The Wind Breaker season finale aired on Thursday giving fans exciting news afterward—Season 2 is on the way! After torturing us with a stellar cliffhanger during the finale, the hit delinquent anime is returning in 2025 for another season and hopefully, it will be as good as the first. The season ended on a high note this week, getting fans ready for what’s to come with plenty of theories in mind.
The Cherry on Top
Wind Breaker hasn’t missed a beat the entire season, giving fans great episode after great episode. There’s a reason why the anime placed in Anime Corner’s Weekly Top 10 poll throughout the entire Spring 2024 season, even placing first one week. But to end on such a cliffhanger this week having us fans groveling for more in front of our TV screens is something I more or less expected.
I had a feeling that the slow episodes the past couple of weeks were bridging the gap between two big arcs. Its slower pace took time to introduce some new and fun characters along with even more popular voice actors. While I am somewhat excited that we were introduced to the rest of The Four Kings of Bofurin, I was also a little disappointed with there being zero interaction with them as well.
When you want to end one episode, in this case, like last week, bringing forth some heavy-hitting characters that are at the top of Bofuin, you’d think we’d get a little more from them in the season finale. That being said, I am in no way upset with how the finale eventually played out.
Introducing Anzai, a new side character, and building an arc around a rather unique situation with a well-written backstory was one I semi-predicted last week after being introduced to him as he left the 1-1 classroom. I originally thought his situation may have been the reason everyone met on the rooftop in the first place—swing and a miss.
However, I was right in the sense that something happened to Anzai and that’s going to be the focus going forward. Sometimes when series have big arcs focused on side characters they can be either great or a total flop. Given the pace and writing for Wind Breaker, though, I think it’ll be the former in this scenario, especially after the entire 1-1 class stood behind Anzai.
The animation in this episode, especially during the staircase chase scene, completely blew me away. It was a little clunky as the scene really did all it could to mix 2D characters moving in a 3D space but it was undoubtedly my favorite part of the episode, character growth for Sakura aside.
Speaking of Sakura’s character development, which is a common theme in my reviews, another episode goes by where we see even more growth from him. The layers continued to be peeled back one by one and the fact they come to Sakura in many different ways keeps his part of the story rather refreshing—nothing ever grows stale.
Most importantly, the season finale left plenty of theories out in the open to be explored ahead of the Season 2 release in 2025, making it a real cherry on top of what I consider the anime of the season.
Predictions For The Next Arc
There are so many ways the story can go at this point. Wind Breaker has constantly proven many things wrong that I originally expected so I’m taking my own theories for Season 2 onward with a grain of salt. That being said, I think one theory for Season 2 is that Class 1-1 is going to get into some real trouble (physically) and the other classes are going to have to step in, particularly Kaji and his group.
The only reason I think this is going to happen is that at the very end of the episode, we can see Sakura lead his class, along with Anzai, going to get Nakamaru back from KEEL and save him. This will ultimately be the first time Sakura handles a big situation as a Grade Captain since joining Bofurin and the series is just itching for something to go sideways against Bofurin.
Another prediction I have is that the Four Kings are going to be heavily involved in this arc. As it was said in the episode, KEEL is a different beast from Shishitoren and how they operate. They’re brutal to the core and are polar opposites to Bofurin in every aspect. I wouldn’t expect more major players to be introduced at the end of the season if they wouldn’t have some sort of role in the next one.
Another prediction I have is that Sakura is going to bite off more than he can chew. I originally thought his fight against Togame Jo would be that one moment where he realizes he’s not anywhere close to being the toughest fighter—wrong. So I think this is a perfect opportunity for KEEL to really take Sakura down a peg.
I also think that there’s going to be some sort of breakthrough for Sakura as well that defines him better as a leader. Seeing someone like Nirei getting badly injured in a fight might push Sakura to the brink in a good or bad way. Or, even, succumbing to a major defeat while someone like Kaji steps in to overshadow him, leaving Sakura to battle his own ego of realizing he’s not the strongest while also juggling how to be someone people will follow.
One last prediction I have is that KEEL is going to be way more of a threat to Bofurin than Shishitoren ever was and that might be why we were introduced to the other Four Kings. Just from this episode alone, they seem a lot more crafty and brutal in how they handle certain situations.
I imagine that Nakamura may have been seen as a spy to KEEL after they may have found out his best friend was in Bofurin. That being said, Nakamura’s situation has a lot still in the air. However, I can definitely see KEEL being a gang that brings attention to all Four Kings, even Umemiya.
Wind Breaker Season Finale Wrap-Up
I could go into more detailed theories that are really fine-tuned, but I’ll save those for another day. The Wind Breaker season finale was a perfect way to cap the season. It wasn’t anything grandiose but it was entertaining to the very end, as have all the Wind Breaker episodes up to this point. The wait for Season 2 is going to be excruciating but hopefully, we’ll be seeing it in Winter 2025.
Episode 13 rating: 8.5/10
If you enjoyed the Wind Breaker season finale then be sure to vote for it in our weekly poll! Wind Breaker Season 2 is officially set to release in 2025 on Crunchyroll.
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
© Satoru Nii, Kodansha / WIND BREAKER Project
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