So I decided to check out Satoru Nii’s Wind Breaker, another delinquent battle series, but with a fun twist. The delinquents are the protectors of a town instead of being shunned by the town itself. While the story is standard shonen, the 1st major arc of the manga/anime really drives home how getting to the top of where you want to go is very much interdependent on who you associate with.
The premise of Wind Breaker is about a young man named Sakura Haruka, who is obsessed with being the best delinquent fighter in all the land. He decides to enroll in Furin High School after hearing that the school has some really strong students to fight against. However, he learns that Furin High School is a heroic organization determined to protect its townsfolk from danger. Sakura doesn’t care about being a hero, but ends up fighting the good fight due to the influence of Furin’s leader, Hajime Umemiya.
Readers learn that Sakura is afraid of people liking him due to people ruthlessly ignoring him in the past. A waitress named Kotoha Tachibana tells him that he’ll never reach his goal of the top because he’s alone. Once he starts his Furin tenure, Sakura decides to patrol town and hang around his Furin classmates out of reluctance. He starts to experience what it’s like to have people who want the best for him. Sakura also meets Umemiya himself, who shows a lot of warmth and silliness despite being the strongest of Furin High. The story really starts to take off in Volume 2 when Furin is challenged by a rival gang named Shishitoren.
Shishitoren’s leader, Choji Tomiyama, challenges Umemiya out of boredom being at the top. Compared to Tomiyama, Umemiya shows a genuine appreciation for the people in his life and looks almost always happy. Tomiyama wants to take all of Umemiya’s happiness away. Furin and Shishitoren would agree to fight in a 5-on-5 team match to determine which gang will disappear. The two leaders would eventually face off in a clash of what it means to be at the top.
When you ask someone “What does it take to get to the top?”, you usually get answers like work hard, grind every day, hone your craft, etc. While those help a bunch, what gets lost in the conversation is the role of luck. Circumstances can change things in a hurry. Let’s say that you want to be the best runner in the world, but get into a car accident which cripples you. No grind and honing will get you back there, no matter what.
What also gets lost in the conversation and involves luck to a certain degree are relationships. This applies to something like a job search. What if you’re a career-oriented person who wants to be a high-earning executive? Sure, you can work hard. But what helps a lot more is learning how to be around your fellow employees or attract them to you. If you know how to guide them and help them with certain tasks, it goes a long way because those people will help you right back with what you want. There’s a reason why people tout networking so much when it comes to job searching. Being around and helping people in work-related stuff gets you very far.
This point is driven very hard in Wind Breaker. When Umemiya and Tomiyama fight, the former tries his best to make the latter understand what he’s missing. He bluntly says.
“Your fists are powerless. Do you understand why? It’s because you’re fighting for nothing.”
Tomiyama is driven mad, but Umemiya continues to persist to help him even to the point of getting pummeled himself. Umemiya asks Tomiyama to remember a time where the two gangs once fought, but it was all in good fun over a misunderstanding. What comes next is Umemiya giving Tomiyama a strong headbutt to make him remember what he REALLY needs to be the top. Tomiyama loses consciousness, but remembers that what made him enjoy life was the laughter and camaraderie he shared with his fellow Shishitoren members.
Tomiyama would explain what he felt like when he reached the top of his gang. It’s a common feeling that a lot of people, especially leaders, can relate to. A feeling of nothingness; a feeling that no matter what you do, it’s all meaningless. There’s so much competitive push to be perfect and at the top of everything you do. And it hurts those who never feel they’re enough. Then again, hierarchical constructs make them feel that way at times. People at the top can’t relate to those below them because they’re expected to uphold to a standard that doesn’t allow for meaningful friendship.
There’s a good amount of advice on what to do if you’re a leader who feels lonely. For Umemiya, what he likes is eating food with people he cares about. He wants them to enjoy themselves. That’s what drives him to be at the top of Furin and keeps him connected with life. When a now-optimistic Tomomiya talks to Umemiya about leadership in general, Umemiya goes on to give the life lesson of the day.
“I didn’t take leadership. I was given the status. You can’t become the top when you’re alone, right? You can only reach the top by being lifted by everyone under you. It was only possible because there were people who agreed with my vision and wanted to help me.
That’s why, when I became the top, I thought my dream no longer only belonged to me. That’s exactly why, in order to make this dream a reality, no matter how difficult the path, no matter how unreasonable the climb is, no matter how absurd it gets, I will never lose.”
Umemiya is saying words that people who believe in meritocracy will never say. He admits that he was in an environment where he could thrive. Sakura, our main hero, starts to slowly realize this. While still reluctant to accept other people around him at times, Sakura sees its power after his experience fighting a Shishitoren member during the team brawl. He even becomes driven at one point to hit Tomiyama before the leader battle after Tomiyama treated the member Sakura beat like he was disposable despite fighting with honorable conviction.
Acceptance is power. Accepting things around you for what they are. Accepting people for who they are. It opens up all kinds of pathways and important decisions to make. The more you accept someone despite their flaws, the more likely you will find genuine connection – which becomes beneficial when the time comes. It’s impossible to live a life where you’re an island of one. Acceptance also frees you from comparison and expectations – two things that do lead to bad mental health outcomes.
So like Umemiya would suggest, let the winds of acceptance break into your heart and get you to a top mental state of mind.