Line Webtoon’s popular Monday webtoon, Wind Breaker. They say it was already famous in its time in the Best Challenge. It has a catch phrase: ‘a street riding drama of the young who dreams freedom’. As it uses bicycles as its material, which is not a common one in the webtoon industry, it was a big topic at that time. I read it once when it was still in the Best Challenge, then I applauded when I found that it had become an official webtoon.

 

As it deals with extreme sports as material, it has this warning at the head of each episode. It has very beautiful drawing for my eyes, and the drawing makes a great synergy with the genre of this webtoon, when they ride bikes. Though I’m reading a webtoon but the drawing makes me feel like I’m doing the riding myself, running the road, breaking the wind. 

The protagonist of this work, Jay Jo

 

Jay is the protagonist of this webtoon and he has a great riding skill. He has good looks and he also scores the top grades in his school. And he’s the student council president. He’s an all-round jack-of-all-trades protagonist. But he focused on studying too much and he’s not well being with people. Inspired by his uncle who was a cyclist, he rides a bike steadily and he uses the riding as a solution for stress of studying. He’s depicted as having a matchless riding skill, and he and his friends later make a riding crew, Humming Bird. For him, in fact a bicycle is all he wants to do and it’s his life.

 

Minu Yoon, one of Humming Bird crew

 

He’s the former leader of Zephyros crew and the eldest son of the owner of a conglomerate of large corporations. He has a twin sister Yuna. He rides Cinelli Laser. As he’s from one of the wealthiest families, he rides such a fortune. (FYI, the Cinelli Laser is an expensive frame, and only one of them are imported to Korea.) According to the recent recollection scene of his father, it seems he had one more sister and she died in an accident. He’s a son of one the wealthiest family, but his family is not in good shape. In prologue, Jay’s helmet is written with initials MW and words that go own the game for me, so it seems he’s going to have an accident. (I think there was a picture of a wheelchair.) He was crushing on Mia, and finally they came to be together. (Mia was crushing on Jay before.)

 

Another crew of Humming Bird, Dom Kang. He’s strong as he seems.

 

At the beginning, he appeared like a bully loves to fight, but he became super popular with his sly personality and his sense of honor. His father is a leader of a gang, looking alike to the Korean actor Hwang Jung-min. They sometimes get help from the gangsters. For that, the readers tend to look for Dom’s father when the friends meet a crisis. (For such parts, this work has been criticized for glorifying gangsters.) Dom was the worst rider among the crew, but he evolves into a monster with his inborn body and physical strength, and endurance and effort. He’s peerless on endurance and will. As he has a mannish and magnanimous personality, he has a strong sense of honor and he only tracks one love. He’s the most devoted person in the work. He’s secretly crushing on Yuna, sister of Minu. Later he shaves his head bald. 

 

June Lee, one of Humming Bird crew. He’s a 3rd-year.

 

He’s a 3rd-year, senior to Jay, Dom, or Minu. He’s a mental supporter of them, so sadly appears less. As an eldest among them, he takes care of their mentality and he always think reasonably whenever of wherever he is. He doesn’t stand out, but he’s an essential one like a hidden jewel. He’s in love with a bike shop girl. (Made it!) He’s a supporter who silently supports everyone in the back.

 

Shelly, one of Humming Bird crew

 

She’s a beautiful girl with blonde hair and green eyes, transferred from the United Kingdom. She appears as a granddaughter of the principal of Sunny High. She got stolen her bag in the street and Jay who saw it by chance recovers her bag, so she crushes on him. She’s a straightforward girl who kisses Jay as soon as she’s transferred to Sunny High. (Jay Jo… what a guy. Because of it, he gets envy and jealousy from the characters in the work.) Her Korean is so good, seemingly as good as native Koreans. She ceaselessly tries to go out with Jay, but he always turns her down coldly.

 

Jay, who was studying alone to be called a bookworm, meets various friends and finds his true dream to grow up more. He, who didn’t have much human inside before, comes to learn how to react to a person, how to have a dream, and how to work together. Each of the charming characters affects each other to grow up, then they become a member of the society and enjoy the golden age of their own. Its genre looks like growth, sports, and school days, but the core of it is growth, that the adolescents with diverse mentality grow up in their own way. And the medium between them is riding a bike. To see them running for their dream, my heart throbs. I highly recommend it if you’re an adolescent, and I also highly recommend it if you’re an adult though. Not to mention if you’re interested in bikes. Click it now.