Review of Wind Breaker Season 2

Wind Breaker season 2 certainly didn’t do itself any favors by starting halfway through a story arc, but once it got over that hump, it was back to business as usual, for better or worse. Sakura learning how to get over his extreme self-reliance and how to let himself be supported by his friends and comrades was genuinely very touching, helped along by some great symbolic imagery and color design, and the overall messaging about unity, community outreach, and acceptance were just as solid as last season, with a huge shoutout to Tsubaki and their depiction of gender nonconformity. Put all that together and, shockingly,you have a textbook depiction of a functional anarchist society.
The problem, however, lies in it being so precisely a "textbook" depiction of a functional anarchist society. Very often its messaging is extremely on the nose, even by anime standards, to the point where it comes off less as a compelling story and more as an ethics lecture, which ends up dulling its overall effect. Despite this, the narrative itself was strong enough to carry me through to the end, as were the many fight scenes scattered throughout this season. This is a delinquent anime after all, and while some cuts felt like they lacked the necessary weight, the big impacts were more than enough to have me shouting guttural grunts at my TV. Most of the other visual aspects are just as solid as last season, be it the crisp and distinctive character designs or the deceptively engrossing color palette that makes some of the best use of gray tones I’ve seen as of late. While I’m not quite as hot on it now as I was in season 1, I’m still having a hell of a fun time and hope that there are more seasons yet to come.