Summer 2018 First Impressions – Banana Fish

Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of “Papa” Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash’s older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa’s insatiably ambitious hands–and it’s exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx’s acquaintance… – ANN

Streaming: Amazon Prime Video

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Ash Lynx has made a life for himself among the gangs of New York City. A runaway plucked off the streets by Papa Dino, a ruthless mob boss, he’s now beginning to rebel against the man who raised him. After Ash witnesses the death of a man who hands him a vial of white powder and whispers “Banana Fish” with his dying breath, he begins to suspect that it might have something to do with his older brother’s break with reality in Vietnam years earlier. Cue the appearance of Eiji, a photographer’s assistant from Japan who’s helping with a story about Ash and how he brought together New York’s various gang factions. Eiji is pure and innocent, but manages to make a connection with Ash almost immediately – just in time to end up in the middle of a fight between Ash and Papa Dino’s thugs. Eiji and Ash’s young friend Skip are shoved into a car, and it’s all Ash can do to give chase.

Impressions: This was absolutely one of my most anticipated series of the season. Despite not knowing many details of the story beforehand, the title was known to me just as I was coming of age as an anime and manga fan in the early 2000s. It was a title I remember a lot of people murmuring about as I began to navigate the internet in search of some place to inform and grown my anime fandom. That nostalgic feeling alone would probably have been enough to put this new anime adaptation on my radar, but this modernized version of the story also has an extra level of appeal to me, and no it’s not only the updated and less 80’s-tastic character designs. I’m excited that this anime is being directed by a woman – Hiroko Utsumi of Free! Iwatobi Swim Club fame. I’m heartened by the fact that more and more women are being given outlet in upper-level creative roles in anime lately, and it’s even better when those outlets are high-profile and (possibly?) better-funded adaptations of famous material.

I’m pleased that the product lives up to the hype in most respects. I’m always a little bit wary any time an anime takes place in the United States (as I’m sure many Japanese people also cringe when the West attempts to utilize Japan as a setting) because it almost always feels like a “best guess” based on the media we export outside the country. While my one visit to New York City a few years ago doesn’t really make me an expert on how it looks and feels, the New York of this episode definitely has a sense of place that feels roughly authentic, though perhaps dated. The original manga is set in the 1980’s (from my understanding), and the atmosphere in this episode seems to pick up on that despite some more modern touches (smartphones, newer cars, etc.). The city has the look one might have expected prior to the gentrification of the mid-1990s but otherwise feels like a space that could very well exist today. The slight tension between classic and modern is something that I didn’t necessarily expect right away despite the age of the source material, but I feel like it provides the adaptation some character. Like a gritty early-90s OVA with a fresh coat of paint.

I was also surprised by the amount of diversity represented in this episode (relatively; basically everyone so far is male). I don’t always trust Japanese anime to represent different races in flattering ways; I feel like sometimes anime and manga creators can be somewhat behind the times in how people of different cultures are drawn and presented, and I’ve seen some pretty heinous caricatures of various people, especially Black people, crop up now and again (I’m still cringing over Space Brothers‘ depiction of a Black astronaut as a gorilla in a children’s cartoon). Heck, white Americans often aren’t depicted very well either (I am not, in fact, blonde, blue-eyed, boisterous, or blessed with a G-cup, and I don’t drink alcohol, either). I’m impressed that, alongside its more classic visual sensibilities, this incarnation of the story has gotten a slick upgrade in the character design department that features people of various races that look like humans as well as like individuals. Oh, and the protagonists aren’t sporting goofy 80’s hair either, which is a definite plus!

There are some downsides to the story clearly being an artifact from another era, though. It’s a little more difficult for me to get excited over the typical relationship-baiting that goes on in stories like this involving two men, especially when there are better examples nowadays of series with actual gay characters and relationships. When you have Yuri!! On Ice featuring an actual gay couple where neither character dies tragically or meets some other ill fate, it can be hard to go back to feeling satisfied by subtext about one character “handling the other’s gun.” The episode also has some hate-language related to gay people, as well as a minor villain character who’s jokingly implied to be a gay rapist. It’s difficult to say at this early stage whether this is a pervasive idea throughout the series, that homosexuality can be equated with being a predator or, in Ash’s case, might be the result of childhood abuse, but I think it’s worth noting.

That said, I found this episode to be exceedingly well-crafted, well-animated, and compelling enough that I absolutely wasn’t disappointed. I feel like this brand of action/mystery is highly uncommon in anime, especially since it has the feel of a gritty limited-run Western-produced series. I think the setting alone is fascinating and in spite of some violence and the aforementioned archaic attitude toward and about gay relationships I get the impression that I will really enjoy seeing this story unfold. The great thing about being based on a long-finished manga is that the entire story will be adapted and there’s likely some better sense of how to pace it, so I’m very excited to see the finished product. It’s great to come full circle with a story, watching it transform from mythological fandom hearsay property so many years ago, to being able to see it portrayed on screen vividly and with the benefits of modern animation.

Pros: Beautiful updated character designs. The setting is well-realized and feels classic and new at the same time. Uncommon genre for anime. More diversity in the side characters than expected.

Cons: Some uses of the F-word slur for homosexual people; I sense that this also might end in a “tragic gay” scenario which is not the greatest.

Grade: B+