Banana Fish

Banana Fish is a classic shōjo manga by Yoshida Akimi which ran from 1985 to 1994 and spawned several mini-spin-offs: Private Opinion, Angel Eyes, and The Garden with Holy Light. (The characters of Okumura Eiji and Akira Ibe were introduced in the early short story Fly Boy, In the Sky.) The series was quite popular in Japan, cited for its hard-boiled nature as 'one of the few shōjo manga which a male could read unashamedly' by Frederik Schodt in his book Dreamland Japan.

The name is most likely inspired by the short story A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger.

There are nineteen Japanese tankōbon or ten bunko published by Shogakukan, an art book, Angel Eyes and Rebirth: The Banana Fish Official Guidebook. There was also a NHK radio drama, released in 1996 on CD as "BANANA FISH Part 1–3". Okumura Eiji was voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue.

Banana Fish is published in English by Viz Communications. 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 and released on a bi-monthly basis. It also ran in both of Viz's failed manga magazines, Pulp and Animerica Extra for several years.

The exact nature of the warm relationship between protagonist Ash Lynx and photographer's assistant Okumura Eiji is of great speculation to fans.

Plot Summaries (Spoiler to follow)

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

Vol 1: Twelve years later, in New York City, police investigate a series of puzzling suicides, and a dying man gives a handsome charismatic young gang lader named Ash a sample of a mysterious substance...

Characters

Ash Lynx (Aslan Callenreese) The protagonist, a street-wise young gang leader with expert marksmanship
Okumura Eiji (奥村英二) Japanese former athlete and photographer's assisant
Dino Golzine Ash's former patron, a mafioso kingpin with pedophiliac tastes
Max Lobo (Max Glenreed) A Vietnam vet and journalist, has trouble with his ex-wife
Akira Ibe Japanese photojournalist who brings Eiji to the U.S.
Shorter Wong The gang leader who controls Chinatown, ally to Ash

External Links

Categories: Manga