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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rent | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:3547#1552] |
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Banana Fish focuses on Ash Lynx, a runaway who was forcibly raised as a child prostitute and now leads his own gang in the crime-infested slums of Manhattan. Alongside a Japanese young man named Eiji Okamura, Ash finds himself dragged into a large conspiracy concerning a mysterious drug that drives its users into psychotic, self-destructive rages. This makes him a target of Dino Goldine, Ash’s adoptive father who leads the mafia crime syndicate in New York City and raised Ash into his unwilling stint into prostitution. I must admit my thoughts on Banana Fish were quite over the place throughout its run. While having a good deal of story elements and themes it dabbles into that give it some poignant insight into rampant corruption and child prostitution, it also unfortunately stumbles a good deal during a number of points as well. There’s a good deal I plan to dabble into with the series to attempt giving my thoughts on it, while attempting to minimize spoilers where I can. It also may be a little uneasy for some folks to watch through at points as Banana Fish explores child prostitution and the psychological toll that victims of rape and sexual assault cope with. From what I researched on Banana Fish’s manga source material, it looks like the series was originally set in the 1980s and meant to be commentary of sorts into the crime-infested world of New York City and American government corruption. This exploration does get some elements of the era right with ethnic gangs being in turf wars with one another, crime syndicates like the local mafia being practically untouchable to the city police, and American meddling into Middle Eastern military conflicts. However for whatever reason, the anime adaptation to Banana Fish chose to modernize the setting of the series with characters shown to have access to modern technology like cell phones and the Internet, and more recent military conflicts such as the 2000s American “war on terror” being brought up. This attempt at modernization does lead to some inconsistencies with story and character elements that were originally nods to era-appropriate events and behavior of the 1980s. Those who have lived in or are read up enough on 1980s culture and global events will likely be savvy enough to pick up on the anime’s inconsistent meshing of 1980s and modern events and cultural trends. Moving on from era-appropriate utilization, probably the most interesting element to Banana Fish is the character of Ash Lynx. His character is depicted to have a good deal of dimension shown throughout the series as he is dealing with the mental trauma of his past as a child prostitute and desires a way out of the crime-infested world he was forced into due to a rather ugly and tragic past. The bond that Ash establishes with Eiji throughout Banana Fish serves to provide a look into his vulnerable side and a rare instance in his life where he receives unconditional trust and acceptance from someone. Ash is also shown to be exceptionally smart and skilled in fighting and guns due to being groomed by Dino into being the future successor to his crime empire, leading him to utilize these talents to piece together more about the conspiracy he unravels and trying to stay a step ahead of those connected to it. The handling of other characters throughout the series has its ups and downs. Some characters get a good deal of fleshing out and development as Banana Fish explores how they cope with the world of crime or dabble further into the conspiracy. A freelance reporter named Max Lobo gradually develops a bond with Ash and comes to learn of a connection he has to the boy’s quest into the conspiracy both are investigating. Chinese mobster Yut-Lang makes for an interesting contrast to Ash with both forced into the crime world, yet Yut-Lang has a more cynical outlook on his situation and struggles to comprehend Ash’s bond with Eiji throughout the series.
Some other characters are either rather shallow in terms of depth or there are problems in how they are handled throughout Banana Fish. While Golzine is portrayed as a competent and merciless crime boss with his handling of the conspiracy he’s involved in, his single-minded obsession with claiming Ash can usually get quite over-the-top. Eiji’s character is a bit of a double-edged sword for me as while serving as one of the few characters that Ash shows vulnerability toward, being a weakness to Ash leads to one of the two getting captured often by any criminal faction in later episodes and becomes frustrating to watch. Also without spoiling too much, one character’s presence in the final four episodes of the series felt rather awkward and sudden with their addition into the main conflict between Ash and Golzine. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:3547#628] | ||||||
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(One episode watched): While the title of this anime had me expecting a silly children's anime, this is anything but. Instead, it is an ugly tale of drugs, crime and violence. I was not particularly thrilled, however. The show seems pretty stereotypical, and depicts the US as hyper-violent place. Also, I don't like Ash all that much; the notion of a 17 year old super cool and super handsome gang leader is hard to take seriously. Nobody strikes me as all that likeable, not even Eiji. There are implications of bondage and people being molested, probably just so that we have no doubt who the villains are. At the end of the episode I couldn't think of any questions that I felt I needed answers to. What is 'Banana Fish'? Probably a highly potent and deadly drug; but since Ash seems like a bitter, angry person, I don't really care whether he gets revenge for what happened to his brother. No doubt there will be plenty of action, but it seemed over-the-top and hard to take seriously. Basically, I don't sense that I'd be getting much in exchange for enduring the ugliness here. Last updated Wednesday, July 18 2018. Created Wednesday, July 18 2018. | ||||||||
