We’re three episodes in, and I can honestly say I only have one real problem with Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru. And I’m not even sure it’s an actual problem or, if it is, what kind of problem it is. That is to say, Haiji. Frankly, I just don’t like the guy. I’ve never liked guys like him either in real life or on the screen – the ones who think other people’s lives are theirs to play with. And convince themselves that their own goals are noble and thus, it’s noble to exploit and manipulate others in order to achieve them.
Am I being presumptive here? No doubt – we’re only two episodes into this series. But I’ve known a few Haijis in my day, and you can spot them a mile (or let’s say 5 KM) away. The thing is, I’m not exactly sure what Miura Shion (the author of the novel) wants me to think about Haiji. Maybe I’m not supposed to like him – maybe I’m reacting exactly as I should be. Maybe I’m supposed to find him charming and funny (no to the former, sort of to the latter) and be swept up in his dedication to the cause (nope, not yet). I guess the answer to that, at least, will become clear over the next few episodes.
That’s definitely a difference between this series and Fune wo Amu, likewise a story about obsessions and those who pursue them. I never resisted getting swept up with those people – maybe in part because their cause connected with me more viscerally, but also because I didn’t find their methods so distasteful. What Kaze ga Tsuyoku is communicating effectively is just how badly Haiji wants this – that he’s desperate to succeed and willing to go to any length to do so is clear. I’m just not convinced yet that I should by sympathetic.
Kakeru, on the other hand, has an arc I’m finding more relatable – even if he’s hardly been Mr. Congeniality himself. Stealing the bread was bad, yes – and kudos to Haiji for handling that situation the right way. But Kakeru is somebody who’s clearly dealing with a lot of personal pain, and he’s not trying to drag anyone into his problems. That’s probably not healthy for him, and ironically for all Haiji’s douchebaggery Kakeru is someone he probably is helping by forcing him to connect with the world. But I’ve been where Kakeru is right here – not as regards running, but in life generally. And it’s not an easy place to be.
The latest twist in Haiji’s chicanery is getting the vegetable seller’s daughter Hanako (Kimura Juri) to act as a lure to motivate the guys to run. I won’t overstate the case by comparing what he’s doing here to prostitution, but it is fundamentally disrespectful to her and frankly kind of gross. In other words par for the course for what we’ve seen of Haiji so far, and – also par – pretty effective. Certainly on the twins anyway, but then even if you pooled their intellects I doubt they’d be bright enough to illuminate a phone booth.
As for the others, Prince continues to struggle badly – to the point where I have doubts whether it’s safe to even force him to run 10 KM at this point (though “run” would be overstating the case). The lawyer-t0-be Iwakura Yukihiro (Okitsu Kazuyuki) is the first to stand up for himself – going out clubbing at night and blowing off the morning run. But Haiji basically threatens to destroy his social life if Iwakura doesn’t play along, and that more or less breaks his resistance. Musa continues to deal with casual racism from the others, but at least Miura is pointing it out (through him) – I hope someone else in the cast acknowledges it too at some point.
The crux of all this is that the Ekiden remains a ridiculously difficult hurdle for these noobs to overcome. The race may be 10 months away but even to enter they must pass a qualifier where only the top 20% survive, and to do that each of them must be able to clock a 16:30 5K or 30:00 10K – which, for the record, is damn hard. So it’s not enough for just Haiji and Kakeru to be fast – and now some ugliness from Kakeru’s past seems to have reached out to jab at him again, leaving his own state of mind even more in doubt. I guess, in that context, maybe Haiji’s extreme methods do make more sense – desperate times call for desperate measures, and the task he’s set for himself is full-on desperate…
leongsh
October 17, 2018 at 11:03 pmSo far, it is still Haiji that is the most interesting character, despite him being so desperate and manipulative to get his way into qualifying and running that New Year marathon relay. There are plenty of little bits being dropped here and there about him that intrigue me. Like the scar on his right leg, the neighbourhood folks being supportive of his goal to run that race, that hint of darkness behind his cheerful manipulative facade, Nico giving hints that he may knownor understand Haiji, etc. You may not like him or his type because you may have suffered before due to these type of people. Granted, a number of these people are real bastards and bitches but not all are. Let’s see how it all plays out.
This episode starts to provide us a deeper look into Kakeru by ending it with a blast from his past to spice things up.
The rest are bit players but we will get to know them better and probably some may get a bit more background than the intro we got in the first episode.
The show continues to interest me and I will be watching this to the end.
animealex
October 18, 2018 at 12:58 amI thought a little bit about why I like Haiji and am not bothered by his manipulations as much as I probably should be. The answer is that I’m putting him at the moment in the same category as characters who I like to watch in any kind of fiction (and who are big contributors of making the show for me) while they would be hell on earth to know in real life. This list includes such illustrious characters like Bakugou Katsuki, Petyr Baelish (Book Version) and even good old Hisoka. In short (borderline) sociopaths who are driven by their goals and are surprisingly successful while being entertaining as hell for the audience. Note I’m not saying that this characters are all the same (they are not!), I’m just trying to explain why I’m not bothered by Haiji’s antics as much as I should be and instead even look forward to them.
Moving on, despite the casual racism towards Musa, he is still very much treated like one of the boys by the others and I like that.
To be frank, I never thought about prostitution in any way regarding using Hanako to motivate his team mates, but I agree that it is a) distasteful and b) successful. Like all of Haiji’s schemes so far. One of the make or break points of Haiji’s character will be when one of his plans fails and we see how he copes with that. The other will be if there’s a line too dastardly to cross for him.
Last but not least: I was surprised that my first association with the redhead from Kakeru’s past was Shinji from F:SN. And that people on other sites thought the same. If his character is anything like Shinji then I think that he will become a target of Haiji that no one will mourn.
Orin
October 18, 2018 at 3:46 amThe thing about Petyr Baelish is that he is clearly presented as an evil bastard to us, and we can absolutely enjoy evil bastard characters in fiction. The “problem” with Haiji so far, like Enzo said, is that we still don’t know what we are supposed to think about him. And I sure hope that we are not supposed to admire this guy who is pursuing his dream at any costs (but I am afraid that we are).
Maybe he has a noble reason for that, and maybe this whole training and race will bring a lot to those people. But even then, I don’t think it would justify his actions in the first three episodes.
Guardian Enzo
October 18, 2018 at 6:31 amExactly as Orin beautifully put it. If indeed we’re supposed to feel admiration for what Haiji is doing (and that’s still an open question IMO) I would say that undermines the integrity of the series as a whole.
elianthos80
October 18, 2018 at 3:54 amSomehow I had a feeling about who the ‘problem’ would be…
That said, 1) a little hug back in time to your inner Kakeru
2) projecting has its pros and cons when analyzing, we’ll see how on-point some considerations will end up being
3) I still find Haji pretty entertaining as the engine of the plot and he made me cakle a couple of times this time – ah the diverting manipulative devil X,DDD – 3b) hey the whole neighborough and his doggo love him, there must be something there.
Relatedly, going by the scene at the grocer’s and the dialogue I got the impression Miss Highschool Motivational Bait was fully informed of the scheme and plenty at ease with being the carrot to his stick for the sake of the local team return to glory… but are you really comparing playing the boys wish to impress the one fully clothed and non-flirting – and hardly affected by male gaze style camera work – female presence to prostitution? Seriously? Seriously?
Talking of projecting: looking at the guys this week felt a bit like a trip to the past ***
– Rooting for ‘Ouji’ not to exhale his soul out for good. May the butterfly fairies foreshadow his figuratve rebirth… those super eyelashes should help him cut the air resistance a little bit HE HAS POTENTIAL :,)
– ***The gruesome first miles of traning reminded me both of when OUAT before my calamitous puberty I was a little lithe running squirrel and that one time just my first puberty growth spurt when we had to run in the woods as part of summer Boy Scots camp team games… I had lost my speed for sprints but I still had decent stamina for cross country running. But between being out of it that day + effed limb cohordination I barely completed my stretch of the run. In the last 100 meters or so my team mates had to half-carry my sorry hyperventilating sweaty ass so I could flop and die on the finish line at least ( and then we got handed tea brewed with the recycled salted water from our earlier pasta lunch – somehow the management had forgot to resupply drinking water – . Unforgettable cuppa with that lingering meat ravioli flavour… XDDD ).
Guardian Enzo
October 18, 2018 at 6:34 amHaiji being well-liked by people who probably know nothing about him says nothing about his character (in the larger, not narrative) sense except that he’s good at BSing people and/or schmoozing.
He’s using a girl (underaged, mind you) as bait and eye candy to manipulate young men into doing what he wants. Any way you look at it, that’s sleazy IMO.
elianthos80
October 18, 2018 at 7:31 am‘Probably?’ we can’t really say one way or another so far though, can’t we? But you seem to have already decided the guy is a 100% manipulative sociopath monster 24/7 😛 ( even Hitler was arguably liked by his doggo… never mind said doggo looked sort of scared to me next to him ) . Let’s just keep watching and wait.
About the girl… eh. Basically she’s filling the cute school team manager eye candy slot by just existing in their proximity + bringing a tangible proof by her said mere existence that hardworking guys working hard to attain celebrity will be noticed! Yay! Notice the only two falling for it are the twins – half working neurons between them or not that’s their fault (or virtue) to be so powerfully motivated into tranining from hell and path to glory by simply a whiff of estrogens – .
Sure introducing her to the group involves exploiting a weakness ( guys like girls generally and might go out of their way for dem ladies ) but it’s very very lighthanded (if anything the hypotetical ìhordes of girls for you if you do this and that’ scenario is more potentially questionable) . Like, literally the one girl tangibly around is just smiling and biking and being inspirational as a result, so far. She’s not flirting, slutting, doing anything odd to achieve that. Furthermore by the power of Occam and food service logic you (as in Haji here) would be a counterproductive fool to mess with the decent-until-proven-otherwise people sourcing your team nutrients. But oy if you prefer spotting shady conspiracy everywhere who I am to stop you and who knows by next week the whole neighbourohood is revealed to be a den of manipulative bastards or gullible sheep with Haji as their eeeeebil sheperd :D.
There are many Beatrix and Virgil and more or less reluctant Dante figures (or team of the latter XDD) in fiction. Some are trickier than others. Again, let’s just wait and see. Lay the goggles down and r-e-l-a-x.
Well, until we know better what the deal is with the new character from Kakeru’s past at least. I’d be more worried about him…* brings jelly babies *
Guardian Enzo
October 18, 2018 at 7:44 amWow, hyperbole much?
You can throw all the inflammatory terms I never used around that you want, that doesn’t change the fact that Haiji has been behaving in dishonest and manipulative ways. And if you don’t find what he’s doing with Hanako creepy and sexist fine, it’s a matter of opinion – I do.
The problem, as Orin noted above, isn’t so much Haiji’s behavior but the lack of clarity about what the author thinks about it. I love characters like Hisoka and, say, Tywin Lannister (and no, I don’t put Haiji in their class either morally or as entertaining characters). But it’s clear from the very beginning (literally in those two cases) where the story stands with those guys. They may be magnificent bastards and very complicated, but they’re not the sort of guy every parent would want as a son – or their son’s best friend, or marrying their daughter.
What would make a big difference with Haiji is some sense that he knows what he’s doing is wrong, or his getting bitten in the ass by his behavior in such a way as to make it clear he’s not being held up as an exemplary model. That may very well happen, or it may not. Whether it does will be very important in how I ultimately view both the character and the story.
kiwi
October 21, 2018 at 12:50 pmI agree, Enzo. Having a high school girl hang out with a bunch of older college dudes rubs me the wrong way in most any setting, especially this one… just yuck.
It hasn’t really put me off the show entirely however, because I hope the show will acknowledge how much of a little bastard Haiji is being … Then again, with the way Hanako’s father seemed to be supportive of the whole thing doesn’t really put me at ease…
How hard was it to write a female college character into the story? seriously it would have made it seem a lot more believable, as well.
elianthos80
October 18, 2018 at 8:01 amIt was not meant to be inflammatory (and the dog bits was actually directed at me as I had brought that upf first ) but seems I need to pay my dues to the internet misunderstanding/can’t convey tone altar gods this time.
In short: I think we do not really have enough elements for negative judgement on his character intentions, moral alignement, the author’s intent, whatever you want to call it, yet. And for me this is still fine as we are in the early phases of the story. His behaviour is not unproblematic but so far – key being so far – makes for more overall enjoyable watching than not for me. By next week and the more the story unfurls that could well change. I’m waiting and seeing. And shutting up until next week as evidently I can’t express myself decently enough. My apologies and thank you for your patience.
foodie
October 18, 2018 at 8:31 amI don’t think we’re supposed to especially like Haiji, but he certainly is leading the show.
Why wouldn’t Haiji just go to another school/club so he can actually compete without all the machiavellian manipulations?
I think it’s because of his injury, it would almost certainly eliminate him from strong competition. So instead he goes to some school with a forgotten running pedigree and joins the long forgotten club.
Notice how much everyone besides the actual roommates are well aware of his plans, it’s because he’s obsessive and has mentioned it to just about anything he has I teracted with over the last 4 years.
Also, with such a great deal, he could of likely filled the dorm early on, why did it take 4 years? Perhaps his injury is #1, but he also clearly picked people he felt confident he could strong arm into the race if he got his 10 man team together.
All very manipulative for sure but I think we’re supposed to follow the logic of why Haiji does, and is able to do, what he does.
yujacha
October 18, 2018 at 8:35 amI wouldn’t say I like Haiji but I don’t think most of his actions were /as/ terrible as you characterize them. Most of the others join of their own volition, even if they need a little coaxing. It was cruel of him to force Prince to join by threatening him with eviction. And following Yukihiro(?) around is crossing a line. But at the same time, they’re all living at this place for cheap and they really should have read the fine print. I don’t think it’s that unfair of him to ask them to leave if they don’t participate, even if they were misled about the conditions of living there. But I like running (though the longest I’ve run is only a 10k), so maybe that’s part of why what he did doesn’t seem as big of a deal to me as it did to you. And as for Hana… idk, she knows why Haiji asked her to help and for whatever reason, she’s still willing to go along with it. And anyway, she’s just acting as an encouraging audience. If the guys start making comments about her or something, I will probably change my mind but while I was watching, I honestly didn’t think much of it. But who knows, I might just be densensitized to this kind of grossness in anime.
Haiji is an manipulative asshole but the characters around him seem to know that about him, and him being a manipulative asshole is what’s making the story happen. I don’t think it’s a detriment to my enjoyment of the show. My reaction to him has been distrust but mostly curiousity about why he’s so single-minded and ruthless about the Ekiden. At the same time, I hope that whatever it is won’t automatically excuse him from the shady things he’s done. I guess we’ll see what happens.
Flower
October 18, 2018 at 9:01 amAfraid I am in the same boat as Enzo here … atm I just plain don’t like Haiji, and pretty much have not liked him from the get go. I am all for giving someone the benefit of the doubt, but the thing is thus far I have not really seen something to move me to give him that.
I have seen his interacting with other people in ways that show positive and healthy elements … but there is a difference between someone doing that with others on a day to day level who have no immediate “use” to his getting what he wants, and how they behave towards those who CAN help him achieve what he wants. The fact that he has good relations with others is a good sign, but not a deal breaker for me to give him the benefit of the doubt.
That being the case – as some have pointed out, we don’t know what is going on here and it is heavily indicated that there are other things going on … and perhaps even that the audience should wait to see more of Haiji’s “cards”.
say
October 19, 2018 at 5:26 amI don’t understand why Hana’s scene would have been gross: is that bad to invite a girl to a training session to inspire the runners? I don’t get it. -to me it isn’t that different from inviting a parent to support his/her child. The elders even recognised how silly it was for the twins to fall to this trap. I don’t like nor dislike Haiji, I simply think that it’s fine if he is pushy. None of them ever mentioned they would try to move elsewhere, perhaps because since Haiji provided them with a roof over their heads at least they think they should go along with his wish, after all they won’t be blamed if they don’t match the expectations. Haiji seems happy as long as they try, he didn’t get mad at the Prince, for instance because he was slow.
Orin
October 19, 2018 at 7:25 amIt is at the limit of being gross (at least to me) because this scene would never happen if Hana was an ugly girl, because she is underage.and because some of them like Nico-chan are around 25. Where I live, if a group of university students start to flex their muscles and brag because some cute16 years old girl is approaching their group, people will call them creep. What save this scene, like someone said, is that she is at least not flirting or sexually teasing them. And do you honestly believe that the support of your parents and that of a unkown cute girl is the same?
“at least they think they should go along with his wish” > But that’s the point : they are not all thinking that, Yuki and Prince in particular. Why should they try if they absolutely don’t want to? He is blackmailing both Prince (by threatening to kick him out) and Yuki (by threatening to destroy his social life) to try every single morning.
In the end I cannot say it better than Yuki himself : “I don’t exist for your purposes!”.
(Btw, I realize that this the tone of this post might seem rude, and I apologize for that because it is not my intention at all).
Guardian Enzo
October 19, 2018 at 7:37 amOne could argue that act where she ran down the hill and her skirt flipped up was pretty damn flirty.
Say
October 20, 2018 at 8:23 pmYeah, it is at the limit. When they flexed their muscles I laughed aloud because yes, it is a weakness, but very common to brag around a cutie. If you have confidence with the mangas of Rumiko Takahashi you’d know that ‘the maniac’ is a comical traditional mask in manga played for laughing. I would prefer the soft interpretation we found here though. Knowing where it is coming from perhaps I developed a higher tolerance than you to this trope.
A parent isn’t the same, of course, but in lack of better…
kiwi
October 21, 2018 at 12:54 pmi completely agree with Orin. How hard would it have been to write a female character that wasn’t underage? Like seriously….
leongsh
October 19, 2018 at 8:09 amTake a step back and you will find that fundamentally, they are staying at the training dorm of the track and field club. If they choose to stay on, they are obliged to participate in the track and field club’s training activities. If they don’t, there is always the choice of moving out. They can always look for a place to move to during the day after classes/tutorials. Not participating in the training but staying on at the dorm and having meals there is just wanting their cake and eating it too. That’s the root cause. Haiji is not stopping them from leaving the dorm.
Say
October 20, 2018 at 8:24 pmThat’s my point too.
JJ
October 21, 2018 at 7:49 amI’m liking what I see so far, but even without referring to any write-ups it feels like this was a story written with a more youthful fervour compared to The Great Passage. It’s moved the story at a pace (heh), I admit to finding most of the gambits entertaining, and ultimately if they didn’t pay off this would be a much sohrter series. But the lack of dignity is worrying, and if it continues it will take one hell of a revelation (presumably from Nico) to validate Haiji’s more underhanded methods. As regards to Kakeru, I’ll hold off any Your Lie In April comparisons for now, but I am not a fan of the “anything-goes-in-the-pursuit-of-recovery” that seems to be dished out in media far too often.
Speaking of age, if anyone is still unconvinced as to the sketchiness of Haiji recruiting Hanako (regardless of her willingness or “relative” modesty to other examples in anime), let’s be generous and assume the former is 20 at his youngest; the latter 16 at her oldest.
20 / 2 = 10, 10 + 7 = 17, 17 > 16.
P.S. The qualifying times for 5k and 10k were 16:30 and 30:00 respectively. Discounting an incorrect translation, it doesn’t make sense to me for the shorter distance to require a longer time.
Future Imp
October 22, 2018 at 5:44 amNot having much of a visceral reaction to Haiji. He’s more of a meh trope character in terms of the anime characterization. Have no idea how the source material handles this. Maybe he’s tropey there too?
But as to your problem, if it’s still there by ep5, I’d just drop the series. I mean, we’re at ep2 for Karakuri Circus, and Shirogane hasn’t worked for me since the beginning. VA seems cloying and the character design would appear to be an anthropomorphic seal or porpoise given the excessive rounding. So I’m probably dropping after ep3 there.
Even though Fall is thin, it’s better to drop as opposed to slog through. That’s my mileage/tolerance, at any rate.
Rotond
October 23, 2018 at 3:56 amShe’s a college student in the original, but they changed it to high school in this version for some reason… gross. A lot of the changes they made have left me going ???
Guardian Enzo
October 23, 2018 at 6:26 am“Some reason”?
Rotond
October 23, 2018 at 7:39 pmSorry, I don’t mean that there’s an actual reason out there. I just can’t help but feel like changing her age had sleazy intentions behind it because they kept everything else about her character the same, and it’s not like it actually affects the story overall. I’m not exactly thrilled at the prospect of a bunch of college dudes swooning after a girl who’s still in high school.
Orin
October 23, 2018 at 4:55 pmIf this is real…
Simone
October 27, 2018 at 5:52 pmHonestly, having just watched this episode, the show is starting to lose me because I really can’t connect with what it seems to be saying at all. Everyone who’s the voice of reason gets silenced and the narrative keeps plunging on along the lines of the typical sports story. Unless it’s some massive deconstruction and has them defeated at the preliminaries, Haiji called out for his bullshit, and the rest of the show is about the others teaching HIM how to relate to humans and enjoy running as a pleasure, not this insanely competitive thing he seems to be hooked to, I don’t really think I’ll care much for it, for all the good execution that it’s otherwise doing. It just doesn’t make much sense and would be way too unrealistic if they won anything at all.