Yugo Wanijima's appearance in Wind Breaker chapter 179 promises greater things to come

With its official release earlier this week, Wind Breaker chapter 179 saw Shishitoren member Yugo Wanijima make his first appearance in the mainline manga series. While he had previously appeared in mangaka Satoru Nii’s Shishitoren-centric one-shot chapter, he had yet to appear or even be mentioned in the weekly manga series.

This is obviously significant when considering the character’s journey from humble beginnings as a mobile original character to his appearance in Wind Breaker chapter 179. While Wanijima’s presence in the central narrative is significant for this unique journey alone, it also suggests that he’ll have a major role in the upcoming story arc.

Wanijima meeting Sakura in Wind Breaker chapter 179 teases a major role for the “new” character

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The significance of Wanijima’s journey to his involvement in Wind Breaker chapter 179’s events lies primarily in his aforementioned origins. While video game-original characters are common in anime and manga franchises, it’s a fairly rare occurrence to see them officially canonized. Even rarer is for their canonization to be so impactful as to appear in the mainline manga series as Wanijima has recently done.

Further emphasizing the significance of his reappearance is the idea that he’ll be heavily involved in the upcoming story arc, which appears to involve Shishitoren. In the Shishitoren one-shot, it was revealed that he was considered one of the favorites to become the gang’s next leader alongside Choji Tomiyama. The latter obviously ended up getting the job, which would seemingly have been fine with Wanijima given the confidence he showed in his competitor.

However, as fans know, Tomiyama did not initially “make Shishitoren a really fun place to be” as Wanijima theorized word-for-word in the one-shot. Instead, the group was considerably worse off than they were prior to his assumption of leadership. Although it’s unclear what Wanijima’s involvement in Shishitoren has been since then, it’s likely that he’s at least disappointed in what Tomiyama allowed the group to become, if not angry.

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With this in mind, his Wind Breaker chapter 179 reappearance all but confirms there are even greater things to come for this character with such humble beginnings. While it’s all but certain he’ll be a central character in the coming arc, it remains to be seen what role he’ll play. His hypothetical antagonistic status seems just as likely as him becoming an ally to Sakura and Bofurin given what fans know of him so far.

However, chapter 179’s events make it clear that he is greatly interested in Sakura, and thus should be significantly involved in the manga’s coming issues. Given the minimal character development Wanijima has gotten so far, it’s also likely that he’ll be a main focus for the manga’s foreseeable future. Regardless of exactly what his role ends up being, fans can count on him being a major part of the upcoming story arc which will seemingly involve Shishitoren.

Final thoughts

Sakura may soon find himself at odds with Wanijima depending on how the series progresses beyond Wind Breaker chapter 179 (Image via CloverWorks)

Although the above is speculative, it’s fairly clear that Nii has big plans for Yugo Wanijima considering his reappearance in Wind Breaker chapter 179. This is further supported by the idea that his character was already canonized via the Shishitoren one-shot. In other words, Nii choosing to bring him back signals a greater purpose beyond his canonization.

This is further supported by what little fans currently know of him. He was a prominent fighter of Shishitoren considered the favorite for their next leader alongside Choji Tomiyama, and was close with both Choji and Jo Togame. He also clearly has heard of and taken an interest in Sakura given his dialogue in chapter 179. All of this combined clearly signals that mangaka Satoru Nii has big plans in store for Wanijima, and likely Shishitoren as a result.

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About the author

Joseph has been working as an anime content specialist for Sportskeeda since the past 2.5 years. Primarily covering his core genre, he also contributes to popular culture writing news stories and cult classic features on older series.

Joseph holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware, United States. His love of anime, combined with his background in literature, influenced his interest in engaging readers through the written word. He maintains complete accuracy in his content by verifying each and every piece of information regardless of how long it takes, and ensure that the output is impartial and free of bias.

Chainsaw Man, One Piece, Berserk, Undead Unluck, Re:ZERO, Tower of God, Jujutsu Kaisen, Inuyasha, and Fire Punch are some of Joseph’s favorite animanga. His exposure to 4kids' Sonic X series, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Dragon Ball Z on Toonami fueled his enthusiasm for the medium.

When not dissecting anime plots, Joseph likes to cook, play games, work on cars, browse new music, and watch pro wrestling, especially AEW. He also enjoys ocean-based activities - beach trips, fishing, swimming and watersports.

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Edited by Joseph Brogan