How Sakura Deals with Judgment in Wind Breaker: A Closer Look

Written By: Fuegio Barrios
An anime-lover and a Mental Health Advocate.

Published: September 14, 2024

Last Updated: November 27, 2024

TRIGGER WARNING: This post may contain triggering words. Please read with caution. If you are feeling uneasy, you may choose to stop reading this post.

SPOILER ALERT: This post may include spoilers from the Wind Breaker anime.

“Did I assume? …”

“…That nobody would ever look at me like that?”

Sakura Haruka, (voiced by Yuma Uchida in the Japanese dub, and Austin Tindle, in the English dub), is a boy who has faced traumatic events, bullying, and emotional and verbal abuse and has started feeling a warmth in his chest.

For the first time in his life, Sakura finally feels accepted.

Sakura’s Struggle

How can a teenage boy be so guarded and filled with mistrust?

The answer is simple: Judgement.

Before moving to a new town, Sakura was called many things, but “nice” was not one of them.

This wasn’t his fault though.

It’s the other people’s perception of him that got to him. These people couldn’t trust Sakura, these people called him names and negatively spoke of him.

All because of one thing:

His looks.

Because of his natural white hair and yellow eye, these people treated him like an alien… an outsider.

And you know what? That’s just so unfair.

Because of this, Sakura struggled for the whole length of his childhood. Therefore, developing trauma and developing C-PTSD.

Two Types of Judgement

In this world, there are two types of Judgement.

The first type of judgement is external negative criticism. This is what the people in Sakura’s old hometown gave him which resulted in trauma and hurt within Sakura.

The second type of judgment, however, stems from within us. WE judge people. No, not the kind of judgement that Sakura experienced in his old hometown. This judgement is not the “being mean” type and talking about others negatively either.

This is a different kind of judgement.

This judgement stems from our own hurt.

We end up judging other people believing they’d never accept us. We judge them by believing they’d be mean to us. Therefore, we end up not giving them a chance to come close to us.

This, Sakura experienced too.

What’s the Root Cause?

What’s the root cause of the second type of judgment?

Here, the answer, too, is simple: Trauma, Pain, and Suffering.

When we come from a place of hurt, especially a hurt that was caused by others, we end up no longer trusting other people.

We feel like no one’s on our side, and no one would ever be.

This is why Sakura developed a form of mistrust towards the people in his new hometown. Even when Kotoha thanked him for saving her. Because he came from a place of hurt. Not only was mistrust formed, but anger had manifested too.

Besides anger and mistrust, fear can also be developed if our past involves hurt and trauma.

Why the anger?

Anger. One of the easiest emotions to detect.

What do I mean by that? We tend to label suppressed emotions as “Anger.”

Sakura showed anger. Lots of it. Why? Because of suppressed hurt.

This is what Sakura felt.

When people shun us or reject us to an extreme, our bodies feel an emotion of suppressed hurt which is, most of the time, labeled by our conscious mind as anger.

Because of all the anger that we feel towards these people who have been mean to us, we tend to start feeling anger towards new people as well because we end up assuming that nobody would treat us right and that everyone is the same.

However, we have all the right to feel anger. Why? Because we were wronged.

How Fear is Developed

Do you know that feeling of being nauseous when you’re exposed to a very stressful situation?

Do you feel sweaty palms, and your heart beating faster?

This is fear.

When we are traumatized by other people, we may also develop fear and even anxiety.

In Sakura’s case, he showed less fear and more anger. However, he still had fears, and they manifested in many other ways.

This fear, which stems from past trauma, can show up as well when we meet new people. We end up fearing the “unknown” in other people. The fear of worst-case scenarios that may happen between us and these new people.

We end up connecting what our mind starts fearing to our past trauma.

“Oh no, everything is going to repeat. These new people will hate me as well. They will be mean to me.”

The statement above is how most of us would feel in a new place with new people if we link our fears to our past trauma.

“Oh no, doing things for others never ends well”

The statement above was Sakura’s train of thought.

How is it related to fear? The thing is, he was afraid of doing things for other people. He was afraid to protect other people in a fight. Because for him, he feared that it would haunt him back or backfire.

An example of this fear linked to his past trauma was when he gave someone back their wallet but only to be blamed for stealing it.

These were Sakura’s fears, towards new people, linked to his past trauma.

The Weight of Judgement

This is the weight of the two types of judgement.

For both us and Sakura, these new people, including the past people, will be perceived as threats.

Guilty until proven innocent.

Then, it’s final, we close ourselves off.

How to feel Love again

With all that’s happened to us, can we ever feel love again?

The answer to this is a simple yes.

But how?

There’s only one way to feel love again:

It’s to finally open up to people who show genuine love.

Just like Sakura, who is filled with hurt, anger, and fear, learned how to open himself up to these new people.

This wasn’t easy for him to do though, so it’s understandable if it won’t be easy for you either.

Just like Sakura, you WILL be on guard. And that’s okay.

But there will be people, who will one day come into your life, and show you that they care about you.

They will give you patience and kindness. This will be a warm feeling you’ve never felt before. Just like Sakura with the people in the new town and Furin High.

Of course, people who have been hurt and traumatized in the past will find it difficult to open themselves up again, and that’s alright. Because the people who will love you will understand this.

They will understand you.

All you have to do is give them a chance.

If you or you know someone who is struggling with trauma or any other mental health issues, it is important to seek help from friends, family, professionals, or any emotional support system. Remember, you are not alone and there is always help available.

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- Fuegio from Animezin PH