Wind Breaker’s second season, at first glance, seems like it’s characterization is weaker than the series first season, with protagonist Haruka Sakura taking a backseat to some of the supporting cast. Instead I’d say the characterization of Sakura moves in a different direction, though we do get more development for one of the members of Bofurin’s Four Kings.

Wind Breaker Season 2 kicks off right where the last season left off – with the friend of one of the students in Sakura’s class being trapped in a more criminal gang, one focusing on theft. Sakura and his class basically ride out to square off with these jackasses, kick ass, take names, and get their classmate’s friend back.

Except there’s one minor issue – because of his naturally two-tone hair and heterochromia, Sakura has been a loaner all his life up to his point, and his arc last season was being comfortable with the concept of having friends, so now he’s in a position where he has to learn, in short order, not just how to lead people – but to lead them into battle.

This leads to the following arc, after Sakura kinda has to get bailed out by his Senpai, where he basically ends up shadowing one of the other members of Four Kings – Tasuku Tsubakino. This is one of those moments where an anime comes out that’s the right show for the time, even if the source material wasn’t written for our times, because Tsubakino is gender fluid. They are a student at an all-boys school that is all about juvenile delinquents who are good at fighting, and they were assigned male at birth, but they are female presenting.

We even get a couple of episodes getting into their backstory, them feeling that there is a part of themselves that is feminine, and interested in presenting as feminine, through clothing and makeup. While they also clearly are skilled as a fighter, and presumably chose to go to the all-guys delinquent school, as opposed to whatever the Japanese equivalent of St. Trinian’s would be – and found additional interests and ways of expressing themselves that combine the two – as we see later on the season (and in the OP) that Tsubakino is an skilled pole dancer.

The back half of the season basically has Sakura take a backseat to Tsubakino as we see their interactions with the crew that protects the town’s nightlife district, and as Tsubakino resolving a conflict with both blows and words, getting into the idea presented earlier by Bofurin’s Top, Hajime Umemiya, that a fight is also a conversation.

And all of the storyline around Tsubakino comes to a head in Pride Month. I don’t know if that was on purpose, but it’d be nice if it was. Also, I appreciate that Sakura’s usual put-off bluster feels less like he’s saying “No Homo”, and more comparable to his reaction when he met Kotoha Tachibana at the restaurant in the first season. It’s a case where Sakura doesn’t know how to to react to someone he funds possibly attractive because of his background of being ostracized, leading to him acting like a total tsundere.

Now, I’m using the gender neutral “They” pronoun for Tsubakino, but I don’t know enough Japanese to say which pronouns they use, and the subtitles fall back on referring to them with their nickname rather than any pronouns.

In all, this was a great second season, and I’m interested in hearing more from the LGBT anime community about what they think about Tsubakino and Wind Breaker.

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