Banana Fish

Usually I try to be as subversive as possible with these headings, but I thought I’d keep this blog post simple this time around. I watched Banana Fish this past week, and boy, is it a good anime. TW: gun violence, rape, explicit language, gore, child abuse…it’s not for the faint of heart.

Banana Fish centers around Ash Lynx, a young gang leader trying to uncover the secret behind his brother’s psychotic shooting frenzy during the Vietnam War. The only clue he has? The phrase “banana fish,” the only words his brother can say in his mentally handicapped state. Things start to pick up after he runs into a man bleeding out on the street who utters the same phrase, before leaving him with an address and a vial of an unknown substance.

There’s a lot to like about the series, but here are a few highlights.

ATMOSPHERE

The anime is set in New York City, and it’s done well. From the street brawls set against the backdrop of Coney Island boardwalk and the spying carried out around the corners of Chinatown, You get the feeling that the creators of the series intimately understand the city in a way that is absent from other anime – the feeling inside the cozy bodegas, the view from the Q train, the way it feels to walk down an average street.

The original soundtrack is also weird, feel-good, and amazing. Take a listen:

IN-BETWEEN GENRES

The series hits its stride at Episode 8, but it’s thoroughly entertaining and heart-wrenching throughout. It’s an English major’s dream with its literary references alone, borrowing its title from a JD Salinger short story and tapping into other classics as the story progresses. In fact, the episode titles are all named after famous novels or stories:

It also defies expectations in its own way, as its original manga counterpart was published as a shoujo – that means the target audience was teenage females. It trusts its female audience to be interested in things other than typical romance storylines, including topsy-turvy gang politics and drug cartels.

FIGHTING AGAINST HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY (…SORT OF)

The relationship at the heart of the anime is between Ash and Eiji. The two boys hail from completely different backgrounds and speak different languages, but the trust between them is sacred and prevails despite all odds. Eiji looks beyond Ash’s tough exterior and sees a lonely boy forced to grow up too fast in an unforgiving world. Ash sees Eiji as a pure person who is free in a way that he isn’t, but he admires Eiji’s simplicity and empathy for others. They love each other, but it’s not something that defines either of them or makes them less manly.

Plus, Ash doesn’t feel the need to hide his tears; he cries whenever his feelings demand to be felt, making him perhaps the most frequent crier in the entire anime because of how much tragedy he faces, yet he is undoubtedly painted as the most “badass” character in the series.

Of course, we can’t have our cake and eat it too. The series has a lot of examples of pro-violence culture and justice outside the law, and the main plot revolves around a male cast. The few women who do figure in the plot are cameo appearances at best.  There are also moments when you need to suspend your belief – namely, at Ash’s intelligence and strength as a 17-year-old, at the convoluted schemes hatched by mafia bosses, and at the vague details about how certain drugs work. Still, it’s an anime that knows its strengths and does a good job using that to its advantage.

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Banana Fish is actually incomplete at the moment – there are a few more episodes before the season is over, but I’m looking forward to the end of it. Even if it ends tragically. (Especially if it does.)

-Monica