Haruka Sakura (桜 遥, Sakura Haruka) is the protagonist of the WIND BREAKER manga series. He is a first-year student at Furin High School and member of Bofurin’s Vaisravana Unit as well as the first year Grade Captain. Constantly judged by his physical appearance, Sakura adopts a delinquent persona that others have projected onto him and moves to Makochi to attend Furin High, an infamously rough school, and fight his way to the top.
Appearance
Sakura is a teenager of average height and weight. His hair is naturally split in color – half black, half white – and he has heterochromia, with his right eye color blue and his left color yellow. He is commonly seen wearing the standard Furin High uniform consisting of a plain white t-shirt underneath his gakuran jacket, green pants, and a pair of black sneakers.
Personality
Sakura is reactive, determined, and perceptive. As a result of his unusual appearance, he is used to being judged and ostracized by others, which contributed to his aloof demeanor and delinquent persona. Sakura’s standoffish behavior is shown to be a defense mechanism that he adopted in response to the discrimination he continuously faced. He also shows to have strong and clear morals on who and why he fights. He has an aggressive manner of speaking, but when not brawling, he keeps to himself. He is much more comfortable fighting his way out of situations, as any other kind of interaction leaves him flustered.
Sakura becomes uncomfortable when people show him kindness or acceptance, and despite his tendency to get involved in affairs that result in helping others, he is not good at dealing with gratitude. Even with his social ineptitude, Sakura is extremely sensitive to romance when it involves those around him. He is also terrified of forming bonds, and he lacks confidence in anything besides his fighting abilities as he thinks that his entire worth lays on them.
After learning that Bofurin uses its strength to protect the town and that delinquents are an important part of Makochi’s community, Sakura starts to warm up to this idea and later finds himself viewing his fellow students as comrades rather than adversaries.
Skills
Gymnastics: Sakura is seen having a great amount of flexibility. Being able to wall-jump between buildings, while also incorporating it into his fighting.
Etymology
- The name Sakura (桜) means “Cherry Blossom”.
- Sakura’s given name Haruka (遥) means “far off, distant, long ago”.
Relationships
Hajime Umemiya
Sakura initially views Umemiya as the ultimate opponent he must defeat in order to become Furin High School’s strongest fighter and secure his position at the top. When Sakura comes to meet Umemiya face-to-face for the first time, he is shocked at Umemiya’s carefree attitude and is at first puzzled as he wonders how someone so childish can manage to command such respect and lead a team like Bofurin.
Sakura soon finds that Umemiya’s presence is such that he can’t help but feel safe even to the point of his body physically relaxing when he is around Umemiya. With this realization, he begins to understand why people are drawn to Umemiya as a leader.
Sakura comes to respect Umemiya as someone who is both powerful and insightful, with Sakura even beginning to taking Umemiya’s encouragement and mentorship to heart after their fight with Shishitoren.
Kotoha Tachibana
Kotoha was the first person that Sakura met and talked to in-depth after his arrival to the town of Makochi. Sakura is initially very off-put by her kind, friendly way of interacting with him because of his previous experiences of being socially ostracized. She understands and speaks honestly to Sakura about his emotional isolation, and encourages him allow himself to try connecting and forging friendships with the members of Bofuin and the people of Makochi. Sakura becomes a regular at the cafe Kotoha works at, having breakfast there frequently enough that the other first-years even tease him about it. As Sakura steps into his new role as the first-years’ Grade Captain and faces difficult battles and obstacles, Kotoha continues to encourage Sakura to trust and rely on others, as well as to take care of himself. Although Kotoha often teases Sakura about his self-reliant attitude and his tendency to get easily overwhelmed by positive emotional interactions, she does show genuine care and concern for him even to the point of bringing him home-made food when he gets sick. Sakura typically gets visibly emotionally flustered and confused at her friendship and seems very reluctant to accept her help, but he nonetheless does take her advice seriously and makes conscious effort to develop himself emotionally to become both a better leader and friend.
Akihiko Nirei
Sakura’s first impression of Nirei is that he is someone who is flashy with his looks, but not actually strong physically or otherwise. Sakura soon realizes that he may have misjudged Nirei after seeing him stand up to a group of men harassing a woman despite lacking fighting skills and getting beat up in the process.
Sakura saves Nirei and the woman Nirei was trying to protect, and afterwards reluctantly encourages Nirei, admitting to him that he doesn’t believe that Nirei is as pathetic as he feels after being unable to fight the group of men off on his own. With this affirmation from Sakura, Nirei then offers his knowledge of the people in Bofurin and the town of Makchi as a way of helping Sakura achieve his goal of getting to the top of Bofurin.
Despite their difference in personalities the two get along very well, and when Sakura is chosen as the First-Year Grade Captain, Nirei becomes one of his two Vice-Captains alongside Suo.
Development
Through challenging races and difficult situations, Haruka has gradually matured into a more mature and capable young man. He learns to control his emotions, hone his leadership skills, and build camaraderie. Haruka also learns to appreciate friendship and always strives to achieve his goals.
Trivia
- Stuffs change straight into his pockets.
- He hates hats and sunglasses.
- He insists that he doesn’t really have a preference, but when asked, he says he likes sporty styles.
- He can tell the different tastes in water(?).
- Doesn’t use a cover for his phone.
- Apparently… He only knows how to put this one outfit together. (A white shirt, a pair of slim fit pants and a mountain jacket as an outerwear.)
- Apparently likes “high-tech sneakers” and slim fit pants.
- Plain shirts, white shirts… Apparently has the same 5 shirts.
Abyss around the world can immerse themselves in the world of the series and show their love for it by visiting the Wind Breaker Merch where you can find apparel, accessories, and collectibles.
