Wind Breaker

I've been reading this from the very beginning when the art wasn't anywhere near to what it became so mad respect for the author for where he got. Truly inspiring.

The story became that tipycal over the top shounen and since this is also a biking manhwa sometimes it is super ridiculous and rather funny. I thought this was also a parody but turns out it is not. In the beginning it was truly just a sports manhwa about biking and I really enjoyed it and the goofiness of the characters. Now it is nothing like that but I still enjoy it mostly because of the art to be honest.

There is two super annoying thing I can't get over, one of them is not even that important in this story but it irritates me. First of all I don't like the MC, he has no personality, yeah he made friends in the past almost 500 chapters but other than that nothing. He is just there. Second is his relationship... super annoying, lame, zero chemistry and it makes me cringe every time I am subjected to it, same goes to Vinny's relationship. I like the other couples but these two are awfull. Shelly is the Mother of SIMPS and Yumi tries so hard I feel really bad for her. The guys literally act like as if these girls were invisible until they can't avoid the unavoidable anymore... what is the point of thay? The other couples, Minu's and Dom's "relationship" is so much more real like I actually believe those characters are fond of each other.

I need to know what chapter everyone who's rating this less than a 9 has read up to. You're all out of your minds.

This series is definitely at
the top of the action and shounen genre series -- much less sports, which is so niche already. This webtoon has it all: top-tier action, high quality art (that glow-up from first chapter to even part 2, you can see the difference!), fourth wall breaking type of comedy (love all the references the author manages to stuff in), amazing pace and storytelling (great juggling between serious vs comic relief times), solid character development (even detestable characters like TJ get redemption!), and even ROMANCE to boot (all of the ships!! for Minu, Jay, Vinny, Dom, June...).

Seriously, this is such a freaking amazing webtoon. I'm absolutely certain Webtoons will make this a daily pass once it's completed, which I will hate them for (currently am caught up to part 4 ch 11, 2022 Jul 30). Still, each and every chapter will get you hooked on. It's a sports series, which might turn some people off, but this is ranked up THERE with the likes of Tower of God. Yup, it's that good.

This feels like I'm reading a dumb overly dramatic k-drama, where every part of the plot must have some drama for the plot to go forwards. Every little character here is hurt in some way shape or form, so they can use this as a ruse for "character development".

Characters most times feels stale and artificial because of all this, the overly dramatic plot and the manga becoming a fighting manga, and not a biking one are also not helping.
All in all, this is an overrated piece of webtoon.

This honestly came off as a surprise to me, a manhwa I'd read years ago when it had around 30 chapters and now it has a whooping three hundred and it took on a whole new layer of complexity. I just have to say it's an amazing sports manhwa.

Wind breaker is a manhwa that keeps shifting between slice of life and sports. The whole sports part is one big tournament through which the heroes are going and aside from maybe unrealistic figures, it sticks to reality and doesn't really go into a weird direction. One of the reasons I say that is because the characters don't really grow stronger. It's just one tournament, it lasts around a year, and they don't have time to improve that much. Their opponents don't either, and from the start they're supposed to be good enough to be among the top players. I'm not someone who has ever been into bikes but the races are genuinely fun to read, it's like an Initial D version of bike honestly.

And then there's the rest. The slice of life, the drama, the romance and the characters. I was really surprised by how lively the characters feel. Every single one of the main characters (there's multiple ones) get their spotlight at some point on another and the story quickly stops focusing solely on Jay Jo very early on. They all have complex enough personalities and they feel really fresh because they are described as troublesome teenagers with dislikeable attitudes, but just like real life teenagers that doesn't mean they're just bad people and can't make friends, so they meet and become friends and they slowly grow and change their attitude. Many of the characters are really interesting: the protagonist acting like a stuck-up nerd who can't express at all, a playboy who runs away from his problems into debauchery, a thug who seems to have become kind but loses it into violence very easily…

Every character seems to have their background story too and they usually have some pretty serious crap going on. The main protagonist has his family forcing him to study, another one has a sick mother and is too poor to get the surgery she needs… These are what drives them to unite and enter a bike race, but ultimately it's friendship that keeps them together and it's that friendship which makes them stronger to face their problems. It's a very touching story with memorable moments.

Compared to the many subpar "webtoons" out there, this one is actually worth the read (as of October 2018). There's some actual laugh-out-loud comedy thanks to references to anime, gaming etc. There is a decent balance between the racing and the character development. Speaking of chara development, each character gets a thorough backstory and are not simple cardboard characters. You tend to revise your opinion of a number of characters as you read on. There are also plenty of shounen moments, including secret power-up sessions in the mountains with a yakuza monk. Recommended.