This Week in Anime

Does the '80s-tastic Banana Fish Work For Modern Anime Fans?

Micchy
Hey Steve, I got a question for ya.

Having read a good part of the manga, you're not wrong: get ready for the pain train.

So anyway, here's Banana Fish, the long-awaited anime of Akimi Yoshida's groundbreaking shojo manga from the late '80s. It's been modernized for its new adaptation, but it still seens very '80s, for better or for worse.

Updated character designs and modern tech aside, Banana Fish is still the Banana Fish we know and love in its tone and worldview (unrepentantly gritty and grungy). Probably the most glaring example of its datedness is how it treats sexuality, because hoo boy is it Problematic with a capital P. 1985 was a time when queer sexuality was very much associated with deviancy and taboo, and a lot of that complicated baggage still carries over into this new adaptation.

For what it's worth, I remember being impressed that the manga straight-up stated that characters were gay in no uncertain terms; on the other hand, when most of the sexuality in the show is presented through some sort of violence, it gets a little hairy. And you're right, it is presenting the heavier elements delicately, a handful of leery scenes aside, but it's no doubt going to be upsetting to folks nonetheless.

I like that Ash's friend Shorter just tacks on that fact at the end of a whole other conversation.

Just maybe we can do without the pedophilia.

Ash sees in Eiji what he never had for himself: innocence, freedom, and control over his own life.

Tho I'm gonna be real with ya, Ash's angsty backstory is a pile of tragedy porn.

Taken in by the mafia at age 11, forced into child porn and sex slavery, grew up on the streets, took control of the local gangs by 17 but remained under the thumb of his abusers, his entire life is a string of misery.

It feels almost calculated how every last bit of it is designed to make the ideal broken bad boy in need of healing, the kind you find in pulpy straight romance novels or BL manga. That's not to discount how compelling his story is! That said, parts of it absolutely border on voyeuristic and exploitative, just piling on the suffering in a way modern audiences don't necessarily need.

It's a little disconcerting that of all the disposable elements to preserve, the numerous prison rape threats still make the cut. They're never directly played for humor or titillation, but it still kinda sucks that there are so many.

On the other hand, cut out too much of that twisted eroticism and Banana Fish ceases to be Banana Fish as we know it. It's a balancing act that I'm not sure Utsumi and staff have quite gotten down yet.

What they do definitely have down is the intimacy between these two boys.

This scene was like two itty-bitty panels in the manga just FYI.

It happens for Plot Reasons™, for the record, so it doesn't mean they're gay (but they're totally gay).

Same! Even if its depiction of New York is, uh, dated to say the least. Like most of the locations depicted in the show do exist, they're just gentrified to hell now, like a lotta American cities. That's why I choose to believe Banana Fish takes place in a version of 1985 where smartphones exist. It's a lot easier to explain that way.

To be fair, Ash is white. I'm sorry, I mean Aslan Jade Callenreese is white.

You can't tell me millennial parents wouldn't name their kids Aslan and Griffin though.

Hey, Eiji's trying his best to fill that void. He may not have a Hawaiian shirt, but he's still reppin the banana leaves.

He's a good boy, Steve.

Be Strong, Eiji