✦ — " Yeah, repeat that over and over again, baby; all the way down to hell. "

i can talk about wind breaker literally endlessly and i like how this site works. so i'm using this list in specific as a way to scribble down all my feelings about wind breaker, little tidbits about parts of the story i love n stuff ^^ ill try to add spoiler warnings for major / manga only stuff and also ship related stuff, so read easy! (or don't, back out because i am not normal about this franchise)... also the quote @ the top is a somewhat paraphrased part of zettai reido, wind breaker's opening song!

• speaking of zettai reido... i cannot express enough how much i absolutely love that song. it's a banger even outside of knowing what wind breaker is (at least i think so) and i think it's the perfect song to sum up sakura as a character. in a way, it reminds me of his personality in general; the song is very thrilling, upbeat; the lyrics sing a song of hope, a song full of passion and strength, while also a song expressing past regrets, a song wishing to burn everything down to an absolute zero. dropping to the very bottom in the same way as coming out on top. defying struggles and emerging victorious in the end. it's very hopeful, but also very bitter in its language- just like sakura i believe! natori did an absolutely amazing job delivering the song with his vocals as well, i think his style of singing very much suits the message as well... zettai reido just absolutely scratches my brain in general. down to hell!
• shishitoren arc // cloverworks really took wind breaker's anime adaptation as a chance to show off their fighting animation and i absolutely LOVE it. the anime brings life to fighting scenes shown in the manga in an amazing way, some of which i even believe portray the fights in a stronger and more exhilarating perspective than they were portrayed in the manga!! namely suo's first fight against shishitoren; the way they animated that fight, his first true display of skill, the fight made to show off his style, was absolutely BREATHTAKING. it really highlighted the elegance of it all, and it took the message of "it looked like his opponents were just falling by themselves" and absolutely served justice to it!! i genuinely can't describe the scene in words, but i do think it had more of an effect on me watching rather than reading, since the fluidity of it all really highlighted suo's style. i just love the fight scenes in wind breaker, both in the anime and the manga, they're all crazy fluid and i love it so bad
• hiisako + shishitoren arc // hiisako fight. save message. okay but seriously this is one of my favorite fights of all time even if it's such an early one; it was portrayed so crazily in both the anime and the manga?? they nerfed how close their faces were in the anime (if you cropped the manga panel enough it looked like they were making out crazy tbh) but completely made up for it by adding that little extended backstory sequence. sako is never beating the gay allegations. no but seriously everything about this fight was a sucker punch to the stomach,, the miscommunication,, hiiragi being gentle with him after beating him because he didn't want sako to just get dumped off the stage like kanuma and arima,, the hand on the back of his head like okay. also his GRIP on togame's arm when he tried to pull sako's shishitoren uniform off like calm down nobody is taking him from you (they kind of are). i also can't tell if the anime changing it so that sako is gripping hiiragi's shirt instead of his leg is gayer or not
• sakunirei + shishitoren arc + keel arc // i am always genuinely baffled about how sakunirei is only starting to kickstart in popularity like THEY ARE SOOO CUTE??? the anime pushes them so hard as well. whoever is a sknr fan in cloverworks studio i love u so bad!!!! their second scene together where sakura saves nirei... the way sakura's eyes light up when nirei says that despite his lack of fighting ability, he'll help sakura however he can; and how he stays true to this by filling sakura in on everybody he has information on, generally just helping sakura around the town furin protects, and this definitely comes into use when sakura gets voted grade captain at the start of keel arc! also during shishitoren arc... nirei offers sakura a massage to get ready for the fight and sakura (as he always does) gets all flustered... and the added scene in the anime that extended the part where nirei caught sakura off the stage after his fight with togame... they are so cute together i need more people to like them
• sakunirei + nirei character song // learning japanese was a mistake because i feel like i would not have gone through so much mental turmoil if i just. didn't understand the lyrics but i did so i am here today..!!! i think suo's song is also directed towards sakura, i like suosaku as well but the way nirei's was directed was so damn. ouuuu... singing about bringing sakura to the top of furin even if it's far away, that he won't be alone even if he gets lost along the path because furin's with him... nirei you cannot be saying these things when you were sakura's second friend god i hate them!!
• sugishita backstory // as you can tell by the spoiler warning sugichan's backstory dropped (at the time of writing this) yesterday... i actually didn't expect it to be like that, besides the part where he becomes umemiya #1 fan that's predictable. anyways people have already said this before but he's literally a direct opposite of sakura; refusing others' love because he was already content with the love he had from his grandparents, while sakura refuses others' love because he was never loved in the first place. foils