What To Watch While Quarantined? | Run With The Wind

Hey guys! It’s been a while! I know, I know. I do this thing where I give you guys excuses why I haven’t been around whenever I come back but I don’t want to do that today. I just thought this would be a good way to come back. I wanted to share one of my favorite anime series’ and talk about why you should watch over a long-standing series during current events. I feel like everyone is going to recommend something crazy long like One Piece but I don’t want to go down that path. Let’s jump right in!

As much as I think having a long series is good to binge during these times, I think it’s all good to just binge a ton of series that are like 20+ episodes and get a variety. I plan on doing this with a few different series but to start this off, I wanted to talk about a recent favorite. I’m pretty sure I wrote about this series on a weekly basis at one point but I really think more people should watch this anime and thought this would be a good time to bring some attention to it. Let’s talk Run with the Wind!

I feel like I’ve talked this series to death, to be honest, but I really love it. I spent some of this time being locked away rewatching and it definitely still hit me like a ton of bricks! What’s so special/important about a series about running? I feel like we spend too much time running from our problems(pun intended) and that’s what most of this series is about. Yes, it’s about brotherhood and achieving the unthinkable together but it’s also about really addressing problems that you’ve got dangerously good at running from.

Run with the Wind follows the main protagonist, Kakeru Kurahara. He was once a high school prodigy on his track and field team. Due to some events that transpired during those times, he decided that he would never run competitively again. Not just competitively but with a team. He then runs into Haiji Kiyose, a college senior looking for the last runner to join his team for his last chance to achieve his goal of running in Hakone Ekiden. Will Haiji be able to get Kakeru to stop running from his problems? Can he also whip a bunch of amateurs into shape to run in this massive relay marathon? You’ll have to watch and find out.

There are many reasons why I loved Run with the Wind. I even gave it a 10/10 which I never do unless I absolutely adored it. All of the characters are well written and bounce off each other nicely. Like most sports anime, each team member finds a way to bring the others up, even the most unlikely grouping of people come together and it’s so damn enjoyable. As much as Kakeru can be kind of annoying in the first few episodes, it’s warranted when you see what he’s gone through and it feels rewarding to get through all that to see the teammate that he becomes later.

I believe I wrote a whole post about this man so I won’t spend too much time on this, but my favorite composer also worked on this series and I have to say, I think it’s one of his best works. Yuuki Hayashi is mostly known for his work on My Hero Academia and Haikyuu but I really enjoyed his work for this soundtrack. A good composer can really bring life to the already lively animation and bring emotion before anything even happens on screen.

One of the reasons I suggest this series is, it’s a great 20+ episode series that actually wraps up nicely. It’s based on a book that has no sequel that was published in 2006. Yes, you’ll still be upset because you will want more but I do genuinely like a story that closes early and nicely.

Once again, sorry I’ve been so ghost. We’ve all been going through a lot and we are trying to figure out when is the best time to come back and at what frequency. Can we write a few posts a week? Can we lock down a time to do podcast weekly again? It’s all up in the air. I do appreciate that we are still mentioned from time to time and people are still looking out for us. You guys are so supportive and that’s what makes it easy to come back and write like I haven’t been gone all this time.

Definitely check this series out if you are locked away needing something to binge. Let me know what you think about it either down in the comments below or hit me up on twitter @Blackatron_