wind breaker anime

Anime Like Wind Breaker

Due to his unconventional appearance and lacking social skills, Haruka Sakura was an outcast at school. However, his status as an outsider and a target made him into a scrappy fighter that he now takes pride in. As such, he enrolls in Furin High School, a school more known for its tough delinquents than its academic record.

Looking to take the top spot among its tough fighters, Sakura gets caught up in a street brawl on his way to school where he meets a group of his future classmates. He discovers that Furin has united under one man and now the group now calls themselves Bofurin, a group that keeps the town safe from other thugs looking to caught trouble.

While still wanting the top spot, Sakura ends up joining them and finally finding acceptance and camaraderie for the first time in his life.

While it boils down to just kids punching the piss out of each other, Wind Breaker does nail down that feeling of brotherhood that people often find in gangs. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Wind Breaker, head on down below.

Anime Like Wind Breaker

For Fans of Gang Wars

tokyo revengers anime

Tokyo Revengers

For Takemichi Hanagaki, his second year of middle school was when he peaked. He had a small amount of respect as a thug, a loyal group of friends, and even a girlfriend.

Fast forward twelve years later, and he is a single adult that can’t hold down a job. He has even found out that his middle school girlfriend was murdered by the vicious Tokyo Manji Gang.

After an accident, he finds himself back in middle school and discovers that he can travel back and forth in time in order to help change his past and his future.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Tokyo Revengers

  • Middle/high school kids in a gang, waging gang warfare with other gangs of delinquents
  • All gangs have a cute little dress code and the toughest guys have the quirkiest personalities.
  • Both series feature brutal brawls that accent the cementing bonds of brotherhood
  • Main characters are humbled by tougher fighters and inspired by charismatic, eccentric leaders

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Tokyo Revengers

  • Tokyo Revengers has a supernatural “time travel back and forth” element whereas Wind Breaker is fully realistic, outside of the accentuated combat power of high school delinquents – but both series have that.
  • While Tokyo Revengers is mostly about gang warfare, it does have an actual plot whereas Wind Breaker is less plot-focused.
  • Wind Breaker presents the main character’s gang as “the good guys” whereas Tokyo Revengers presents the main character’s gang as both good and bad guys, due to the time travel element.
bucchigiri anime

Bucchigiri?!

Arajin Tomoshibi has returned to the town where he lived as a child with the sole hope of getting himself a cute girlfriend. However, his new school is full of delinquents with few girls in sight.

Just when Arajin has his heart stolen by the one cutie he could find, his old boyhood friend Matakara Asamine gets him pulled into a huge brawl between two gangs.

Despite wanting to train to be a Honki person, a group of mythical strong warriors from the past, as a child with Matakara, Arajin wants nothing to do with brawling and flees. However, he ends up having an encounter with a sealed genie and genuine Honki person named Senya who fuses with him and grants him incredible strength.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Bucchigiri

  • Both series are set in schools where gangs and delinquents have overwhelmed any sort of academics
  • Both series focus on brotherhood forged through brawling for the main characters
  • Both series feature gang warfare as a major plot point
  • Clear “good guy gang” versus “chaotic bad guy gangs” set ups.

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Bucchigiri

  • Bucchigiri is more difficult to like due to its sleazy/scumbag weakling-type main character, which is much different from the likable male tsundere that is Sakura in Wind Breaker.
  • Bucchigiri has a supernatural element to some of the fighters whereas Wind Breaker is steeped more in realism.
  • Bucchigiri focuses more on the broken present-day relationship between two old friends whereas Wind Breaker is more about the brotherhood forged throughout the entire gang.
iwgp ikebukuro west gate park anime

IWGP – Ikebukuro West Gate Park

Ikebukuro is a thriving commercial district by day, but the different gang activity at night can cause issues for those that live there.

Makoto Majima works independently of any gang loyalty to solve various disputes in the neighborhood, often aided by the G-Boys, a strong gang led Makoto’s school friend Takashi Andou. However, when a rival gang known as the Red Angels starts to move in on the G-Boy’s turf, tensions rise between the two factions.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and IWGP

  • Both series are are set in neighborhoods that are overrun with gangs of delinquents.
  • At least one of the gangs is aimed at making the neighborhood a safer, better place
  • The gang politics keep threatening a full-blown war

Differences Between Wind Breaker and IWGP

  • Ikebukuro West Gate Park follows a main character that is unaffiliated with any gang, but mediates and keeps the peace between the two neighborhood gangs.
  • Ikebukuro West Gate Park is about trying to prevent a gang war and figuring out who is manipulating events in order to start one, so there isn’t actually any fighting going on.
  • Ikebukuro West Gate Park doesn’t go much into the bonds forged in between the individual gang members since it follows an mostly unrelated main character.
The gang leaders from the K anime

K

In this world, there are those referred to as Kings. They were individuals bestowed with great supernatural power and they use it to recruit others to their clan. To protect those members is a King’s great duty.

However, after a murder of a Red clan member, a student is accused of homicide. During the man hunt, the city devolves into full-on war among the Kings.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and K

  • One city, multiple gangs that are always just on the verge of a full-blown turf war.
  • The main character of the series either inadvertently starts or just happens to be present for the start of the gang war
  • Unique characters fighting each other

Differences Between Wind Breaker and K

  • Wind Breaker is steeped more in realistic, but accentuated martial arts while K features characters that often fight using supernatural abilities.
  • There are many more gangs at play in K at one time.
  • The main character in K is treated more as an individual main character while Wind Breaker focuses more on Sakura’s integration into the gang as a whole.
  • K is more of an action mystery anime while Wind Breaker is more an action drama anime.

For Fans of Schools Full of Delinquents

beelzebub anime

Beelzebub

Ishiyama High is a school full of delinquents, but they have one rule – don’t cross Tatsumi Oga, the strongest fighter in school.

One day, Oga is sitting by a riverbank when he encounters a floating man that splits down the middle to reveal a baby inside. This baby turns out to be Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV, the son of the Demon Lord.

It turns out raising the future lord of the underworld is more trouble than you’d think.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Beelzebub

  • Both series are set in schools full of delinquents
  • The main characters fight to keep their friends and towns safe
  • Lots of eccentric guys brawling with each other

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Beelzebub

  • Beelzebub has the main character taking care of a baby demon lord, so it has a bit of a supernatural element.
  • Wind Breaker is about fighting, but injects an amount of emotional depth that makes it feel more mature. Beelzebub is more shounen with its fighting since it can be more energetic and even comedic during the fights.
rokudos bad girls anime

Rokudo’s Bad Girls

Tousuke Rokudo is a first year in Aomori High, a school that is full of delinquents. While he has two good friends, he is frequently bullied by the thugs that run rampant at school.

After Rokudo receives a package from his grandfather with a scroll that is said to be able to protect him from impending danger, a strange star appears on his forehead.

Rokudo and his friends discover that now every time a delinquent girl sees him, she immediately falls in love with him. In an effort to have the nice school life of his dreams, Rokudo uses this to try and shows these girls the charm of living a happy, peaceful school life with friends.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Rokudo’s Bad Girls

  • Both series take place in schools that are overrun with delinquents.
  • The main character ends up befriending a series of delinquents at their school
  • The plots manifest a bit of a gang war element.
  • Both series highlight the strengthening bonds of friendship

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Rokudo’s Bad Girls

  • Rokudo’s Bad Girls is a comedic harem anime, and since the main character is also a nice weakling, it isn’t much about fighting.
  • Wind Breaker has some eccentricity in its characters, but Rokudo’s Bad Girls turns the eccentricity of its delinquents up several notches.
  • The message in Wind Breaker is, basically, “gangs are about brotherhood and super cool.” By comparison, Rokudo’s Bad Girls has the basic message of “being a delinquent is bad, you should enjoy your school life normally and without violence.” So the vibe it quite different.
Kumiko from the Gokusen anime smirking

Gokusen

Kumiko Yamaguchi is smart, energetic,and starting her dream job as a teacher at Shirokiun Academy. Unfortunately, she soon learns that her class in this all-boys school is a cesspool of the worst delinquents in school.

However, young Kumiko has a secret weapon, she is the heir apparent of a yakuza clan and knows how to handle rough men.

Capable of both overpowering these thugs and getting them to listen, she is ready to change the lives of her students.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Gokusen

  • Both series detail a school full of delinquents where little academics actually go on.
  • One inspiring leader brings a bunch of delinquents together and helps them work through their personal issues.

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Gokusen

  • Gokusen is about a yakuza heir-turned-teacher helping her troubled students with their personal and emotional issues, so it is not a gang series like Wind Breaker.
  • While Gokusen has the occasional fist fight, it isn’t the same sort of frequent brawling affair that Wind Breaker is.
tenjo tenge anime

Tenjho Tenge

A new school can mean a fresh new start. For Nagi and Bob, their new start means a new school to take over. However, this one will be a tough one.

Touhou Academy is no ordinary school, but one that was created for the sole purpose of reviving the martial arts in Japan. This means every student is a rival to stand in their way.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Tenjho Tenge

  • Both series start with the main characters entering high school, looking to become the top guys, then quickly finding out that the schools are full of super tough fighters.
  • Both series follow high schools that are more about fighting than academics
  • Fighting people and looking cool is often the only plot

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Tenjho Tenge

  • Tenjho Tenge is a about a high school full of martial artists, so not everyone there is a delinquent like in Wind Breaker
  • Tenjho Tenge is both more ridiculous with its action, and more occasionally ecchi
  • As an older anime, Tenjho Tenge focuses more on action than adding in more emotional depth to the fights like Wind Breaker does.

For Fans of Bonds of Brotherhood

rainbow anime

Rainbow – Criminal Seven of Compound Two, Cell Six

In 1955 Japan, delinquency is on the rise. For Mario Minakami and six other teenagers, they are not alone when they are sent to Shounan Special Reform School on criminal charges.

Once in their cell, they meet the older inmate Rokurouta Sakuragi, a former boxer, who teaches them how to survive in their new harsh prison environment.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Rainbow

  • Both series are dedicated to showcasing the bonds built by a group of scrappy young men growing up in a tough environment
  • The men are brought together by an inspiring leader
  • Gritty, manly, but still very emotionally deep stories

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Rainbow

  • Rainbow is a historical anime set in a Japanese youth prison in 1955. This is quite different from Wind Breaker’s more contemporary urban gang setting.
  • They are not a formal gang in Rainbow, just cellmates.
  • Rainbow can be more brutal with the stories it is telling.
  • Rainbow is more about character stories and the characters coming together as a bonded group to survive a terrible situation. It isn’t really a gang war/brawling anime like Wind Breaker, but does have a bit of brawling action sometimes.
banana fish anime

Banana Fish

During the Iraq War, a soldier named Griff goes insane and starts killing his own platoon. After being subdued, all he kept speaking was the words “banana fish”.

Years later, Griff is taken care of by his brother Ash, a boy who ran away from home and was taken in by mob boss Papa Dino who abused him.

Now, Ash seeks to unravel the mystery of this banana fish, a phrase that keeps mysteriously popping up in his life.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Banana Fish

  • Both series follow tough, but sensitive main characters
  • Main characters are in a gang and forge strong bonds of brotherhood with some within it
  • Gritty, bloody stories with emotional depth too

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Banana Fish

  • Though debated, for some reason, Banana Fish does have a pretty clear shounen ai romance element.
  • Banana Fish is more “Mafia-style” gangs unlike the school delinquents offered in Wind Breaker
  • Banana Fish is the more brutal series in that major characters die in pretty graphic ways.
  • While Wind Breaker is detailing the bonding of a gang, Banana Fish is about the main character dismantling his former Mafia family for revenge.
gangsta anime

Gangsta

Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo work as handymen, mercenaries that will do anything for the right price.

Working for the mob and police alike, they delve into the underbelly of the city, a place that was once haven for Twilights, people who were augmented by a special drug.

Similarities Between Wind Breaker and Gangsta

  • Both series are about the strong bonds forged between men who fight together
  • The main characters work to keep their gritty city full of tough guys safe
  • Misfits find a place in the world together
  • Both cities offer action in a tough urban setting

Differences Between Wind Breaker and Gangsta

  • As some characters have special abilities, Gangsta does have more of a supernatural element to it than the realistic, but accentuated combat in Wind Breaker.
  • Despite the name, Gangsta isn’t really about gangs like Wind Breaker is.
  • Wind Breaker explores the strong bond of brotherhood between the whole gang, Gangsta is more limited to two men who have been fighting together since their teens.

Do you have more anime recommendations like Wind Breaker? Let fans know in the comments section below.

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