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I hope the animators will adapt his expressions well in season 2. Nii is such a talented artist . I'm dying for his backstory, it will explain alot about these sad expressions. I hope he gets arc about his past before bofurin
Can we talk about chapter 60? I'd like to talk about chapter 60: A Place I Belong.
I specifically want to talk about the sections with the tightrope. It's one of my favorite parts of Wind Breaker and I could praise it for ages. I know it's a kind of common metaphor for struggles and isn't anything too special, but I really do adore it.
And whoever decided to add that anime only scene to the start of the first episode? Absolute genius and I love them for it. It works beautifully without it in the manga, but I think it's going to add a little extra something to the anime!
But for the tightrope section in the manga? It's so good and so well executed!! I absolutely love the way the style changes throughout the chapter!!
We start with white lineart on a black background. The lines are messy, sketchy, and even the boxes don't have clean lines.
I also want to point out how the only clean lines we get from this section are from the adults in his life, as well as the wind chime and the sprout pushing out from the ground.
The wind chime and the sprout clearly allude to Furin and the way both Furin and the rest of the town have shown that he, too, can be loved and accepted as he is.
The wind chime is also the thing that seems to be the transition to Sakura going from walking along the tightrope to considering that there might be another path for him.
I'm going to be real here and say that I don't have a lot to say about the other adults also having clean lineart. I'm sure there's someone out there who'd have something really smart to say about it, though. If I were to say something about it, it'd be that I think it might represent his shaky sense of self, compared to other people who have it figured out.
After that we get to the middle section, with Sakura in the "real world" again and with the rest of the class. I won't focus on the dialogue itself too much, but I'd like to talk about the way we go between the tightrope and reality.
I really like how the panels with the tightrope are woven in. They show us what's going on inside his head while also showing us how it looks like in reality. We see visual representation of how this feels like to him.
It's shown in how before he speaks, as he's gathering the courage for it, we can see him changing his stance on the rope. We get shown the way this is him preparing for that leap. He also mirrors himself with the way he's clenching his hands both in reality and around the tightrope.
A little later, as he's talking, we can see him directly mirror himself in both realities.
We see the way he's holding on preparing for that leap, as well as the way his face is split in two here. It doesn't directly match up, but it doesn't have to, because it already works so well here. I'd maybe even argue that I prefer it this way around as opposed to if this was a direct split of his face.
And then we see the leap itself, the way he throws himself into the unknown.
And then he gets called out on his bullshit, gets told that he's insane for thinking they'd cast him out. That they love him as he is and that they want him around. They actually want him. For maybe the first time in his life, he's wanted, appreciated, and needed.
And it's just this "Oh." moment for him. You can see the way it just clicks for him.
And after this we get to an absolutely beautiful scene, the part that makes me love this chapter so much.
We see that it all isn't so terrible after all, that there is hope. The tightrope isn't a drop to certain death, just a drop.
The colors have changed and we're now looking at Sakura on a white background with black lineart. Though at this point Sakura himself is the only part of the scene with messy lineart. The field of flowers and grass, as well as the edges of the panels, are all cleanly lined. Except for Sakura. Even if it's still messy, I'd say it's definitely a little cleaner than it was before.
You can see the way he's a little more faint, a little less solid than the rest of the lineart.
And then we see Bofurin, the rest of his class specifically. They're all there and they're all cleanly lined. And as Sakura reaches out to grab the hand he's offered, his lineart becomes clean. His lineart is no longer messy, it's no longer a sketch. This is him finding and accepting himself.
And as he grabs that hand, his clothes also change. Before all he was wearing was a plain shirt with plain pants, nothing remarkable, just plain clothes. But as soon as he takes that hand, his clothes change to a Furin uniform.
This entire chapter is so beautiful and I cannot wait to see it animated. I really hope the anime does it justice. From the lineart to the colors swapping around to the dialogue, it's an amazing chapter overall. I know I didn't really talk about the dialogue, but it's also good :)! I don't have much to say about it, though.
Moral of the story is that I really love this chapter and just wrote around 900 words about it.
Best thread I have read about this legendary chapter 10/10
How on Earth could you say all of this and then not also show that the tightrope was only a few feet off the ground after all
I have never noticed this. Amazing 😭😭🫡
Sasha Braus in Episode 27 - "I'm home"
would love to see sakura make a single phone call, specifically to sugishita
#175: ꜱᴀᴋᴜʀᴀ & ᴋɪʀʏᴜ