Wind Breaker Volumes 6 and 7 Review

The Wind Breaker anime has been and gone, but it left us with the surprise announcement of a Season 2 to air in 2025. In the meantime, there’s still plenty of the original manga for Kodansha to put into print. Today I’m here to talk about Volumes 6 and 7, which make up the next major arc in the series. Will it impress? Let’s find out!

In Volume 5 we saw our protagonist Haruka chosen as the class captain with Hayato and Nirei acting as his assistants. He’s solved his fair share of problems in the neighbourhood already, but when it comes to classmate Anzai whose childhood friend Nagato has fallen in with the infamous team KEEL, it might take more than just Haruka to resolve it.

So here in Volume 6, we find Haruka and the rest of the class heading to KEEL’s base where they demand Nagato be handed over to them. Of course, a team like KEEL has no intention of just handing over their bargaining chip and soon challenges Haruka’s group to a fight. Despite being outnumbered, the group refuse to leave Nagato behind.

Although we’ve seen a team battle of sorts when Bofurin went against Shishitoren in the last arc, this is the first time we’ve seen an all-out brawl between teams, especially with none of the second-year students present. Haruka is always eager to get into a scrap with someone stronger than him, but here he finds himself getting lost in his particular 1-on-1 fight and losing sight of those around him.

What Haruka is forgetting is that their objective here is not to beat KEEL into the ground, but to rescue Nagato. As he loses himself in the fight, it’s left to Hayato to protect Nirei, while Kyotaro and the others try and accomplish their goal. Nirei feels bad about his inability to fight (he’s more brains than brawn), but his contribution is still valued as his emergency SOS leads to Kaji and some other second-year students arriving to save the day.

This leads us neatly into Volume 7 where Kaji’s arrival on the scene allows Bofurin to turn the tables on KEEL. While Kaji goes off to face off against the leader, Haruka returns to fighting by the side of his fellow first-years having had a dressing-down by Kaji. If he gets himself so lost in a fight that he can’t protect anyone, what good is he as a captain? These words haunt our young protagonist as he wonders what it even means to be in a team.

Volume 7 brings the KEEL arc to a neat close, ensuring it doesn’t outstay its welcome. KEEL’s leader as well as Nagato and Anzai are given plenty of development across these two books, although I will say on the whole this team were less interesting as a group than Shishitoren. Maybe because this arc was less about KEEL as a group and more focused on Haruka’s challenges fitting into his new role.

As always, I appreciate mangaka Satoru Nii’s ability to combine fast-paced action with the more emotional side of things. Every since Haruka joined this group he’s been changing in ways he doesn’t understand, he’s made friends and found people who have his back and that he can rely on. After the fight, people keep thanking Haruka for his help, which only frustrates him more as he dwells on the fact he couldn’t protect anyone after his big talk going into the rescue mission.

This is why I appreciate Wind Breaker so much. Yes, it’s an action series where delinquents battle it out, but it has a lot of heart. Our protagonist isn’t the only one who has demons to battle and Nii does a good job of showing that. It’s through these scenes that we grow a stronger attachment to the entire cast, cheering them on as they fight off rival gangs, troublemakers and their matters of the heart. It’s fun and heartfelt all at the same time, which is the best combination of things in the shonen genre.

As mentioned earlier, Wind Breaker Volumes 6 and 7 come to the West thanks to Kodansha where they continue to be translated by Jacqueline Fung with lettering by Michael Martin (Andrew Copeland for the digital editions). Both releases read well without any issues and Fung does a good job of juggling so many different characters and giving them distinct voices. There are so many between Bofurin and KEEL! No colour pages here but there are some bonus illustrations and extras scattered throughout the two books.

Volume 8 of the series is already available in print with #9 following in February. Although we’ve been enjoying more or less bimonthly releases up until now, it seems we’re taking a bit of a break over the holiday periods. Of course, if you can’t wait for more, the digital releases are up to Volume 17 already which is only two behind the Japanese releases!

Overall, Wind Breaker continues to be a joy to read. These two new instalments showcase some of the best the manga has to offer as our protagonist grapples with fighting a powerful team and working through the feelings that make no sense to him. And if you’re keen to stay ahead of the forthcoming Season 2 of the anime where this will be the next major arc, these are well worth picking up.

Our review copies from Kodansha were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.