Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Banana Fish Trying Too Hard To Be Shocking?
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MarshalBanana
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Zzshcl
Posts: 106 |
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It is just the material of the original art which was made back in the 80s
Maybe then was shocking, but now we are kinda used to violence |
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Crabtree1
 Posts: 107 Location: Aberdeenshire |
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I certainly wouldn't call any of banana fish shocking, everyone knows that all of what has been shown so far goes on in this world.
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Romuska
 Subscriber Posts: 813 |
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Speaking as a gay man and as someone who doesn't particularly appreciate casual attitudes toward rape in media, I find this show to be incredibly dated. I was already annoyed by the show but when they started making gags about teenage characters literally seconds away from being raped, I was officially done. This is pretty much the male version of Cross Ange, which I also didn't care for.
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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Gags? I can understand taking issue with Banana Fish’s reliance on “rape as peril” as a plot point, but it takes the concept seriously as a traumatic event. |
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Romuska
Subscriber Posts: 813 |
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At one point the scene where Eiji and Yut-Lung Lee are about to be raped is played for laughs. Also apparently the author seems to believe that everybody in American jails is a child molester. I see no reason why I should take this seriously when clearly the author didn't. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1461 |
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I thought the last two episodes were some really exploitative grimdark crap. On top of all of the stuff mentioned by the column, we also had to endure Jessica getting raped off-screen by some thug who went on to brag about it in front of Max. I hope to see the good guys get a win soon, or at least a reprieve from getting relentlessly tortured by the plot.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Yep yep yep! I have a whole folder of mostly happy fanart of them! Just about every AU idea out there is of the characters just being happy! Seriously, there's not even side stories about them being happy (the closest we get is like 9 pages in the art book about them enjoying Cape Cod) I kind of feel like suspension of disbelief has to start pretty early on in this series, particularly with Max and Griff both being friends from the wart and Ash being Griff's brother and Ash going to the very prison Max was in (some strings were pulled to put them in the same cell though, so that, I can let slide) Anyway, I am definitely most excited for everyone to really get to see Sing in action next week as he is my favorite character! It's a shame what we have to lose to get to Sing but.... I am rather concerned about all of the manga actually getting adapted though. We haven't cut too many major things so far (shame the chicken scene got axed), but something's gotta give pretty soon. I'm kind of thinking it might end up being spoiler[the thing with Foxx], which took up a lot of time in the manga (be a shame to miss the spoiler[natural history museum fight]! I so wanted to see that animated!) But they have already said certain things are supposed to appear so I guess those are things we can safely assume won't be cut at this point. I wonder if they'll change the ending at all? Also, and I guess this would be more a question on how modern anime are written, but did they basically have the whole thing scripted out before starting, or not really? And as they're going along are they going "oops! guess we didn't get as far as we thought we would this ep! oh well!" |
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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Howso? I’m not trying to be dense here; you’re literally the only person I’ve ever seen say that about that scene. Eiji is obviously horrified both on his behalf and on the behalf of Yut-Lung. There’s no comedic music playing. Are you referring to the bit where he yanks his hands free the second Yut-Lung unties them? I don’t think relief and hurried attempts at freedom from restraint are really making light of rape... |
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Romuska
Subscriber Posts: 813 |
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I specifically talking about when Eiji reacts to Yut-Lung Lee's answer when he asks him if he's bothered by the situation. There's so much rape in this show that the characters don't even care anymore. There aren't many mainstream anime with gay protagonists so when I see this it just rubs me the wrong way.
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asilenttree
 Posts: 32 Location: California |
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For the most part, this show is well written with compelling characters, but like it's been mentioned, the heavy reliance on rape peril really did desensitize me on the level of tragedy in this show. I will say that despite this, Shorter's outcome really impacted me still
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Iwaizumi Hajime
Posts: 1 |
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spoiler[True that Shorter's death is the one who touch the most in the whole story and probably the story should be rated 16+, but i think it's not an anime able to shock too much.]
Only reading the plot is enough to understand that, talking about drugs, is not a light thing. Banana Fish is one of the best series. |
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Dragonsandphoenix
 Posts: 82 Location: Malaysia |
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I agree with a previous post that all the rape in this show makes it really dated. It honestly felt like the threat of rape was originally a convenient dramatic device to make the story more "edgy" and have characters be in sexual situations without having them actually have sex. This type of thing isn't all that shocking anymore considering what's currently popular on TV.
I was a bit confused why the sexual scenes felt more uncomfortable compared to the manga but I think this is a result of the anime's aesthetic and direction. The manga to me never felt that sexual because the author just doesn't frame characters with that much sensuality so even sexual situations don't ellicit a reaction from me. However it's obvious the anime is making the characters look more "sexy" (I can't help but notice that Shorter is more buff than his manga counterpart, which makes the scene where he's shot weirder when the camera is also giving us a good view of his abs, like what). Like I like me some beefcake but in the context of this show, it's weird. |
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AA751
Posts: 72 |
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Are you serious? That was a horrifying scene, there was no comedy at all, not in the manga or in the anime. It's supposed to show just how damaged Yut-lung is, that he's seen so much abuse he just doesn't care anymore. He's completely numb. |
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AA751
Posts: 72 |
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No, it's not that he's not bothered by it, it's that he refuses to let it bother him. His aim is to get revenge for the death of his mother, and to do that, he's willing to deal with this idignity so he can live long enough to do it. He's gone through this before, much like Ash has. You think anyone would be so 'lalalla' about being raped without some backstory there? Or was that too subtle for you? Did you want them to spell it out? |
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