No better protagonist for a yankee anime than a guy who has no problem beating up half a dozen thugs only to get blushy and tsundere when their victims thanks him:
Yankees are what Japan calls a certain kind of teenage criminal: violent, engaged in petty crime, but usually with some code of honour guiding them, thought his of course is more usual in fiction than real life. Managa and anime have always had a soft spot for these people, so aggressively doing their own thing in a society that values conformity above almnost anything else. Sakura is the perfect protagonist for this sort of series. Slightly dumb, overtly focused on violence as a solution to all his problems. Not sadistic, just obsessed with proving he is the strongest as the only way he can get any respect. Having always been judged a criminal, up to no good because of the way he looks, he felt he had no choice but to fight to earn his place int he world.
All of which is revealed or implied in the very effective first minute and a half of the episode, where Sakura is walking a metaphorical tightrope as he recalls the disgust and anger of his class mates, teachers and family. No wonder he wanted to transfer to the worst school in Japan, a school with a reputation as yankee heaven, where he can fight as much as he pleases to become the strongest. Reality turns out to be slightly different however, because somebody already had gone through this story two years ago and they reformed the school to the point where the juvenile deliquents now guard the peace in the city. As the women he rescues tells him, this means that he will never reach the top, as he’s alone. But alone is what he has always been, so he doesn’t understand what she’s trying to say at all.
Sakura is carrying around enough psychological baggage to make for a satisfying protagonist and that other necessary element for a yankee series, the extreme but stylish violence is also tackled. The fights here operate on the kung fu movie principle, where mobs of adversaries politely wait their turn to be beaten one by one by the hero. There is however some element of realism in these fights: when a sneak attack gets Sakura cut on the ankle, the wound does debilitate him enough that he momentarily cannot defend himself.
I really liked this first episode; I always love a good yankee series and this looks to be an excellent one.
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