Wind Breaker is one of the many shows I ended up watching on a whim. It stars a boy named Haruka Sakura who was judged for his appearance having multicolored hair and eyes. He was treated like a delinquent and avoided by all until he was sent to an infamous school called Furin High. It’s there he learns the students have formed their own group of city protectors known as Bofurin aka the Windbreakers and Sakura soon finds himself joining this group in all their endeavors.

The story is interesting as it is in many ways a slice of life but from the perspective of a bunch of high school boys that fight to solve a lot of their problems. As the season progresses we learn about how Bofurin strives to keep the people around them safe as there are people with ill intent that the citizens are unable to deal with on their own. The core of what makes the story great is how Sakura grows throughout the season. At the start he is someone completely unfamiliar with any acts of kindness or acceptance directed towards him. As the season progresses Bofurin not only accepts him but ends up placing their faith in him more and more. With this we get to watch how Sakura’s continued journey in unfamiliar territory causes him to grow as a person and peal back what causes him to verbally lash out and/or blush when he’s actually treated like a human being rather than a troublemaker.

Most of the season is about how Bofurin deals with a nearby rival school and this made for a rather interesting arc as this school is the complete opposite of Bofurin. Rather than act as protectors and guardians this rival school is ran by bullies who belittle and attack even their own members. This makes for an excellent catalyst for Sakura to see what makes the two schools different and it causes him to do a lot of self evaluation in the process. The story also sets up another conflict with a rival gang that will clearly be the main story of season two. While I loved the set up I found myself so invested in the story that I was kind of upset that I have to wait to see where this goes.

The characters are all very interesting as well. You have Sakura who continuously grows in the season to the point where I legit had chills by the last episode. What really amazes me is the brotherhood Bofurin members have with each other. You have a lot of shows that really emphasize a hero doing things on their own or stories where the supporting cast play little to no role in the plot. Not hating on that style of storytelling but it happens so much that seeing Windbreaker make great use of the supporting cast is a nice change of pace. It very clearly emphasizes not doing things on your own which also makes for yet another catalyst for Sakura’s character development who until joining Bofurin wasn’t used to having such a support system.

As I said earlier the problems we see in the show are resolved by fighting in one way or another. It’s a show that relies on fighting as a form of communication as well. So naturally it’s important that the fights are entertaining and this show greatly succeeds in that. I like fight scenes that are paced well, action packed and exciting. We have an abundance of all three here. Every single fight served not only an incredible part for the story but were just fun to watch. Sakura really learns to rely on his fellow Bofurin members through these fights and even grows to understand some of his enemies through his fists. However, it’s not just Sakura’s fights that are entertaining as we see members of the supporting cast fight and they were equally enjoyable. One thing I was impressed about was how each character has their own unique style so it made each fight stand out as a result.

Overall Windbreaker is a show with a lot of fighting and all of this is done with the purpose of protecting others. Sakura had a ton of character development as he starts off as a delinquent never given a chance by his peers to being part of a brotherhood that holds him in high regards. His personality grows as he learns to rely on his classmates but also be a valued member and look after them as well. As a result he grows from a loner to a leader and it’s a story that I want to see more of especially since the next arc is already well underway and we have to wait till season two to find out how it ends.