Banana Fish 18
May 22, 2009
Despite the fact I follow every volume up with a review here and I should be perfectly aware of what volume I’m on, I was kind of surprised when I grabbed this one and realized that it was second-to-last. Other than the fact Eiji was gunned down last time, nothing particularly “final” was happening in the story. Freeing people from impossible situations has happened a lot in this series, and I was hoping for a slightly more epic finale.
Well… I should have learned never to underestimate Banana Fish. I was impressed with how much more epic this foray into the Mental Health Facility was. I know I should have seen it coming, but… I just didn’t. Blanca joined in the fight fairly early on after dissolving his contract with Yut-Lung, and strangely, Yut-Lung didn’t try to stop him. I was worried that there was going to be another trade-off, because as the gangs are circling the facility, Dino Golzine reveals that he’s told Ash to meet him at exactly the same time to negotiate for the hostages.
But Ash has a trick up his sleeve. A good one. Dino falls into his hands, which is something that should have happened a long, long time ago but didn’t. Yet again, I was struck by how unlikely the situation was when Ash called for Dr. Mannerheim and accepted negotiation with Foxx instead. I didn’t understand why, when Foxx appeared, he didn’t just shoot that bastard in the head. I mean, I guess that all his subordinates were standing around with SMGs, but it seems like holding Dino hostage would be enough to keep them from firing, and a group like that wouldn’t hold very long without a leader anyway. But maybe they really would have just killed him and it was better Ash’s way. Funny enough, Foxx took my advice on the very next page in what was probably one of the best scenes in the series.
Then the entire sequence in the Mental Health Facility was beyond great. Ash was captured and freed himself, Sing and Blanca teamed up (and Blanca got some totally awesome Duke Togo moments), the rest of the gangs freed the prisoners, Foxx’s mercenaries torched the building, Dino Golzine turns up at the end for an epic finish… oh yeah. It was everything I could have asked for and more.
Notably, I was surprised Dr. Mannerheim actually lasted this far into the series. His death was something else that should have happened a long time ago.
There’s some really, really great – dare I say it, shoujo-y – scenes between Ash and Eiji. Now, Banana Fish was never what one would call “romantic,” but the two of them do have quite a touching relationship. Since there hadn’t been a lot of romance, I wasn’t expecting to be as affected by scenes like this, but they are in here, and just as romantic as they would have been if we’d had them all along. Or maybe they’re way better here because we haven’t had them all along.
There are also a couple other touching relationship moments. We get to see a nice chat between Blanca and Ash at the very end of the volume… so nice, in fact, I could actually see the series ending right after their chat (with various loose ends, yes, but it would have been a nice scene to end on). There’s a weird but nice chat between Yut-Lung and Sing. Sing actually shows up to tease Yut-Lung mercilessly, and Yut-Lung takes it for some reason, perhaps because Sing is the only person who has the guts to call him out on his “wine-soaked tantrums.” There’s even some goofy scenes between Max and his wife. One of my favorites was the last scene between Dino and Ash, though. As horrible a person as Dino Golzine was, he really did love Ash in his way. Of course, his way included violating him horribly when he was young, but the last scene was touching all the same, and wordless.
Ah, Banana Fish, what could fill an entire volume more? I can think of several things that would make me very happy.
May 22, 2009 at 7:19 am
Foxx shooting Dino was great. I’d been a bit iffy about Foxx because I didn’t think he was that exciting as an antagonist for Ash, but I realised in this volume that he’s also an antagonist for Dino, and much more interesting because of it. I’m not sure about the last scene between Dino and Ash – yes, it’s emotional (and a great plot development), and I couldn’t begin to put everything behind it into words, but I think a lot of Dino is still about not wanting someone else to have Ash. It did make me feel sorry for Dino – I’m just not sure I wanted to!
I think Sing and Blanca should team up to fight crime a lot more often, although I will also settle for Sing attempting to get Yut-Lung to toughen up and deal with all his mess…
May 22, 2009 at 8:22 am
[...] on vol. 1 of 13th Boy (Manga Recon) Connie on vol. 18 of Banana Fish (Slightly Biased Manga) Jason Van Horn on vol. 1 of Basilisk (The Hachiko) Michelle Smith on A [...]
May 22, 2009 at 10:39 am
I can’t wait to find out what you think about Volume 19.
May 25, 2009 at 3:57 am
Yeah, that was the thing for me about that Dino scene. I didn’t want to feel sorry for Dino, but I did anyway. You’re right about him too, he probably viewed Ash more as a possession than a person, but that scene… it really blew me away for even making me consider the possibility that he loved Ash.
Yeah, I was iffy on Foxx too, since it seemed like he was just a slightly less interesting version of Blanca with soldiers in tow. But I would not have expected him to kill Dino, and he wound up putting all the characters through a pretty great endgame.
November 16, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I was blown away by that whole part. And when Sing dropped the case and it was FINALLY all over…wow. It was brilliant. Also, the part with Eiji and Ash in the hospital was one of the most heartbreaking out of the entire series. Banana Fish kicks so much ass.
November 17, 2009 at 1:05 am
I couldn’t get over how the action scenes kept topping themselves. I suspected nothing would ever top the whole escapade in the museum, but man, this final fight was pretty incredible. And probably better because I wasn’t expecting to like it, as I mentioned, I was a little disappointed when the finale just seemed like it would be yet another hostage rescue, but couldn’t have been more pleased with it in the end.
And yeah, that hospital scene was spectacular.