Banana Fish

Plot

1973, Vietnam - an American soldier goes mad and guns down his buddies. Since then, the only words he has uttered are "Banana Fish"...

Twelve years later, in New York City, police investigate a series of puzzling suicides and a dying man gives a charismatic young gang leader named Ash Lynx a vial of a mysterious substance...

Characters

Ash Lynx (アッシュ・リンクス) - The protagonist, a street-wise young gang leader with expert marksmanship. His real name is Aslan Jade Callenreese (アスラン・ジェイド・カーレンリース). He was physically based on Stefan Edberg and later River Phoenix.

Eiji Okumura (奥村 英二, Okumura Eiji) - Japanese former athlete who, due to an injury, became a photographer's assistant.

Blanca (ブランカ) - A retired assassin and the man who trained Ash to become Dino Golzine's heir. Though he cares for Ash, he carries out any contract he is hired for.

Dino Golzine (ディノ・ゴルツィネ) - Ash's former patron, a mafioso kingpin with pedophiliac tastes.

Shunichi Ibe (伊部 俊一, Ibe Shun'ichi) - Japanese photojournalist who brings Eiji to the U.S. to do a report on street gangs.

Frederick Arthur (フレデリック・オーサー) - A former member of Ash's street gang who allies himself with Golzine in order to usurp Ash. He is particularly vindictive and cruel.

Max Lobo (マックス・ロボ) - A Vietnam War veteran and journalist who has trouble with his ex-wife. Max Lobo also has a young son. He becomes Ash's main confidante in his battle against Golzine. His real name is Max Glenreed (マックス・グレンリード). He was physically based on Harrison Ford.

Shorter Wong - The gang leader who controls Chinatown, ally to Ash, who has been friends with him for a long time.

Sing Soo-Ling - A very young member of the Chinese gang. Attacks with the deadly "flying dragon fang." He, like Ash, is amazingly smart and calculated for his age. He is loyal to Shorter.

Lee Yut-Lung (李月龍, Japanese: Rii Yuerun, Chinese Hanyu Pinyin: Lǐ Yuèlóng, Cantonese: Lei5 Jyut6Lung4) - The youngest son of the Lee family, the top family of China's criminal underworld. He despises his brothers for looking down on him and wants to depose them. Regards Ash and Golzine as special and is jealous of the care Ash shows for Eiji, a normal boy.

Cain Blood (ケイン・ブラッド, Kein Buraddo) - The cool and collected leader of New York's African-American gangs. He supports Ash in his gang war against Arthur.

Publication

Banana Fish began publication in May 1985, in a supplementary issue of the girl's manga magazine Shōjo Comic, running until April 1994.

There are nineteen Japanese tankōbon or eleven bunkobon reprints published by Shogakukan, an art book, Angel Eyes and Rebirth: The Banana Fish Official Guidebook. The spin-offs are collected in a single bunko titled Another Story. There was also a NHK radio drama, released in 1996 on CD as "BANANA FISH Part 1-3". Eiji was voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue and Ash Lynx was voiced by Tohru Furusawa.

Banana Fish is published in English by VIZ Media. The first (now out-of-print) graphic novel edition spanned the first seven volumes and featured 'flipped' artwork, subsequent "shōjo" editions are in the original right-to-left format, spanning 19 volumes, and have been retranslated. The series also ran in both of Viz's now defunct manga magazines, Pulp and Animerica Extra for several years.

Spin-offs and Prequels

Fly Boy, In the Sky

Eiji Okumura and Shunichi Ibe were introduced in this early short story by Yoshida.

Angel Eyes

The story of the beginnings of Ash Lynx's friendship with Shorter Wong.

Private Opinion

Details Ash's first memories of meeting and coming to trust Blanca.

Hikari no Niwa, or The Garden with Holy Light

A short story set after the events of Banana Fish, in which the characters Eiji and Sing, now several years older deal with the shadows of their past and try to cope with their present lives together.

Reception

Frederik L. Schodt identifies Banana Fish as:

...one of the few girls' manga a red-blooded Japanese male adult could admit to reading without blushing. Yoshida, while adhering to the conventions of girls' comics in her emphasis on gay male love, made this possible by eschewing flowers and bug eyes in favor of tight bold strokes, action scenes, and speed lines.