One Great Panel: Wind Breaker, Part 2

That's deep.

Good news and bad news. The good news: I’m all caught up on Wind Breaker and if they stick the landing, I may rank this series as high as Hell’s Paradise, and that is exclusive company.

The bad news: I have no more Wind Breaker to read right now.

But in the process of getting caught up, I really fell so hard for this series. I keep falling so hard for it. Every time I read it or watch it, it just hits on another level. And given their tremendous knack for framing, blocking, and panels that just hit, it was inevitable I’d stumble on at least one more One Great Panel.

Here’s this one, from Vol 18, page 163:

No really, that’s deep.

Context: The main man Sakura (that’s him at the very bottom, between the peeps and the snakes), is in the final showdown with Endo, the treacherous Furin turncoat (not technically pictured here). In this battle, Sakura is having an internal crisis. He can’t quite fathom what it would mean to win or lose, and what his friends think of him. In this panel, we’re getting an artistic rendering of how Sakura feels. The peeps are his friends, trying to save him from drowning. The snakes are Endo.

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Okay, so I feel like it’s only natural to start with the artistic merits of this panel before getting into the story significance. I mean, this is some strong imagery in a series that does imagery so well. For volumes, Sakura would have frequent mental imagery depicting him walking on a tightrope over an empty void. That gave way to him falling off the tightrope and landing on the grass with his friends. It was totally adorable.

That imagery morphed in the battle with Endo to him drowning, and Endo trying to hold him under the water. This is the big crescendo, the pivotal moment. The snakes, which have been established as Endo, are pulling Sakura down into the depths, where he will lose himself. Above him, his friends are trying to pull him back up above water.

Artistically, it’s brilliant how the top and bottom of the panel differ. Below, it fades into the same blackness that Sakura saw under the tightrope. The big difference being that the tightrope was actually not so far a drop, where as this one, the drop is known—the drop is Endo. He will figuratively (and maybe literally too) die if Endo gets the better of him.

The top of the panel still expands into light, with all of his friends up there, white figures themselves, reaching for Sakura to pull him back up.

But what’s really great about this panel is the proportions. Sakura is exactly halfway up or down the panel, depending on your perspective. Glass is half full or half empty kinda thing. Also yes, I did measure.

Not only is this panel the turning point of the battle, the pivotal reckoning in Sakura’s mind, but in the panel itself, Sakura is literally at the midway point of this tug of war. No winner is in sight.

And that segues well into the story relevance of this panel. All this time, Sakura has struggled to understand what community means to him, and how not to blame himself for everything bad that happens to them. It’s really such a tremendous internal journey, and this panel is one of the first where, even in his internal journey, he is completely dependent on his friends. And that’s why this panel hits so hard.

Sakura isn’t alone. He hasn’t been this whole time, but this whole sequence is reminding him once and for all that he isn’t alone. And that’s a mighty fine thing.

Previously on MangaCraft!