Top 5 Strategists in Wind Breaker
You wouldn't think strategy would matter in a beat-em-up show like this, but time and time again, it’s been the main focus. (Lion’s Fury and Noroshi War spoilers!)
In this list we are going to discuss all things strategy, looking at the intelligence, tactics and adaptability displayed by the smartest characters in the show. We’ll look at brilliantly laid plans and horrible blunders, starting with- what else- the big war itself!
Dishonorable Mentions:
Mizuki and Umemiya
Great leaders, bad generals.
Look, I won’t dwell on this too much but Bofurin’s leadership team dropped the ball. And if it wasn’t for Sakura’s reinforcements Bofurin would have lost and Makochi would have been destroyed all because of their pride and nostalgic tunnel vision.
They thought this would be a fight like the “good ol’days” and were fully convinced they could take Noroshi on their own. Didn’t even make a last resort back-up plan for the civilians sake. It can’t be understated how big of a screw up this was. Mizuki only thought one step ahead. As we go through this list, you’ll notice a trend of how it’s important to plan multiple steps ahead, and consider all the resources available to you. But no, the Heavenly Kings created this internal “text for back up” plan that immediately flopped when Endo brought an entire small nation of fighters.
They prepared no ally reinforcements. Didn’t even TELL Shishitoren what was happening! They prepared no barricades or choke points outside of the bridges. The advantage of being the defender is YOU get to modify the battlefield, they could have funneled the enemy far more effectively as shown...
Maybe they were worried about property damage? But at what cost? Speaking of which, there was always the option to disregard Endo’s rule and let Umemiya fight. But again, barricades were never in the cards. They didn’t even consider calling in allies. Their pride got in the way of good strategic thinking, and these ideas would have been shot down. The result was a brutal strategic failure...
So much so that I'm wondering if this will be a future plotline for Mizuki. If Kaji is feeling insecure about Sakura beating Endo, just imagine how Mizuki feels. His plan almost led them to ruin and he couldn’t even bring down one Noroshi member. This has to have a horrible effect on him, being outshined by Bofurin’s rising star…
Sakura is not your typical genius, and to some it might be strange that I even put him on this list. Sakura doesn't have book smarts, and even by his own admission is not the best at strategy, leaving the tactical game plan of the bridge defense to Suo. (More on that later.)
One of the main focuses postwar storyline has been Sakura comparing himself to Umemiya. Who admittedly is a great political campaigner, who devised the take over of Furin High.
But Sakura doesn’t have to be Umemiya.
He’s not a statesman. He’s a general.
Sakura has the genius intuition of a general. We even see it in their blood types. Umemiya is a universal giver (O), while Sakura is a universal receiver (AB). Sakura has this incredible ability to take people’s pain and struggles into himself. But also, their information! Their value!
To Sakura everyone is turned into a useful tool that can help him. Even if he’s not a great tactician like Suo, he still had the self awareness to delegate that task. (And yes, it’s hard to not draw the Bluelock comparisons in Chapter 109.) The fact is, Sakura’s strategy is a core piece of his storyline, where he constantly thinks of things as a big game board. But unlike some people, he still remembers the board pieces are human beings…
Dishonorable Mentions:
The Takoya Brothers
The not-so-brilliant octopi
From Lion’s Fury, Takoya Toru is supposed to be a genius octopus-like mastermind, who sees all of his lackeys as “disposable pieces”, but if he is a genius we never see it. See Nii-sensei has this funny habit of making characters not live up to what they’re built up to be…
Shishitoren got wiped.
Noroshi had some pushovers.
And Takoya Toru is an idiot.
He’s basically just a big beautiful idiot, whose dumb raw strength keeps his gang in line while his brother does all the work. His meathead brother Takoya Takeru is the one that came up with the kidnapping plot, and it was… actually pretty good??? Kidnapping Wanijima’s sister and forcing an unprepared Shishitoren into a sudden conflict was a surprisingly brilliant move on his part that would have worked if Choji and Togame had actually quit the team.
Takoya Toru is supposed to be on this list, but so far we’ve been given no reason to put him on it. And besides, he was easily fooled…
It goes without saying that Sako is the smartest guy in Shishitoren. Only about 20% of them go to high school, and Sako is probably at the top of his class. His fighting style is deliberate and careful, and Sako has shown an ability to create long-term plans that most characters don’t. Choji and Togame were ready to run into action to save Wani, but Sako stopped them and had them prepare a plan to save the hostage first. He knew the Kraken brothers would be focused on Choji and Togame, and used that to his advantage while he and Inugami snuck around to save Wani’ sister.
(Translation by @winter-glaze)
While he’s canonically one of the smartest characters, Sako hasn’t yet demonstrated a capacity to think in terms of “grand-strategy” like the top three on the list. Speak of the devil…
The heart and brain of Sakura’s crew
Where to start with lovable, INTP-energy whiz kid Suo? Like Sako, we see Suo's ability to create long-term schemes. A great example of this was in the Music Festival storyline of Winhero where Suo created an entire fake music festival just to lure out a malicious group that planned to attack the real one.
(Translation by @winter-glaze)
That’s next level plotting right there, and just one example of how Suo has the same long-term planning skills as Sako, but I’m putting Suo higher because of the battle strategy he displayed creating the phalanx on the bridge. See, it turns out somebody in Bofurin knows something about bottlenecks and formation after all.
You can see how ashamed how the KEEL thing went. Thankfully I learned from that experience. Instead the savvy defenders build a wall that forces the enemy to wait in line. Suo even had the idea to send out two vanguards to weaken the enemy.
If Bofurin had planned more effectively like Suo, they could have won without reinforcements. Honestly, I think Suo should have done strategy for the whole war. Suo's the ultimate case of:
"Thank god he's on our side"
His fighting style also reflects intelligence, which seems to be based on empathy and anticipation. He literally predicts all of his opponent’s moves in real-time to dodge whatever is thrown at him. But I think that has more to do with his good-guy empathy powers than his intelligence. Overall, Suo is a VERY bright young boy, but I can’t put him in the same league as the freaks who can plan twenty steps ahead like the next two madmen we’re gonna discuss…
Literal genius. Terrible judge of character.
WHAT? ENDO AT NO.2?!?!?!?!?!
If we were grading based on pure intelligence alone, Endo would be #1. Endo is incredibly gifted and very dangerous, arguably more dangerous than Takiishi in terms of actual influence. This man is an actual genius- WORSE a genius who really wanted something and was willing to pull out all the stops to get it.
Let’s take a look at his ✨elaborate plan✨:
>Surveyed Bofurin's strength using the KEEL incident.
>Targeted Tsubaki’s friend to see how well the kings were holding up.
>Created a massive army accordingly based on his gathered data.
>Also anticipated Bofurin’s Roppo allies (the kings didn’t even invite anyone, LOL)
>Created a special rule that isolated Bofurin's leader.
>Sent weaker ancillary units to make a distraction on the mainroad.
>Sent stronger units and the No3 to break through the bridge bottlenecks.
>Concentrated all his strongest units in the hard-to-defend park.
>It’s also the closest side to the high school which was the real target for him and Takiishi, making it easy for them to slip through.
tldr, Bofurin was cooked.
But Endo is overconfident… The thing is that Endo has a blind spot in reading people. This is his biggest flaw, he’s too perfect to understand ordinary people.
He overestimated the strength of his Noroshi members like the fashion guy. Half of his Noroshi elites went down in the first fight and the other half went down summarily in the second round. Hiragi could have finished Hashirao. The other kings could have taken down the two doofus’s Choji slaughtered. All of this is to say… If Endo had brought even numbers, Noroshi would have lost before Shishitoren even arrived. Most of them went down without the help of Shishitoren. Speaking of which…
He completely overlooked Shishitoren, the team next-door.
It all paints a picture of someone who’s incredibly intelligent but has no true social awareness, creating very glib superficial impressions of how people are, resulting in failure. To be a true master strategist you need to understand PEOPLE and how they work. That’s been Sakura’s whole character arc, it's about him un-Endo-ifying himself.
In the end Endo was outplayed.
Despite his core character flaws, Endo’s still one of the only two characters to almost beat Sakura. Endo was gonna beat him when Togame and the gang showed up. But that doesn’t really count as Sakura being rescued because Sakura was the reason Togame and the gang were there in the first place.
Sakura was only truly rescued one time…
The only man to almost beat Sakura and Class 1-1
despite having a weaker team
Endo’s poor judge of character held him back, but even without that Natori still might have topped this list. Why? Here’s the thing… Hashirao once said, "Fighting is his life's work." Well…
Trapping/controlling people is Natori's life's work.
This is his life. THIS IS WHAT HE DOES. He manipulates. He ensnares. He finds your weakness. We also see in his fighting style that he uses everything in his surroundings to his advantage: chains, dust, distractions, which is equal parts dishonorable and super intelligent.
Let’s take an analysis of his brilliant ambush trap at the shipyard, which was planned out 10 steps ahead to beat Class 1-1:
>Natori anticipated a large force.
>He prepared a bigger army.
>Had them lie in wait out of sight in the back.
>Lured the enemy into an enclosed space.
>Surrounded the enemy. (Big deal, even Suo acknowledged it.)
>Held back his strongest men to watch, showing restraint.
>And then targeted the strongest foes.
>Telling his VIPs to watch and study them first before attacking. (Yes! They actually observe the enemy first before jumping into the battle. And are seen thinking about their approach!)
>All in a broader plan to use their worry against them. Because Natori knew Bofurin’s best guys would get worried for little guys.
And the end result was a DISASTROUS SHITSHOW
We see Natori lording over the chaos he’s created. Natori outwitted Bofurin in every way. If Kaji hadn’t shown up, Class 1-1 would have lost despite Class 1-1 being stronger! Natori was going to win despite having a weaker team. That’s the mark of a brilliant strategician. I also want to give some credit to the KEEL grunts who exhibit a stunning amount of teamwork and discipline throughout this whole process. They’re smart enough to hold the enemy down for each other and stay in hiding. It’s almost like they’re a bunch of thieves who are used to highly coordinated robberies and hit jobs. From the grunts, to the VIPs, to their cunning leader…
KEEL is - hands down - the smartest team. There’s a reason the chapter name refers to KEEL as “Assassins”
Unlike Endo, Natori is a wonderful judge of character and knows EXACTLY how to turn people's screws and manipulate them. He had Sakura seeing red and struggling. And he knew exactly what to say to make Kaji underperform. It all comes back to his desire for control. This is what Natori lives for. And you can’t really beat him either without losing in some way.
He wanted Kaji to lose control of himself.
He got Kaji to lose control.He wanted Suzuri to use his hands.
He got Suzuri to use his hands.
He’s like the Joker. Heads he wins. Tails you lose.
Unlike Endo, Natori is a wonderful judge of character and knows EXACTLY how to turn people's screws and manipulate them. He had Sakura seeing red and struggling. And he knew exactly what to say to make Kaji underperform.
His only strategic flaw is his impulsiveness. Natori gets tunnel vision whenever he sees what he wants is right in front of him. Like time Suzuri left his arm out as bait. That is to say, Natori wildly underestimated Bofurin’s response, figuring Nagato’s unassociation would save KEEL from retaliation. To use a battleship metaphor, the ‘KEEL Incident’ kind of reminds me of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, a brilliantly executed plan that guaranteed utter defeat in the long run. Even if KEEL had won, the third years would have decimated them.
That aside, KEEL was gonna win! Because the assassins used thier brains! And it makes me wonder how much of this has to do with their cyberpunk culture and unknown backstory…
Maybe Natori is an RTS computer gamer who thought ganglife was more exciting? Perhaps he got tired of Starcraft tournaments and picked up a bat. This would track with the way he talks to Suzuri about ganglife being like a game played for enjoyment.
In any case, both Natori and Endo have shown a scary methodical ability to plan ahead and think on their feet, but Natori knows people better and doesn’t have that same blind spot Endo has.
And for that reason, Natori is the most cunning strategist in Wind Breaker.
Sorry this turned into a keel post, i wish they'd bring keel back as a cunning reconnaissance gang. but honestly the last three are a toss-up where I could see each being useful in different situations. intelligence is a varied concept that's hard to quantify. i hope you enjoyed it and look forward to more rambles
