Banana Fish, Vol. 13

BANANA FISH #13

by Akimi Yoshida

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...

Epic in scope, and one of the best-selling shojo titles of all time in Japan, Akimi Yoshida put an electric shock into the genre and gained a huge crossover audience through Banana Fish's stripped-down, non-stop style

Genres: Manga, LGBT, Graphic Novels, Comics, Crime, Fiction, Queer

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 1991

About the author

Akimi 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).

Reviews

[Lauren Lanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Praying that Ash is okay... :')

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, you can't say Banana Fish gets stale. Now the gears switch to psychological torture. Yep, things never get dull for Ash & Eiji. I have to admit though, things are starting to fall into the regions of Soap Operas. At least with this cast of characters I don't have to worry about unexpected pregnancies. This volume does pose one of those unanswerable questions: What happens when one loses the will to live because of a broken heart? 

[✨Anahí✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nos acercamos al final, tengo miedo. 😖

[Pauu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ash es tan fuerte, lo amo y admiro mucho 🥺

[Zainab · Rating 4 out of 5]

GET YOUR MOTHERFUCKING HANDS OFF OF ASH, YOU FAT ASS, POOP FACED MOTHERFUCKING SON OF A PIG!!!

[alanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In Buddhist mythology, the Asuras are heathen deities that fought the Devas, or good deities. The Asuras are said to be fierce warriors, terrible demons. And yet they are always depicted as beautiful youths. Don’t you think you fit the bill?”

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series started off pretty subtle. No punches are pulled now though. Everything is crystal clear. Ash was a child prostitute and this chapter concludes with an explicit account of his past.

It is now obvious he doesn’t just feel a deep platonic bond with his friend. He’s in love. Not sure why since the guy he’s crushing on is as basic as they come, but it’s all good.

Ash shows us yet another layer of intellectual depth in this volume as well.

Overall this was a tough volume, but in a good way. Very compelling story.

[Katie❄️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sick to my stomach for Ash. There is only so much a person can take mentally before they break and he's at that point. I think he was at that point when he met Eiji and Eiji made it better. Now that he is captive again.... Using his mind to do unspeakable things, no wonder he can't keep any food down. It's one thing if those unspeakable things happen to himself but him inflicting plots/plans on others.... He cannot handle that.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eiji's time to shine. Go get your man.

[liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

ash really has a deathwish huh

[Maria Rosaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dino è il personaggio più disgustoso, cattivo, creepy, osceno, malvagio, terribile che io abbia mai avuto il
dispiacere di leggere.
Ash 3

[mydarlingreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy shit I read the first part so quickly that by the time I got to the part that Ash has essentially decided that he was going back to Golzine - everything was already over. I can't believe this.
Blanca shouldn't have come back if this was his entire only purpose.
Yut Lung really doesn't need Ash and for Ash to be dead he just doesn't like anyone who can possibly usurp him. It's so dumb. Ash as long as you don't do anything to him won't do anything to you. He's simple like that but also he knows it's too much effort to go against all of fucking Chinatown and all of the Lee family. Yut Lung is just a pain in the fucking ass.
"Ash cares for me, just as much as I care for him." Eiji baby!!
I think Yut Lung doesn't truly understand what it feels like to care about someone so much that you'd be willing to give up all you can to make sure they're safe. He's been robbed of that because of his mother's death and I think once he realizes that that's the whole point, caring about someone so much that you'd be willing to do unspeakable and dangerous things for them he'd understand how Eiji is feeling and how Ash is willing to do all of this for Eiji. And all these heteros saying it's not a romance. GTFO.
oh my god, this is Cold War history that I am not familiar with nor do I really care for... I will skim these panels.
Oh my god, Ash is this super amazing political-economic genius and I'm here eating chocolate and crying over this series.

Ok, I get it. I get what Golzine is doing, instead of whoring out Ash he's using Ash's intelligence against him. He's having Ash create these strategic plans that put him directly at fault for all the deaths that will incur over BF and in Nicaragua - making these plans and being in the same room as these scumbags put him in the same boat as them and he can also be taken down when push comes to shove and they get exposed. It is his plan that they went with so he's the mastermind behind it. Golzine knows that Ash prides himself in using this intelligence to overthrow and outsmart others, and while he's only used it on bad people- he's now forced to use it (like Golzine said using Ash's soul to break him down) on innocent people as collateral damage. That's what Golzine means when he said he wants to break Ash and break his soul- Ash has never used his intelligence for "evil" and now he has to because he's under Golzine control now. That's next level psychological warfare and torture right there.

For anyone who ever said this manga wasn't that bad- my heart hurts whenever Ash speaks because you can see how utterly broken, traumatized, and fucked up he is. And none of it is his fault. He was raped as a child repeatedly- his family didn't believe him until he shot the guy dead. He seemingly grew up in New York when he was sold as whore and then raised and treated as property by Golzine to be molded into his heir and seemingly his fucking wife (ewwwww) to later take over the Union Corse which is all sorts of fucked up.
I knew I would die for Ash when he said, "It never occurred to you that we had thoughts and feelings- we just existed for you...." fucking OUCH.

My psych brain is tingling- is Ash's psychological problems and his inability to eat is because he feels helpless without Eiji and he has no reason to live anymore because he knows he can't get Eiji back and thus his body in a way is suffering and mourning for Eiji when his brain can't? Like Ash is heartbroken and grieving the loss of Eiji because there's no possible way for them to get back together again- at least Ash doesn't think so. He's lost the will to live because before his will to live was to survive and be with his friends and then when he met Eiji- Eiji became Ash's will to live and the reason why Ash wants to live so bad was because Eiji was the only person who didn't want anything from him and cared about him as a person and would be there for him and fighting to be with him no matter what. Eiji is Ash's reason to live and since they're apart now, he has no reason to live. He effectively gave up his reason to live and his body biologically knows it while psychologically he doesn't or refuses to think about it like that. Golzine and everyone else can make moves to kill Eiji or threaten Ash that they'll kill Eiji- but there's no point because ultimately they can't do anything to him that doesn't worsen his physical state until they can fix his psychological state. You can pump him full of medication but in the end, the only thing he needs is Eiji and being with Eiji and Ash knowing that Eiji is there by his side and will be by his side waiting for him to come back.
God these two- their connection is on another level- soulmates.

[CJ]

I think this volume will always hurt me the most. Ash breaking down and letting it all out… He deserved better, so much better.

Edit 3rd read, 2025:

What I find interesting about Ash is that he doesn’t often acknowledge or straightforwardly call what happened to him rape. He called it rape when he talked about that little league man that he ended up killing. Then, a few volumes ago, when he was speaking to Max, he said that he “slept with” someone when that person was his abuser too. I interpreted his wording in a way of making it equal footing, because he was getting info on those perverts while they got to use his body. At the same time I also wonder if it’s just him building up his walls. Acting like he’s this though guy and he can all shoulder it, even though Eiji knows he has nightmares.

I’m probably putting way too much thought into this. But what I’m getting at is that he only calls it what it is when he gets vulnerable like he did here and then with Lobo. Fully acknowledging how sick it and twisted it is to be adopted by Dino of all people.

[Sana Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm alternating between 4 and 5 starts for these reviews because whilst Banana Fish is definitely not perfect, I care very, very deeply for Ash Lynx as a character. What this series does right, it does very right, and Ash as a portrayal of a traumatised character who doesn't fit the narrative scripts of what we think a survivor "should" be hits in a way not many works of fiction manage to pull off, let alone for 1980s manga.

Also, Eiji. Eiji's character development here is beautiful and heartbreaking. Eiji, who refused to kill people under any circumstances and disapproved so much when Ash did, asking Alex for a gun and leading an attack on the Union Corse to save Ash. Ash abandoning all the evidence they've found about banana fish and handing himself over to Golzine in a desperate attempt to keep Eiji safe from Blanca. These boys care so fucking much for eachother. I want nothing but good things for them, even as I know this isn't the kind of story where characters like Ash and Eiji get uncomplicated happy endings,

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ash was being summoned for a meet. He was told to give it up. The fight is over. He was to give over all the records and data on Banana Fish. He also was to turn over the scientist. Or else, Eiji will be killed outright. Should Ash ever try anything foolish. However, Ash is not entirely won over by their threat. Yet, Ash knew he’s no match for Blanca. So, now, Ash is Dino’s prisoner. Yet, there are forces at work in Ash’s favor.

[seb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ash becomes Dino Golzine's son/wife. Eiji goes to Sing to help get Ash back. Blanca continues to be inscrutable. So much psychic trauma inflicted on Ash. Poor Max gets fired. A deeply weird jaunt into Cold War politics. All this and more in volume 13!

Not the strongest Banana Fish tankobon, but necessary to get the wheels turning toward the climax.

[Sharlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.00 - Very Good
I finally learned what asura means. Ash and Eiji showed how much they have grown in this volume. Haha, I was not expecting Peter to look like blonde Eiji. Cold and calculating Ash still surprises me. Golzine is messed up especially when he is appointing his sex slave as his heir, but hey, what a promotion! Just kidding, I will personally rip out all pedophiles' organs.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The volume begins wish Ash’s resolve to do what he must do save Eiji, and ends with Eiji’s resolve to do what he must to save Ash. One somewhat unexpected bond I enjoyed seeing highlighted was that between Max and Ash. Yut Lung and Golzine continue to be the worst, and they set the scene for upcoming action.

[T.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

And now, there's no rockier rock and harder hard place for Ash to be caught between, as he's forced to give up everything including Banana Fish to save Eiji.

I love all the Fishbone fashion and cool coats. I love Sing Soo Ling and his snarky outsider attitude. But I'm so done with Yut Lung at this point.

[aslan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a great volume. Ash’s speech is heartbreaking but it’s kind of liberating seeing him laugh and spit at his abuser, even in delirium. This volume really reveals a lot about Golzine’s character. My hatred for him continues to fester. Disgusting, heartless man.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm feeling better after reading this volume. It feels more on track. It is showing vulnerability in the main character after making him larger than life for such a long time. Now, it feels as if there is more to lose.

[Anto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por cuánto más sufrimiento te quieren hacer pasar, Ash? T.T
Odio, profundamente, al chino ese Lee.
Sing se está ganando mi respeto.
Y por fin Eiji está decidido a hacer algo

[lyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

THINGS JUST GET WORST AND WORST, I'M NOT READY TO READ THE OTHER VOLUME (But I will do it anyways, haha).

[Nea Poulain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuando Ash le dice a Blanca que es feliz porque hay un hombre que se preocupa por el sin pedirle nada a cambio. Damn.

[Aleja Uribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pobre Ash, lo que hace por las personas a las que quiere!

[Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

cap 68 - 73

[Neoralisa Medrano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi pobre Ash. Esto es tan frustrante...

[seymalicious · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dino golzine keşke mangadan çıkıp karşımda insan suretine bürünseydin de bütün sülalene boydan girseydim senin

[Favii · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 (dino ctm te odio con mi vida)

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10