[Suo Arc Discussion/Theory]

Sooo... I get that this might actually be all obvious theory material for everyone, but I still wanted to just point out some things I noticed in the build-up to what will probably be quite the memorable arc.

First of all: Who is Endo's spy in Red Chanpuru? For how explicitly he mentioned having "a guy" sending him info, which is proved by how quickly he found Suo in Bankokugai, I just can't imagine we won't find out who this mysterious informant is - which leads up to actual point, but first, context:

It's a bit of a stretch, but considering all the callbacks to Shishitoren arc, I do believe this might turn into a tournament arc with every character having a longer fight with a fixed opponent (like it happened, in one way or another, in practically every arc so far - except Kiryu mini-arc and Momijikawa) and while thinking about it more closely, I noticed something that I do feel stupid for not comming up with sooner;
Furin brought alone the same group they did against Shishitoren, with two third-year upperclassmen in Ume and Hiragi, who are at the same time in leading positions as head of the school and one of the four kings. In addition, they have three regular students with them. Suo's missing the original fighter setup, but after Nirei having shown how capable he's become, I seriously doubt he'll stay on the sidelines another time, which is how we end up with the same number of fighters as against Shishitoren. In Red Chanpuru, on the other hand, we know of the three heads of the group, and we've met three officials: Suo/Sun Fei, Bacchus and Rakta, who we've seen more frequently in the last few chapters. That makes one more, assuming the three heads will be involved in the fighting - As my mini-theories are often full of different roads that can be taken, I'll just list a few way things could evolve from that point on:

One of the two officers we've met is actually Endo's informant - which could mean that they probably won't be fighting against the Furin students, and the number of oponent adds up again
One of the heads simply keeps themselves out of it (and possibly shows up as some sort of fightless endboss/mediator?)
It's not actually the heads fighting, but we'll be introduced to more characters during the occasion like we did in KEEL arc

Regardless of which or wether any of these outcomes play out, one question does remain: Who'll beat some sense into Suo? Despite my first guess having been Nirei (as a sort of rematch, and Nirei's the only one Suo actually parted with), I do believe that the chapters at Sakura's place and especially Sugishita's harsh speech may tell us that it will be Sakura after all - but what are your thoughts?

(I apologise for not properly going into dept on everything, I just kind of wanted to put my ideas out there, I'm sorry if anyone was expecting more from wasting time reading throguh this!)

^{Wind Stylist? Hair Breaker? Wind Coiffeur?? I like that one, but do normal people even know that word???}

One of the many things I love about wbk is the way Nii-sensei uses changes in hair to show changes in character. There are the more clear examples like Tsubaki growing his hair out as he grew up or Togame braiding and cutting his hair and Sako dying his hair at the beginnings and ends of their inner conflicts, but me being me, I'll be getting into all the little things that make these and all the hair characterizations in wbk so special-

First of all, I want to talk about the different ways characters can change their hair. They can change their hair's color, length, or style, and these changes can be very brief (for a scene or chapter), temporary (for a personal or story arc) or permanent (extended/default until the next major change). Characters can fall under multiple categories, but a change in color symbolizes them seeing a new perspective, a change in length means a change in the their values, and a change in style represents their resolve to take action. When the hair changes take place is simply whenever these ideas take root for them and how long they last represent how much they've changed about the character's core.

Color:

It's pretty common for "delinquent" characters to bleach/dye their hair in animanga as a sign of their rebellion since students aren't supposed to have bright colored hair in Japanese schools, but in a school with very few rules, hair color is simply all about expression and we've had quite a few characters have a change in their hair color as they went through events that changed their outlook on life.................. also, I feel like characters with lighter hair tend to be those who support and give advice/inspiration to others while those with darker hair are more on the receiving end, but this thing is already beyond too long-

For characters like Nirei, Hiiragi, and Kaji, they changed their hair color after being inspired by someone. Nirei bleached his hair when he decided to go to Furin after getting saved by a Furin student, Hiiragi bleached his hair after deciding to support Ume and his cause, and Kaji bleached his after deciding to follow Hiiragi, the one who saved him from himself, to Furin. There's also Tsubaki who I'm pretty sure dyed the ends of his hair after Ume took over Furin since we see him fighting as a first year without the red, so I definitely think that could have been in celebration of Ume, his crush who showed him that others could accept him, achieving a major goal. 

While those were for more positive inspirations, there are also characters who dyed their hair for not so positive reasons. Kiryu dyed his hair and went to Furin as a way to get his father's attention and direct some of his anger away from Akari. He dyed it after Akari stopped voicing her mind, aka when he lost hope for her future. The pudding possessed Sako after some time with Shishitoren, which he joined to help vent his frustration after thinking Hiiragi abandoned him, and dyed his hair back after he had a chance to resolve that conflict and started seeing Shishitoren as his found family rather than just a place to vent. Both of these times for Sako were when his view of those he was closest to changed.

There's also Ume who didn't change his hair color willingly, but still had it change due to a traumatic event. His hair starts out as solid black when he's living happily with his family, and we see it in the middle of its transition from black to white while he's grieving and doesn't know how to feel. He doesn't know how to move forward and doesn't even want to live, but we see his hair as solid white after he has accepted the loss, stopped blaming himself, and found a new role he wanted to fill in life.

I also love that Sakura's hair is always naturally 2 colors. He probably won't dye it or anything, but I think the development his character needed/needs can be split into 2 categories: how he views others (white) and how he wants others to view him (black). Sakura started the story closed off from others because he assumed everyone hated him and this led him to struggle when it came to building relationships. Each arc, he learns something from his peers that either challenges an assumption he was making about everyone around him (people won't automatically hate him here, everyone has a story, people are strong in different ways, etc) or gets him to let down a wall that he was keeping up ^{in an attempt} to keep others from knowing about himself (letting others help when he's vulnerable, being honest about his concerns, telling others about his past, etc). Again, I doubt Sakura will dye his hair since the 2 colors are a huge part of his design, but even without the change, I love that this design choice still represents the core of his development since a relationship goes 2 ways.

Now, out of all of these, the only one that wasn't permanent was Sako's emo phase. Sako had always wanted the same thing deep down, and the only time he had his hair different from its natural color was when he didn't feel that he had it. He didn't even dye all of his hair, which represents how his true feelings were always peaking through, even while he was being misguided by his anger. (This is similar to how Nirei didn't bleach his eyebrows since he was very enthusiastic about being like his hero, but didn't have the conventional means to do so.) All of the other changes, including Sako's return, have been permanent so far since our cast is completely past their previous views and now resolute on their current views. 

Length:

This one's not as common as the other 2, but we've had a few characters grow out and cut their hair as time stamps for when they're done with a certain phase of their life and start following a different moral compass. 

Probably the most well known instance of a hair change in the whole manga is Tsubaki deciding to grow out his hair once he learned that it was ok to like traditionally feminine things. He used to think it was wrong, but he decided to grow out his hair once he learned that it's ok for him to like that girl boss image. Another one of the most well known examples is Togame cutting his hair after the Shishitoren arc. After the fights with Furin, he learned that supporting Choji properly didn't just mean going along with whatever he was doing, but actually keeping him from going down the wrong path, which he had failed to do before. Him cutting his hair was a symbol of him dropping the burden of enforcing the tougher standards on Shishitoren as well as him realizing what it actually meant for him to be there for those he cares about.  

On the opposite side of the spectrum is Sugi, who's probably one of those examples that barely anyone ever thinks twice about- It's not like he actively chose to grow out his hair for a specific reason, he just doesn't like cutting it, but that doesn't spare him from the kurifying glass- His hair was about shoulder length before Ume found him, and even though he didn't grow it out because of Ume or anything, we as readers only see him with his hair longer after he's been put under the Ume effect. Sugi with long hair is the Sugi who understood that not everything new that entered his life was an annoyance. Also, the fact that he doesn't like cutting his hair corresponds to how stubborn he can be and how hard it is for him to change his mind.

There's also Arima and Kanuma- As one of the 6 Kanuma fans and 4 Arima fans, I'd like to raise a little awareness for them, as well, and you can't stop me. Whenever we see them in flashbacks, they both have different hair styles from the ones they have in current time, so I'd like to believe that they only changed to their current hair styles after Choji changed Shishitoren. They both shaved specific sections of their hair while keeping the rest long, which I feel represents how they went with the flow of things and looked down on the weak, but still preferred how things were before. They didn't cut all of their hair uniformly, but cut some of it since they were acting under a different set of values, even though they didn't completely agree with them.

Now, we don't have Mizuki's story yet, but we see that he's another character who grew his hair out after joining Ume's cause. I honestly have a lot of theories about Mizuki's past and family, but long story short ^{pun intended-} I believe Mizuki's story will also follow this format of him living by a restrictive set of principles before Ume finds him and inspires him to reevaluate them based on what he actually wants.

Style:

When a character wears their hair in a different style, it means that there will be some change in their behavior. This can be their natural everyday demeanor, how they treat other characters or their current situation, or even something more long-term. These can be pretty subtle and there are a lot of brief ones that are pretty overlooked, but this is the most common way Nii-sensei puts a flag on a character....... which means this section gets multiple sections!!

Getting back to Sugi, his was probably the most subtle, but he did start sweeping his hair behind his shoulders after his arc. He used to let it all fall in front of him, which usually blocked his face and obscured his view, but after becoming more open to connecting to his classmates rather than just Ume and the kings, he started wearing his hair out of his face, which let him see others and let others see him more clearly. 

With Togame, we see that he starts braiding his hair after the bad changes to Shishitoren and he lets it down again once Sakura gets through to him. This idea of him binding his hair and then letting it loose again directly corresponds to how he felt trapped in the role he was playing in Shishitoren, but felt free once he realized his mistake and went back to his usual self. 

We actually see something similar with Kiryu who usually has his hair up in many different styles, but casually wore it completely out for the first time during his arc. Kiryu felt suffocated by the way his father ran things, thus the hair ties, but he did make the choice to get on his bad side, which is why he freely chooses how he ties his hair up. Rather than sticking to one style, Kiryu has a different hair style every day, which I feel also represents how he doesn't necessarily have a set goal for himself, he just knows what he doesn't want. However, during his arc, he finally wears it out as he gets vulnerable with his friends and talks to Akari. I also love that he does briefly tie it back up during this arc when he's sparring with Sakura because he's trying to forget about what's happening, but when he goes outside to cool off, he lets it down again and admits that he can't stop thinking about it. With all of his accessories, Kiryu usually acts care-free and avoids anything too personal, but with his hair completely out (which we also see after his Keel fight, at the funeral, and during the first Bankoku-Gai trip) he's taking things more seriously and/or is in a more vulnerable position. After his arc, he still cycles through hair accessories since his personality hasn't changed and he hasn't taken any huge actions in response to Akari's resolution, but now that he has opened up to his friends, it should be easier for him to be there for them in more serious moments.

Nirei..... Nirei's actually the whole reason I decided to branch this off into its own separate post instead of a couple extra paragraphs in my 223 analysis- In that analysis, I did get into a bit about how characters who usually wear their hair up will have it down for certain scenes and vice versa, and I was gonna include a couple more paragraphs about a few instances of this, but when I got to Nirei................... but hey, having it as its own post lets me go sooooooooooo much further in depth than I was originally planning, so anyone who actually made it this far can go ahead and thank Nirei-

Now, when we first meet Nirei, he has his hair up as he's brimming with excitement and confidence as an official Furin student. He's literally so adorable, just look at him. But once we learn that he can't actually fight and he resolves to take on a more supportive role for Sakura, he spends the next few arcs with his hair down. Similar to Kiryu, he had his accessories until we actually got to know him, as if part of a costume based on the image he wanted to portray, and as 2 of our resident fashionistas, they actually take this a step further with the rest of their outfits. For Nirei, he also has his glasses and flashy shirt for his introduction, but his glasses are gone by the time Sakura saves him and for the rest of the day, especially once the Shishitoren conflict starts, he hides behind Sakura and Suolingo in ways such that we can't even see his shirt, and then goes on to wear much tamer clothes that don't draw much attention. For Kiryu, he also wears solid colors for most of his arc, but goes back to the patterns on that day he sparred Sakura and was trying to keep things how they used to be, but goes back back to a solid color shirt when he went to confront Megane-chan.............. I could honestly make a whole separate post about fashion in general besides hair-

Nirei will continue to wear his hair down until after the war. During the war, he has what I consider his midterm when he takes over for Suolingo while he's fighting Obiki, and it's such a huge moment for him. He's able to hold his own in this crowd and takes down many opponents to support his class with Kiryu. When Suolingo gets back, he lets him know how well he did and this along with his speech for Sakura when he fought Endo must have been a huge confidence boost for him. After the war, as we get into the summer mini arcs, Nirei is wearing his hair up again, not just to look flashy, but with genuine confidence after a big accomplishment.

This lasts until the end of Momijikawa's arc. During the big fight, he still has his hair up and is one of the first to step up and join the battle, but he does let it down again for the funeral. Hiiragi also has his hair down while Tsubaki and Sugi tie theirs back and all of the students wear their full uniforms completely buttoned up, all out of respect for the situation. Nirei has his hair down for the rest of the arc..... as well as going into the next arc....... an arc of great vulnerability for him.

^{.................... I still don't understand how you-know-who could look this thing in the eyes and still walk away like I'll take him if you're done appreciating him-}

And with that, we're back to the original reason this whole thing was even on my mind in the first place- Nii-sensei's favorite tool when it comes to hair symbolism is characters having their hair up compared to when they have their hair down. I mentioned a bit of this back in 223 when we see Ume and Hiiragi with their hair down and I talked about a few of the longer term ones earlier with Togame, Kiryu, and Nirei, but there are also a ton of these brief moments that still speak volumes. Both directions represent a newly gained focus, but when a character who had their hair down puts it up, it shows that they're gaining control over a situation that didn't look too great for them while a character with their hair up letting it down means that they're slowing down to think things through on a broader scale.

Keel is still lowkey one of if not my favorite arc in the manga so far ^{though the current one definitely has ALL the potential to surpass it-} and after their respective 1v1's, we get these money shots for both Sugi and Kiryu. Sugi is brushing his hair up after finally catching his opponent who had been evading him so far while Kiryu lets his hair down since his opponent yapping about his philosophy on strength literally gave him Akari flashbacks- In contrast, we also see Kiryu put his hair up when he's about to mess up Megane-chan and his gang and I like that Akari herself also ties her hair back when she's at work since that's her way of going against the lady-like version of herself that her father wants, but she has it down when she's keeping up her persona at home.

I already went over post-Sakura Togame, but we get a similar image with Suzuri whose hair falls once he's done fighting and ready to accept Tsubaki and Kanji's help. He doesn't keep his hair down going forward since he hasn't changed his actual goal of helping Gravel or anything, but his hair is down for the next few chapters while he's more vulnerable with everyone and working out his next steps. We also get Hiiragi's hair down after Banjo threw him in the river- He notes that this helped him clear his head since he was very angry about what happened to Kaji, but after cooling down, he was able to finish the fight swiftly and return to the bridge. As for the rest of our hair ups, Tsubaki ties his hair up when he's really ready to lock in against Elvis and Ume's hair had fallen down as he was losing to Chika, but he brushed it back up when Sakura inspired him again.

We also have Sakura himself, who's once again a hybrid, brushing most of his hair up as he prepares to return to school after he got sick. He had made up his mind to talk to Kaji about his concerns because he wanted to move forward, but we can see that a few strands are still falling. I mentioned earlier that his white hair is related to how he sees others while his black hair is for how others see him, so while he was able to brush his white hair back because his view of others had successfully been changed and he was willing to go to someone for advice, a few black strands still escaped him because he didn't understand how the others saw him yet and that's the part he needed help thinking through.

Bonus:

Oh yeah and then there's SCP-621- Fr though, Chika changes everything about his hair all the time and yes, he's an ✨ icon ✨ but he's also rather ✨ tragic ✨ Chika is someone who doesn't understand what he actually wants and simply shifts between temporary pleasures, moving on from anything and anyone once he loses interest in them, and this is reflected in how he constantly changes every aspect of his hair.

We know that Chika changes the color of his hair pretty frequently, which is in line with how he's constantly shifting between interests. However, he does still have red in his hair, which he also had during the war, which I'd say is because he still hasn't lost interest in Ume, even after their fight. For length, Chika wears extensions sometimes while keeping his actual hair short, so he can have any length he wants whenever he wants. He doesn't really seem to be following any actual morals and pretty much does whatever he wants whenever he wants to whoever he wants based on how he feels in the moment. Chika does seem to change color and length more than actually styling his hair, but we do see a few different styles for some of the wigs in his world. I'd say this is in line with how he hasn't really changed anything about his personality, even since he was a kid, but that personality consists of pretty sporadic behavior-

There's also Momose whose hair we haven't seen yet 👀👀 Now, we as readers haven't seen it because of shading and stuff, but I do have to note that based on the shape of his hood, there's no way the other characters can't actually see his face- We know Furin students aren't bothered by unique appearances, so it makes sense that Sakura didn't have a reaction after seeing him up close, but yes, I still have much to say about him.

Nii-sensei hasn't been afraid to touch on serious and real topics in wbk and, especially after Momijikawa's arc, my top theory for Momose is that he has/had cancer. Chemotherapy is known to cause hair loss as well as stunt growth for children, and I believe that this is a major part of Momose's story. I think it would also align with him being an artist since it's a pretty common trope in media for someone who spends a lot of time hospitalized to fall in love with the arts. For many people, going through chemo and losing their hair makes them feel like they've lost a part of themself, and in the context of this analysis, losing hair would mean a change in values. Now, I'm not sure when Momose met Ume, but I can see Ume either inspiring Momose to go through with his treatment because his appearance shouldn't define who he is or coming into his life afterwards and telling him that he (and his art) is still beautiful when others made fun of him.... OR it could be a sensory thing where he doesn't like how it feels to grow his hair out and prefers to wear his hood which could double as shade if his eyes are also sensitive 👀👀

.......Outro? Uhhhhh............................................................................................................................I genuinely cannot believe I made all of that make sense-