#wbk analysis

Sugishita is being raised by his grandparents because neither of his parents wanted to be involved in his life after their divorce.

Umemiya and Kotoha were raised in a group foster home.

Togame has lived with his grandfather since he was young.

And all of these situations are not just okay, they're good environments for a kid to come up in.

Then we have Tsubaki, whose parents we haven't seen directly, but who has loving non-custodial adults.

Kiryu is a situation where we see parents aren't always willing or capable to provide a nurturing environment, but his sister ensured he has support.

I have a feeling Suo will fall somewhere in here with his master and martial brothers.

This is a dating sim.

Endo said the furthest thing from the truth, and it's completely understandable that Sakura reacted so aggressively.

Okay, Suo wasn't honest with the boys and constantly lied to them. But does that mean he wasn't their ally?

What about everything Suo did during his time at Furin? It was Suo who suggested Sakura become first-year grade captain because he believed in him. It was Suo who trained and motivated Nirei. He was seen as the brain and heart of their team, when he proved himself as the strategist during the Noroshi War.

Throughout his time at Furin, Suo supported the boys, helping them develop. He cared about their well-being and making them even stronger. If that's not behavior worthy of an ally, I don't know what is.

Suo did what he had to do and disappeared and only his disappearance should be considered betrayal. I refuse to believe that what he did while he was with the boys stemmed from malicious intent. He brought too much good to the group to be considered anything other than an ally.

Wordy title, but I think it explains the intent of this post well enough.

(obligatory) DISCLAIMER: I am not a sleep doctor or professional. Certain sleeping positions may or may not reflect personality traits IRL. But given that these are fictional characters, I thought it would be interesting to analyze the characters using this certain angle as I’m sure Nii Satoru had taken their canon characteristics in mind in the process of making this sketch.

That’s enough yapping though, let’s just get into the post lol

Nirei

Amongst the other characters in 1-1 here, the way Nirei sleeps is quite… strange. His pillow is strewn far away from him + his blanket is pretty much discarded. Both of these things (and his unnatural position) imply that Nirei is a very restless sleeper, which could reflect his heavy anxieties or overt enthusiasm.

As for the position itself, it almost looks like Nirei is crawling rather than sleeping normally. Given how one side of his body is leaning like that, it’s not the most comfortable nor healthiest for a teenager. But do you know what age group in particular sleeps with their hips raised into the air in a similar fashion to Nirei?

Babies. Nirei literally sleeps like a baby. (Infants are also prone to kicking away blankets as well!)

This isn’t to say that Nirei is mentally or subconsciously an infant, though. I believe it can refer to his lack of physical strength when he first joined Furin. As he trains under Suo and gets stronger, Nirei develops his confidence and fighting skills more, ie. he’s slowly growing as a person.

Tsugeura

Tsugeura’s way of sleeping is also a bit over the place. His arms are stretched out, his shirt is disheveled, and his legs are also strewn about. Tsuge’s mouth is wide open, so I’ll assume he also snores (and dear god snoring is loud). But despite the fact his sleeping position would occupy the most size in a bed, Tsuge looks quite relaxed. All of these characteristics point to the fact that Tsugeura is a pretty rambunctious person, though he does know when to step back if needed.

Suo

In contrast with the previous boys, the way Suo sleeps is much more composed. His head is flat against a pillow, he clasps his hands when he sleeps (which adds to Suo’s generally dignified demeanor), and he actually uses a blanket! There’s not much to comment here, but the stillness of Suo’s pose could resemble a corpse—which only adds to the mysteriousness of his character.

Sakura

Sakura’s position is also quite healthy—it resembles a fetal position, but his joints remain stacked. However, Sakura uses his forearms to support his head. This is not healthy and can lead to arm/neck problems, which implies that Sakura doesn’t sleep with a pillow or even a makura in with his futon.

Although sleeping without the support of a pillow can be healthy for some people, this only emphasizes how neglected Sakura was growing up (you can’t even see a pillow provided in his flashback). He’s used to always supporting himself, even in a state when he’s supposed to rest. Someone get this poor guy a flat pillow so he can comfortably sleep

Kiryu

As opposed to Sakura, Kiryu sleeps comfortably despite living in a shed. He uses a body pillow and hugs it, which promotes a sense of comfort and security for the hugger—but he also locks his legs around the pillow, making this gesture seem a lot more clingier than it should be. It only goes to show his laidback personality, but it’s no surprise he might seek out other means of security given his home situation. Kiryu also has a tendency to hug his cushions even when he isn’t sleeping (cute)

Sugishita

Sugishita’s position is… not very healthy to say the least. When one sleeps, it’s generally recommended to sleep on your spine and not on your stomach (unless there are health reasons you might need to sleep on your tummy instead). He usually sleeps with his face on a desk, which isn’t an issue within itself.

Unfortunately, Sugishita sleeps on his stomach quite often (since we see him wake up that way in the manga). It’s an easy position to fall asleep in (given how Sugi always seems so fatigued + he takes naps often), but it can mess with your spine in the long term This is probably why his posture is kind of screwed.

Kaji

Kaji’s position is also pretty weird. It looks like the Peter Griffin Fallen pose lmfao

Aside from that, Kaji is also shown to be a restless sleeper, given his unnatural position (all his weight is sitting on that poor arm) and a pillow being present but not used. However, this could probably indicate how Kaji tries to suppress his ‘beast’ in his day to day life, and its erratic nature may be subconsciously manifesting itself as he sleeps.

Umemiya

Umemiya’s pose is similar to Tsugeura’s, however his body is a lot less spread out. This can reflect his cheery personality, while retaining his general composure as the top of Bofurin and someone that many people respect/admire.

Ume is also shown to be asleep with his reading glasses and a book in his hand, implying that he likes to read before he sleeps, which is a healthy habit to have before going to sleep. Umemiya likes to read in general, usually lounging with a book on the Furin rooftop.

He is the only character we see using a bed in this art, which shows that the kids at the orphanage sleep on beds rather than futons. Just like Sugishita, we see a makeshift mount (made of books?) to accommodate Ume’s tall height.

Hiiragi

Compared to Umemiya, Hiiragi’s arms are crossed while he sleeps—reflecting his strict and rather uptight personality. Doing this can also be a self-soothing act [as a way to protect oneself subconsciously], which is needed for someone like Hiiragi who often gets stressed easily.

we've seen the moon utilized an awful lot for particular characters, havent we? first with endochika, then with momisakus fight, and now with suo. but what does it mean?

i cant say with certainty how endochikas moon mirrors suos, but heres what im thinking. yamato had been masking his entire life, and therefore the emotions he experienced were blunted in a way he never had cause to consider.

UNTIL. HE MET TAKIISHI. there were clouds in the sky on that night, but none of them covered the moon. so right here, the moon symbolizes honesty, lack of concealment. takiishi pulled back the curtain on yamatos life and made him experience emotions he hasnt before.

moving onto momijikawa, we dont see the moon until momijikawa says THIS line, his intention to have an honest conversation with sakura.

before their fight vs after. so it means a lack of concealment, and possibly even a connection with others. NOW. SUO.

his moon is COVERED. we've seen something similar with sakura once before--a flashback in 203, and for sakura, its the sun. suos moon is only focused on after nirei leaves, and even then, its still somewhat obscured. and what sky do we see afterwards? overcast, downpouring.

this bitch actually KNOWS he's about to be autistic on main but he's at that self-aware level of not giving one absolute shit about masking actually because it's going to get us NOWHERE if no one asks the real question here and that's "why the fuck did suo drag out a fight needlessly?" because the answer MATTERS

did he do it because he's a cruel jerk who wants to hurt nirei and bofurin as much as possible? (absolutely not) Or...because on some level, he wanted to be punished himself, wanted to possibly even give nirei a chance to beat him - or at the very least as we saw...hurt him back.

NEW WBK CHAPTER!!!!!! NEW WBK CHAPTER MAKES ME SO HAPPY. IT MAKES ME WANT TO GO WEE? HOO? WEE? HOO? WEE?

I’m very happy to see Togame lending an ear to Sakura and walk him through his anxiety— like Togame says, there are something you just can’t talk to your closest friends about, and that where your other friends, like Togame, comes in. It’s a very important lesson I learned later on in life, I think.

But anyway, what is particularly striking in this chapter is the comparison between ume and sakura

I can’t stop being amazed at how intentional Nii-sensei is about naming. Incredibly plot relevant that ume blooms in the snow and lead winter into spring, as Umemiya entered the scene during Furin’s fragmented period (cold winter) and bring it to spring — a unified, blossoming garden where various plants and flowers come together to nurture and to be nurtured :)

And, as my roommate points out in the discussion, if ume did not carry spring into the scene first, sakura could never bloom. Just like how Sakura was before he arrived in spring (Furin), sakura could never reach their full potential in the winter. Not that there is anything wrong with that— it’s just the nature of the flower. Boiling water soften a radish but harden an egg, and so on. Everyone needs something different to bring them to fruition.

Notably, sakura blooms along with other plants. Well, if that isn’t the first-year troupe and the power of friendships :)

There comes the answer to Sakura’s problem: sakura cannot become ume, and Furin does not need him to become Umemiya. A unified Furin does not need a leader that will unify it; instead, as the time has changed, Furin needs a leader that will respond to the new challenges unlike anything Umemiya faced before. Furin changed— Umemiya, as a leader, has fulfilled his literal and symbolic functions— and so must its leadership change.

We already see this with the Extinction War arc, where Sakura demonstrated the unique strength of his leadership. Whereas Umemiya did not summon the other teams for help, instead relying on the strength of Bofurin (his inner circle) to fight as he did during the reunification; Sakura saw the scope of the problems, see how far the first-years still need to go before being of comparable strength to Noroshi, and initiated help.

It is not that Umemiya’s leadership is flawed here (we may argue about that, but it is not the narrative’s intention to say that his decision is wrong), but rather, Sakura’s leadership is where we need to head next. Bofurin reunification is an internal issues that, by building up strength in his internal circle, Umemiya was able to overcome (it also shows in his leadership style). The challenges that will come to Bofurin, or that Bofurin will seek out, has consistently been external (from other teams) problems that require a larger, more comprehensive, and perhaps organizational outlook (this is where the strategist and informant in Suo and Nirei will become relevant) than what unification needed, or was relevant to. We saw this first present in KEEL (class 1-1 getting ratioed once the strongest five is occupied), and again at Extinction War. And of course— if winter, Umemiya, and unification didn’t come first, we would not be here at all. This is time passing its baton.