#Wind Breaker’s Opening, Directed by Bleach TYBW’s Director, Is Now On Aniplex’s YouTube Channel

Aniplex has released the opening animation for the delinquent action anime Wind Breaker, which premiered on April 4.

Wind Breaker‘s opening is storyboarded and unit directed by Tomohisa Taguchi, the director of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes. The sequence lacks the distinctive rim lighting utilized in TYBW and The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes, but has decently attractive compositing, some heavy color filter usage, and a couple of dizzying barrel rolls.

The anime’s character designer Taishi Kawakami served as animation director for the opening. Some of the other credited staff include Yukiko Ito (Wind Breaker) as assistant compositing director and Tsubasa Kajiyama (Spy x Family Season 2 Episode 8) as color coordinator. E&H Production is credited for the 3D layouts.

The opening’s release comes after the ending animation was released on April 4. The ending, which focuses on appealing character drawings and colors, is handled by Atsuya Uki, the director of Cencoroll and 22/7‘s “Boku ga Motteru mono nara” music video. Uki also has character design credits on Cencoroll 2, Tsuritama, and Digimon Adventure Tri.

Wind Breaker‘s opening song is “Zettai Reido” by Natori, while the ending theme is “Muteki” by Young Kee. 

Wind Breaker is based on the  manga by Satoru Nii, which started serialization on Magazine Pocket since 2021 and has 15 tankoubon volumes published under the Kodansha Comics label as of January 2024. Kodansha USA describes the manga’s plot as:

Haruka Sakura wants nothing to do with weaklings—he’s only interested in the strongest of the strong. He’s from Fuurin High School, a school of near-dropout degenerates known only for their brawling strength. And in a town known for its territorial disputes, Haruka’s got only one goal—become the hero his town deserves.

• Director: Toshifumi Akai (Fate/Grand Order – Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia)
• Series composer: Hiroshi Seko (Jujutsu Kaisen) 
• Character designer: Taishi Kawakami ( “White Snow,” Akebi’s Sailor Uniform co-sub-character designer)
• Art director and designer: Yasunao Moriyasu (Bocchi the Rock! art director)
• Color designer: Asuka Yokota (Bocchi the Rock!)
• Compositing director: Yukiko Nagase (UniteUp!) 
• Music composer: Ryou Takahashi
• Animation producer: CloverWorks

Cast

• Yuuma Uchida as Haruka Sakura
• Kouki Uchiyama as Kyoutaro Sugishita
• Nobunaga Shimazaki as Hayato Suo
• Yuuichi Nakamura as Hajime Umemiya
• Ryouta Suzuki as Touma Hiragi
• Shouya Chiba as Akihiko Nirei