shoo!!! @sukishoos - Tumblr Blog

sakura/suo parallelism in that sakura was made to feel like he was trash due to external factors (relentless bullying for his appearance) while suo was made to feel like he was trash due to internal factors (coercion into doing something bad and therefore thinking himself trash for doing it)

unborn-nemesis

Kanuma over hearing Jo and Choji talking about Suo leaving furin

Choji "yeah so apparently he put in his resignation paperwork for the highschool and just disappeared"

Kanuma is flooded with an intense feeling of relief and lets out a breath that's been stuck behind his ribs for months now. Suo is gone, he can finally breathe again.

Jo "so no one know where he is? Not even Sakura?"

Choji "nope! He could be anywhere! Hey do you think he'd come here? Think I could get him to fight me???"

Kanuma freezes blood going cold. This is actually worse, at least before he knew Suo was in Bofurins terf but now he could litterally be around any corner.

Kanuma stops sleeping.

suosteacup

@sukishoos

grey-spark

Wind Breaker's Main Villain

7 REASONS why FEAR is the main villain of Wind Breaker and how Natori could become it's vessel.

(Manga Spoilers / Mentions of Abuse)

Look. I get it. KEEL is probably not becoming the main villain but I can see Natori being a big instigator moving forward. And in some ways, KEEL's return is almost inevitable for symbolic reasons. Natori has all the right symbolism to become Wind Breaker’s main antagonist.

I’m framing this almost like a sales pitch why Natori is “main villain” material, but in truth this post will serve as my complete analysis of Natori as well as the broader themes surrounding him. Understand I am approaching this with the utmost self-awareness, so take all of this with a grain of salt and just have fun. So let's jump right in~

REASON 1 - Natori represents FEAR, the main antagonistic theme

It’s understandable why most would think Natori won’t be a big deal. Natori doesn't even have a profile for the official website, and isn't even listed as a major character. 😂 Nii-sensei probably just considers him an unofficial member of Noroshi about as unimportant as Hashirao in the grand scheme of things. But what I want to impress upon you is that what KEEL represents DOES matter.

Natori represents the illusionary power of fear.

During Natori’s speech in Chapter 47, we see “fear” is directly compared to Natori’s bat, center framed. A literal cudgel. But just like how Sakura hesitated to jump off the rope only to find it was a short drop, we find Natori turned out to be a push over that couldn’t even last ten punches. Only appearing to be big and scary, but it was all a lie. In this sense, Natori and KEEL sort of has to be weak for the story to work. But why doesn’t this same rule apply to Endo and Noroshi? Why isn’t Noroshi weak like KEEL?

Well, that’s because while KEEL gets its power through fear, Noroshi gets its power through independence, ie “being alone”. This distinction between Natori and Endo is what makes Endo stronger, but ironically that’s why Endo was never cut out to be the main villain of the series. Just like Choji before him, he’s not truly evil, not deep down. And so now Wind Breaker’s story has entered an invisible bind, a chain if you will, where all evil characters need to be weak, like KEEL and Spaltips, while all strong characters have to be good or turn good.

🐉 KEEL as the opposite of “The Top” 🐉

I mean sure, you can give an evil guy a ton of muscles but without narrative substance it’s meaningless. We need a truly strong, truly evil character… For metanarrative reasons, it has to be KEEL.

As I pointed out in my Momijikawa post, KEEL is the anti-thesis to Bofurin, the very lowest point of the ship, the “lowest of the low” just like the thieves that stole Momi’s workshop.

If Umemiya is “The Top” KEEL is “The Lowest”

And it continuously gets referenced for this reason...

🐉 KEEL as the winter-colored team🐉

Let’s think about it for a moment. What can we expect from the final enemy of the series? As I’ve discussed before, winter is definitely going to be the final threat to challenge Bofurin. It’s the natural enemy of all plants, and it takes place at the end of the year. As I’ve discussed in early posts, the theme of spring overcoming winter is baked into the story's DNA. And we see it in the show’s color-theming. In my color theory post, I discussed how Green and Yellow are generally the “good” colors (representing growth and warmth), and white and blue are generally the “bad” colors (representing trauma and coldness). Fittingly, those are KEEL’s colors, even the KEEL arc is formatted blue in the TV show, so now it's kinda theirs.

🐉 KEEL as the dragon team 🐉

So It’s no coincidence that Sakura’s main rival Sugishita has a blue color theme. And not only that, he also has a dragon motif. Reflecting a long running trope in Chinese Buddhism called “The Dragon vs The Tiger” which to grossly simplify represents directness vs devising. See, dragons represent something very different in East Asia. Chinese Dragons are wingless and serpentlike representing wisdom and power. While the Western dragons (like the one we see in the KEEL logo) have wings and represent evil and greed.

There is ZERO chance this was unintentional. KEEL was given the dragon logo to represent the opposing force against Sakura. And in Western canon, an evil dragon is often portrayed with a great hero who tries to slay it, and is generally perceived as the most fearsome creature in western literature. It is a creature of fear incarnate.

🐉 KEEL as the main antagonistic theme 🐉

FEAR.

From the very first scene and at every turn moving forward, FEAR has been the main negative driving force of Wind Breaker for so many things that happen in the story. Fear is what drove Togame to commit his sins. It’s what drove Narita to run towards her captors and scared Tsubaki away from wearing makeup as a kid. There are other themes, but fear and loneliness seem to be central. And even now, in the New Semester, it’s still not going away, there’s the fear of treading a new path like Akari or fear of reaching out for help like Suo.

Fear is here to stay as the main villain of Wind Beaker. It’s not going anywhere.

So that means the endgame enemy team needs to be: >a winter-colored, ideally blue >with an animal that contrasts Sakura’s tiger >that’s based around fear, the main antagonistic force of the story…

Nii-sensei gave the most important color, theme, and animal to KEEL.

Nii-sensei has almost written himself into a corner in this regard…

That’s not to say the final enemy can’t be something else! It may be more possible that KEEL revives some other dragon team to serve as the final antagonists instead, like hooded cultists reviving the bones of a dragon. KEEL is almost perfectly designed to be a recon unit for a much bigger and dangerous team, they have "bank heist skills".

But even if KEEL doesn't become (or bring about) the final villains, it's hard to imagine KEEL not coming back, given their sheer symbolic importance already imbued onto them. When the author makes a team that represents fear and evil itself, how does one not bring them back?

REASON 2 - He’s evil enough

Let us appreciate how much of a wonderful bastard Natori is.

There’s something refreshingly cathartic about having a simplistic villain. One that gets beaten up and sent flying into outer space like Team Rocket. KEEL is the designated irredeemable team, where even the character’s in-universe notice they’re the worst. And it was only really done once. In the same way the Kremlings were phased out of Donkey Kong for over a decade, it feels like KEEL and the evil teams have been kinda phased out in favor of generic goons.

Ever since KEEL we’ve seen a change in how teams are presented, at least in the manga, where if there ever is an evil team, it's just random goons. Even the Noroshi guys didn’t have team uniforms, they too were just ultra powerful goons. My god so many goons. I am so tired of nameless goons. The closest thing to a real evil team again was Kraken, that was a year ago, and they kinda felt like a knock-off of KEEL.

It’s almost like KEEL has property rights to EVIL™ It’s like Nii-sensei has been giving us Diet Coke, Diet Rite, Dr. Thunder, RC Cola-

GIVE US NAME-BRAND KEEL ALREADY!

I want our unapologetic villains again! Preferably with development this time. If they’re gonna be frugal about adding evil teams, they might as well go all in on the original and just make the evilest guy the main villain. And funnily enough, he might even do it on purpose…

REASON 3 - Natori’s the genre-breaker

Natori is the 4th wall breaker, who reminds me of a famous character from Persona 4 and I won't spoil anything about the game but Adachi's basically a cynical NPC that's not following the script of what his character should do. Both figuratively and metatextually.

And in this sense, Natori and Adachi have a lot in common. Both appear to be dopey idiots on the surface, while actually being cynical underneath. They have this shared genre-breaking irreverence to the optimistic themes of their series. Adachi says you’re going to die working a boring 9 to 5 job. You’re not going to be the one to get the big promotion because talent and nepotism matter more than hard work. He just takes a giant piss on all the feel-good “Believe In Yourself!” nonsense of early 2000’s anime.

Natori has that same designated gadfly energy who viciously pokes at the inauthenticity of Bofurin. Like he knows something we don't.

I’ll expand more on this in Reason 6, but for now, let’s just say that Bofurin doesn’t exist in most of real-life Japan. The real world is far more cut-throat and FEAR is the only thing that gave Sakura any respite until he reached Furin. The bullies didn’t back off until they feared him. Self-defense alone didn’t get Sakura peace. Going KEEL did. He put FEAR in them. So to most of the world, Bofurin and KEEL are the same. Bofurin is still a violent gang with scary haircuts.

Bofurin wouldn’t exist without gangs like KEEL

Bofurin and Noroshi (KEEL) have a symbiotic relationship. Japan has a very conservative culture. And it's been explained how the only reason Makochi’s citizens are so accepting of Sakura (and the Furin delinquents) is because they trust them after years of being protected by them from Spaltips, Vermilleo, and all the other little gangs that plague the town like KEEL. But what if Makochi has no gang problems at all? Would the people of Makochi be so accepting of a kid with scary colored hair? The answer is a clear and definite no.

Sakura has already been to five well-to-do towns and looked at how they treated him. Trusted organizations like Roppo Ichiza and Bofurin only flourish when gangs like KEEL rough up the town. KEEL and Noroshi’s violent rebellion against society leads the way for Bofurin’s reform. Creating a strange ying-yang symbolism; hence tiger and dragon. Obviously I don't think Natori is a revolutionary, but…

Right now, the only character in the whole story that has any grasp on this meta-understanding is Natori.

He’s a giant dose of uncomfortable realism just like Natori, who also walks on the fourth wall in this way, and you get the sense that he alone has a deeper understanding of what’s really going on. Like he's playing chess and everyone else is playing checkers…

REASON 4 - He’s smart enough

I already made a whole post about how Natori is the most cunning Strategist in Wind Breaker. I may have to recover a little old ground but to sum it up again. Natori is an exceptionally cunning strategist whose entire identity revolves around controlling and trapping others. The stickers on his bat suggest that his knack for strategy might even come from his personal history with baseball. And boy did he sweep Class 1-1.

Putting Sakura’s naivety aside, what’s stunning was Natori’s forethought and restraint. He carefully prepared and hid a large army. Held back his strongest men and did some reconnaissance first. Singling out the strongest members. Through sheer tactics, Natori was on the verge of winning despite having the weaker army. The way he planned that shipyard ambush was flawlessly thought out, and unlike Endo, KEEL’s leader actually has a great understanding of people. So far Endo has filled the mastermind role, but now that he’s a good(ish) guy, I could easily see Natori slipping into that role. Even if he clearly doesn’t have the strength on his own.

The Joker can’t beat Batman in a fistfight, and Kisaki can’t beat Mikey either. Natori doesn’t need to be strong to make problems.

When I used the term “main villain” at the start, I never used the term “final boss”. Like the Joker, Natori is a shit-starting mastermind, he can do serious damage even as he is now just with his cunning.

I’m not convinced Natori is formidable enough to be the final big bad, but I could see him filling this “Bowser Jr” type role to the big bad. Or becoming some shit-starting instigator like Kisaki who sets things in motion.

But if that’s the case, how could Natori and KEEL possibly evolve from here? How could Natori possibly become a big enough threat for him to continue being an ongoing player?

REASON 5 - Natori is the “weapons guy”

There’s a very easy way Nii-sensei could make Natori threatening again, and it's staring us all in the face. Natori is the weapons user. So far, Natori is the only fighter in the series who’s skilled with a weapon, the one-handed weapons specifically. Just look at him go!

Can you imagine how dangerous Natori would be with an actual weapon? Or blade? Or just any stronger weapon besides a baseball bat?! I know Natori would never use a sword, the WBK manga would never go there, but holy hell! So far, none of the KEEL guys use blades because I suspect the manga has some kind of ‘No Kill” rule, but still. Imagine if Natori had to defend his life, or fight for a cause he actually believed in. You really think he’d bring a baseball bat?

As we discussed at the start, the reason Natori loves weapons is because weapons give you power over people. They give you control. So why would we just assume that this bored sociopath would just teach himself to use a bat and call it a day? So I could see a scenario where Natori has taught himself to use a multitude of weapons. Here are just a few non-lethal weapons Natori might be trained to use:

Polesarms. Chains. Mace. Bokken. Hammers. Nunchucks. Knives!

This makes another interesting contrast with our hero. Sakura uses his friends as weapons. Natori uses actual weapons… If Natori was a mulit-weapon specialist trained in everything, then that’d make him a one-man army, a one-man-band. The ultimate lone fighter to contrast Sakura’s character arc. So Natori evolving as a weapons user would actually have symbolic weight, and frankly it just seems like his natural progression. It's a crazy headcanon, but honestly any weapon upgrade could do. After losing two times, of course he's gonna try something new. We already saw in the second fight, Natori was angry enough to take off his jacket, symbolically rolling up his sleeves. He took the Suzuri fight a little seriously for a change, but with each return, Natori is only going to focus his power more. Bofurin is forcing him to evolve, and the obvious solution is to reach for another weapon.

Natori has an overpowered ability hiding in plain sight

. In this way, he’s kinda like The Spot from Across The Spider-Verse. One has portals. One has weapons. Both are underestimated. Natori could evolve into the final boss like The Spot, where he starts out as a joke but slowly becomes more dangerous. It would certainly be a narrative twist for Sakura’s first enemy to be his final enemy, especially considering he was the ‘asshole that got away’.

REASON 6 - He still owes Sakura a punch

Bofurin has unfinished business with KEEL. If it wasn't clear already from the previous sections, Sakura and Natori are basically fated to be archenemies. They are complete opposites. Symbolism aside, Sakura and Natori have been built up for an overdue fight!

1) Natori is Sakura’s first shown enemy. 2) Sakura never got to fight him, so there’s some build-up there. 3) He still owns Sakura one punch.

He asked Kaji for ten, and only got nine. Truth be told, I think Sakura might’ve won that fight. But again, that was then. Natori might have developed since then. It intrigues me how it was teased but didn’t happen. At the moment, it was more important for him to learn to step back and be a leader. Nevertheless, KEEL has basically become Sakura’s white whale, and one of his big regrets. The incident was pivotal to his transformation that was seen in Chapter 60. And there are still many mysteries about KEEL even after the dust cleared. Like the full meaning of their symbol. What are they collecting the money for? How were they created? But that’s small details, the big picture is that KEEL and Bofurin are on a symbolic collision course.

I know what you’re thinking: “GREY! WHAT ABOUT SAKURA VS ENDO?! HE ALREADY BEAT NATORI’S BOSS! SO WHY BOTHER FIGHTING NATORI NOW?” Here’s the problem with that, Endo and Natori represent different things.

Noroshi is a pack of lone wolves. KEEL is a cult.

If Sakura is “The Individual" who won’t compromise himself, then Natori represents “The Many”

More than anything else, Sakura hates when a group of people surround a single person, and Natori’s whole model is surrounding people with numbers. Natori represents everything Sakura hates about the world. And while Endo used numbers too, it's hardly his modus operandi. Noroshi is defined by its independence. Endo encourages Sakura to “work alone”. As we covered in a previous section, Natori is speaking representative of the asshole masses that terrorize Makochi, and terrorize Sakura his whole life.

It feels like Natori Shingo was designed in a lab to be Sakura’s archnemesis

He's an evil genius with a dragon theme. Made first contact. Embodies Sakura’s Chapter 60 fears. Represents the abusive masses. And has an unsettled score with the hero. He runs the team that truly is Bofurin’s opposite. The lowest of the low. The evil team that cannot be reformed or appeased. Natori wants to destroy everything. All of Furin. Maybe all of TOKYO if given the chance!

KEEL is essentially the final loose end. As far as the moral fabric of the story is concerned, KEEL is the final obstacle to peace in this universe. There’s an endless horde of goons that keep coming for Makochi and Natori is the face of the horde. But to solve that obstacle, we first have to figure out why Natori is the way he is.

REASON 7 - His backstory might mirror Sakura’s trauma

I've always thought Natori is who Sakura would’ve become if he had chosen hatred. Natori has all the telltale signs of abuse.

There are three traits a kid develops after experiencing early childhood physical abuse:

1) a complete normalization of violence, even towards themselves. ie "If it was done to me, then it must be fine, they'll be okay" 2) a deep-seated desire for control over others. ie "I'm the one that's feared now. I'm the one in control now. Me!" 3) a pathological distrust of society and institutions. ie "adults will pretend to be nice, but then just hurt you in the end."

Natori doesn't just have all these traits, they're thoroughly his defining features. If this is true and Shingo was beaten, then Natori might be just like Sakura. But unlike Sakura, Natori did not forgive the society. Natori met hatred with more hatred. It's also explain his desperate need for control, as compensation for what he lacked.

Consider this: why did Endo and Chika come around so easily in the end, but not Natori? Why did they agree to a truce? Well,essentially their issues are innate to them. Endo and Chika were built differently. One is a genius living on an island, the other is implied to be neurotypical in some way with trouble understanding human empathy. Endo and Chika were doomed to never fit in. So when Umemiya and Sakura finally got through to them, they finally got the social acceptance they secretly always wanted and agreed to terms.

Natori is an entirely different creature

I have reason to believe Natori is a product of his environment, not nature. And he does NOT want social acceptance. He wants all human society to eat shit. He has this fury and hatred about him that Endo doesn’t seem to have. When Endo puts his guard down, he becomes an oaf. When Natori puts his guard down, he becomes joyless.

Like Choji before him, Natori is a deeply depressed and insecure individual. But unlike Choji his issue does not seem to be aspirational, he doesn’t seem to have any real “goal” besides inflicting madness/suffering on the weak and powerless. So why is he this way? It's hard to say because at the moment, we have no backstory on Natori. We know everything about his ideology and nothing about his person. And anytime somebody asks him a hard question, he doesn’t answer. He deflects.

Kaji asks him, “Are you the real leader of KEEL?” — No response. Suzuri asks, “Why don’t you stop all this?” — No response.

Instead he gets unbelievably, veins-bulgingly angry. He’s offended. I think part of this is foreshadowing Umemiya's revelation about Takiishi. Where Ume realized he had dismissed his foe without bothering to find out why Chika wanted to fight in the first place. Thus leading to the very war he wanted to avoid. But with Natori I think it's more than that. We already know from the Kaji fight that he wants everyone to "reject humanity, return to monke" But why is he's so emotionally invested?

We know Natori hates liars

It’s no coincidence that Natori fights the same man that fought Tsubaki, the “lipstick boy” who also had an arc about being a “liar”. In this shared vision, Natori and Tsubaki are united. Natori hates society much like Tsubaki hated his old self. The only difference is Natori thinks all human kindness is a ruse. He has a fundamental distrust for all societal institutions, and believes only in the law of the jungle. He has this hate fixation on hypocrites that he mentions at every opportunity. Mockingly calling people a ‘pretend saint’. And there’s only one other character who has these kinds of trust issues.

Turns out Kotoha hates pretend saints too…

One of my followers even pointed out an interesting Sakura/Kotoha KEEL connection. The fact that there's a Sakura class of battleships and it includes Sakura and Kotoha exclusively is too much of a coincidence, that might be intentional. And it makes me wonder how long Nii-sensei intended KEEL to be a bad guy in the story. More to the point, the two characters we know have been abused and abandoned at a very young age have trust issues and hate liars just like Natori. If Natori was beaten from an early age and it messed him up, that'd explain his trust issues just like Sakura, Kotoha and Natsuki. So much so that he can’t believe anyone can be a good person at all.

And frankly, I think he's just jealous of other people's happiness. And would rather beat everything else to the ground than face his issues. Being human is simply too painful for him.

If this is true. If Natori really was abused and all the madness he created is just an aimless nihilistic rampage, then I tremble to think what would happen if he took his rampage seriously. There might be a whole other side of Natori and KEEL coming with the winter air…

CONCLUSION - The King of the Cold

That was fun. Time to return to Earth. Natori isn’t going to be the main antagonist of Wind Breaker. I know. But how is he NOT?

So the evilest, smartest character who represents the main antagonistic theme, who’s the narrative counterbalance to everything good in the story is not gonna be the main villain and might not even come back… If not him, who is?

Natori is more likely our Mahito than Wind Breaker’s Sukuna. But I think this was still a good exercise in pondering who the real ”Ice Dragon” is gonna be waiting at the end of the series. Natori but stronger, I guess? Or things might go in a different direction, but that would be a mistake.

Makochi wont find peace until the “Natori problem” is dealt with.

In chapter 119, we learn about the “Way of the Fist”, the show’s philosophy laid out. We see how Suzuri did everything he could to not use his hands, he’d rather use them to cook food and shake hands, but when faced with an unrelenting evil is forced to use his fists.

But the “Way of the Fist” is limited.

Bofurin has to address the CAUSE of this pestilence beyond the symptoms instead of just fighting back an endless horde of goons forever. We’ve been stuck in symptom treating mode… diegetically at least. Metanarratively, Shishitoren, Gravel and Noroshi all give insight into the causes of delinquency. Freedom. Survival. Competitiveness. All defeated, all joined the nakama, save one. But reform is STILL just symptom treating. We need PREVENTION. What about Spaltips? That’s the most important question, actually. What is it gonna take to stop hooligans from spawning infinitely outside the town? And who will be the king of this endless stream of coldhearted assholes?

Representationally, it’s Natori. He truly is the king of the cold. But who actually ends up sitting on that ice throne by the end of the series is still a mystery…

spadesncrows

year of the horse………

grey-spark

Made a wallpaper of me and @sukishoos WBK OCs from ZINC and COBALT. This is where they first meet. Chiri Meki is the pilot guy and Yoji Ishimaki is the skater flying through the air.

sukishoos

sorry late response but AHHH AHAHHHH AEEEEHHKKK EEEEEEE

grey-spark

COBALT RETURNS: What we know about the Zinc and Cobalt gangs

And all the metal gangs that hate Shishitoren (Manga Spoilers)

Cobalt returned in the most recent episode of Lion’s Fury, so let’s talk about what might be Shishitoren’s main rivals. I've been waiting for a while to make this post because I was waiting to see if they’re actually coming back and here they are.

The mere mention of COBALT sends everyone into a worry and starts the dramatic music…

Translated by winterglaze

Until it’s revealed Choji completely forgot who they were….

In fact, you, the reader, might have already forgotten who these metal gangs are. As a refresher, COBALT is the gang that attacked Shishitoren when it was choosing its new leader in special chapter 172.5. This is now the 5th time the metal gangs have been teased, so I’ve compiled everything we know about them for you. This is the start of what could be a bigger series of posts where we’ll be exploring the possibilities regarding the rock/metal gangs that hate Shishitoren, which collectively seem to be their archenemy.

Who are the Metal Gangs?

All you need to know is that Metal gangs love attacking Shishitoren.

We see BOTH of them attack Shishitoren TWICE.

And in all cases they always start the fight too. In the first case Zinc attacked Kanuma, and in the second case Cobalt was “messing” with Shishitoren. You might be asking:

Who are these metal gangs? Where are they coming from? Why do they have beef with Shishitoren? What role will they play in the story?

The answer: We don’t know yet. They might just be assholes. Just like the Spaltips and all the other dumb throwaway gangs that Nii-sensei has been pumping out lately. In all likelihood, Nii-Sensei didn’t put much thought into Zinc’s name and just needed a name for a heavy metal punk gang for Choji to fight. He probably pulled the name Zinc out of a hat, because that’s the name of a metal and didn’t have anything special in mind for them. However, this doesn’t invalidate Zinc’s importance moving forward. Series evolve. Things change. The Kraken line suggests these guys might be central now. And also, it IS possible Nii-sensei had a plan for these guys from the start. It’s hard to say.

What do we know about ZINC?

Zinc is a rival gang of Shishitoren that appears in chapter 19. They attacked Kanuma while he was on his own, and seemingly hit him in the face. Choji gets revenge for him, wiping them out. This happens shortly after Choji and Togame join the team.

Zinc is the team that gave Choji a name for himself. But it’s also the team that indirectly led to his downfall… Much later, shortly after Choji becomes leader, Zinc attacks another member of Shishitoren. But this time, Choji does not come to his team member's aid.

This is all to say that Zinc is intimately tied up in Tomiyama’s character arc.

In this same episode we do get to see Zinc’s logo! Arima holds it up in the anime and I painstakingly restored it by removing the wrinkles and stretching it out. The Zinc logo seems to have this generic “Rock and Roll” or “Heavy Metal” flames.

This logo basically confirms that the “METAL” of these metal gangs are inspired by a devotion to “Rock/Metal Music”. And In the manga, they also dress up in black heavy metal attire, so that’s just more evidence. Their appearance however changes in the anime.

ZINC guy’s wear: >brown jersey-like jackets, >probably have the ZINC logo on the back. >various jeans & t-shirts.

They were clearly redesigned in the anime to look more like Shishitoren’s baseball jerseys. But their jackets look thicker/heavier and appear to have light brown trim. Their jackets vaguely look like flight jackets, and their hideout appears to be some kind of hangar. It could also be an ordinary warehouse, but unlike KEEL’s lair it’s strangely horizontal, so it screams aircraft hangar. But it could also be a biker gang’s automotive shop. It’s hard to tell, but it certainly looks rusty and industrial.

Zinc seems to come from an industrial part of town. We only get a glimpse of it but it has a redbrick and a brownish theme. We also get a view of an industrial area across from KEEL’s turf in the anime. This would presumably be neighboring Shishitoren’s territory.

Steelmill District? Ironworks District? Mining District? Is that the home of the metal gangs? Who the hell are these people? Though we don’t get a clear picture of ZInc’s exact nature, we do get a much better idea of their presumed allies Cobalt.

What do we know about COBALT?

Cobalt is a rival gang of Shishitoren that appears in special chapter 172.5. They attacked the lions the day right after Sako joined the gang. This takes place before Choji turned evil, further suggesting the metal gang's beef is long standing and flared up around the time Shishitoren was picking a new leader. There’s a strange level of coordination going on here. Whenever Shishitoren appears weak and leaderless the metal gangs swoop in like vultures.

Cobalt guys' wear: >a loose white tee over a long black sleeves >with baggy jeans >and a cap or beanie.

There is some variation in the ranks, but as shown above most stick to this outfit. Cobalt basically dresses like skater kids. Which is why I’m 1000% certain these guys are skaters. For one, they’re fought at an underpass, a common locations of skateparks.

What a lot of people don’t know is that the long sleeves and baggy jeans skater’s wear actually serve a purpose for skating, it's not just a fashion choice. The long sleeves protect the arms from scraps when a skater falls, and the thick baggy jeans protect the ankles from rouge boards that ram into their legs.

Unfortunately, we only see them in the manga, so we don't know their team colors yet. Note that in the manga, only white shirts have no shading. So they are probably wearing white shirts. I suspect they also wear some “cobalt” blue apparel as well given the name of their team, making them yet another winter-colored evil gang, like KEEL and Kraken. So this is what I suspect they look like in color:

Like their sibling Zinc, they don’t appear to be too powerful. Whatever relevance Cobalt will have will probably be in their leaders as part of some super team. In other words…

I don’t think ZINC is the main threat

Zinc's whole gang was taken out by two dudes. There’s no way they’re gonna be the big bad. The leader of Zinc might pose a challenge to someone like Kanuma, but I don’t think Zinc’s Leader is gonna be the next Takiishi, powerful enough to take on Shishitoren and its Bofurin allies. It all lends credence to the idea that there’s someone bigger pulling the strings… All these gangs seem to have a shared past, why else would they have similar names. Kinda like how Bofurin’s teams have Buddhist themed names…

Perhaps all the metal gangs used to be part of one big team that fell apart? Like, imagine an alternate universe where Bofurin was broken up, and there were all these “Buddhist gangs" around Furin High. But once reassembled…

A reunited metal gang might be Shishitoren’s version of Noroshi, a specter from their past…

The strange alliance Kraken spoke about, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves, there’s so much we don’t know about the metal gangs despite their reoccurrence in Shishitoren’s past. I suspect every metal gang leader will be like an “Evil Heavenly King”. Perhaps ten members? Just like Noroshi. Perhaps based on the metals on the 4th row of the periodic table. (4 = death, ie death metal).

We have to make a lot of guesses… So now that we’ve covered everything canon, I kinda want to delve into the realm of speculation and what some of these leaders might be like…

LEADER SPECULATION BONUS SECTION!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

This next section is very special. Planning this post months in advance, I decided to make a drawing of what these gang leaders might look like. I enlisted the help of Sukishoo to draw Cobalt’s leader as I drew Zincs. We basically created OCs, but they’re not just OCs, these guys are approximations of what we could expect from these leaders in canon. So it's kinda like a weird speculative oc showcase. Enjoy!

What to expect from ZINC’s Leader?

So the closest thing to a Zinc leader we’ve seen is this guy but for all we know this could just be a rando.

It doesn’t really tell us much… It is kinda funny how the anime ‘dorkified’ him. But all we know about him is that he’s an enemy of Shishitoren and he picked on Kanuma. I suspect the Zinc leader is going to be somebody Kanuma will have to fight. Nii-sensei has a way of tying in old characters and making a connection, like how he made Choji fight the two Noroshi goons that caused the old beef with Bofurin. The writer could have made Choji fight some random Noroshi goons, but instead he put a personal connection there.

Going by this logic, if Kanuma fights in a war with the metal gangs, who do you think he’s gonna end up fighting huh?

And if Kanuma fights the Zinc leader, it only makes sense that he would be nimble and hard to hit like Suo. A spiritual rematch if you will. I’ve even mused about the idea of Kanuma fighting Obiki, but that’s not gonna happen (because Noroshi is on track for redemption) so it’s probably gonna be the Zinc leader.

Putting this all together, the Zinc leader has to be:

- Dieselpunk - A childish foil for Kanuma. - Who’s nimble and hard to hit.

=== This is the concept of what the Zinc leader could be like. Not an exact prediction ===

I love the idea of Zinc being a historian which would tie into his aviation obsession, especially considering that zinc is used to galvanize steel and prevent rusting. Imagine a history nut that's obsessed with war. Kind of like how Choji used to be obsessed with fighting. I imagine him being a weaker version of Choji that Kanuma can fight and beat. One very childishly stuck in his ways and point of view. Once again, Kanuma would struggle to land a hit on him, just like he struggled with Suo. And the Zinc leader would dodge and spin away saying “YOU CAN’T CATCH ME!” like a child.

In the end, Kanuma would give this kid a very shocking lesson in empathy, and the Zinc leader would come crashing back down to earth. In this same vein, I could see the Cobalt leader having a fateful encounter of his own…

What to expect from COBALT’s Leader?

My first thought is Sako because he joined the team during Cobalt’s debut. Having Sako fight Cobalt again is sort of like him reckoning with his past, but Sako might be too strong to fight the leader of an ordinary gang, and would be better served fighting the Metal leader’s No.2 or someone stronger.

Rather, I think Arima would be a better match up.

Skaters are stereotypically cool! Radical!

And it invites comparison to Arima, who’s big thing is being the “most popular guy on the team” on social media. I suspect Arima’s communication quirk is supposed to be a reference to his horse motif. It’s no surprise the horse guy is the communication guy.

Being cool and popular is central to Arima’s identity. So why not have him fight someone with a more toxic view of popularity…

=== This is the concept of what the Cobalt leader could be like. Not an exact prediction ===

It’s about Healthy Popularity Vs Toxic Popularity

This skater dude would be an asshole with a superficial view of what’s cool. It's possible the guy Arima fights might have a degrading view of what’s “popular and cool”, scoffing at the idea of Arima hanging out with somebody as “lame” as Kanuma. Claiming that a loser like Kanuma is holding him back. (It’d also give a great opportunity for a childhood flashback). But Arima would shut him down. Arima is cool because he actually cares. His view of popularity is based on friendship, not clout, appearance or trends.

It's strange how the Cobalt leader didn’t appear in either the special chapter or the lion’s fury chapter. Which begs the question…

Will the METAL GANGS be a thing?

I genuinely don’t know. It’s a coin flip.

This recent Lion’s Fury chapter almost mocks the idea of COBALT being a threat. The COBALT grunts don’t even get models. But somebody was decidedly absent. The leaders.

It’s very possible the metal leaders are being saved and we haven’t seen the full power of what this “Metal Alliance” is capable of…

In all 5 interactions with Cobalt and Zinc, the leaders are never mentioned or seen. Now, you could counter by saying this is because they’re so irrelevant, (despite always being there for Shishitoren’s character development.) But even Spaltips and Vermilleo had nameless leaders present. The metal leaders could be on a whole other level. Imagine judging Noroshi, when you’ve only seen its throwaway goons. A Noroshi henchman can be dispatched by Nirei. Hell, even worthless Kraken's leader put Choji on the ropes…

Lion’s Fury still hasn’t caught up with the Noroshi War, and we still don’t know who put Wanijima in the hospital. Perhaps Shishitoren encounters a powerful metal gang in Lion’s Fury’s next big arc? Let’s call it "IRON". Shishitoren will have a tough run-in with IRON and its leader turns Wani into a mummy. Then maybe IRON’s defeat will finally bring the metal gang's true leader out of the shadows, sort of like how Endo finally revealed himself. Basically, this would be their “Gravel Incident”, and ironically it would happen around the same time as the Gravel arc. Like how Kraken happened around the same time as KEEL. But this could all be wishful thinking.

Maybe they are a nothingburger. But personally, they’re still on my radar. These Metal Gangs have been teased and looming in the background so much that any substitute now would be pig-iron.

Thanks for reading. Big thanks to @winter-glaze for doing god’s work by translating all the Lion’s Fury episodes. And thanks for Shoo for helping with the artwork. I knew going in I wanted to draw my concept art for the Zinc and Cobalt leaders, and thankfully Shoo volunteered and saved me the hassle of drawing Cobalt’s leader. I drew the Zinc one tho. That was all me.

sukishoos

makimeki mis bebes 🥹 (< isnt spanish)