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BANANA FISH #1
Banana Fish, Vol. 1
New York City, 1985. A dying man leaves bisexual gang leader Ash Lynx a strange drug, the key to something called "Banana Fish." The mysterious potion will lead Ash to a disturbed Vietnam vet who remembers a massacre – and into brutal battle with the mafia over control of the drug.
Vice City: New York in the 80s... Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A child runaway brought up as the adopted heir, hatchet man, and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, the East Coast's Corsican crime lord, Ash is now at the rebellious age of seventeen – forsaking the kingdom of power and riches held out by the devil who raised him, preferring a code he can live with among a small but loyal gang of street thugs. But his "Papa" can't simply let him go – not when the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into his insatiably ambitious hands.
It's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to arrive in NYC and make Ash Lynx's acquaintance... and fall with him into the bloody whirlpool of pride, greed, lust and wrath unleashed by the enigma code-named Banana Fish...
Vice City: New York in the 80s... Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A child runaway brought up as the adopted heir, hatchet man, and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, the East Coast's Corsican crime lord, Ash is now at the rebellious age of seventeen – forsaking the kingdom of power and riches held out by the devil who raised him, preferring a code he can live with among a small but loyal gang of street thugs. But his "Papa" can't simply let him go – not when the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into his insatiably ambitious hands.
It's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to arrive in NYC and make Ash Lynx's acquaintance... and fall with him into the bloody whirlpool of pride, greed, lust and wrath unleashed by the enigma code-named Banana Fish...
200 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 1986
323 people are currently reading
6814 people want to read
About the author
Akimi Yoshida
185 books248 followersAkimi Yoshida (Japanese: 吉田秋生, Yoshida Akimi) is a Japanese cartoonist from Tokyo, best known for her manga series Banana Fish.
Yoshida studied at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo and made her professional debut in 1977. Despite serialising her works in shōjo manga (girls' comics) magazines, most notably in 'Bessatsu Shōjo Comic' and 'Monthly Flowers', during the 80's she developed a visual style akin to the aesthetics of shōnen manga (boy's comics) of that era, contributing significantly to creating a bridge between these two traditions. This is particularly evident in her international best-seller Banana Fish (1985-1994), a thriller set in New York City blending action and homoerotic romance. Among her other major works are the series Yasha (1996-2002) and Umimachi Diary (2006-2018).
Yoshida's comics have received a number of accolades in Japan, including three Shogakukan Manga Awards (1983 and 2001 in the category 'shojo', 2015 in the general category), an Excellence Award for manga at the Japan Media Arts Festival (2007) and the 6th Manga Taishō award (2013).
Yoshida studied at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo and made her professional debut in 1977. Despite serialising her works in shōjo manga (girls' comics) magazines, most notably in 'Bessatsu Shōjo Comic' and 'Monthly Flowers', during the 80's she developed a visual style akin to the aesthetics of shōnen manga (boy's comics) of that era, contributing significantly to creating a bridge between these two traditions. This is particularly evident in her international best-seller Banana Fish (1985-1994), a thriller set in New York City blending action and homoerotic romance. Among her other major works are the series Yasha (1996-2002) and Umimachi Diary (2006-2018).
Yoshida's comics have received a number of accolades in Japan, including three Shogakukan Manga Awards (1983 and 2001 in the category 'shojo', 2015 in the general category), an Excellence Award for manga at the Japan Media Arts Festival (2007) and the 6th Manga Taishō award (2013).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 685 reviews
July 25, 2018
I know I'll regret this but apparently I can't stay away from painful things
Read
December 28, 2018wdym reading manga is cheating your way to achieve your reading challenge goal
March 26, 2016
Banana Fish is one of the more fascinating manga that I have encountered, equally for its engaging story, fascinating characters, and circumstances surrounding its advertisement. Branded a "shoujo" manga because of its shounen-ai or "boys love" subtext, this is a work filled with a degree of violence, sexual and otherwise, that is totally outside of the scope of the shoujo genre. In fact, such a category is a total misclassification. There's very little, in fact, in the first volume — beyond an astonishing scene in the third chapter, which I'll get to — to sexually titillate readers who are looking for representations of queer love or sex. In fact, the opposite is true. Much like the Salinger story from which the manga gets its title, the manga makes masterful use of euphemism to avoid reproducing sexual violence whilst engaging with it quite seriously.
Ash Lynx, the main character, is enslaved (for the purpose of sexual exploitation) by a mob boss, Papa Dino. Dino and Ash's interactions in the novel are charged with terrifying tension, but any explicit details are left unsaid between them. Indeed, another mobster, Marvin, makes an allusion to liking Ash's "videos." The reader is to understand these videos to be pornographic in nature, as Marvin goes on to say "you're still not too old to be a star." Thus, the disturbing cocktail of sexual exploitation and pedophilia is exposed without the need to narrate explicitly the events of Ash's tragic past. This goes a long way of making the use of these topics seem more engaging and honest, rather than as props to prove the universe of the fiction is gritty and dark — though it is certainly that.
The "selling point" of queer love in the context of shoujo manga is not the terrifying suggestions of rape Marvin threatens Ash with, but rather the budding love affair between Ash and Eiji, a visiting photographer from Japan. However, precious little romance passes between Ash and Eiji in this first volume, and only the generic classification draws attention to the inevitable direction of their relationship. The euphemism that makes the disturbing themes more palatable serve to narrate their relationship as well. In the third chapter, in Ash and Eiji's first exchange, the feminized/infantilized (but not effeminate or childlike in actuality) Ei-”chan”’s eyes fall to Ash’s “bulging” gun, his “piece” (close enough to be a homonym to “penis”), and Ash takes (whips) it out for Ei to hold. To express that degree of sexual charge in a mundane exchange is fairly impressive, particularly in a manga. This textured and robust literary sense follows from the Salingerian evocation of the Banana Fish.
The fascinating symbol works on two registers. Within the fiction of Banana Fish, the characters are aware of the status of the banana fish drug, the spectre and lynchpin of the plot's forward momentum, as a reference to Salinger. Dr. Steven Meredith tells Ash, "When you meet the 'banana fish' you want to die. It's the fish of death" referencing the suicide of Seymour in Salinger's story. The self-awareness of this reference, however, takes nothing away from the symbolic register. Banana fish operates in all its phallic, homoerotic, and pedophilic valences throughout the text. Dr. Meredith taking the moment to explain an aspect of the symbol is a fascinating creative choice. Yoshida has other winks to the reader (both her reader and simply one who is well read), with the Faulkner Penitentiary and a police detective named Charles Dickenson.
For a text with so much violence within its pages, it's the negative space of sexual violence that deeply unsettles and sits solidly at this manga's tumultuous core. Though this is certainly not a shoujo manga (I'd make the argument for seinen as the most applicable genre) it will be interesting to see to what extent the Ash and Eiji relationship gets played out on the face of the text and to what extent it will be metaphorized and metonymized. The care with which Yoshida handles the explosive theme of sexual violence, sex trafficking, and child pornography in this first volume imbues me with a great deal of hope that her thoughtful engagement of these topics will continue in a thought-provoking, rather than sensationalizing, fashion. As for Ash and Eiji, they both seem to be deeply compelling characters with far more depth, disqualifying them from the category of objectified bodies to sexual titilliate.
Ash Lynx, the main character, is enslaved (for the purpose of sexual exploitation) by a mob boss, Papa Dino. Dino and Ash's interactions in the novel are charged with terrifying tension, but any explicit details are left unsaid between them. Indeed, another mobster, Marvin, makes an allusion to liking Ash's "videos." The reader is to understand these videos to be pornographic in nature, as Marvin goes on to say "you're still not too old to be a star." Thus, the disturbing cocktail of sexual exploitation and pedophilia is exposed without the need to narrate explicitly the events of Ash's tragic past. This goes a long way of making the use of these topics seem more engaging and honest, rather than as props to prove the universe of the fiction is gritty and dark — though it is certainly that.
The "selling point" of queer love in the context of shoujo manga is not the terrifying suggestions of rape Marvin threatens Ash with, but rather the budding love affair between Ash and Eiji, a visiting photographer from Japan. However, precious little romance passes between Ash and Eiji in this first volume, and only the generic classification draws attention to the inevitable direction of their relationship. The euphemism that makes the disturbing themes more palatable serve to narrate their relationship as well. In the third chapter, in Ash and Eiji's first exchange, the feminized/infantilized (but not effeminate or childlike in actuality) Ei-”chan”’s eyes fall to Ash’s “bulging” gun, his “piece” (close enough to be a homonym to “penis”), and Ash takes (whips) it out for Ei to hold. To express that degree of sexual charge in a mundane exchange is fairly impressive, particularly in a manga. This textured and robust literary sense follows from the Salingerian evocation of the Banana Fish.
The fascinating symbol works on two registers. Within the fiction of Banana Fish, the characters are aware of the status of the banana fish drug, the spectre and lynchpin of the plot's forward momentum, as a reference to Salinger. Dr. Steven Meredith tells Ash, "When you meet the 'banana fish' you want to die. It's the fish of death" referencing the suicide of Seymour in Salinger's story. The self-awareness of this reference, however, takes nothing away from the symbolic register. Banana fish operates in all its phallic, homoerotic, and pedophilic valences throughout the text. Dr. Meredith taking the moment to explain an aspect of the symbol is a fascinating creative choice. Yoshida has other winks to the reader (both her reader and simply one who is well read), with the Faulkner Penitentiary and a police detective named Charles Dickenson.
For a text with so much violence within its pages, it's the negative space of sexual violence that deeply unsettles and sits solidly at this manga's tumultuous core. Though this is certainly not a shoujo manga (I'd make the argument for seinen as the most applicable genre) it will be interesting to see to what extent the Ash and Eiji relationship gets played out on the face of the text and to what extent it will be metaphorized and metonymized. The care with which Yoshida handles the explosive theme of sexual violence, sex trafficking, and child pornography in this first volume imbues me with a great deal of hope that her thoughtful engagement of these topics will continue in a thought-provoking, rather than sensationalizing, fashion. As for Ash and Eiji, they both seem to be deeply compelling characters with far more depth, disqualifying them from the category of objectified bodies to sexual titilliate.
November 25, 2025
گیجکننده، کسالتبار و بیسر و ته.
یه جاهایی دیگه مطمئن بودم Ai generated یاشه. بس که تصاویر و کلمات از دور، معنیدار و از نزدیک مُهمل.
آرت این مجموعه به معنای واقعی جِنِریک بود. داستانش هم انگار محصول گوگل ترنسلیتِ سه بار چرخکرده.
افتضاح بودا، اففففففتضاح.
یه جاهایی دیگه مطمئن بودم Ai generated یاشه. بس که تصاویر و کلمات از دور، معنیدار و از نزدیک مُهمل.
آرت این مجموعه به معنای واقعی جِنِریک بود. داستانش هم انگار محصول گوگل ترنسلیتِ سه بار چرخکرده.
افتضاح بودا، اففففففتضاح.
December 21, 2025
The thing about manga that sometimes frustrates me, is sometimes the sentences are so small that you get little to no context and have to fill in blanks with your imagination (of which I am lacking)
Quite often you need to use visual aids to fill in blanks in the story, or assess other slides to work out what is happening or how to piece things together..
THIS FIRST VOLUME DOES NOT REALLY DO THAT TO YOU??? it feels like there is waaaaaaaaay more text/words on each page, and the storyline is being filled-in in a way that feels more than manga, but less than reading a whole book?
We learn about the war, we learn about the mysterious words 'banana fish', we meet the gangs, we meet our MC's and a buttload of side characters... but it's not overwhelming because it's explained.
I'm so fucking excited to be starting my adventure with Ash and Eijji and I can't wait to fucking ruin my life at the end of this series.
You're safe.... but my heart won't be for much longer 😭😭
Quite often you need to use visual aids to fill in blanks in the story, or assess other slides to work out what is happening or how to piece things together..
THIS FIRST VOLUME DOES NOT REALLY DO THAT TO YOU??? it feels like there is waaaaaaaaay more text/words on each page, and the storyline is being filled-in in a way that feels more than manga, but less than reading a whole book?
We learn about the war, we learn about the mysterious words 'banana fish', we meet the gangs, we meet our MC's and a buttload of side characters... but it's not overwhelming because it's explained.
I'm so fucking excited to be starting my adventure with Ash and Eijji and I can't wait to fucking ruin my life at the end of this series.
You're safe.... but my heart won't be for much longer 😭😭
March 2, 2023
Pain is second nature to me at this point and obviously it just seems like ONLY painful things interests me. I’m gonna need a therapist for this one …
August 13, 2018
I meant to write a review yesterday (Aug 12) when it was the author's birthday, but I forgot so I guess I can slack now, y/n?
Kinda dated, but still with interesting ideas and execution. I wished it moved a little faster as I'm more interested in the longer plot reveal re: the mystery drug than the current gang war and police investigation, but will read on.
Kinda dated, but still with interesting ideas and execution. I wished it moved a little faster as I'm more interested in the longer plot reveal re: the mystery drug than the current gang war and police investigation, but will read on.
September 28, 2015
I liked this but not sure yet if it's a series I'll follow to the end. It's pretty violent, but the characters are intriguing and the plot, though not generally my thing (gangs and drugs and gang/mafia/police politics...) is compelling. Between a three and four rating. I will probably read the second book in the series at the very least.
Several people write in their reviews that 'fortunately' the main character is not really gay. Which makes me 1) annoyed 2) less interested in reading the series. I was pretty excited to read a graphic mystery with a young, queer, smart, tough gang leader -- with a compassionate side or at least a strong sense of gangland ethics -- as its lead character. I also understand that to call a male character gay or queer who has sex with other men in the context of gang life is not necessarily understanding the complexity of human sexuality and power dynamics under these particular circumstances.
I'm most curious to learn about the connection between the drug situation and the war situation (Vietam) and the relationship between Ash and, well, a bunch of different characters. And, that's about all I have to say.
Several people write in their reviews that 'fortunately' the main character is not really gay. Which makes me 1) annoyed 2) less interested in reading the series. I was pretty excited to read a graphic mystery with a young, queer, smart, tough gang leader -- with a compassionate side or at least a strong sense of gangland ethics -- as its lead character. I also understand that to call a male character gay or queer who has sex with other men in the context of gang life is not necessarily understanding the complexity of human sexuality and power dynamics under these particular circumstances.
I'm most curious to learn about the connection between the drug situation and the war situation (Vietam) and the relationship between Ash and, well, a bunch of different characters. And, that's about all I have to say.
June 21, 2022
Most of what I know about Banana Fish is that it's notorious for breaking everyone's heart.
....which would make sense, considering I've watched the ending of the anime years ago, being reduced to tears despite not knowing anything about these characters.
I'm finally ready to experience the pain with context! This was an amazing first volume, with every panel embodying an effortless swagger fitting for a manga written and set in the 80's. A young Japanese photographer tasked with documenting the lives of New York gangters is such an intriguing concept. I'm already attached to Ash, Eiji and Skip, so I know I'm in for it in the long run...
....which would make sense, considering I've watched the ending of the anime years ago, being reduced to tears despite not knowing anything about these characters.
I'm finally ready to experience the pain with context! This was an amazing first volume, with every panel embodying an effortless swagger fitting for a manga written and set in the 80's. A young Japanese photographer tasked with documenting the lives of New York gangters is such an intriguing concept. I'm already attached to Ash, Eiji and Skip, so I know I'm in for it in the long run...
home-library
January 14, 2020BEHOLD! My new obsession
MY BOYS （*´▽｀*）
⊙△⊙
MY BOYS （*´▽｀*）
⊙△⊙
November 11, 2021
#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. (Collect them all!)
From the July 1998 edition with a theme of "Manga Month!":
INTRODUCTION
It's manga month!
Viz Communications has been America's major importer/translator of Japanese comics for about a decade now. Eight months ago, Viz launched one of its boldest titles, PULP: MANGA FOR GROWNUPS. As the title suggests, PULP is an anthology which features adult-oriented stories: more complex and more sexual than your standard manga imports. (Alert: You're going to see a plethora of nudity and sexual content warnings in this month's column. Obvious white-outs and obscuring speed lines lightly censor most stories, but this is pretty racy stuff, folks.)
I like the idea behind PULP, though the execution has been a little sloppy. In my reviews below, I'll try not to punish the Japanese creators by remarking upon the barely adequate lettering and extremely stiff dialogue imposed upon their work by Viz's production staff and team of translators, but I want my audience to be aware that PULP does not contain the top-of-the-line Japanese to American adaptation seen in the likes of LONE WOLF AND CUB or even MAI, THE PSYCHIC GIRL which is reviewed below. I hope the quality of PULP's adaptations improve, but I am happy to have access to the material regardless.
This month, Viz is collecting several of the more popular serials from PULP into trade paperback format. If you have a little money left in your budget after buying all of DC Comics #1,000,000 issues, here a few collections you might want to consider.
THIS FISH SMELLS
BANANA FISH (Viz Communications)
BANANA FISH is either a dazzlingly complex story of the Vietnam War, drugs, criminal conspiracy, and street gangs, or it's a horribly disjointed mishmash that incorporates all the aforementioned elements for no good reason. Let me think for a second . . . hmmm . . . think, think, think . . . mishmash it is!
BANANA FISH begins in Vietnam with a soldier freaking out on a mysterious drug and shooting at his own squad while screaming, "Banana Fish!" The scene then cuts to modern day New York City where the soldier is now a vegetable tended to by his young brother, Ash. Seventeen-year-old Ash is the leader of a street gang that runs errands for a crime boss. One of the errands ends with Ash receiving a vial of the mysterious drug from a dying man who whispers, "Banana Fish." Ash keeps this event secret from the crime boss, but the crime boss suspects Ash knows more than he should and sets his cronies in motion to topple Ash and take over his gang. Chasing and shooting ensue. Oh, boy.
The disjointed aspect of BANANA FISH is accented by the pointless subplots and one-dimensional characters chucked into the story willynilly. The police are investigating mysterious suicides. A surviving member of the Vietnam squad is in jail. A Japanese reporter and his youthful-appearing assistant come to New York City to do a story on street gangs and are caught up in the gang war. Loads of characters are thrown at the reader without much introduction or reason. I cannot care about characters I know nothing about, and that includes the aloof and enigmatic Ash.
I hate to show signs of political correctness, but BANANA FISH makes me uncomfortable for a number of reasons. First, one of the few black characters is drawn with an Afro and huge white lips, which raises the specter of Al Jolson in blackface and invokes centuries of stereotypically drawn slurs. Second, the two major villains in the series are homosexuals with pedophilic designs upon the underage Ash. While the letter column claims Ash is gay also, his sexuality in the story is ambiguous and does nothing to offset the negative portrayal of homosexuality. Third, it seems a bit dubious that the only serial in PULP with prominent homosexual characters is also one of the only two serials that does not include sex scenes.
Hampered further by his competent but uninspired art, writer/artist Akimi Yoshida (as translated by Matt Thorn) may be able to pull BANANA FISH together with some stunning conclusion, but I certainly wouldn't seek it out if it weren't crammed into PULP between the much better DANCE TILL TOMORROW, VOYEUR and STRAIN.
Grade: D
From the July 1998 edition with a theme of "Manga Month!":
INTRODUCTION
It's manga month!
Viz Communications has been America's major importer/translator of Japanese comics for about a decade now. Eight months ago, Viz launched one of its boldest titles, PULP: MANGA FOR GROWNUPS. As the title suggests, PULP is an anthology which features adult-oriented stories: more complex and more sexual than your standard manga imports. (Alert: You're going to see a plethora of nudity and sexual content warnings in this month's column. Obvious white-outs and obscuring speed lines lightly censor most stories, but this is pretty racy stuff, folks.)
I like the idea behind PULP, though the execution has been a little sloppy. In my reviews below, I'll try not to punish the Japanese creators by remarking upon the barely adequate lettering and extremely stiff dialogue imposed upon their work by Viz's production staff and team of translators, but I want my audience to be aware that PULP does not contain the top-of-the-line Japanese to American adaptation seen in the likes of LONE WOLF AND CUB or even MAI, THE PSYCHIC GIRL which is reviewed below. I hope the quality of PULP's adaptations improve, but I am happy to have access to the material regardless.
This month, Viz is collecting several of the more popular serials from PULP into trade paperback format. If you have a little money left in your budget after buying all of DC Comics #1,000,000 issues, here a few collections you might want to consider.
THIS FISH SMELLS
BANANA FISH (Viz Communications)
BANANA FISH is either a dazzlingly complex story of the Vietnam War, drugs, criminal conspiracy, and street gangs, or it's a horribly disjointed mishmash that incorporates all the aforementioned elements for no good reason. Let me think for a second . . . hmmm . . . think, think, think . . . mishmash it is!
BANANA FISH begins in Vietnam with a soldier freaking out on a mysterious drug and shooting at his own squad while screaming, "Banana Fish!" The scene then cuts to modern day New York City where the soldier is now a vegetable tended to by his young brother, Ash. Seventeen-year-old Ash is the leader of a street gang that runs errands for a crime boss. One of the errands ends with Ash receiving a vial of the mysterious drug from a dying man who whispers, "Banana Fish." Ash keeps this event secret from the crime boss, but the crime boss suspects Ash knows more than he should and sets his cronies in motion to topple Ash and take over his gang. Chasing and shooting ensue. Oh, boy.
The disjointed aspect of BANANA FISH is accented by the pointless subplots and one-dimensional characters chucked into the story willynilly. The police are investigating mysterious suicides. A surviving member of the Vietnam squad is in jail. A Japanese reporter and his youthful-appearing assistant come to New York City to do a story on street gangs and are caught up in the gang war. Loads of characters are thrown at the reader without much introduction or reason. I cannot care about characters I know nothing about, and that includes the aloof and enigmatic Ash.
I hate to show signs of political correctness, but BANANA FISH makes me uncomfortable for a number of reasons. First, one of the few black characters is drawn with an Afro and huge white lips, which raises the specter of Al Jolson in blackface and invokes centuries of stereotypically drawn slurs. Second, the two major villains in the series are homosexuals with pedophilic designs upon the underage Ash. While the letter column claims Ash is gay also, his sexuality in the story is ambiguous and does nothing to offset the negative portrayal of homosexuality. Third, it seems a bit dubious that the only serial in PULP with prominent homosexual characters is also one of the only two serials that does not include sex scenes.
Hampered further by his competent but uninspired art, writer/artist Akimi Yoshida (as translated by Matt Thorn) may be able to pull BANANA FISH together with some stunning conclusion, but I certainly wouldn't seek it out if it weren't crammed into PULP between the much better DANCE TILL TOMORROW, VOYEUR and STRAIN.
Grade: D
September 14, 2019
May I present to you my newest obsession: sad stories, mafia and edgy boys.
August 18, 2020
*UPDATED*
I forgot the amount of pain this series puts you through. I just want to save all these characters from what will happen to them :/ re-reading vol 1-5 so I can continue and finish this series
*FIRST READ*
Ugh wow. One of my best friends recommended this to me because Ash reminded her of Andrew from All For The Game and holy crap I fell in love.
The characters are so rich and the plot is layered and intriguing. I'm so so glad I picked this up.
I forgot the amount of pain this series puts you through. I just want to save all these characters from what will happen to them :/ re-reading vol 1-5 so I can continue and finish this series
*FIRST READ*
Ugh wow. One of my best friends recommended this to me because Ash reminded her of Andrew from All For The Game and holy crap I fell in love.
The characters are so rich and the plot is layered and intriguing. I'm so so glad I picked this up.
June 2, 2021
I am terrified to start reading the manga because I finished the anime yesterday, and I am absolutely heartbroken, so I can’t decide if I should distance myself from this for a while or keep crying while reading
——
So I just checked the website this was available on and now it’s not available anymore, yay 😭😭
——
Ok I found a new one 😭😭
——
So I just checked the website this was available on and now it’s not available anymore, yay 😭😭
——
Ok I found a new one 😭😭
January 3, 2025
You can call this girl a massive masochist for making this manga her new hyperfixation
December 14, 2018
Thought I'd check this out as I'm in love with the anime. The anime is set in modern times where this is not but I still think the story is great and I'm looking forward to seeing how the manga differs from the anime.
July 24, 2021
Dioos cuanto odio a Dino y Marvin! Son unos cerdos asquerosos.
June 4, 2022
ha ha this is so painful but is that going to stop me from reading the rest of the series? no, absolutely not.
April 22, 2021
i'm doing this i guess
April 25, 2023
I'm reliving the anime and I'm terrified for that ending
February 14, 2021
me falling for another hot, morally-grey teenage gang leader who could kill me in an instant again:
actual rating: 3.75
actual rating: 3.75
December 27, 2018
One of my friends recommended me the anime and being that type of friend who trusts people's recommendation way too much, I decided to give it a shot.
When I first encountered Banana Fish, I did not have any idea as to what it was. I just watched the anime without conducting any research to what am I subjecting myself into.
First things first, be it known that stories involving mafias or gangs and drugs are something that I don't usually read or watch since I personally believe that it is not my genre. Imagine my surprise when I watched the first episode of Banana Fish and ended up liking it.
I was done watching the first few episodes of the anime when I decided to read the manga series first.
Personally, I think that the volume started very slow but picks up the right pace in the middle to the end. The art from the manga was very different from the anime since the latter was modernized but is still awesome, nonetheless. I find the characters well developed and the mystery revolving around Banana Fish interesting enough to keep me going.
When I first encountered Banana Fish, I did not have any idea as to what it was. I just watched the anime without conducting any research to what am I subjecting myself into.
First things first, be it known that stories involving mafias or gangs and drugs are something that I don't usually read or watch since I personally believe that it is not my genre. Imagine my surprise when I watched the first episode of Banana Fish and ended up liking it.
I was done watching the first few episodes of the anime when I decided to read the manga series first.
Personally, I think that the volume started very slow but picks up the right pace in the middle to the end. The art from the manga was very different from the anime since the latter was modernized but is still awesome, nonetheless. I find the characters well developed and the mystery revolving around Banana Fish interesting enough to keep me going.
January 23, 2023
anyway besties, I couldn't take it and cried a little :(
July 12, 2024
oh how i love eiji 🥹
April 23, 2025
ساله ۱۹۸۶ عه، شهر نیویورک، دارم زندگی درون خیابون هارو دنبال میکنم..
چقدر دیدنیان این تصویر ها و کلمات.
چقدر دیدنیان این تصویر ها و کلمات.
November 13, 2020
I'm very traumatized. I think I will ask someone to spoil me for then be ready to read the rest because people told me that it's best to be mentally stable to keep going, something I'm not.
January 5, 2024
sped read at the barnes and noble
September 14, 2020
I’ve been on a manga kick lately, and I’m really enjoying it so far. This book was no exception. It is just a basic crime/action story with some homoerotic elements thrown in for good measure. But it works really well. I like the city setting, the depiction of American life, the depiction of your quintessential hardboiled detectives. It’s a fun book.
There are times where transitions from panel to panel are abrupt. A lot of those half sentences with people interrupting, people jumping from thought to thought. The homoerotic elements are very subtle, almost too subtle at first. Then you’re like, “oooooh” as you keep reading.
I really feel like I got my money’s worth out of this because I paid $6.50 and it took me a few nights to read. I’m going to keep picking up volumes until my new tablet arrives and I can finally start hitting more Comixology Unlimited titles for free. Right now only certain ones appear compatible with the kindle app on my ancient device. I can’t update Comixology because my device is so old 🤷🏻♀️
There are times where transitions from panel to panel are abrupt. A lot of those half sentences with people interrupting, people jumping from thought to thought. The homoerotic elements are very subtle, almost too subtle at first. Then you’re like, “oooooh” as you keep reading.
I really feel like I got my money’s worth out of this because I paid $6.50 and it took me a few nights to read. I’m going to keep picking up volumes until my new tablet arrives and I can finally start hitting more Comixology Unlimited titles for free. Right now only certain ones appear compatible with the kindle app on my ancient device. I can’t update Comixology because my device is so old 🤷🏻♀️
February 27, 2023
I love this manga and the series as much it made me cry. It shows that the world can be cruel to a boy named Ash who is 17 years old but as he kept going forward in his challenges until he stopped with no other challenges. In the end Ash did get his happy ending from what all of he's been through since he was a child, but I did wish Ash went to japan and lived with Eiji as his new live there tho, but he deserved to be free.
January 1, 2022
Banana fish destroza tu estabilidad emocional a cada volumen de lo bonito y fuerte q es. En este te enseñan a los personajes, parte de sus historias pero no es hasta mas adelante donde entiendes muchas de las acciones de los mismos. Brutal.
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