Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Banana Fish
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Graceful Nanami
Posts: 303 Location: United States |
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Um, it is very faithful, yes. There are plot threads that are left out but they aren't terribly important and there are a few instances of censorship in terms of being PC. The atmosphere of the manga is pretty different fromt he anime. If you liked the anime, I'd just recommend you read the manga,. It's fantastic and offers a little bit more substance beyond Ash and Eiji's love.
Seriously, it'd take forever for me to map out every change and such... just do yourself a favor and read it if you are very interested. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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@Rednimue
It's not that they changed much, but they did cut a LOT out. Plot-wise, it's mostly just subplots that got axed, but it also cut a ton of little character moments that were very important to make the characters feel more real. I think Sing got the biggest brunt of this one. Most of the major Ash & Eiji cute scenes were left intact, but every character just felt lacking compared to the manga without those silly little scenes (usually just a few panels, some may have been longer, but they spoke volumes about the characters). For example, there's a scene where Shorter and Ash spend like, 4 pages stealing some chickens to eat on the way to LA and how both they and everyone else react to this event was charming and hilarious and I'm so sad that it's gone! Shunichi also got hit pretty hard on this where he felt mostly useless after the first third, but he was still being an adorable papa bear around Eiji for the whole manga. There were also a good number of minor plot holes that got induced by cutting small scenes. For example, how did Cain and co get out of the sewers after knocking Ash out? Why did the crew just magically assume Ash would have something done to his eyes and be unable to see during the dinner party rescue? These were all addressed in the manga. In a series where I felt like the manga had very few, if any, extraneous scenes, cutting pretty much anything was going to hurt it in some aspect. Things like moving previously in-person conversations to cell phones was fine, but I also feel like Pizza Boy Ash showing up made for some more character moments for him and Max. I'd suggest just reading the manga if you're already invested, I think there's enough there to make it more than worth it since it is better than the anime. Although the anime's backgrounds were clearly going to be superior (it wasn't a strong suit of the manga, lots of talking heads, not that I noticed much) and some of the super emotional scenes they did I really liked (like spoiler[Shorter's death, with the slowdown and the seeing him in Ash's eye sort of thing]), and also, the manga didn't exactly draw black people very well (though most manga, especially from before the internet age took off, did that more out of ignorance than spite. Like Osamu Tezuka, he tended to draw black people that way and it stuck around for far too long, but Japan is also something like 99% Japanese living there, and given how Tezuka tended to emulate certain things from Disney, that's something he probably assumed just... was, but I digress). Also, if you want to do this now instead of waiting until you've read the whole manga, you can read the Garden of Light true epilogue right away if you wish (it's part of vol 19) |
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Rednimue
Posts: 107 |
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@graceful Nanami @Classicalzawa
Thank you for your accurate explanation ! And by the way, merry Christmas ! |
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RenRen94
 Posts: 230 |
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Wow, what a series. I don’t really post much about daily reviews, so here we go.
First off, let me say the choice of lyrics in the opening and ending for the second half were on point. The opening lines in Blue Encount’s "Freedom" are obviously about Ash and Eiji’s first meeting, but the chorus of “Get away from me, get away from dark nightmare” can have two meanings: Ash and Golzine (the one I thought of), and Ash and Eiji. The last few seconds of the opening when Ash points the gun at Golzine is especially telling of a victim trying to break away from his abuser, but a strong argument could be made for the Ash/Ejii angle. Ash is the so-called “demon” or wild cat that cannot be tamed, as noted by many over the course of the series. Being deeply embroiled in the mafia/gang lifestyle against his will, he naturally made enemies who would come after him not matter what and prey on any weakness he shows. Getting closer to Eiji and involving him in his war against Golzine gave his enemies a weakness to hone in on, putting Eiji in danger, resulting in Ash pushing him away from his world, to protect him from his “dark nightmare.” Conversely, the lyrics from “Red” show Ash’s conflicting feelings for seeing Eiji one last time, particularly the lines: “In spite of how the world decides to see my life, Would I still have the chance for us to say goodbye” and “If I decide to burn instead of fading out, I still would like the chance for us to say goodbye.” The former suggests that the world sees Ash as a demon or monster who has no remorse for killing others, and Ash has wavering feelings of seeing Eiji one last time. The latter suggests that Ash knows his life will not end happily and he cannot simply “fade away,” but knows he will “burn” for all the pain and death he feels he has caused, but displays his conviction to see his friend in spite of this. To be honest, I could say a lot more about the lyrics (they’re just that good), but I’ll leave it at that for now. If “Red” had played near the end of the final episode, I probably would have cried a lot more. That song is just so powerful in the context of this show. Anyways, the episode left me on the edge of my seat in how things would get resolved. I am in agreement with Rose that the introduction of Foxx was kind of redundant, considering that Golzine was the big bad of the entire series, but to be fair Ash and Golzine had been playing cat-and-mouse games the entire time. In a way it kind of makes sense for Foxx to be the final obstacle in Ash’s quest for freedom: Foxx is both a superior physical and mental challenge for Ash to surmount, and Ash hasn’t had a challenge from someone with as much superior physical training as Foxx did (with the exception of maybe Blanca). Side note though: with the number of enemies Golzine has, you’d think the man would have invested in a Kevlar vest… Sing and Blanca’s moment in the shaft was hilarious; I really think Sing ended up being my favorite character (Shorter is still best bro of 2018). I love the way he spoke to Yut-Lung about letting go of his hate, and it was a great way to end Yut-Lung’s cycle of hatred. And now onto the actual ending of the series. One thing I’m sure the Banana Fish fandom will agree on is that they all hate Lao with a burning passion. I will admit when Ash was reading Eiji’s letter and got the plane ticket, I got misty-eyed. Through that entire sequence with Lao stabing him, Ash picking up the pages of his precious letter from his precious friend, struggling to the library and the smile on his face afterwards, I was misty-eyed. That was the extent of my reaction to this tragedy at first. But then I had to think about it for a few moments. Ash could have gone to get help. He could have flagged down a random person on the street or in the library who could have gotten him medical attention. Hell, I’m sure he knew a few first aid techniques that could have given him a slightly better chance at living to see another day, and another chance of meeting Eiji again. But he didn’t. Because he knew that if he lived, he either wouldn’t be able to stop himself from going to see Eiji in Japan, or Eiji would come back to find him, and this entire mess would start up again. As long as he lived, he would put his friend in never-ending danger that always followed him around, his so-called “dark nightmare.” So in the end, Aslan Jade Calenreese chose to die to protect Eiji Okumura. Because he chose this end for himself, he died in peace. For me, that is the tragedy of this story, and the reason that thinking about his death in this context makes me cry. Thank you Akimi Yoshida for giving us this gripping story. Some parts were hard to get through, and while there were some flaws,but I ended up witnessing a beautiful story of love and friendship among the pain and violence. I don’t regret watching this. And thank you Rose for your reviews on this unique story. I don’t read all the reviews of the shows that I watch, but the Banana Fish reviews were some of the only reviews I would make time to read all the way through. I didn’t agree with all of your points, but they provided me with a different perspective I might not have seen before. Sorry for the block of text guys, this show has got me so emotional. |
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SailorTralfamadore
 Posts: 499 Location: Keep Austin Weeb |
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See, while I hate the ending plot twist, I don't actually hate Lao. I thought his motives were pretty understandable, especially with how Sing just kinda dropped his anger over Shorter's death even before he knew the truth behind it... which felt unrealistic to me. (Sing's a nice guy, but I think he'd still be pretty pissed off about that with how much he looked up to Shorter, and it would affect his relationship with Ash more.) Again, the fact that Sing didn't give any indication to the rest of his group that Ash's rationale for killing his best friend was more complicated than it seemed, was what felt silly to me -- especially once it was tearing the group apart. At first, maybe he might have kept it as "Ash's secret" but I think as that conflict wore on, he would've found a way to tell the group, and especially Lao -- who until his betrayal, seemed like Sing's second-in-command -- the truth. But I don't actually hate Lao for acting the way he did, with the information he'd been (not) given.
Thank you, you don't know how much we appreciate this! Some of my favorite reviewers are people I don't always agree with but I feel like get me to look at media in a new way regardless, so I really love hearing this from people. 
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Color2413
Posts: 49 |
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Did I hate the ending? Yes.
Did I respect the ending? Yes. Its message was bleak, but realistic: Not everyone can overcome childhood trauma, and even people who appear strong and invincible to the world can nevertheless be internally broken. It seemed extraordinary that Ash could have survived everything that happened to him in the course of the series, while in fact each new blow was damaging his psyche more and more. The other theme is Heroic Sacrifice, at least as Ash perceived it. The manga makes clear that Ash could have sought medical attention, but spoiler[ chose to bleed to death in the library so that he could never again bring danger to Eiji. ] He clearly never lost track of the difference between good and evil behavior, and this was the only way, in his eyes, that he could achieve redemption. I found it easiest to read the series as a whole as a tragic grand opera, which requires more than the usual amount of suspension of disbelief for the sake of moving the story emotionally. Yes, there were many places that seemed completely implausible, such as spoiler[ Golzine's Hollywood Resurrection after being shot twice ], but I was not bored, even once, watching the entire series -- its constant forward narrative thrust was its strongest element. I agree with almost all of Rose's ep. 24 review. By Western standards, even in the '80s the manga was an anachronism in insisting on a tragic ending for a same-sex couple. Pre-Stonewall (i.e., pre-1969), having a gay couple come to a tragic end (to punish them for their "iniquity") was basically a requirement for authors who wanted to get their gay fiction published in the U.S. Post-Stonewall, GLBT writing flourished, and excellent writers like Ed White, Andrew Holleran, and Felice Picano emerged, writing adult, psychologically complex, sexy, and decidedly non-melodramatic fiction. Judged by the standards set by these writers, Rose is absolutely correct that Banana Fish is "juvenile." However, if one reads it differently -- that Ash's final choice was not the universe's punishment for loving Eiji but was instead Ash's ultimate expression of that love to keep Eiji safe, then one sees an important difference between BF and pre-1969 Western gay fiction. Additionally, if anything the universe was saying that Ash needed to pay for the lives he had taken, and even counting all of Ash's trauma, that was the only way the scales could be balanced. Bottom line -- with all its faults, Banana Fish is my #2 in my personal "year's best" list, edged out only by the gorgeous Mo Dao Zu Shi [Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation]. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6561 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Everyone brings different experiences, tastes and expectations to the anime they chose to watch. So long as people are respectful (and on topic) then they are free to disagree with you, the reviewer, or anyone else. |
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