The episode “Vow to Follow” is the guaranteed best episode of Wind Breaker among all the episodes released up till now. Saying this may not be far-fetched.
The episode, Vow to Follow, of this anime focuses on two important character’s history and their interaction. Whereas, All the episodes of Wind Breaker, that have been released up till now are more focused on the incidents in the story.
Let’s shine a spotlight on the subject matter of this episode’s importance in the series.
Previously…
In the previous episode, Bofurin started their 5 vs 5 duels.
The selective members of Bofurin to fight the opponent Shishitoren were Umiya Hajime the leader of Bofurin, Sakura Haruka, Hiragi Toma, Suo, and Sugiahita Kyotaro.
In the first battle, Sugishita Kyotaro claimed a crushing victory.
In the second match, Suo toyed with his opponent Kanuma and gave him an embarrassing defeat.
The so-called mask of kindness came off Suo’s face because of the unbecoming behavior of their opponent Shishitoren.
Next…
Beginning of the episode Vow to Follow is quite impactful.
Everyone was quite taken aback by the behaviour of Suo during the fight.
As he was renowned for his carefree and kind nature, this sadistic side of him was a new find.
When Umemiya asked the reason why Suo lost his cool during the fight his answer was simple.
He said that he was influenced by Sakura’s enthusiasm.
Nirei was quite interested in Suo’s fighting technique and asked about that to Suo.
Suo also didn’t know about the technique, as his teacher was also oblivious to the technique.
Next Sakura started to get ready for his turn.
But his turn didn’t come, as a member of Shishitoren, Sako, who previously challenged Hiragi went on to start the battle.
Another reason was, that Sakura’s opponent Togame Jo, who was vice-leader of Shishitoren wasn’t ready to start the fight yet.
Sako
Sako is generally a stoic and stiff person. He prefers to battle with a stronger opponent over anything.
His replies are generally nothing more than “yes” or “no”.
Maintaining his cool is one of his many qualities.
It is really difficult to read his thoughts.
He is one of the top five strongest members of Shishitoren.
This was as he was shown in this episode, Vow to Follow.
Battle starts
Finally, the decisive battle started between Hiragi and Sako in the episode, Vow to Follow.
Hiragi confidently declared he was going to win anyway.
This attitude of Hiragi ticked Sako off.
He started a fierce attack on Hiragi with lots of tricks mixed in.
Those attacks pushed Hiragi to the wall.
He found Hiragi’s strikes very easy to read and with a roundhouse kick sent him flying away.
He looked down on Hiragi for being with such peace-loving Bofurin. According to him, the atmosphere made him even more weak than before.
History
In this battle, Sako became talkative which was very unlikely of him.
He was feeling the emotional kickback.
To know the reason, the history of both Hiragi and Sako is necessary to know.
Sako first met Hiragi at elementary school as his senior, when his classmets were bullying him. Hiragi saved him.
Since then he started following Hiragi as his fan and admirer up till middle school. Hiragi started teaching ways to fight to him.
To him, Hiragi was a person he would follow until the end.
It was the time when Bofurin does not exist yet.
Furin High School was unruly as ever.
As Hiragi decided to go to Furin, Sako thought he would aim for the top at the undoubtedly.
He said he would go there next year as a student to follow the leader Hiragi.
Bur bursting his bubble, Hiragi rejected the thought of becoming the leader of Furin.
He instead declared his decision to support Umemiya Hajime to become the leader.
Hiragi further advised Sako to find his way to follow.
The history told in this episode, Vow to Follow, shaped current Sako’s mind.
Effect on Sako’s mind
Sako was very sensitive from his early childhood. Being good in study did more damage to him than any good.
he had to face his bullies, which was his misfortune.
But Hiragi was there. A strong senior student to protect him and lead him to become stronger.
The existence of Hiragi was like a beacon of hope to him. A light to follow until the end.
But Hiragi broke his expectation of not taking the top but instead being under the top.
The ideal image he had built of Hiragi broke into pieces.
Hiragi further forced him away by, telling him to follow his path.
This declaration sent him spiraling down into the abyss of despair, as his only hope, left him.
Since then he has become obsessed with strength and started to despise those peace-loving individuals who live in harmony.
Into the battle
Let ua get into the battle sequence of this episode, Vow to Follow, again.
After he knocked Hiragi out, Sako was very confident about his victory and he looked down upon Bofurin.
This enraged Sakura. Umemiya however said that Hiragi is one of the four kings in the Bofurin and leads the Tamon team.
Tamon, another way to pronounce it is as Bishamon, the God of war.
In short, he is the strongest.
During this explanation, Hiragi got up and got ready for round two.
In this round, Hiragi starts to hit Sako back one-sidedly which was unbelievable to him.
As per him, Hiragi was in a peaceful environment of Bofurin, wasting his fighting skills away.
On the other hand, he was honing his fighting skills by fighting strong opponents.
For some time, into the battle, they fought intensely.
In the end, he knocks Sako out and apologises for betraying his beliefs.
But Sako didn’t wanted that apology, what he wanted was to follow Hiragi to Furin High.
But it was too late now.
After….
Same as before, Togame asked someone to drag the fainted Sako out of the stage, but Hiragi didn’t allow that.
He carried Sako out of there with care.
Then Togame approached to take the jacket off Sako and got stopped by Hiragi.
According to Hiragi, he shouldn’t haste as his fight with Sakura hasn’t started yet.
Conclusion
The nature of the episode, Vow to Follow, is different from other episodes of Wind Breaker, that have released yet. In this episode, the story is more focused on the history between Hiragi and Sako and the outcome of their relationship. These make this episode to be guaranteed the best episode among the 6 episodes released up till now.
As for, what will happen in the next episode, to know that, we need to stay tuned…
