Somewhere I belong…
What They Say:
“A PLACE I BELONG”
Sakura deeply feels that he wasn’t able to do much during the battle with KEEL. When Sakura goes to Kaji to seek some advice, Kaji bluntly says, “You need to trust them based on what you have seen.” In addition, Umemiya encourages him to “Jump right out there with everything you’ve got!” After recovering from his cold, Sakura enters the classroom determined. He faces Nirei, Suo, and the rest of the first-year class, and begins to share his honest thoughts about being grade captain…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sakura has finally accepted that he has friends he cares about, who care about him, that he can and should lean on when he needs it. After struggling to come to this epiphany, he finds it to be such a transformational revelation that he even does the thing that no anime character ever does: he’s honest about his feelings, without even being prompted! As a socially awkward, prideful tsundere who has never known love, it’s incredibly hard for Sakura to let himself be this vulnerable, but that’s what makes it such an impactful character moment. He is truly lucky that the story just happens to be written such that every single person in this gang-based society is a total sweetheart who will never judge him for anything.
The episode continues the trend of not doing a whole lot plot-wise but just focusing on the characters, which I always appreciate even if it can feel a bit protracted after so many consecutive episodes more or less serving the same purpose. As if they weren’t all saintly enough as immensely supportive friends, the boys all decide to volunteer their own embarrassing weaknesses to try to make Sakura feel more comfortable about opening himself up to them. This is Nirei in his element, as he literally just collects facts about everyone around him, and they’re just sitting around expositing trivial lore about themselves. It doesn’t amount to all that much, but it does flesh them out as even more imperfect yet endearing characters, as if any of them needed that.
Probably the most significant element of the episode, arguably after Sakura’s speech at the beginning, is the introduction of Tsubakino. Trans characters have traditionally not been particularly well depicted in anime. As soon as you see one, it’s usually time to brace yourself for some gay panic jokes. While Tsubakino’s character is far from nuanced in any way, I did appreciate that the series eschews those egregious tropes at least this far. The simple fact that everyone, including Sakura as soon as they meet, pretty much respects and accepts Tsubakino as female with no caveats is a low bar but rare enough to be plenty refreshing. Pointing out that Sakura is embarrassed about the situation not because of any gender deviance but because of his general reaction to romance and intimacy goes a long way toward proving that he immediately recognizes and acknowledges Tsubakino as a girl, and that’s more than we’ve been conditioned to expect from this medium.
In Summary:
Wind Breaker continues its journey of Sakura’s vulnerability as he opens up to his friends and inspires them to be more vulnerable to him in kind. It’s more of the same in many ways, but it makes a point to show how meaningful this growth is to Sakura’s character and how much effort he has to put forth to realize it. Notably, we’re also introduced to a pretty explicitly trans character, and shockingly there’s nothing disgustingly offensive that falls out of that for the time being. That’s not to say this is necessarily the most deeply written trans character out there, but I’ll certainly take it over the usual poor taste jokes.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
