Introduction
Aslan Jade Callenreese, known as Ash Lynx, was a runaway picked off the streets of New York City and raised by the infamous godfather of the mafia, Dino Golzine. Now 17 years old and the boss of his own gang, Ash begins investigating the mysterious "Banana Fish"—the same two words his older brother, Griffin, has muttered since his return from the Iraq War. However, his inquiries are hindered when Dino sends his men after Ash at an underground bar he uses as a hideout.
At the bar, Skip, Ash's friend, introduces him to Shunichi Ibe and his assistant, Eiji Okumura, who are Japanese photographers reporting on American street gangs. However, their conversation is interrupted when Shorter Wong, one of Ash's allies, calls to warn him about Dino. Soon, Dino's men storm the bar, and in the ensuing chaos kidnap Skip and Eiji. Now, Ash must find a way to rescue them and continue his investigation into Banana Fish, but will his history with the mafia prevent him from succeeding?
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
nomiyat0momi
I was really disappointed with the anime; I mean, it’s an anime that was hyped up so much, and I ended up watching a really, really mediocre show.
The anime is full of great ideas that are handled in a really clumsy way. For example, the ambiguity between Ash as the charismatic gang leader and the fragile teenager who’s been abused. It could have been handled with so much more subtlety, showing how Ash’s past shapes his actions rather than what I actually saw.
Similarly, the Dino-Ash relationship on paper, I love it but it was clearly missing that little (big) something that makes the relationship interesting.
It was entertaining at times, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Read at the sourceMello4163
Banana Fish: The Most Exhausting Waste of Time I've Sat Through
I forced myself to watch this show. I’m not even joking—I had to mentally drag myself through every single episode like it was some kind of punishment.
Every time an episode started, I’d catch myself thinking the same thing:
“When is this gonna end?”
Not because I was emotionally wrecked. Not because it was intense.
But because I was bored and tired of pretending this show was going anywhere.
It’s one of those anime where the opening episode tricks you. It drops you into some dark, fast-paced setup and you think, “Oh damn, this might be fire.” Spoiler alert: that fire turns out to be a flickering candle in a wet basement.
The Plot – Directionless, overloaded nonsense
This show is desperate to seem smart. It tosses in conspi…
Read at the sourcescy318
(vague-minor spoilers)
From what I’ve gathered, Banana Fish has something of a sacred reputation within the BL anime community. I guess there’s just something about overly melodramatic (implied) BL that’s so intoxicating to some people.
Banana Fish follows gang leader “Ash Lynx” as he investigates his brother’s death, which is inexplicably linked to an enigmatic “Banana Fish”. The first quarter of the anime introduces this concept and reveals that Banana Fish is actually an extremely dangerous drug.
Right from the first episode, you’re dumped into grimy, dirty 1980s New York, and heaps of intrigue and mystery are unloaded everywhere for you to digest. It was this gritty, atmospheric tension that got me hooked on this anime instantly.
Then, Ash meets this Japanese guy who’s with the…
Read at the sourceCurlybrace101
In 1985, the manga "Banana Fish" by Akimi Yoshida would begin serialization in Bessatsu Shoujo Comic. It would run for 9 years, totaling 110 chapters and 19 volumes, establishing itself as a pioneer of the BL genre despite keeping the relationship between the male leads ambiguous. In 2018, this legendary manga finally hit the silver screen with a condensed adaptation updated to a modern day setting done by MAPPA, finally bringing this iconic and influential plot to wide audiences.
And that plot is...frustrating.
Like most early BL, Banana Fish is a story of tragedy. It is a tale of bad things happening to young men who never get to be happy. And it feels...sensationalized.
Human beings have a fascination with pain and trauma. We pack it into our stories for the catharsis of enjoying the…
Read at the sourceDompa112
I was a bit hesitant to watch this at first since for me it looked like some boy love show. The manga was josei. But its made by MAPPA and then i saw several reviews saying the anime is more than just that and you dont need to be into that stuff. So i thought id give it a chance.
Turned out the reviews were wrong. Most likely these were reviews from people who hadnt fully embraced and understood their own sexuality yet. You absolutely need to be in on boy on boy love stuff. Theres just no other reason for this show. I can only say one good thing about it. The first OP. Survive said the Prophet never dissapoints. The rest is forgettable.
Story. Boring. Only used to drive the boy love stuff forward and keep it still being anime material. Theres some mysterious drug called Banana Fish. It…
Read at the sourcewhiteflame55
When this was airing, I heard quite a bit about how this was among the better anime of that year, and that perception persisted over subsequent years. I added it to my ptw list rather recently, particularly as I’ve become more interested in crime thrillers like Akiba Maid War and Black Lagoon. Not everything has been a hit - Baccano!’s non-linear storytelling got in the way of my enjoying the narrative, and Rainbow included an unfortunate amount of gratuitous sexual abuse - but that hasn’t put me off of it yet.
This series unfortunately trends toward the Rainbow side of things. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not gratuitous in the same way, often shifting away from the worst of the sexual abuse happening on screen, though it does occasionally indulge in a little unfortunate fanservice. The fact…
Read at the sourcecarryontruckchan
Appaling queerbait. Does not do well for the update to modern times. People deserve to know that it's bland, rapey and vaguely homophobic in its fetishistic gaze that does not allow certain characters to ever act like human beings. Really gets off on it's suffering, though I suppose there's worse out there. Hopefully the manga is better, at least for it's time period.
Apparently I haven't written enough. Is the story unique? Yes and no. It's uniquely frustrating. It's got some unusual plot points, but I think most of us have read or seen better stuff about gangs (and US drug experimentation) than this. For something that seems to be going for an almost horrific level of 'realistically' pervasive (mostly) homosexual violence it seems bizarrely out of touch with the ins and outs of gang cu…
Read at the sourcenaddahere
There're reviews saying this isn't BL. This was very adult and targeted towards fans of hardcore BL. The total number of women can be counted on one hand. One of the MCs, Eiji, is useless to the story except to tell how how fragile the other MC was, how different he was when they were together, and how much they liked each other. They only kissed once and don't hook up. However, MC does seem to get raped every few episodes. All the prostitutes are teen boys.
The story seems to be inspired by Q Anon. Govt being involved in pedo rings and drugs. The story tried to be smart, but it takes too much of a backseat and too many sacrifices for a developing relationship between two teenage boys.
Read at the sourceThatAnimeSnobRE
Banana fish is a show that I would normally like, since it’s an action adventure / mystery detective type of deal, set in the 1980s. As someone who grew up with buddy cop movies and is a fan of 90s action flicks, this should be right up my alley. But it wasn’t because it was gay. And it’s not just me who disliked it because of homophobia; most actual gays dislike Banana Fish as well. For a group that keeps demanding more representation in media, saying they hate a show that is filled with homosexuals can only mean something went terribly wrong. In fact the only people who liked it are the fujoshis, and only because they are messed up women who love anything that has abusive relationships and they think rape is very hot.
Let me explain what is going on. Unlike something like Yuri on Ice, a…
Read at the sourceAnimeHaven_MZ
Banana Fish is that kind of shows that start off great but gradually die, as if the author came up with a creative idea but didn't know what to do with it and therefore had to wrap everything up in a very uninspiring way.
So, why 4 out of 10?
Well, aside from having disgusting abnormal sexual gross, the plot was rather very weak, and let me explain why very quickly:
• The story had good catchy premise at first but as it progresses it goes downhill; maybe because it skipped so many elements while trying too hard to have a nice dramatic conclusion, so it never spent time to explore any of the main supporting characters like Shorter, Arthur and many others who ended up being a side character. And later on, the whole story became uninteresting with redundant cliches about friendship sacrific…
Read at the sourcektulu007
Banana Fish is a 2018 anime based off of a manga that ran from the mid 80s to mid 90s. The original manga was written by Yoshida Akimi. Who I am not even slightly familiar with. The anime version was handled by MAPPA. The same studio behind rubbish like Kakegurui and Sakamichi no Apollon. But they also worked on Dororo. So, we have to give them some credit.
Story:
Ash Lynx is a New York boss in charge of a small street gang. His life changes when he finds a dying man who gives him a small item, a location and the words "banana fish." He soon finds himself on a quest to unravel the mystery of those words and the contents of the mysterious powder all while befriending the innocent Japanese youth Okumura Eiji and trying to sever his ties from the area's largest mafioso, Golzine Dino.
The…
Read at the sourceIcySch
There were a lot of good anime in 2018, so I'm keeping my hopes high that Banana Fish won't end up as one of the shows the year is remembered by. I'm not versatile when it comes to crime dramas and can't give you a good recommendation, but trust me when I tell you: skip this one.
There's a lot to unpack here.
By definition, Banana Fish is a plot heavy crime drama. Yet if you gave me a piece of paper and a bit of time, I'd struggle to write down the events that take place in this show. And that's because it doesn't really have a plot. I swear it starts off with an investigation concerning a mysterious drug, coupled with a young man's revenge story. Fuck me if I know where it goes from there.
Banana Fish is more a bunch of loosely connected mini arcs, each with its own villain, than a coh…
Read at the sourceGalaxyShot
I will not forgive anyone who gives this anything less than a 10.
Best anime I have ever seen, and I have watched a lot of anime.
Many themes of the different worlds presented by a Japanese traveler experiencing America. A story on friendship, loss, acceptance, and most of all struggle.
Great story line, character development, twists, all around amazing.
I don't want to say anything else as this series has an amazing ending I will not be forgetting soon and I do not want to spoil it under any means.
I will definitely be reading the manga to enjoy this anime completely, and I have never read manga before in my life.
If you have any respect as a weeb or as simply an anime watcher, please watch this anime and give it the respect that it deserves.
Read at the sourcewmaridghs
There are always some tv series, movies, cartoon, anime that people can say that they are not your typical stuff. That these are truly exceptional from what we have been getting in the past. That this is something unique and nothing else is like it.
Banana Fish easily falls into that category of anime that anyone can say that there is nothing like it.
Like Berserk, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, this series has its own style and uniqueness that no other anime has.
The story is beautifully developed with a great theme.
The background tracks are distinctively attractive which makes you get involved with the anime.
Read at the sourcempdissonance
It is well known, even mentioned in the first two episodes, that Banana Fish borrows its odd name from a classic short story written by JD Salinger called “A Perfect Day for Banana Fish.” What is somewhat less noted, however, is how perfectly this reference captures the theme and style of the manga and anime series. Salinger’s story tells of the suicide of Seymour Glass, a World War II vet. The most famous passage of the story features a young man telling a young girl of the “very tragic life” of the Bananafish species who enter a “banana hole” as “very-ordinary looking fish” and gorge themselves on bananas until they are unable to escape and die.” In many ways, the life of these fictional fish mirrors the life of the main protagonist in the anime, Ash Lynx. One critic of Salinger (Janet M…
Read at the sourcereynariuguuuuus
I haven’t cried actual tears over fictional characters in a while but damn. I’m a mess.
I was a little hesitant to start Banana Fish, mostly because I couldn’t quite figure out wtf it was about. My gods, do not let anything weird, the age of the source, or anything deter you from watching/ reading this beautiful beast. My friend got me hooked on the anime, and I plowed through the manga once episode 19 of the anime got released because I’m impatient and can’t wait. I’m so glad I did, I have even more appreciation for all the work that went into the anime. But be warned, it is in a tragedy category for a reason. So many tears.
this is kinda long and spoilery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eiji Okumura is an innocent cinnamon roll fresh from Japan. After an injury ruined his pole vaulting care…
Read at the sourceTakaCode
The summer 18 anime season was very problematic.
It was the season that was dominated by anime that contained 12/13 episodes and many of the anime unfortunately fell flat in the face either because there were either bad throwaway shows or they ended up getting crippled by the 12th/13th episode count where some of the show they had enough content of to make a 24/26 episode but set studio poor decisions making these show only ended up having the episode count that they ultimately got.
This doesn't say that the summer 18 anime was a complete failure as it did give a couple of great shows that I liked such as Chio's School Road, Revenue Starlight, Planet With and High Score Girl.
After looking at the countless 12/13 episode animes that summer 18 season had to offer in the charts I saw two a…
Read at the sourceKrunchyman
[Spoiler Warning]
Summer is the time of year for promiscuous young-adults to experiment with their sexual desires, in a hassle free relationship that requires no commitments from either party. But why limit one’s exposure to the opposite sex, when there are plenty of “gay-fish” — I mean, banana fish — for the taking. Why else would a Shoujo anime feature two young queens in New York? For a “crime” investigation? Now that’s rich.
Speaking of wealth, the main character in the show, Ash Lynx, was groomed to inherit a vast amount of opulence and power through the successive process of becoming Dino’s heir. Be that as it may, the early steps of “graduating” to his “destined” role were mired with egregious abuses of standing law and personal freedom. Not one to remain docile and allow circums…
Read at the sourceLunallae
Since its publication in a shoujo magazine in the 1980s, Banana Fish has received several labels such as boys’ love (BL), shounen-ai, and yaoi due to popular misconceptions. Not only are these terms incorrectly applied to the work, but they also do not cut at the meat of what Banana Fish is. And even its original shoujo demographic tag deeply misrepresents the content of this anime.
Drugs. Rape. Pedophilia. Gangs. PTSD. Violence. Corruption.
These are the terms at the core of Banana Fish. Though at the same time, the crime and gangster backdrop is not all the story is about and confining it within those boundaries massively undersells the broad scope of topics this anime covers. Because while Banana Fish's pragmatic and deplorable world is filled to the brim with death and sexual viole…
Read at the sourceStark700
If there’s one thing that’s enticing about the Noitamina network, it’s their way of broadcasting shows to a variety of audiences. Banana Fish seems like one of those shows that isn’t aimed at a wider audience but it definitely has its own appeal. Taking place in a crime-noir setting, the series deals with teenage gangs in a corrupted city. It’s a time period of recreation and Banana Fish sets a firm example of an old school crime drama resurrected to modern life.
Now I have to admit, I’m not too familiar with Akimi Yoshida’s work or her style of writing. The only other series I’ve read by her is a manga called “Yasha”. It has no relation to this series but the artwork is distinctive with her work. Not to mention, her series evokes a sense of mystery that’s present in Banana Fish. Yet, jus…
Read at the source