#wbk analysis

Because all the time without fail I encounter takes rooted on forgetting that, like:

- why does he know so much about people and gangs in Makochi?

- why does he know so much about people from Furin?

He knows basically what other people who live in Makochi do, because he has been frequenting the town almost daily for years, because he was there when Furin was changed.

Also:

- why did he come this far just to join Furin, it's suspicious

No no, the real question is why did he start attending middle School in Makochi, nothing suspicious about him joining a school known for protecting people when he comes from an organisation that protects people in the town he's already attending school at. And I suspect the answer is probably that they don't have official schools in Bankoku-Gai

- Did he come to Makochi after Sakura?

Nobody knew who Sakura was before the first day of class (Hiragi and vices and Kotoha being the exceptions), Suo just heard about the incident and put two and two together. Suo was already in Makochi 3 years before Sakura.

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.

DISCLAIMER: I am not fluent in Japanese. If I made any mistakes in this analysis or missed additional information, please let me know!

To this day, Chapter 50 might just be one of Wind Breaker’s most important chapters. It not only shows us a more unrestrained side to the enigmatic Suo, but gives us more insight into his (and Sakura’s) mentality, with the chapter containing one singular instance of Suo introspecting. 

Granted, it is to put himself below Sakura (which is quite sad, given that his internal monologue mainly consists of him simply commenting on the situation around him). However, this specific line is quite interesting, because it sounds very similar to what Ito says to his wife at the end of Chapter 66. 

It’s important to examine the context that leads up to these moments first. Suo and Ito realize that they are “no match” for Sakura and Yui when their perception of a person they deeply care for differs from their expectations. Both Suo and Ito know Sakura and Yui respectively well, with ItoYui being married for decades (though Ito remorse of being unaware about Yui’s true feelings) and Suo being able to decipher/understand Sakura’s psyche and feelings. These realizations about the other party do come as a surprise to Ito/Suo—and given their somewhat insecure nature, they put Yui/Sakura above them. 

With Sakura, Suo expects him to get mad over Nirei/their classmates losing to KEEL, but the former tells the overtly emotional Suo that not only do they have bigger fish to fry, but he delegates the blame onto himself. Suo’s line here can have many interpretations—from it showcasing Suo’s sheer admiration towards Sakura’s character, to even Suo possibly harboring envy for Sakura—but it’s evident that Sakura’s reaction in KEEL subverts Suo’s careful expectations. 

And with Yui, Ito finds out that his wife had always loved him as much as he loved her; only, Yui was always aware of her husband’s doubts about her love. Notably, it’s Suo that proposes this explanation, before Tsubaki corroborates his claim. 

Back to the line itself: these quotes might not sound similar in the English translation. But both of them are near-identical in the original Japanese.

Ito says 「本当に敵わないよ」 (hontoni kanawanai yo), while Suo says 「…本当に君は敵わないな…」 (…honto ni kimi ni wa kanawanai na…). [EDIT: I’m aware Suo’s 「敵」 is written in Hiragana instead of Kanji; however I’ve decided not to include this aspect in my analysis because it’s most likely a stylistic choice. If it does carry another meaning, then I simply lack the adequate information about Suo’s character to draw any meaningful conclusion.]

本当 means “really”(with the に conjunction connecting it with the next phrase) and 敵わない (kanawanai) means “No match for” or “Cannot beat/compete [with]”. Disregarding the slight differences, these two lines mean the exact same thing: I really am no match for you. 

However, both lines do have their nuances. The 敵わないよ Ito says has the よ (yo) sentence-ending particle. よ is typically used for emphasis in a sentence. It also marks the sentence as “informative” (ie. Ito finding that he is no match for his wife is new information to not only him, but the audience too). よ can also carry a more genial nuance to a sentence; showing that Ito is happy at this realization (the voice acting in the anime also carries this tone). Ito’s line also omits any pronouns, making the statement one-note and succinct; in a way, Ito is able to accept this and move on with a smile. 

With Suo, he says 君には敵わないな. The な(na) sentence-ending particle is used in comparison; な can have multiple connotations but I suspect that it mainly marks this sentence as introspective in nature. Another usage I think fits the most is “to seek confirmation”. Suo sees his inability to compete with Sakura not as a 100% given. な can also carry a sense of wonder, which can emphasize Suo’s uncertainty in his feelings (a way to translate it into English would be “I am really no match for you, huh…”). Overall, な adds a certain emotional nuance to a sentence (similar to よ, only な is more emotionally overt). 

Suo also starts this phrase with 君には (I am). Japanese likes to eliminate the subject in its sentences sometimes (as seen with Ito’s version). However, the presence of “you” here indicates that Suo is directly addressing Sakura. You could interpret the sentence as words Suo wants to say to Sakura, but ultimately cannot; instead keeping the thought in his mind.  

The wording of this quote overall is different in not only the English manga translation but the anime’s English sub and dub (which is fair considering the context to both scenes are very different; but “I am no match for you” is a rather uncommon phrase especially in Wind Breaker) so it makes sense why this connection isn’t obvious at first. 

Given that Suo and Sakura’s relationship shares such an explicit parallel with a married couple, I suppose it makes sense why they were drawn getting married in a formal Chinese marriage setting in the fifth volume bonus…? All the other arts have Sakura and co. in normal attire, what did Nii Satoru mean by this……

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.

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.

in chapter 217, we see suo in the city with rakta and bacchus. when suo’s resolving the small conflict, we can see this guy trying to steal an apple (at least i think that’s an apple)

then in the same chapter, there’s this interaction

i’ve seen lots of people saying that suo’s talking about bofurin when he says this, and while i like the idea, i don’t think it quite fits the context of the scene. there’s definitely something they know that they aren’t telling the rest of the people that live here, and based on the events of this specific scene, i think it may have something to do with a food shortage, economic troubles, or something that’s similar.

i’m wondering if it’s because of this that they don’t tell the general public; the rumors. there’s already talk going around about the red chanpru, and if they add to the fire by bringing in more issues to light for the public, it’d look bad.

we obviously don’t know what exactly these rumors are yet, and i’m very curious to know what they are, but the way endo phrases it makes me think it’s not something like “their economy is doing badly” or something like that, which would theoretically be separate from what they could be hiding.

while sakura and the gang are in bankoku-gai, i noticed upon re-reading that they really like to show off a lot of food stalls and samples being given out or sold. instead of sellers trying to advertise a different kind of product like clothing or tangible items, or maybe even services, they make a point to show us a lot of food. two examples of this are when sakura and sugishita get momentarily held up by advertisers giving them free samples to eat, and then when they return umemiya showing sugishita the butcher’s stall. of course this could just be showing the contrast between the two cultures of their respective cities, but i noticed it and wanted to point that out.

we also have this in chapter 225.

this specific interaction makes me lean more towards economic troubles than food troubles. a child has to steal food because his sister hasn’t had proper food in days. and he has to steal because he supposedly doesn’t have enough money to pay for it.

now we obviously don’t know what the prices are like in this city, but for what we can see is a relatively small amount of food, it can’t cost an outrageous amount, meaning this kid can’t afford a small amount of food, which should raise some alarms. there’s no mention of any parents or anything, so we can’t say for sure if they’re absent, or if the entire family is struggling with money, because otherwise they would’ve just paid for it.

so all of these allegedly point to troubles with money/food in bankoku-gai, so what does this have to do with suo not eating?

well, first of all we’ve never seen him eat ever. in the one manga panel that shows him eating, it was ‘corrected’ in the anime adaptation. so technically, nobody’s ever seen him eating anything.

suo claims to be on some sort of diet, but never goes into depth or actually explains what it is. instead he just says it and leaves it at that, leaving us to wonder what this supposed “diet” would actually allow him to eat.

if the city is starting to struggle with food or the money for food, and the red chanpru was established in order to protect the city, i feel like it wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to say that at least the officers would start cutting back on their own meals to help give everyone else full ones.

“what about suo not eating at bofurin?” well i think this is because he’s used to it, and if he eats meals in a completely different city that’s not struggling, that would be unfair to those who are in bakoku-gai.

if his city was struggling with food and he starts eating meals they don’t have access to in a different city, i can imagine that wouldn’t sit very well. not only that, but if suo were to continue eating, he wouldn’t necessarily be used to being hungry, and if he isn’t used to it, it could hinder his performances during a fight. which is. kinda sad to think about :(

(Pretty long post ahead!!)