Banana Fish Mini Review (manga)
September 17th, 2007 by Lianne
PG-16/18 for violence, sexuality, language, nudity, drugs, gangs, shootin’ in the head, etc.; official series website and awesome fanpage Boyfruit, which is responsible for the above scan
Although this manga definitely deserves a full review, here’s an interim version: Banana Fish kicks more ass than a manga should be allowed to kick. One of the most popular and genre-breaking shoujo titles of all time in Japan, Banana Fish follows a massive drug conspiracy from the Vietnamese war to 80’s New York, where big-wig conspiracy meets juvenile street gangs. The main character–a 17-year old gang leader by the name of Ash–is a beautiful, ridiculously intelligent protégé of the (Italian?) mafia who eventually decides to stick it to The Man and mess up said conspiracy, along with the help of a Japanese photography assistant named Eiji who met Ash through an ill-fated journalistic photo shoot. If you’re not hooked by the end of Volume 1, give up and go for something more tame…which also goes for those of you who can’t stomach some pretty extreme violence and lots and lots of referencing to sexual violence, abuse, pedophilia, and other grossness. But if you can handle a gritty story with surprising class–sex is almost never onscreen, and the violence isn’t unnecessarily gratuitous–then by all means read this. The art improves quite a bit after the first few volumes, too. All 19 volumes are now out in English, so you can read the incredibly ballsy ending and then spend a week wondering about the meaning of life.
Educated impression: VERY much worth a try, if you’re old enough for it. (Lianne)