Banana Fish

Aerythrin said:
This anime has ruined my life. :(
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Not going to lie, its easily one of Mappa's weakest anime. Thank God Banana Fish wasn't my first shojo series. I have never been more grateful at the fact that I grew up with Basara and Ouran Host Club. I can understand the appeal of the gangs genre. But I think the downfall of the series was that I couldn't like the characters. So I think the author was just writing whatever she could to stay serialized with Banana Fish. Being a mangaka is only as fun as long as you have a series running and having a stable source of income.
 
I'm sorry for being too late to discuss here. I heard this anime is going pretty famous for male friendship, so I thought to give it a try. How is this anime? does it has any romance? (i.e. kissing, sexual aspects) if yes, then how many times do they kiss? Sorry for asking silly things and being odd but it would be a lot of help.
Thank you so much in advance.
 
LailanD said:
I'm sorry for being too late to discuss here. I heard this anime is going pretty famous for male friendship, so I thought to give it a try. How is this anime? does it has any romance? (i.e. kissing, sexual aspects) if yes, then how many times do they kiss? Sorry for asking silly things and being odd but it would be a lot of help.
Thank you so much in advance.
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If you're really wanting romance, I would skip Banana Fish tbh. The two leads kiss once but it's not exactly romantic, and there's a lot of really, really heavy content including things like violence, sexual assault, and abuse that can be triggering to a lot of people. It is a good anime and friendship is definitely a huge part of the story in a lot of ways, but on the whole it's A Lot and I wouldn't suggest it unless you want something heavy.
 
Ebonyslayer said:
Not going to lie, its easily one of Mappa's weakest anime. Thank God Banana Fish wasn't my first shojo series. I have never been more grateful at the fact that I grew up with Basara and Ouran Host Club. I can understand the appeal of the gangs genre. But I think the downfall of the series was that I couldn't like the characters. So I think the author was just writing whatever she could to stay serialized with Banana Fish. Being a mangaka is only as fun as long as you have a series running and having a stable source of income.
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I think the shoujo tag befits this anime not at all! I always thought it was an odd choice. Very heavy, very mature themes and no romance. I enjoyed the anime enough for what it was, and I did grow attached to the characters! (But I like characters a lot of the time, so...take from that what you will.) I think being a mangaka and adapting the anime are two different animals but I see what you’re saying. :D
Just curious, why did you reply to my comment on this though? Just your reply doesn’t really seem related to what I said. Cheers! ^_^
 
Aerythrin said:
I think the shoujo tag befits this anime not at all! I always thought it was an odd choice. Very heavy, very mature themes and no romance. I enjoyed the anime enough for what it was, and I did grow attached to the characters! (But I like characters a lot of the time, so...take from that what you will.) I think being a mangaka and adapting the anime are two different animals but I see what you’re saying. :D
Just curious, why did you reply to my comment on this though? Just your reply doesn’t really seem related to what I said. Cheers! ^_^
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Since someone was bringing up Banana Fish again in the forum threads, I thought it would be a good chance to be honest about the series. At one point I think I did like the ideas being presented in Banana Fish. But BF has a problem of being over dramatic during the story, though that's a problem that can be found in a lot of Shoujos/anime. Plus I don't think the anime did a good job with its depiction of gay people. It just came off as homophobic the more I saw it being portrayed in the anime.

The other being the level of disbelief required to enjoy the series. I can turn my brain off to other anime/manga, but Banana Fish was always testing my limits(Though I think I felt it a lot during my 2nd rewatch). And I realized that days after the show was finished, and why I felt doubtful at the idea of putting it on my favorite 2018 anime list. The anime tries so hard to be sad, but it just feels flat the more I think about the story direction and the handling of the characters.

Plus there's the case where Ash was killing guys who surrendered, which really did a good job at making me hate the character. And then we have Eiji, who was slowly fading to the background during the story, probably due to the fact that the author was running out of Japan/American jokes. There's also the large number of character deaths, where the author is so quick to kill them off without a lot of planning. The series honestly felt more like an action hero anime than a survival-horror one.

And then we have the ending. Given the fact that the author worked 9+ years on the series, it makes you wonder if the author grew to hate her fanbase. But the more likely case was that Banana Fish was losing popularity and the author was forced to rush the ending. For those that have low expectations, I can still see people being able to enjoy it. But I can honestly say that I'm not one of those people.
 
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Ebonyslayer said:
Since someone was bringing up Banana Fish again in the forum threads, I thought it would be a good chance to be honest about the series. At one point I think I did like the ideas being presented in Banana Fish. But BF has a problem of being over dramatic during the story, though that's a problem that can be found in a lot of Shoujos/anime. Plus I don't think the anime did a good job with its depiction of gay people. It just came off as homophobic the more I saw it being portrayed in the anime.

The other being the level of disbelief required to enjoy the series. I can turn my brain off to other anime/manga, but Banana Fish was always testing my limits(Though I think I felt it a lot during my 2nd rewatch). And I realized that days after the show was finished, and why I felt doubtful at the idea of putting it on my favorite 2018 anime list. The anime tries so hard to be sad, but it just feels flat the more I think about the story direction and the handling of the characters.

Plus there's the case where Ash was killing guys who surrendered, which really did a good job at making me hate the character. And then we have Eiji, who was slowly fading to the background during the story, probably due to the fact that the author was running out of Japan/American jokes. There's also the large number of character deaths, where the author is so quick to kill them off without a lot of planning. The series honestly felt more like an action hero anime than a survival-horror one.

And then we have the ending. Given the fact that the author worked 9+ years on the series, it makes you wonder if the author grew to hate her fanbase. But the more likely case was that Banana Fish was losing popularity and the author was forced to rush the ending. For those that have low expectations, I can still see people being able to enjoy it. But I can honestly say that I'm not one of those people.
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Thanks for replying! I do agree on a few points, my opinion on the show as a whole might be different if I rewatch it. I’m a very emotional watcher/scorer though, so chances are if something makes me feel something it’ll end up higher rated than other things for me.
I think the manga probably didn’t age well, and Mappa didn’t do enough to modernise it (instead more faithfully adapting it, I assume, though I haven’t read it.) It would have been nice to see a bit more of a translation into the 21st century re: attitudes and such, I don’t think there’s any problem at base with tackling themes like BF had but needs to be more sympathetic and less extreme, or if it IS showing one extreme it needs to show both sides (aka the extreme juxtaposed with the normal). Ash and Eiji’s relationship could have shown more realistic/positive gay relationship but it’s so vague (even though the bl theme is heavily implied and they’re clearly very close it’s still a bit ambiguous) that I felt, like you, that the overall impression was that the series was homophobic rather than accepting. Generally I don’t peer far below the surface of most anime and I did enjoy BF regardless for what it is (an almost trashy action show with lots of mature themes) but could have done without the old-fashioned viewpoint.
 
The shoujo tag for this show really confused me initially, this is not the kind of show I'd normally expect from a shoujo. Either way didn't hate it by any stretch though I never really warmed up to it. And it clearly needs a BL or Shounen Ai tag ;)
 
Finally got around to watching this. I can fully acknowledge several issue's it has (pacing wise etc) and it required me to suspend my disbelief quite a bit. You know what though? Even with that it was a hell of a ride and I enjoyed it immensely.
 
I finished Banana Fish! I honestly didn’t understand the ending but I found out after my friend told me what really happened. That took a huge unexpected sad turn and I literally almost bawled by eyes out... It was very enjoyable tho!
 
Okay I think this is a controversy we need to talk about, Dino Golzine, Hero or a villain?
I think he's a villain who deserved a far far worse death like being skinned alive and then putting salt over him just to make him suffer more, But 2 of my friends think he was a hero for saving Ash.
 
Siobhan100 said:
Honestly, I just finished this and I was not expecting that sad turn. Now, I can't listen to any of the soundtrack without tearing up :crying:
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I really wasnt expecting the turn either, the artist really be making a happy ending and twisting it on the last minutes :((( *sobs* :crying:
 
This show is incredibly painful to watch! I mean child abuse is just painful to even mention it was just too much for me I don’t know why people love a show were you get depressed so so easily :(
Peace out ✌
 
So I just watched this and I have to give my two cents on it. I'll be honest, I don't understand why people describe this show as the most devastating thing they've seen in their lives. Like yes, I get it has heavy themes, but have you've never seen those themes in anime before?
Thanks to the way people describe this show, I went into it expecting to have my heart ripped into shreds. And all I got was gunfight after gunfight. -_-
I was expecting the story to focus a little more on the whole child prostitution thing in terms of the suffering rather than the quest to get it exposed. And no, I'm not saying watching a child suffer would be better to watch. I'm just saying that's what some of the reviews I read made me think...
It was an alright show. Emotional in parts. But definitely not life-ruining or hard to watch...
 
RvLohengramm said:
Even if you remove all the rape stuff (awfully and badly used as fanservice and 3 bad jokes of rape made by Ash)
Is still a very poor anime with very very hollow characters, bad filling flashbacks, silly comedy, mediocre and stupid villains, bad pacing, and unreal situations. Look my review, even a fan of that anime liked it.

https://www.anime-planet.com/users/RvLohengramm/reviews/78433
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I agree with some of your points. I don't have anything against OP characters but I do have an issue with an anime that so many interesting plot points (mafia, mind-controlling drugs etc.) becoming entirely about some stupid bond, which also in my opinion was kind of unrealistic. I mean why on earth did they become that close out of nowhere? I mean we didn;t see them having too many deep conversations and actually getting to know each other...
I don't think it's a 1/5 like you. :P But I don't know why nearly everyone I know who's watched this show tells me it's so sad and hard to watch..
 
RvLohengramm said:
And in my case, and only in my case, I had friend long a go, wich I used to play as child, who was ra... so yeah in my case it make me upset like a bull in a rodeo.
Never make hollow and silly fanservice with that topic.
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Oh no, that is so sad. Hope your friend and you are both doing okay now.
And yes, I think studios should stay away from heavy potentially triggering topics unless they're certain that they can do it well.
 
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