Banana Fish 16
Posted: May 19, 2009 Filed under: Banana Fish 3 Comments »Of all the crazy, insane things that have been going on since volume one of this series, for some reason I found the guerrilla war between youth street gangs and mercenaries from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was what it finally took to give me pause. I mean… they’re fighting using guerrilla tactics in what I assume is downtown New York City. Really?
I have no problem swallowing government conspiracies, communist suppression, mind control techniques, child prostitution rings, Russian assassins, and Ash Lynx in general, but apparently my brain rejects Belgian/French/African mercenaries storming New York. I have no idea why.
Not to say that the entire sequence isn’t really cool. It is. I got a big kick, once again, out of the back and forth between Ash and the man running the show. To see both characters guess and second guess each other, and see the small gains and losses each of them suffer in the prolonged conflict is really, really compelling. There’s not a lot of character dynamics in play here, but there are still one or two good moments. It really is quite touching how much Ash cares for Max Lobo.
While there was a lot of action and a lot of stuff going on in this volume (mostly lengthy explanations of the tactical maneuvers both parties were using), the last volume had a bit more tension. Don’t get me wrong though, I’d take a dozen volumes like this one. It doesn’t leave off in a good place, so I have a feeling the next volume might be another quiet one. About the only criticism I can level at it right now is that… well, how many times is Ash going to be captured and freed? I hope the climax plays out a little differently.
It’s the urban jungle! Besides, you’ve seen the police here? Caring, sensitive individuals at least one volume behind Ash at all times, who I’m sure would entirely fail to spot an entire troop of mercenaries (bunch? gang?) operating in the downtown area :) Oh, and I think all the mercenaries are ex-French foreign legion – they were just used for fighting against anti-government rebels in Zaire.
I thought this volume was a bit variable (at least, when they weren’t fighting), but in retrospect a lot of that is set-up. I had some problems with Fox, for example, that I then changed my mind about. Um. And in flipping through v16 to check things I have now re-read it and am half-way through volume 17 again, which was not what I intended!
[...] (Lovelyduckie’s Weblog) Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Animal Academy (Comics-and-More) Connie on vol. 16 of Banana Fish (Slightly Biased Manga) Scott VonSchilling on vol. 5 of Black Jack (The Anime Almanac) Danielle [...]
Yeah, the total absence of police, or even other people in general, when anything like this is happening is pretty hilarious. I was actually kind of surprised when the police intervened during Arthur and Ash’s fight, they almost get phased out as the series goes on. Of course, some of that probably has to do with the fact Dino Golzine bought them out, but still. You’d think beat cops would still be floating around sometimes.
Thanks for explaining about the mercenaries, too. I didn’t quite grasp the mechanics of where they were coming from and what they had been up to, other than they were reported missing (?) in Zaire when they were carrying out their mission.