Wind Breaker arcs starting with gates (or literal arcs if you wanna get punny), some of them might be a reach but idc idc this is my post
under the cut bc this is looooooong
chapter 1, the beginning of it all starts with the gate to the market street, iconic, show-stopping, what an entrance
chapter 3, Sakura's first day at school which he enters through the school gates, small panel but it shows the school's characters through the tagged walls and crows surrounding it
chapter 5/9, the beginning of the Shishitoren arc; the tunnel under the railway bridge reminds me of the gateway to the other world in Spirited Away
chapter 10 the entry to the Shishitoren base/theatre, less of a gate and more of a door but still feels relevant
chapter 42, making a big jump to the KEEL arc, a gate to get to the grounds and the big ass gate to get to the halls
chapter 67, the start of the Roppo Ichiza arc; we're entering the red light district via this imposing gate
chapter 100/101/106, start of the Noroshi arc and the entrance of Bofurin's allies, "but Star, this is a bridge" yeah and what are bridges made of????? arcs!!! trust me I work in architecture (do NOT trust me, I do not work with bridges)
chapter 132/137, start of the Sakura/Endo fight with the literal school gate, this time closed
chapter 167, for once at the end of a mini arc if I may call it that, the end of Sugishita's backstory. Right after his talk with Nirei they join Suo and Sakura to fight some thugs. Maybe more of a sign of new beginnings for Sugishita?
chapter 172/175, Kiryuu arc!! Possibly the only gate like things in the summer vacation arc are big gate of Kiryuu's home and the chained entryway to that abandoned building Akari's suspicious guy "friend" hangs with his friends at, the beginning of some ass-kicking
chapter 179, summer festival; me, desperately grasping for any gate motives; OH LOOK IT'S THE SHISHITOREN TUNNEL AGAIN
chapter 182, entering the orphanage through *squints* gates? I think these might be gates
chapter 192, Momijikawa fighting a bunch of thugs under the market street gates
chapter 202, just before we find out about Sakura's past- "Star, stop showing us bridges" OKAY YEAH this was the last bridge
chapter 214, the entry of the Chinese restaurant Endo invites Sakura to
chapter 216, the, I'm assuming, gate to Bankoku-gai which I'm guessing we'll see in later chapters soon
WAIT OKAY ONE MORE chapter 217, the gate to the dojo (?) the not -yet-Red Chanpuru kids are training at
Kiryu having to be the cool headed and serious person now that Suo is gone and Nirei is partially out of order, he did NOT sign up for this, free my man
Wait omg happy birthday!!!! May you and Kotoha have a lovely birthday!!
Thank you! I don't know that I'll have a chance to doodle Kotoha, but I would like to do a little birthday drawing of her since we share the same birthday!
I’m sure a lot of us remember at least one literature teacher rambling about symbolism and all the eye-rolling emanating from the back of the classroom BUT NO WAIT. LISTEN. Symbolism is FUN. Look, ideally symbolism should be like seasoning, right? It should enhance the flavors regardless of whether the audience notices, but a discerning critic might pick up on the subtleties and better appreciate the end product.
All that to say I’ve spent the last year or so rummaging around in the Wind Breaker trenches like a delinquent sommelier trying to get a bead on its secret symbolism sauce. Is any of it on purpose? Unimportant, all that matters is it makes for a great numbered list. This is a work in progress and theoretical and for fun—enjoy my field notes.
Food = Friendship/Community
This one’s pretty obvious, and Umemiya’s backstory spells it out almost explicitly. It’s notable that every time our protagonists make a new friend, especially one that’s been isolated one way or another, it always culminates in a meal. It’s an invitation to and assurance of community, plain and simple. But while we’re on the topic, I’ve got a prediction that one day we will see Sakura deliberately share food with someone and it will be monumental. For how hungry (pun intended) he is for community, for how much he’s grown in his ability to approach people on his own, and he has yet to actually offer to share his food with someone. A Sakura that offers someone food is a Sakura at ease in his belonging, aware that he has something to offer, and comfortable extending it to those in need. There’s so much more to unpack here but for now let’s just say I’m hopeful.
[Sidenote: I’d argue you can wrap drinks up into this symbolism just the same as food, but, as an example of why symbolism is fun, think of what that means when Togame first appears. He’s holding a ramune bottle (he is a part of a community) and Sakura thinks he seems pretty neat. Then what does he do? He uses that bottle to brain Saruwatari (he uses his position in his community to hurt it). You don’t need the symbolism to get exactly why Sakura flips, but boy does it make the moment richer. ]
2. Wind = Pressure
Pressure comes in many forms and, sometimes, it can actually be for the best, a la pushing people in directions they wouldn’t otherwise go. But, too much in the wrong direction is destructive. There’s a lot that's been already said about the fact that a bofurin is literally a wind break, a barrier of trees which shelter younger, shallowly rooted plant varieties from soil erosion and environmental buffering, allowing them to dig in and grow stronger in the meantime. What a perfect metaphor for all this, right? What a perfect name for the trees of Furin. I’m going insane.
3. Rain = Letting Go
Okay, no, actually this is the one that drove me insane, so it's a bit more of a hear-me-out. I sat scratching my head over the rain symbolism for ages, because it’s definitely a symbol of something, it shows up very deliberately in both the Shishitoren arc and the Noroshi arc, but the vibes are sooo different (Note: spoilers for the Noroshi Arc).
Rain has a tragic connotation in the Shishitoren arc, mirroring the moment of Tomiyama’s descent into madness with his fight with Umemiya and marring both with the sense of real unease. But then, rain has a peaceful connotation in the Noroshi arc, marking the end of Takiishi’s fight with Umemiya and quelling Noroshi’s violence against the town. How do we reconcile the difference? I think the strongest throughline is this sense of letting go, especially of one’s own desires. Tomiyama lost sight of the value in his community and Togame willingly gave up the same thing, both in the rain. Then the rain comes back when Togame lets go of his desire to shield Tomiyama to do what’s right, culminating when Umemiya admonishes Tomiyama to let go of his fixation and reconcile with his team. Then we have the Noroshi arc and Takiishi. Takiishi’s desires are entirely selfish and deeply destructive; he just wants violence for the sake of his own satisfaction and personal fulfillment. Letting go of that to think about what someone else might want is a good thing, and it puts out Noroshi’s fire.
4. Bridges = Connection
This one might be a bit on the nose but hey, a symbol is as a symbol does. Go ask Sky (@insearchofsomething) for her Bridge Imagery thoughts. Her Brimagery thoughts, if you will. She’ll know.
[Another Sidenote: Thinking about how Natori got his hooks in Nagato beneath a bridge. He was literally subverting his existing connections in order to reattach Nagato to himself. I get chills over how the anime had Natori’s shadow consume Nagato in that scene but a separate essay about the imagery in WBK would just be a lot of me jumping up and down and pointing… more than I already am.]
5. Rivers/Train Tracks = Change
This is the one that feels like most like horoscope logic (it could apply to most scenes if you squint) but I feel like throwing it out there anyway. There are plenty of notable river/train track/(road?) scenes throughout WBK and all of them mark a turning point. The conflict with Shishitoren starts underneath train tracks and marks the change from the status quo, both in Bofurin’s relationship with Shishitoren and Sakura’s reputation within both communities. The Keel arc begins and ends with Sakura and co. walking along a river (estuary? Idk. Idc.), marking the change in Sakura’s relationship with his class as its captain. Etc. Again though, this is the one I'm shakiest on, feel free to offer counterpoints.
[Noroshi Arc Spoilers again: If we want to get really fancy, we could apply the above two symbols in tandem to analyze Hiragi’s fight with Banjo. Hiragi approaches the fight on the bridge (his connection to his community and here in particular to Kaji) and Banjo throws them into the river (he wants to change Hiragi and remove him from his connections). Queue Boss Fight Phase Two: Second Health Bar edition, and Hiragi’s uno-reverse-card forcing Banjo to change. Cinema. I love Hiragi.]
also lowkey referencing this post a little but i genuinely do think kaji has had suicidal ideation since he was young. it might not be as blatantly stated as like umemiya's whole ass attempt but the flashback in ch. 124 makes it pretty clear how deep Kaji's self-hatred goes and how it's affecting him
when a grade school kid (honestly when most people any age) looks that hopeless and says 'i can't stand this anymore' - that is 100% code for 'i don't want to keep going'
the reason Kaji is so indebted to Hiragi is because it's not just about "taming the beast", it's about giving him a reason to keep living
side note that i think this is also why Hiragi is so viscerally pissed with Banjo because when he's saying 'how dare you make him turn back into that', none of his memories are of "the beast" - they're of distressed & despondent Kaji in the aftermath
he's mad because he's afraid that Kaji is going to relapse
Joining the animal crossing train so so late, but decided to join since a lot of my friends have been picking it back up again. The way I high key want to make my island inspired by Makochi / Furin High School. Like with a fake rooftop garden area and everything.
Do I know how I would do this? No. But I have my flimsy shovel, barren island, outstanding loan for Tom Nook, and Im determined to figure it out lmaoo
The first baby steps towards building a Makochi inspired island have been made~
(please forgive the nonsense scribbles on the Bofurin sign, there was just no way to get actual characters on there with the limited amount of pixel space)
I'm going to try to make the main market street next, stemming from the entrance. I've got a whole project document set up with my planning lmaoo. I'm going to have to scavenge through treasure islands for all the materials for the fake buildings.
