Banana Fish

Banana Fish(stylized inall caps) is a Japanesemangaseries written and illustrated byAkimi Yoshida. It was originally serialized from May 1985 to April 1994 inBessatsu Shōjo Comic, amanga magazinepublishingshōjomanga(girls' manga). Set primarily in New York City in the 1980s, the series followsstreet gangleader Ash Lynx as he uncovers a criminal conspiracy involving "banana fish", a mysterious drug that brainwashes its users. In the course of his investigation he encounters Eiji Okumura, a Japanese photographer's assistant with whom he forms a close bond.
The visual and narrative style ofBanana Fish, characterized byrealistartwork and action-oriented storytelling, represented a significant break from then-establishedshōjomanga conventions of highly stylized illustration and romantic fantasy-focused stories. While the series was aimed at theshōjoaudience of adolescent girls and young adult women, its mature themes and subject material attracted a substantial crossover audience of men and adult women. Its depictions ofhomoeroticismin this mature, action-oriented context were particularly influential on theboys' love(male-male romance) genre of manga.Banana Fishwas acclaimed by critics, who offered praise for the series' plot, dialogue, and action scenes. It is Yoshida's most commercially successful work, with over 12 million copies ofcollected volumesof the series in circulation as of 2018.
An English-language translation of the series was published byViz Media, which also serializedBanana Fishin its manga magazinesPulpandAnimerica Extrabeginning in 1997, makingBanana Fishone of the earliest manga series to reach a wide audience in the United States. The series has been adapted several times, notably in 2018 asa 24-episode anime television seriesdirected byHiroko Utsumiand produced byMAPPA. The anime adaptation aired onFuji TV'sNoitaminaprogramming block and is syndicated globally onAmazon Prime Video, whichsimulcastthe series during its original broadcast run.
Banana Fishis set in the United States during the mid-1980s, primarily in New York City. Seventeen-year-old street gang leader Ash Lynx cares for his older brother Griffin, aVietnam Warveteranleft in avegetative statefollowing a traumatic combat incident in which he fired on his own squadron and uttered the words "banana fish". One night, Ash witnesses two of his gang members kill a man who instructs Ash to "seek banana fish" before dying. The two gang members tell Ash they were acting on orders from Dino Golzine, the head of theCorsican mafiain New York; Ash was formerly anenforcerand childsex slaveto Golzine, having been groomed from a young age to become the eventual heir to his criminal enterprise.
Ash begins to investigate "banana fish" but is impeded in this endeavor by Golzine, leading him to turn on his former patron. Ash encounters multiple allies and enemies in the course of his dual efforts to uncover the meaning of "banana fish" and dismantle Golzine's criminal empire: chief among his confidants is Eiji Okumura, a Japanese photographer's assistant who has travelled to New York to complete a report on street gangs, and with whom Ash forms a close bond. It gradually transpires that "banana fish" is a drug developed by an Americanmilitary doctorduring the Vietnam War that brainwashes its users; early versions of the drug were tested on American soldiers, including Griffin, which drove them to insanity. Its perfected formula has been acquired by Golzine, who intends to sell the drug to factions within the United States government, who in turn seek to use it tooverthrow communist governments in South America.
Ultimately, Golzine is killed in a climactic battle, his government co-conspirators are exposed as participants in his childsex traffickingring, and all evidence of the banana fish project is destroyed. Ash comes to recognize the danger he exposes Eiji to, and reluctantly ceases all contact with him. Eiji returns to Japan, though prior to his departure, he writes Ash a letter in which he tells him that "my soul is always with you." While distracted by the letter, Ash is fatally stabbed by a rival gang lieutenant. He staggers into theNew York Public Library Main Branchwhere he dies, smiling and clutching Eiji's letter.
Shōjomanga(Japanese girls'comics) entered a period of significant creative development beginning in the 1970s, characterized by the emergence of new narrative and visual styles, and the ascendance of femalemanga artistsinto what had formerly been a category dominated by male creators.Manga such asThe Rose of Versailles(1972–1973) byRiyoko Ikedaestablished non-Japanese settings and androgynous characters as a common motif forshōjomanga, while works byMoto Hagio,Keiko Takemiya, and other artists associated with theYear 24 Grouporiginatedshōnen-ai(male-male romance) as a distinct subgenre ofshōjomanga.Early Year 24 Groupshōnen-aitypically depicted romanticized European or historic Japanese settings, though works that depicted homosexuality by artists unassociated with the group such asFire!(1969–1971) byHideko Mizunodepicted unidealized American settings, and frequently included one or more Japanese characters that served as a point of reference and identification for Japanese readers.
Banana FishcreatorAkimi Yoshidamade her debut as a manga artist in 1977, having originally been inspired to pursue a career in manga after watching a revival screening of the 1969 filmMidnight Cowboywhile in high school.The film, which depicts the relationship between acon manand a malehustlerin New York City, had a profound impact on Yoshida, and influenced her to create works that replicated its themes of close spiritual and fraternal bonds between men.Yoshida would first explore these themes in her debut serial manga seriesCalifornia Story(1978–1981), which depicts themes ofhomoeroticismin a New York City setting, and which manga scholarYukari Fujimotoregards as a narrative and thematic precursor toBanana Fish.
Yoshida did not have a fixed composition for the plot ofBanana Fishfrom its outset; while she had a general idea of the series' story, the particulars of plot and characters were developed throughout its serialization.Owing to the influence ofMidnight Cowboy, Yoshida sought to createBanana Fishas story focused on an emotionally intense relationship between two characters, who became Ash and Eiji.Originally, Ash was conceived as an upbeat character inspired byshōnenmanga protagonists, as Yoshida sought to contrast the moody protagonists typical of her other works, while Eiji was originally conceived as a female character.In the latter case, Eiji was made male due the character's largely passive role in the story, and Yoshida's personal dislike of inert female deuteragonists in manga who exist solely as a source of conflict or romance for the male protagonist.
Yoshida's style as a manga artist – as exemplified byBanana Fish– deviated significantly from typicalshōjomanga of its era in terms of narrative, character, setting, mood, and visual style.Writer and translatorFrederik L. Schodtnotes that while Yoshida's works adhere to certain conventions ofshōjomanga as textual and subtextual homoeroticism, she at the same time adopts "a completely masculine art style, eschewing flowers and bug eyes in favor of tight bold strokes, action scenes, andspeed lines".She forgoed many of theshōjoconventions made popular by the Year 24 Group – highly stylized character designs, a focus on romance and fantasy, grandiloquent writing – in favor of artwork that was stripped-down and realistic,panelsthat focused on characters and actions over backgrounds and environments, and frequent action sequences.Her characters are drawn as realistically proportioned, contrasting both the "willowy bodies" typical of men inshōjomanga and the "hyperdefined anatomy" typical of men inshōnenmanga(boys' manga).In contrast to the European settings popular inshōjomanga of the 1970s, Yoshida expressed a general disinterest in European culture and "Englishpretty boytypes", preferring instead the "carefree attitude" of working-class American men.
The physical appearance of many of the characters inBanana Fishis based on real-life public figures: Ash's appearance is based on tennis playerStefan Edbergin the earliest chapters of the series before shifting to a design based on actorRiver Phoenix, while Eiji is based on actorHironobu Nomura.Yoshida likened this process of selecting real-life figures to depict as characters to casting a "B-gradeaction movie".The author developed an interest in River Phoenix after watching his 1986 filmThe Mosquito Coastwhile visiting the United States; she was unaware Phoenix also appeared in the 1986 filmStand By Me, which she had previously seen, and became intrigued by Phoenix's range as an actor given the differences between the two characters.Yoshida notes how as Ash's design shifted from the Edberg to the Phoenix design his physicality shifts as well, from "athletic and solidly-built" to a "slender pretty boy".
Despite her lack of fixed composition for the story, Yoshida intended from the earliest stages of the series' development to haveBanana Fishconclude with Ash's death.She briefly reconsidered this approach following Phoenix's death in 1993 at the age of 23, as she did not wish the series to be perceived as making light of a real-life tragedy.In discussing her rationale for Ash's death, Yoshida has indicated her fascination with people who live intensely and die young, describing Ash as a person who "lived his full life in 17 years"; further, Yoshida believed that as Ash had committed acts of violence and murder throughout the series, he needed to pay for these actions with his own life.The seeming ignominy of Ash's death at the hands of a low-level gang member was intentional on Yoshida's part; a protagonist who seems to die meaninglessly recurs as a motif inshōnenmanga (such asAshita no Joe),Midnight Cowboy, and Yoshida's ownCalifornia Story.
The concept of the mind-controlling banana fish drug originated from Yoshida's interest inCentral Intelligence Agencyresearch into mind control, such asMKUltraandProject ARTICHOKE, and her research into similar programs in the Soviet Union leading her to consider drugs as a tool for warfare.Yoshida has had an intellectual interest in drugs since high school, noting that her generation was influenced by and developed knowledge of drugs in a broad sense due to the influence of thedrug cultureof the era.The author has stated that depictingCold War-era politics became more difficult as political realities changed over the course ofBanana Fish's nearly decade-long run – principally thedissolution of the Soviet Unionmid-serialization – but that she ultimately did not strive for strict realism in her depiction of politics and current events.
Banana Fishbegan serialization in the May 1985 issue of the manga magazineBessatsu Shōjo Comic, a monthly supplement to the manga magazineShōjo Comic, where it ran until its conclusion in the April 1994 issue.The total length of the series is roughly 3,400 pages.Bessatsu Shōjo ComicpublisherShogakukanalso publishedBanana Fishas nineteencollected volumesunder its Flower Comics imprint.
The series was released amid the so-called "manga boom" of the mid-1980s and 1990s, which saw the popularity of manga increase amid the emergence of new creators, series, genres, and magazines, as well as an increase in the popularity of manga in international markets.North American publisherViz Mediaserialized an English-language translation ofBanana Fishas a launch title for its manga magazinePulpbeginning in 1998.WhenPulpfolded in 2002, serialization ofBanana Fishcontinued inAnimerica Extra, which itself folded in 2004.Viz also published two editions of collected volumes ofBanana Fish. The first, published from 1999 to 2002 and spanning the first seven volumes, featuresflipped artworkand censors some expletives. The second, published from 2004 to 2007 and spanning the full 19 volumes, is printed in the original right-to-left format and includes a re-translated script.The series was reprinted by Viz in 2018, shortly after the release of theanimeadaptation ofBanana Fish.
In addition to the main manga series, Yoshida wrote and illustrated fourone-shot(single-chapter manga)side stories:
All four stories were encapsulated inBanana Fish: Another Story, a collected edition published by Shogakukan in 1997. The collection also includesUra Banana(うら BANANA), a comedicfourth wall-breaking story where Ash and Eiji discussfan mailthe series has received with Yoshida.
Banana Fishwas adapted into a 24-episode anime series produced byMAPPAand directed byHiroko Utsumi, which aired onFuji TV'sNoitaminaprogramming block andAmazon Prime Videofrom July 5 to December 20, 2018.The series was produced as a part of a commemoration project to mark the 40th anniversary of Yoshida's debut as a manga artist.The adaptation revises the setting of the series from the 1980s to the 2010s, adding modern references such assmartphonesand substituting the Vietnam War with theIraq War.
Aradio dramaadaptation ofBanana Fishwas produced byNHKin 1994, with a cast that featuredTohru Furusawaas the voice of Ash andKazuhiko Inoueas the voice of Eiji. The adaptation was later released on CD, and was re-broadcast in 2018.Two novelizations ofBanana Fishhave been published. The first, a four-volume series written by Akira Endō, was published by KSS Comic Novels in 1998. TitledBanana Fish: Makkusu Robo no Shuki(Banana Fish マックス・ロボの手記, "Banana Fish: Memoir of Max Lobo"), the series tells the story of the manga from Max's perspective.The second, a three-volume series written by Miku Ogasawara based on theBanana Fishanime, was published byShogakukan Bunkoin 2018.Stage playadaptations ofBanana Fishhave been produced in 2005, 2009, 2012, and 2021.According to Yoshida,film rightsfor a live-action film adaptation ofBanana Fishwere at one point granted toRyuichi Sakamoto, but no film was ever produced.
Shogakukan, which published theBanana Fishmanga, has published severalart booksrelated to the series, including the art bookAngel Eyesin 1994and the companion bookRebirth: The Banana Fish Official Guidebookin 2001.The company also publishedNew York Sensein 2001, an art book credited to "Eiji Okumura" and marketed as a book of photographs taken by the character.
Banana Fishdepicts homosexuality both in the text of the story through representations of male-male rape, and as subtext through the ambiguouslyhomoeroticrelationship between Ash and Eiji.Male homosexuality is arecurring motif inshōjomanga;while works created in the 1970s by artists associated with the Year 24 Group formalizedshōjomanga featuring male homosexuality as a distinct subgenre known asshōnen-ai, homoerotic themes and subjects had long been a feature ofshōjomanga.Banana Fishwould come to represent a shift for depictions of homosexuality inshōjomanga, towards older protagonists andrealistwriting and artwork, and away from the schoolboy romances andmelodramasthat had previously defined the genre.Some manga scholars such asYukari FujimotoconsiderBanana Fishas belonging to a continuous artistic canon that includes works by the Year 24 Group, while others such as James Welker argue thatBanana Fishis narratively and stylistically closer to theboys' lovegenre of male-male romance manga that emerged in the 1990s.
DespiteBanana Fish's influence and prominence as a manga depicting homosexuality, the central relationship between Ash and Eiji is never rendered as overtly romantic or sexual.Critic Ted Anderson argues that a romantic dimension to Ash and Eiji's bond can be readily inferred from the subtext of the story, writing that "the astute reader understands the unspoken elements of Ash and Eiji's relationship".Manga criticJason Thompsonsimilarly describes the series as a "love story" expressed "so subtly as to be invisible",noting how "the sensuality in this manga is in Ash teaching Eiji how to shoot a gun, or Ash and Eiji's friendly, teasing, couple-like dialogue."Manga scholar Christina Parte argues that the non-physical nature of Ash and Eiji's relationship mirrors typicalshōjomanga romances, which commonly focus on a chaste relationship between a man and woman that is never physically consummated; Eiji's sexual and romantic inexperience is similarly typical of ashōjomanga protagonist.Thompson considers several potential explanations for the largely subtextual nature of Ash and Eiji's relationship, including Yoshida's stated desire to focus on the emotional connection between the characters, that Yoshida did not wish to risk eroticizing the manga's themes of rape by depicting a romantic or sexual relationship, and the potential influence of manga censorship codes in limiting displays of same-sex romance and sex.
While the cast ofBanana Fishis almost entirely male, several characters – notably Ash and Eiji – arebishōnen(literally "beautiful boys"), a term for visuallyandrogynousmale characters who blend masculine and feminine qualities.Scholars have considered howbishōnenare regarded as desirable by a female audience not merely for their physical attractiveness, but because they allow this audience to vicariously experience romance, agency, and personal autonomy through a character that is unconstrained bypatriarchy.While romance betweenbishōnenistolerated in some contexts in Japanand is thus not necessarily transgressive or subversive on its face, Parte argues that Ash and Eiji's status asbishōnenallows them to "transgress Japanesegender norms" by resisting gender roles typically associated with female Japanese adolescents.
Per Parte, Ash and Eiji express a degree ofgender ambivalenceby alternating between masculinized and feminized agency. Ash embodies typically masculine agency in his position as a leader of a street gang, but is frequently feminized though the rape he suffers at the hands of men. Conversely, Eiji possesses the typically feminine trait of nurturing domesticity – he soothes Ash when he is troubled, treats his wounds, and remains at home while Ash fights – but towards the end of the series, it is ultimately Eiji who takes up arms to free an emaciated Ash from Golzine's clutches.Parte argues that despite the American setting of the series, Ash's quest for self-determination ultimately represents a rejection of restrictive Japanese gender roles: both the "good son" (becoming Golzine's heir) and the "obedient wife" (becoming Golzine's sex slave).Thus, through Ash and Eiji's struggles, the ostensibly female reader is able to "escape from Japanese reality"and "resist the pressures of a highly hierarchical gender and sexual system".
The release ofBanana Fishin the late 1980s coincided with a period of fascination with New York City inJapanese popular culture.Schodt notes how the series reflects the Japanese perception of 1980s New York as a "modernWild West" characterized by rampantcrime, drug use, poverty, and racial tension that was "a symbol of everything that was wrong with America", but which at the same time "seemed symbolic of America's raw energy and exciting individual freedoms".Within the New York of the story, Eiji functions as an intermediary for the Japanese reader, echoing earlier manga such asFire!that used Japanese characters to link works in American settings to their Japanese readership.Parte argues that it is "tempting to see in Eiji the personification of reverseorientalism" as a Japanese character who is captivated by an American, but that his status as abishōnenrepresenting a blending of male and female traits allows him to embody a "female internationalistoccidentalism"wherein the female reader can vicariously experience an "exotic American setting" that has fewer limits on personal expression.
Beyond its American setting and characters,Banana Fishfeatures frequent allusions to American literature:Blanca's character arc is drawn fromErnest Hemingway'sIslands in the Stream, Ash compares his life to Hemingway'sThe Snows of Kilimanjaro,and the title of the series itself is a reference toJ. D. Salinger's short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish".The "bananafish" of Salinger's story are fish that eat to excess until they are unable to move, and the story ends with the sudden suicide of the protagonist.The symbolic meaning of the bananafish within "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is the subject of debate, and the significance of manga's title as an allusion to the story is similarly obscure, as there are few direct references to "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" within the manga.Anderson writes that "there are perhaps connections to Golzine's self-destructive greed and Ash’s seemingly suicidal tendencies, but these connections are tenuous at best."Thompson considers how "both the manga and the story involve life's cruelty, and traumatic experiences, and sudden death",while Parte considers the manga's banana fish drug as symbolizing "male greed, materialism, and destruction".Critic Hisayo Ogushi considers a less allegorical explanation, noting that the protagonist of Salinger's story commits suicide after he envisions the bananafish, just as characters in the manga lose control of themselves after they are given the banana fish drug.
The action-oriented plot ofBanana Fish, characterized by frequent fight scenes, multi-chapter action set pieces, and the extensive use of speed lines, represented a break from the typical visual and narrative conventions ofshōjomanga.Yoshida has stated that her interest in action stems from childhood, specifically her desire to play active sports like soccer instead of typically feminine pursuits such as rhythmic dance, and that the preponderance of male characters inBanana Fishstemmed in part from her difficulty in imagining stereotypically passive girls in these active scenarios.Violence and its dehumanizing effects recur as a major theme throughout the series, as character struggle to reconcile their humanity with the violent acts they commit and endure.Ash represents the apex of this theme: a character whose traumatic past has left him resigned to a life of violence, and who faces the conflict between his desire for a "normal" life with Eiji, and his desire to "protect Eiji from the horrors of his violent life".
Sexual violence also recurs throughout the series, with depictions of rape that Parte argues echo scenes of sexual abuse of women inerotic manga.Thompson notes how the series does not contain any explicit depictions sex or nudity, and how rape is depicted "entirely as trauma and never as titillation", contrastingeroticized depictions of rape in BL manga.
By 2018, over 12 million copies of collected volumes ofBanana Fishare in print.A 1998 reader's poll in the Japanese magazineComic LinkrankedBanana Fishas the greatest manga of all time.InTV Asahi's 2021 Manga Sōsenkyo, a ranking of the top 100 manga series calculated from a public vote of 150,000 people,Banana Fishranked 26th.
While Yoshida had published several manga titles prior toBanana Fish, the series became her most critically and commercially successful work, and "cemented her status as a great creator".ThoughBanana Fishwas published and marketed as ashōjomanga, its dense plot, heavy dialogue, and extensive action sequences led it to attract a significant crossover audience of male and adult female readers;Schodt identifies the series as "one of the few girls' manga a red-blooded Japanese male adult could admit to reading without blushing".The series was similarly praised "as an example of mature, plot-driven comics"when it was released in English, and became one of the earliest manga series to reach a wide audience in the United States.Banana Fishwas particularly influential on the boys' love genre, inspiring a wave of action-centered boys' love manga which focused on older protagonists and realist artwork, includingFake,Yellow, andTogainu no Chi.
The series has been praised by critics, with Jason Thompson calling it "one of the greatshōjomanga epics"and praising its "consciously literary" writing.Its artwork has received a mixed reception among critics: Frederik L. Schodt favorably compares Yoshida's artwork to the "clean-line realism" of artistKatsuhiro Otomo;Thompson, conversely, calls Yoshida's "dull artwork" the "one weakness" of the series, but nevertheless concludes that the "worldview ofBanana Fishis so fully realised that the art is almost redundant, and even when the panels are nothing but talking heads, we hang on every word".Banana Fishis the favorite manga of Japanese musicianGackt– the artist claims to have read the series over one hundred times – and inspired the song "Asrun Dream" on his debut albumMars.
TheNew York Public Library Main Branch, a prominently featured location in the series, has become a tourist attraction for fans ofBanana Fish; theNew York Public Libraryreported a significant increase in gift shop revenue in the 2019 fiscal year, which they attributed to popularity generated byBanana Fish.Japanese tourism company Kinki Nippon Tourist Kanto offered a New York City tour featuring stops at locations featured in the series and a guided audio tour narrated byYuma UchidaandKenji Nojima, who respectively voice Ash and Eiji in the anime adaptation ofBanana Fish, performing in-character.In 2019, the tour was selected by the Japan Travel Industry Association to receive theMinister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and TourismAward at the annual Tour Grand Prix, which honors tourism plans that benefit Japan's travel industry.