Banana Fish 6
Posted: April 28, 2009 Filed under: Banana Fish 7 Comments »Now that I’ve sufficiently recovered from my Basara marathon, it’s time to take on the rest of Banana Fish, another great shoujo series courtesy of the early 90s (and late 80s, I suppose).
I forgot how absolutely awesome this series is. The volume starts off with an amazing scene between Shorter, Eiji, and Ash, where Shorter has been brainwashed with Banana Fish to kill Eiji, and something has to happen. Something does. Not many shoujo manga (or manga in general, for that matter) have the courage to pull something like this off, so I always appreciate outcomes like we see in this scene.
Later, the youngest Lee brother decides he would like to have some fun at the expense of Dino Golzine, so he frees Ash in a rather roundabout way. Ash proceeds to singlehandedly storm Dino Golzine’s mansion full of henchman, do what he has to do (save people, take out key targets, revenge et cetera), then completely destroy the place. While this is going on, Lee is working his way out of the building, Max and Ibe are working their way out with guns blazing, and two different street gangs are trying to work their way in, one to rescue Ash and one to rescue Shorter. It’s an incredibly well-orchestrated action scene.
The climax occurrs when Ash makes his way into the Banana Fish research facility and finds… well, someone he didn’t want to see, and someone he didn’t want to see in a particular condition. Ash unloads an entire clip of machine gun ammo into one person, then sets the other person on fire and cries. It’s quite a powerful moment, and I have to say, I’m looking forward to what can top it in the volumes to come.
[...] on vol. 6 of Banana Fish (Slightly Biased Manga) Connie on vol. 3 of Black Jack (Slightly Biased Manga) Connie on vol. 8 of [...]
“…and I have to say, I’m looking forward to what can top it in the volumes to come.”
Not much does. You’re in the middle of my favorite part of Banana Fish, though it’s been a while and my recollection is fuzzy.
Oh… that’s kind of disappointing. I do remember you saying something along those lines before though, now that you mention it. Oh well.
There is no shortage of action anywhere in Banana Fish, and transplanted into another series it would seem pretty good. However, the later arcs lack the emotional intensity of, say, what happens to Shorter. Of course there’s Ash and Eiji, but in the later volumes their relationship seems stalled to me. I was seriously considering skipping volumes just to find out what happens to them. And I have to day, what finally happens between them is pretty intense.
Actually, it’s nice to hear that the situation between Ash and Eiji escalates. I know that their relationship is never really a confirmed romantic one (which is pretty amazing given the generous hints that are constantly thrown out), so one of the things I was worried about was that I would just get bored with the teasing. I’m pretty happy to hear that it will pay off in the end.
It may not be the pay off you expect.
That’s even better.