Haruka Sakura claims he only wants to be on the top and has no interest in mingling with weaklings. Having spent most of his life being an outcast due to having a peculiar form of heterochromia that not only means he has differently colored eyes, but his hair is also split into black and white, as well as having a kinda girly name, leads him to embrace fighting and strength as the only things that matter to him. In the town of Makochi exists Furin High School, known outside only as a den of delinquents, which seems to be the perfect place for the young Blood Knight.

But then, once he gets into a fight with a local gang while protecting a café waitress, he is shocked to learn that Furin High School is actually seen as a force of order in Makochi, with the Bofurin being the main enforcers of that order. Even more shockingly for Haruka, not only are the locals not bothered by his appearance, but they flat out thank him and praise him for his efforts, even offering him first aid and showering him with gifts.

From that point onward, the flustered Haruka struggles to maintain his Jerkass Façade only to mellow out bit by bit, with his Blood Knight tendencies being channeled into a more productive direction. However, while Bofurin have Umemiya Hajime to keep them in line, the other gangs don't exactly share the same values.

WIND BREAKER is ongoing manga written and drawn by Satoru Nii, beginning its serialization on Kodansha's Magazine Pocket manga website in January 2021. It eventually got its a Animated Adaptation in April 2024, followed by the second season airing in April 2025, produced by CloverWorks.

Has nothing to do with the cycling manhwa of the same name.

WIND BREAKER provides examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The scene of Sakura walking on a tightrope, representing his mental stress, is originally in chapter 60 but is moved to the first episode of the anime, as well as additional dialogues to serve as his Establishing Character Moment.
  • Fight scenes in general tend to get this treatment as a natural consequence of being animated. The Main street brawl from chapter 1 for example only shows Sakura beating up about 4 guys in the manga, while the anime makes it a several minute long sequence of him taking out at least 15 thugs with a much wider variety of moves.
• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Five-Man Band comprised of the Heavenly Kings and their leader, Umemiya can also counted as one. They are the founders of Bofurin who assert authorities over other members, and are also the backbones as the strongest fighters.
• Adults Are Useless: A slightly more complicated example as the adults of Makochi rely on the Furin boys to protect the town from malicious gangs and essentially act as their police force since the real cops don't seem to respond to 911 calls. But the townsfolk are grateful for their work and express it through giving them free food among other things.
• Big Good: Umemiya Hajime is pretty much the main reason why Bofurin firmly stays a force of good, unlike the other gangs, with the majority of Bofurin students seeing him as a bonafide Bunny-Ears Lawyer.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: More than one trio in the series follows this trope:
  • Sakura (half-black, half-white), Nirei (blonde), Suo (redhead)
  • Enomoto (black hair), Kaji (blonde), Kusumi (reddish brown)
  • Sugishita (dark blue), Tsugeura (orange), Kiryu (light pink)
  • Nagato (dark grey), Tsuchiya (blonde), Anzai (reddish brown)
  • Kanji (black hair), Miyoshi (blonde), Ritsu (coral pink)
• Beach Episode: The first volume of drama CD and chapter 169 of the manga have Bofurin members going for a summer vacation.
• Breather Episode: After the very long Noroshi arc, the mini arcs that follow are mostly low stakes and give off more of a Slice of Life feel, with Sakura and his friends going to the beach, shopping, and attending a summer festival, among other things.
• Call to Agriculture: Umemiya partially converted the school roof into a vegetable garden.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Position of The Leader in each gangs are called by different terminologies, even though they roughly share the same roles:
  • In Bofurin, leaders refer to themselves as "representatives" (総代).
  • In Shishitouren, higher members are collectively called "the heads" (頭), while the top leader is referred to as "manager" (頭取). On the same vein, second-in-commands are called "vice manager" (副頭取).
  • The main leader or representative of Roppo-Ichizaka is refered to as "chairman" (座長).
  • In GRAVEL and Kraken, the top member is called "leader" in English.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Haruka Sakura in spite of his superficial deformity, and for many both in and out of universe because of it. Then there is Clumsy Cutie Akihito Nirei, the goofy yet dashing Umemiya Hajime, the elegant and level-headed Hayato Suo, basically 85% of the male cast. Even several one-shot characters are drawn as Bishōnen.
• Central Theme:
  • Fighting is a form of communication, and each fighting style is a language. Sometimes words aren't enough to convey your feelings, but treat the fights as a way to talk to your opponents and understand them, not to just overpower them and win.
  • Acceptance. It is not your fault when you just want to Be Yourself.
  • The Power of Friendship. Trust your friends, don't hesitate to ask them for help, they'll always be there for you.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each gang has a Color Motif featured in their uniform or turf: Green for Bofurin, orange for Shishitoren, blue for KEEL, red for Noroshi, white for GRAVEL and silver for Roppo-Ichiza.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Sakura being treated as an outcast due to his unique hair color and heterochromia falls in line with some old Japanese assumptions about people with these features to the point that at least one teacher has ordered him to dye his hair fully black in the past. However, the story treats this viewpoint as extremely wrong what with Sakura actually being a good person and the town of Makochi (save for antagonists), never making him feel bad about how he looks.
• Establishing Character Moment: The opening theme neatly conveys the main fighting styles and personalities of the main characters:
  • Haruka jumps into a group of opponents, then chains multiple agile strikes to quickly outmaneuver several foes at once. Mixing quick movements and gymnastics is pretty much his go-to strategy.
  • Hiragi makes a break mid-brawl to take his medication, hinting at a softer side of him beneath his Face of a Thug.
  • Suo uses smooth and quick kempo-like movements, all while keeping a friendly smile on his face as he pummels his opponents.
  • Sugishita mostly uses his large physique to overwhelm his opponents with brute force, without a hint of mercy or hesitation on his face.
  • Nirei, while staying out of the action, enthusiastically writes down notes from the whole mayhem.
• Extremely Short Timespan: A fight usually lasts multiple chapters, but in real time they happens over a short time. A notable example is Noroshi arc, when the fight starts exactly at midnight, takes place over the course of 60 chapters in real-time, but it only lasts for one night in-universe.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: When Endo first makes his proper introduction, he leaps from the roof of a two-story building... and ends up hurting his leg, thinking he could pull off a Three-Point Landing without hurting himself.
  Endo: Thaaaat... Huuuurt! [...] I didn't know it hurts this much to jump from the second floor! All those shows on TV make the landing look way cooler!
• Fitness Nut: Taiga Tsugeura spends most his screentime exercising, unless he is fighting.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In chapter 2, upon seeing Sakura's hair color, Nirei asks if the color if due to stress with concern. 90 chapters later, that it's exactly the reason why Umemiya's hair turned white when his backstory is revealed.
  • In Chapter 2, Nirei notes that he thought Suo would be the cold-hearted and aloof type, only to be proven wrong. In the climax of Keel, the readers are able to witness how ruthless Suo can be when he is truly angry.
  • In episode 12, Sakura is shown to be chasing relentlessly after a cat and only stops when it jumps into a river. Chapter 169 reveals the reason why: he doesn't know how to swim.
• Generic Graffiti: Zig-zagged. The entirety of Furin High School is filled with graffiti. On the other hand, this is only tolerated in the school - with the Makochi residents implicitly giving the students autonomy over the school decorum. At the same time, Bofurin members regularly paint over/remove graffiti drawn elsewhere, especially by non-Bofurin members, such as vandals who draw their graffiti on public/private property.
• Hidden Depths: Practically everyone in the cast has some hidden personality trait that directly contrast with their initial introduction:
  • Sakura plays up the persona of a Blood Knight, yet he is a benevolent Tsundere. His heterochromia and white-and-black hair further visualize the Duality Motif of his personality.
  • Suo is presented as a mysterious and elegant, yet somewhat unnerving individual, but quickly turns out to be to be a sarcastic Mellow Fellow.
  • Hiragi looks like an temperamental thug, but is actually one of the most responsible Bofurin members.
  • Sugishita is introduced as a volatile bruiser, but is actually driven by his admiration of Umemiya.
  • Umemiya is initially presented as an eccentric, yet Caring Gardener. However, when the situation calls for it, he immediately shows himself to be able to swiftly establish his authority over his followers, even slightly frightening the newcomer Blood Knight Haruka in the process by how abruptly this side of him reveals itself.
• Kids Are Cruel: Among the bullying tactics Sakura had to frequently endure as a kid, he mentions having water poured on his head, finding his shoes thrown in the trash, and finding harmful words written on his desk.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike the rest of the Bofurin, Nirei himself isn't much of a fighter - something that he acknowledges from the get-go. However, his ability to quickly memorize a lot of information and quickly write down the data about other fighters comes in handy. This is gradually subverted as the story progresses, when Nirei starts to take more proactive approaches.
• One Cast Member per Cover: The first nine volumes have a different character on each cover. Starting from Volume 10, multiple characters show up on the covers.
• One-Gender School: Fuurin is an all-boys school.
• One-Man Army: Haruka Sakura can fight and defeat several opponents at once. Most of Bofurin's named members count as well.
• Rule-Abiding Rebel: Bofurin will regularly get into fights and throw up graffiti all over their school, but many of them have received the reputation of hero by fighting to protect innocents in town and they don't tolerate actual vandals.
• Running Gag:
  • Haruka being unable to handle unexpected kindness, leading to him making very obvious Tsundere faces.
  • Nirei's clumsiness.
  • Umemiya's No Listening Skills frequently lead to some hilariously awkward moments. Also, Umemiya's love for gardening often causes any conversation he is engaging in to swerve in an unrelated tangent.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Bofurin's uniform is the school uniform itself. Students can modify theirs to suit their personal tastes.
• Show, Don't Tell: Satorou Nii is fond of using this technique when it comes to showing glimpses of Sakura's past.
• Soft Martial Arts Style: Hayato Suo uses a defensive mixed martial arts style (bearing some resemblance to Aikido, but mostly self-taught) that has him flowing around his opponent and countering their offense. In his fight with Minoru Kanuma, Suo's graceful defense incorporates numerous counters like flips, throws, or re-directing the attacks, making it look like Kanuma is flopping around like an amateur.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Endo is an imposing antagonist to be sure, but he can't do impossible things like jump from a second story floor unharmed or solo the strongest fighters of the series in a group.
• Theme Naming: Gang members' surnames all have a recurring theme, also double as Meaningful Name for some:
  • Bofurin: Floral Theme Naming
  • Shishitoren: Animal Theme Naming
  • KEEL: Japanese battle ships.
  • Noroshi: Named after flammable items, while their leaders are named after nouns and verbs related to fire.
  • Gravel: Rock Theme Naming
• Tiger Versus Dragon: Haruka is the Tiger to Sugishita's Dragon. Made very blatant by the Tiger Versus Dragon drawing on the chalkboard behind them.
• Tsundere: Haruka maintains a Jerkass Façade but is a legit Blood Knight. However, at the end of the day, he is a love-starved kid who is comically unable to process the sudden praise and kindness the Makochi residents shower him with, regularly blushing red like a tomato, all while futilely trying to deny it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Defied. At the end of each episode, a detail that got glossed over is usually acknowledged and at least given a Hand Wave.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Subverted. Most of the cast have naturally black or brown hair, those who have different colors (Kiryu's bubblegum pink, Tsubakino's red ombre or Hiiragi's blonde) are from dyes. The exceptions, who having natural hair colors not being dark, neutral tones are those who are confirmed to have international descent, due to heterochromia (Sakura) or under extreme stress (Umemiya).