readbananafish

[readbananafish]

It's sad to see you not post anymore honestly. Hope you're doing great tho!

Thank you! I'm still around, just not on this sideblog. To be honest, I'm busy with kpop fandoms lately, hahaha. But Banana Fish always has ownership over a corner of my brain until I die.

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Hey so what type of drug is similar to banana fish irl? Like what are the symptoms and what chemicals r used and how did they make it up what are the side effects and the advantages of using it it, what was the purpose of creating it and what are the records did they have on the experiments they had

This is far from my expertise. However, I always assumed that Yoshida was inspired at least partly by Project MKUltra and the Edgewood Arsenal human experiments. I could be way off though.

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where can i find the manga and all the side stories? i'd prefer the physical books but if not that at least the ebooks

The physical books (and ebooks) are published in English by Viz. You can buy them pretty much anywhere in the US that you buy books. Beyond the US, I’m not the best person to ask, but try The Book Depository.

However, getting the physical books might be a bit complicated right now because COVID-19 has slowed down printing a lot and demand for print manga has increased hugely over the last year. Thus, a lot of volumes for various series are essentially in line to be reprinted so they can be back in stock. If you notice a volume is not available, keep checking every month and it should pop up again. I’m not sure whether Banana Fish has been affected by this or not, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re buying any manga right now.

Not all of the side stories have been published in English. vol 19 of Banana Fish includes “Angel Eyes” (about how Shorter met Ash in juvenile detention) and “Garden of Light” (about Eiji, Sing, and other characters several years after the main events of the series.) However, the other side stories have never been published in English.

[readbananafish]

OMG... I saw the other ask and I just realized most of these posts were from 2013, that’s insane oh my god???! It’s so cool to see people talked about banana fish before the anime adaption, I actually visited this exact place a lot just to reread the cool moments added in here and ones I wanted to wait to read, this is absolutely crazy I really like what you did for this blog. Seeing you love banana fish even 8 years later is mind blowing and awesome. You must have seen a lot of analysis on it.

Hi! Yeah, I’ve been around a while, begging everyone I knew to please read Banana Fish and suffer with me. 😅 And other people have been around and talking about Banana Fish even longer! 

I first heard about the series from a blog post written in 2008 and started reading it shortly after! And as far as I can tell, the first English-language writing on Banana Fish dates back to 1996! 😲

A while back, I posted about various pre-anime Banana Fish posts/sites that are still available online on my main blog - check it out if you’d like!

Banana Fish has been one of my favorite manga ever since I read it... god, over a decade ago. I was so excited when the anime was announced because I knew finally there would be plenty of English-speakers talking about it! Before the anime, it was basically a flop in the West. Most everyone who read it raved about it, but...few people read it lmao!!! 😆 I’m happy it finally got the recognition it deserved beyond Japan.

Sorry for rambling, and thanks for your message!

[readbananafish]

@kimbureh I think I followed this blog back when u first joined tumblr in like 2013 ? or so? and j can't remember this blog ever updating, this is amazing

I do live! And as you can see, I’m still thinking about Banana Fish often, hahaha. I did post one other time in 2018 because I started getting an influx of messages due to the anime coming out.

[readbananafish]

sorry, this isn’t a blog update

I realized that I never posted this here even though it’d be a good spot for it, so! 

Hello, I did a very stereotypical thing and wrote an “Ash lives and goes to Japan” fic...from the perspective of Eiji’s mother! 

I finished it a while ago, so please check it out if this premise intrigues you. It’s 20K words and based around the idea that Eiji’s mother would be, ah, not exactly pleased about the boy who got her son shot showing up on her doorstep. What follows is:

my headcanons about the Okumura family (inspired by the Fly Boy in the Sky comic and the fact that Eiji very conspicuously rarely talks about his family in canon)

a lot of mother-child drama

Eiji refusing to cede a single inch

Ash trying to be on his Best Behavior while also having his own issues to work out

some period-typical homophobia and xenophobia re: Ash and his relationship with Eiji

reckoning with the fact that parents are ultimately just people and often very flawed

reckoning with the fact that good intentions aren’t always enough

a cathartic, optimistic ending

Be aware that it does get kinda heavy at times. A lot of it was inspired by my own troubled relationship with my parents, though I chose to give Eiji and his mother a more positive resolution than what we’ve worked out (so far.)

Anyway, I spent about half a year working on it, and I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. :) Please give it a look if you’re interested!

[readbananafish]

hey

It is unlikely that I’ll be reviving this blog, but if you wanna follow my main blog to see all my Banana Fish reblogs, feel free.

This blog never got very many followers, but I did have some nice chats with fellow fans, so I enjoyed working on it. Also, since for a long time this was one of the few English-language resources on Banana Fish, I see the terrible manga pictures that I took for my posts in other people’s posts all the time lol. IDK if they actually read the blog or just found them through Google image search, but I’m glad that I was able to help people in their quest for Banana Fish details over the years!

And now to answer several anon asks I’ve received over the last several months.

Hey, you still alive? Also, good news! Banana Fish is actually gonna get a anime adaptation in July of this year!             

Yes! And boy howdy, my ass was parked right on twitter when the news first broke and, as you can imagine, I spent the next couple of hours days talking about nothing else. (To all my friends who’ve been putting up with my constant yammering about BANANA FISH ANIME all these months... thanks for listening lol.)

This blog needs to be revived tbh            

I never finished my goal of 100 posts, but 71 is pretty good? I might check around and see if I can find any of my old drafts for this blog that hadn’t been published yet, but y’all... the last time I posted was in 2013. Five years ago! I’ve graduated college, switched career tracks, and changed my legal name and gender in the last five years lol. 

Still, never say never, right?

I know that this is an old blog, but I'm enjoying it so much! Great posts. I'll be happy to read banana fish when the animation ends!            

Glad you are enjoying it! But... so many spoilers... you’re brave.

In your opinion, would it have been better if the ending changed?  I like banana fish..but the end it is very sad

IMO, yeah. I love angst and tragedies when I’m in the mood, but after everything the characters go through... they deserved so much more. I’m hoping that with all the fresh blood in the fandom, someone will write the brilliant canon divergent happy ending AU fanfic that this series desperately needs, haha.        

hi, where can I read banana fish? I cant find all the vols

Good news! Viz Media is reprinting the manga, so all the out-of-print volumes will finally be back in print! Keep checking whatever your preferred online book retailer is and they should be restocking soon!

If you’re asking about scans, can’t help you.

[readbananafish]

[readbananafish]

Reason #071: because Papa Dino actually does stuff.

Something that surprises me every time I read through is the fact that Papa Dino is actually a fairly active character. I always seem to remember him as this mustache-twirling, creepy line-spouting fat dude that hangs around and tells underlings what to do. And that might just be the impression people get from him in general--characters and readers alike.

But nobody becomes a mob boss without putting themselves out there and Papa Dino certainly does do so. Somehow, it always shocks me a bit. I like that he is an active character though; villains that just wait for the action to come to them aren't very exciting after all.

(Also, how 'bout dem Viz sound effects, y'all?)

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Jason puts on his fingerless gloves and gets ready to enter the crime-riddled, gang-infested 1980s world of Banana Fish.

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Ah! I re-discovered something interesting tonight!

A while back, someone sent me an ask concerning the Banana Fish side stories. As I was responding, I had the feeling that I had read summaries for the untranslated side stories somewhere, but couldn't fully remember.

BUT! I found the summaries again! They are from the Banana Fish roundtable that was ran by Manga Bookshelf a few years ago. One of the participants summarize the three side stories in the final post. The link is here; scroll until you see the image of the black "Another Story" volume and that is where the summaries begin.

So there you go. Read it if you are curious!

[readbananafish]

Reason #70: Max Lobo

Yet another great character that is sadly neglected by my blog. Ahh, Max. I wish we got to hear more about you and how you dealt with the series' end in "Garden of Light."

Reasons why I like Max: he isn't the type to let things ago. This is part of what makes him a good journalist, another thing I like about him. (I have a soft spot for writer characters.) I enjoy his dynamic with Ash a lot; like EIji, he feels like he should be protecting Ash, but it is typically Ash that ends up protecting him. He does provide a positive father-figure for Ash, something that Ash is sadly lacking in. And yes, I also have a soft spot for father figure characters.

Basically, there are loads of things I like about Max and yet somehow I never talk about him. Weird.

[readbananafish]

Reason #069: Those Sparse Light-Hearted Moments

Banana Fish is a pretty sad series, but it's not angst all the time. I really like it when Yoshida writes silly scenes.

(Of course my enjoyment of this scene is somewhat diminished by the fact that a few panels later Ash is angry because the nurses keep fondling him and I am reminded that that is an act that is probably really upsetting for him and yeah...)

[readbananafish]

Reason #068: because the cops are actually likeable.

Cops tend to get a bad rap in some places and the United States are definitely one of those places. I'm not sure if Yoshida's deliberately created her cops as decent guys or if it is just that she isn't aware of the reputation American cops have. Either way, her portrayals of the police force are refreshingly positive while still making them out as being actual people and not ideals. It's nice.

[readbananafish]

Reason #067: Alarm Clock Duty

Also on that list of top ten favorite scenes: Eiji slapping Ash awake while the gang looks on in horror.

Things I love about this: the comedic aspect, of course. Volume 7 is actually one of the funniest volumes, in my opinion. I also always really like seeing more of Ash's gang. But beside these things, I feel like this harkens back to a point that occured in volume 6 and is repeated throughout the series: Eiji is not afraid of Ash. And moments like this prove that this isn't just lipservice that he pays Ash to reassure him.

[readbananafish]

Reason #066: Ash and Sing's first meeting

If I were to make a list of top ten favortie scenes from the entire series, this one would definitely be up in that rank.

Ash is busy having one of the worst days of his life and some punk kid shows up in the middle of burning building demanding to have a duel to the death with him.

Sing is just so eager to do this whole leader-of-the-gang thing right, so he's posturing a bit and acting really cocky. It's just so wonderfully awkward.

And I really think that it says a lot about Ash's character that even though this is seriously of the worst times to be bothering him EVER and that Sing is making all sorts of false accusations and, you know, trying to kill him... he still doesn't hurt the kid (much.) That's got to take a lot of restraint.

[readbananafish]

Reason #065: because the plot thickens, again and again.

I feel like I don't really talk about the actual plot of Banana Fish much. The plot of Banana Fish is great. That's all there is to it. Talking about it would be like talking about the sky being blue. It just is.

That said, volume five is when the plot starts getting really nice and plotty, so I feel like it is worth mentioning here and now. Spoilers below? They are early-on spoilers though...