly respected within the team, who enjoys an influential place of leadership within it, whom point-of-view character Sakura mutually respects. Whether this would be the case in less scrupulous, more typically tough teams can’t be said—recall that groups like Shishitoren would excommunicate people for not adhering to their stringent definition of strength—but within Bofurin, Tsubaki’s gender-boundary-crossing self is an icon of the team’s strength in accepting all into their numbers.

Now, this is a place where Wind Breaker’s lighter touch when it comes to broad history and world-building leaves it a bit wanting. None of the home lives of these characters have been shown off, and even whether they’re actually attending the school or simply hanging out in there is weirdly uncertain. This is a story where feral packs of fight-ready boys just sort of inhabit the mean streets, and Tsubaki grew up among them. There are no details of how hypothetical parents might have reacted to Tsubaki’s cute-curious sensibilities. Even the young Tasuku Tsubakino’s concerns over peer reactions are wholly internalized. Granted, here in the real world we’re all too familiar with bigoted rejection of gender nonconformity, so it’s not too hard to let imagination handle the projection of Tsubaki’s fears. But it does rob the character of a little more personal interiority to contrast with the euphoric acceptance found later.

That said, it does clear the way for the story to hone in with very tight focus on said acceptance. Ito and his wife were, as far as the plot is concerned here, Tsubaki’s sole parental figures, bestowing all the love and guidance one would hope for. Their fashion-forward approach to coordinating outfits is adorable to see, if not entirely unique in-story—have you seen the style on some of the other boys in this town? Their gentle acceptance of Tsubaki, of easing this child past insecurities into personal comfort and happiness, is as heartening as any of the bonding we’ve seen with Sakura and the rest of the Bofurin bunch the past few episodes. Notably, this episode eschews a lot of the more lavish symbolism of previous episodes for detailing Tsubaki’s history. But that’s intentional, and important, I feel, for being as direct and clear as possible about the message herein. Ito and his wife plainly lay out historical precedent for the drift of gendered fashion over generations, assuring Tsubaki that there’s nothing weird about preference for one presentation over the other.

It leads into understanding the acceptance Ito and his wife had for each other, and how that’s expressed (or not) in the hidden feelings that can go unsaid while also being palpable to those who care. Sakura and the juniors think that Ito seems upbeat enough, but the things he’s left around the house, the clothes he’s locked away and not touched, it all speaks to the feelings he’s hidden. As demonstrated by Tsubaki’s own past, what people are feeling on the inside doesn’t always match how they present on the outside. The playing out of Ito’s issues speaks to that interiority I thought was a bit lacking on Tsubaki’s side, so it’s also appropriate that Tsubaki’s own feelings are what help clarify the feelings of Ito’s wife for him. It’s circuitous validation, and works as well as any other similarly sweet moments so far in this season of Wind Breaker.

It’s also an appropriate story for Sakura to hear, and find out that even into old age Ito doubted if his wife’s happiness and feelings for him were real. It’s understandable—their marriage was an arranged one, and neither was great about directly expressing their feelings. But then, it’s neat that at some point in their lives they learned to bond over an appreciation for fashion, and his wife even left Ito a message in the form of her Dogwood tree lightly chiding him for ever doubting that what they had was real. And it fits as a final lesson to learn as well. After all, the final stage of grief is acceptance.

It’s another sentimentally structured outing for Wind Breaker that doesn’t quite give me all the context I could have wanted on Tsubaki, but I think still mostly does right by the character. It’s a continued focus on the people of the town that Bofurin is here to protect, as outlined in that big brawl that started the season. I do have some interest in how all of this might lead into the more action-packed elements that originally drew me into the series. But getting me emotionally invested in stories this heartfelt is hardly a bad thing. This is a story confident that this sort of character growth is ground worth covering, and I accept that.

Rating:

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.