My little review of Banana Fish

a poetic and absolutely heartbreaking masterpiece.

After watching the whole season, and reading two extra chapters that give us some kind of closure about what happened years later , and while listening to the so amazing Endings “Prayer X” and “Red” while crying my eyes out, I couldn’t not share my thoughts about all the different kind of emotions this manga made me feel. (in this review I will solely focus on Eiji and Ash’s relationship)

So the story starts as we delve into the lives of Ash and Eiji, two guys who are the complete opposite of one another, one being an emotionally broken american guy, and the head of some gang in NY, and the other an innocent warm and kind japanese guy, living a completely normal life. Together they will try to uncover the secrets of that drug called “banana fish” used to brainwash and control its victims, and try to stop its traffic.

The anime being well paced, with a good bunch of interesting characters, good OSTs, quickly grabs the viewer’s interest, as we can see both MC bonding together, experiencing something new, finding a new purpose to their lives, thing they had lost over the years: Ash being an unloved killing puppet and a sex toy to Golzine, and Eiji who wasn’t able to do pole vaulting again due to his injury, but found in Ash a reason to fight, the one for whom he would take risks and trust his life in.

Ash and Eiji’s relationship is interesting in many points. At first, when we generally seach about the manga, what comes the most is “shounen Ai”, so I was expecting to see that…when in the end, it wasn’t really the case. Nothing romantically ever happenned between them, and they bonded on a deeper level. It’s no mere love story, or friendship. They call each other “friend” or “greatest of friend” throughout the whole story, but I think the one who explained their relationship the best, was Sing in the extra chapter “Garden of The light”, when Akira asks him if Ash and Eiji were lovers, he replied:

“connected to each other, soul to soul” (Well, we could easily say they were soulmates)

At the beginning of the story, we can notice how easily they connected; Eiji didn’t show any trace of fear when meeting Ash, which was surprising for the latter. He immediately noticed how pure and innocent Eiji was, almost like a child,-when Eiji was somewhat older than Ash, even if he didn’t look like it.

I like to think that Eiji represented Ash’s lost innocence (when he was 8), and that he wanted to protect it at all costs. Ash didn’t want Eiji’s soul to be stained by killing people or even holding a gun, and after Eiji ended up being involved with Ash’s cruel and deadly world, he couldn’t prevent it anymore, and got obsessed with protecting him, thus turning Eiji into Ash’s Achilles heel.

As for Eiji, Ash represented all he ever wished to be: a charismatic, confident and fearless guy. He was able to defy people, to survive painful injuries, while Eiji felt like a burden to him at times, making a bunch of mistakes and unable to endure the same things.

But despite all that, Eiji was the only one who could see Ash’s true pain and suffering, and the only one who could appease it with his warmth and care. So that led to Ash experiencing for the first time the greatest feeling: to love and be loved. To find someone who truly cared about him as a person, who viewed past his flaws, his past and his sins.

I could write for hours about how their relationship was the best part of the anime, how well developped it was,…How Ash went from the untrusting, cold guy to a man who found a new hope and purpose for his life, and most importantly: freedom and happiness.

I’ve watched a few animes since 2020 has started, and this one, sure did left a big mark on my heart, alongside “Devilman crybaby”, “91 days” and “Neon genesis evangelion” of course.

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