Wind Breaker Volumes 12 and 13 Review

In Volume 11 of Wind Breaker, we learnt all about Yamato Endo, a powerful new character who stands in opposition to our beloved Bofurin group. Now a battle with him and his team looms in the near future, but what will happen in the meantime? With another two volumes at hand, let’s find out what’s next for the cast!

As it happens, Endo delivers a declaration of war that states he’ll be coming for them in just two weeks. Haruka and the rest of the Furin High students begin training for the upcoming battle, but surprisingly, that doesn’t end up being the focus of Volume 12. Instead, we’re treated to Hajime Umemiya’s backstory that sheds light on his desire to stand at the top of Furin and make the school and the town a better and safer place.

The flashback begins with a 9-year-old Umemiya, who has lost his parents and siblings in a tragic accident and is now at the Furinen orphanage. Feeling responsible for the accident, Umemiya can’t bring himself to interact with the other kids or the staff, and he tells them to stay away from him while refusing to take care of himself.

At this point, the town is a hotbed of danger. The kids aren’t allowed outside for fear of them getting hurt in the fights between gangs that routinely take place. But Umemiya isn’t scared; in fact, if getting involved means dying, then he thinks that wouldn’t be the worst outcome, given his supposed sins. Ultimately, he’s saved from this worst-case scenario by a student of Furin High, and this encounter sets him on the path to becoming the charming and powerful leader he is today.

If you’ve followed Wind Breaker for this long, you’ll recognise Umemiya’s story as being another centred around found family. This is a main theme of the series in general; we’ve seen it through characters like Haruka and Tsubakai, too. Always in slightly different forms, but still delivering that same important message. The people you need in your life will find their way to you eventually – you just have to be willing to let them in.

With Umemiya’s backstory established, we move into Volume 13, where the fight between these two truly begins. Not knowing how or where Endo and his comrades (who call themselves Noroshi) could come from, our heroes decide to split up and divide into smaller groups that can protect key parts of the town.

Although we’ve seen plenty of large-scale battles over the course of Wind Breaker so far, this is the first time we’ve ever witnessed something on quite this scale. There are unexpected challenges that come from fighting out in the open like this. For example, Haruka’s group are stationed at a bridge where they need to form a defensive wall and not let anyone through. And watching them have to consider how best to navigate these challenges is interesting!

A fight on this scale is only possible because the series has such a large number of characters, whom we’ve been slowly getting to know. It’s true that we’re much more familiar with some characters than others (especially those in Haruka’s inner circle), but we’re suitably attached to enough where this divide-and-conquer approach works well. And of course, since the current fight involves the history of Bofurin, it’s also very engaging from that perspective. We’re only just getting started in Volume 13, as this seems likely to be a long arc, but if it keeps up this level of quality, that will be absolutely fine.

Wind Breaker Volume 12 and 13 come to the West thanks to Kodansha and continues to be translated by Jacqueline Fung with lettering by Michael Martin for these print editions (Andrew Copeland is credited for digital). As usual, they read well and have no issues present. There are no colour pages or dedicated translation note pages (although I did spot a couple between panels), but #13 does include a special short story.

Since Kodansha have been releasing this at a monthly pace, they’ve already brought us up to Volume 20 in English print (#22 in digital). We’re relatively close to being caught up now since there’s only 25 out in Japanese, so Kodansha are moving to a bi-monthly schedule here. The next print release is set to be #21 in May.

Overall, while these two volumes of Wind Breaker couldn’t be more different when it comes to the kind of stories they’re depicting, they showcase the strength of Satoru Nii’s writing. Not many series can deliver something as powerful as Umemiya’s backstory while also being a fast-paced battle shonen as often as Nii does, and that’s undoubtedly one of the reasons this continues to be such a beloved franchise.

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