Despite ‘Wind Breaker’ Mangaka’s Own Words, Western Activists Claim Crossdressing Fighter Tasuku Tsubakino Is Actually Transgender
As tends to ironically be the case anytime a piece of Japanese media features a character who even slightly steps outside of traditional gender norms, the debut of Tasuku Tsubakino in the latest season of Cloverworks’ anime adaptation of Nii Satoru’s Wind Breaker has been met with an impressive display of mental gymnastics from Western activists whobelieve that the canononical crossdresser is actually a transgender woman.
Written and illustrated by Nii Satoru, Wind Breaker follows the arrival of one Haruka Sakura, a young loner with a penchant for fighting, as he enrolls at Furin High School, the student body of which have dedicated themselves to sharpening their own combat skills in order to protect their local hometown from a variety of criminal threats.
Though largely a stranger to anything considering ‘friendship’ or ‘comradery’, Haruka soon finds himself with a new motivation to fight and dedicates himself to rising his school’s ranks in order to become its top defender.
Of course, in order to do so, Haruka must defeat a number of the school’s best fighters, including the school’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’, a quartet of students whose skills are only surpassed by the school’s leader, Hajime Umemiya.
Included among this group is Tasuku Tsubakino (CV: Ryouto Oosaka – Naoto Tachibana in Tokyo Revengers), the current leader of the Jikoku Team.
A ‘big brother’ to his classmates who’s always ready to give anyone a second chance, Tsubakino dedicated himself to becoming the warrior he is today in order to defend his beauty, as his love of crossdressing often draws him unwanted attacks from various bullies.
Unsurprisingly, when Tatsuko made his manga debut back in 2022, many fans were quick to debate whether the Heavenly King identified as a male or a transgender female.
However, Satoru put the debate to bed in December 2024, when during an interview with series publisher Kodansha, he explicitly confirmed that Tatsuko was a crossdresser, not transgender.
“Tsubakino was planned from the start before serialization even began,” said the mangaka. “When it was decided that the story will take place in an all-boys’ school, I wanted to create a character who visually looked more feminine.”
“That was how Tsubakino’s concept started,” he added. “Then, I began to really dig into his character, and personally, I really like Tsubakino as well.”
Speaking to what the fighter thinks about himself, Satoru stated, “[He’s thinking] ‘I feel more motivated when I feel cute and pretty, and life is just more fun that way. That’s why I always want to be like this.’ That’s one of the important core values for this character.”
“That being said, Tsubakino identifies as a male,” he added. “He just happens to like a lot of feminine clothes and things that females are more likely to enjoy.”
“He loves Umemiya, which means that he’s attracted to men, but he doesn’t hate himself for it,” he further noted. “He has also accepted that his love will never be reciprocated. Tsubakino is just a character that is honest to himself and others about what he loves.”
Yet despite Satoru’s clear explanation of Tatsuko’s character, following the Heavenly King’s debut at the end of the fifth episode of Wind Breaker‘s second season, A Place I Belong, some of the series’ more terminally online fans took to social media to try and push the narrative that the crossdressing gay man was truly a transgender woman.
“It’s nice to see a manga/anime that isnt afraid to give a mtf character a big jaw and wide shoulders without diminishing how cute they are because of it,” said @ddoonnuuttsss “feels natural and fresh compared to the usual ‘draw a girl, call it a boy’ thing they usually go for.”
“How in the world anyone can say this is not trans representation ??” tweeted @gabycaq.
“Gonna be dark woke here for a sec and say the whole ‘Oh despite dressing and acting like this this character actually identifies as a man’ makes no sense,” argued @WorstGirlEva. “If she identifies as a man then why does she dresses and acts like a woman? are you stupid”
“Some of y’all seem to want Tsubaki to look dead in the camera and into your soul and say ‘I am a trans woman and identify exclusively as a woman’ before you’ll acknowledge it,” @bo_furin bleated. “Media literacy and context clues are foreign to some of you.”
This insulting of Satoru’s original work only escalated after the airing of the following episode, Hidden Feelings.
A flashback episode detailing the young Tsbuaki’s struggle with his identity, it reveals that while he originally felt ashamed of his love of girly things, he was ultimately able to accept this part of himself thanks to the love and support shown to him by his adopted grandparents.
Of course, rather than taking the episode at face value for what it was outright telling them, these activist fans instead touted its story as a depiction of the ‘typical transgender experience’.
“People are saying this character aint trans?,” @megiscold noted, retweeting a scene from said episode. “Ok lol and the sun isn’t hot.”
“Tsubaki is [a] transgender woman,” proclaimed @Oracle_Morosis. “That’s a woman. Being a man putting on lipstick is a normal thing. Being transgender isn’t.”
“I don’t care what ANYONE says to me,” declared @stupidstarslut. “Tsubaki is a trans woman cause there is no cįs explanation for this.”
Retweeting a portion of the above interview, @radiantsoulls decried, “Why do Japanese authors love to write trans women then take every chance to say that the character is actually just a regular cis dude with no trans coding whatsoever.”
Sharing the same excerpt, @malendraws asserted, “I really don’t trust people who accept this non-critically. With all due respect, it doesn’t matter that much what sensei states in some interview. The political state is such that we need to reclaim Tsubaki and end the ambiguous trans rep trope for good.”
At current, Satoru has yet to respond to this backlash from Western fans – and while it’s unlikely that he’ll give them the time of day, even if he did, he’d likely just tell them to refer back to his talk with Kodansha.
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