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| When I read BF some years ago I quite liked it, thought I had some issues with some parts of the story, like everyone being a gay rapist that wants to fuck Ash. Anyway, going through it again with the anime, I got to say, man this has not aged well. Many will say it's because of the adaptation, and while it's true the adaptation removed some quite nice parts (RIP Nadia, you didn't even exist in this anime!) it really doesn't change that once you reach the second half the story is just.. bad and unbelievable. Basically the author really lost the plot, it's like she couldn't handle Ash character anymore and shit got out of control and suddenly she couldn't stop mentioning his over 200 IQ. What I'm saying is that Ash is a meme character. But the worst thing is really the ending. Really, what's the message here? If you get raped, tortured and your loved ones get taken hostage and hurt you deserve to die because you killed bad people (Unless you are a thicc professional assassin, then you can go back to the Caribbean and bang hot blondes of whatever the fuck Blanca does there) What a stupid ending. |
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| This was an anime I wasn't expecting to like as much as I did. It was a ride from start to finish. I felt like it was fairly consistent and I didn't feel like any episode bored me or any parts of it dragged. It kept going forward to reach the end, or rather Ash's death. I find the references to J.D. Salinger ("A Perfect Day for Banana Fish" and "Catcher in the Rye") were great connections to literature. It's extremely apparent from the last episode title that Banana Fish was never as much to do with the drug named this but rather a reflection of the short story and the tragedy behind it. Both of these stories focus on the idea of loss of innocence, isolation, and struggle with oneself. On top of that, we are constantly reminded of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and Ash's parallel and self perception. ("A Farewell to Arms" and “Island in the Streams” is also referenced, which is likewise tragic tales by Hemingway.) He was unable to escape his fate as the leopard/monster dying on the top of the mountain, but I'd like to believe both the leopard and Ash found peace at the top of the mountain, even if it was from unconventional salvation. I’d like to go back and look at the episode titles and the stories they reference as well. I think there was some Fitzgerald, Faulkner, more Hemingway, among others... That being said the ending is incredibly bitter sweet. I wish Ash was able to believe he could have went to Japan with Eiji, but chose to sacrifice himself to protect Eiji. Likewise, he did so because Eiji was able to protect and save his soul. Ash would have likely lived a life still full of pain even with people like Golzine dead. He suffered from severe mental decline and health from all the abuse and his own sins of perpetual murder. I'm honestly very touched and impressed by this. I'm not sure if I seen any recently released anime that pulled at my heart strings for a while. I definitely cried, even though it was heavily foreshadowing Ash's end. 8/10, points dropped due to the lack of character development for other characters, including the villains. There were also one to many hostage and infiltrate scenes. Other than that, I highly recommend it! |
LycanSep 4, 2019 12:13 AM
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| Good endings are easily forgettable unlike bad endings and that's one of the reason why I really liked that last episode. There is a scene that I found very inspiring... and no that's not Ash's dead which is just stupid since he's like Terminator for 24ep just to die so easily.. pffft! pathetic. I really liked the scene where he was talking with his mentor just before he walks slowly while Blanca is sitting there... peacefully around all that dead-looking trees that I interpreted as a metaphor of all the anime's deaths. To be honest, I really found that anime boring when I was watching 1Ep/Week and I did a pause until few days ago. I watched all the remaining 12-13 episodes in few days and it was refreshing. I found that the anime was good overall though there were too much Yaoi contents that was absolute garbage for me. |
| Ok this is what I mean, there's nothing that confirms Ash is dead right? A guy that survives multiple stabs and gunshots suddenly dies from one stab?? IM TRYING TO BE HOPEFUL HERE GUYS. I mean I know his death isn't really the point, whether he dies or not the ending was beautiful. BUT I CAN HOPE RIGHT, that he's still alive.... or has it been confirmed by the author or something... EDIT: nope, most likely he's dead. Read a few theories online and it made the most sense that rather than he died because of the stabbing, he let himself die. Welp goodbye my heart I didn't need you anyway.. |
lukraiyeolSep 19, 2019 3:24 AM
| What a sad ending that was.. |
| I'm Bruneian and I like anime. And Manchester United. And fat cats. |
| aww, crap...knew he would die since it aired, but damn in the last minutes found myself bawling my eyes likewas no tomorrow ugh ...damn, and i rarely cry at animes :))) damn u ash making me cry |
The spider is watching |
| I really took my time watching this slowly to prepare my heart. I haven't read the manga but the death flag was obvious since the beginning. Yet here I am crying my heart out. That last scene was beautiful but I just want them to be happy :'((((( Gonna read the manga now, I don't need my heart anyway. |
 Americans, remember what the republicans did to Ash when you vote for the next election! ;) |
| Mostly writing this to process the ending lol This series is gonna stay in my mind for a long time. The ending was If you haven't read the epilogue I suggest you do. I usually don't go off reading manga, but for this show I definitely would. I've heard Eiji is portrayed a bit different in the manga, so it won't be the exact same story. In the epilogue we see how I originally came to watch this show because of the ship, yes, but honestly this show does not deserve the category stamp of yaoi or BL that the media has given it. It is SO much more. The love between Eiji and Ash is very subtle, so much so that it's possible to play it off as a very strong friendship. Their love is the purest form of love I've ever seen portrayed in any anime, and I love it. The focus of this series is a debatable question, but first and foremost, it's about Ash, and that's exactly what we get. I LOVED the music, sound track, endings, openings, all. If you're like me and look up lyrics and stuff, you've probably already noticed how well the lyrics of ending 2 fits the story. The story also had like ton of symbolic stuff stuffed in (ha) like the names of every episodes, which are named after famous/classic novels. I also read a theory in a comment about why Ash and Yut-Lung (?) was referred to as "peacock" at times and why Yut-Lung had a peacock painting in his office/room. They believed that it was a reference to the fabel of a peacock (I have no idea what it's called) where the peacock boasts about its feathers to a crane. The crane replays by asking if the peacock could follow him and takes off in to the sky. And this you could interpret and compare to the series in many different ways. I think it perfectly fits Yut-Lung to be the peacock and Ash to the Crane, but at the same time I could see Ash as the Peacock and Eiji as the crane. If we look back to the first episodes we hear Ash say that he envies Eijis ability to fly, which relates with the fable. This is getting quite long so I'm gonna stop now lol. This show was fulfilling to the point where I don't even want or need to read any fanfiction, and that in itself is a feat. This whole journey has been... I don't even know how to describe it. The show is a wonderful piece of art. 10/10. |
| That was very good. I will now proceed to cry myself to sleep |
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| Why did ash let himself die? He would be free from the violence in Japan moreover, his enemies are all dead. He hurt Eji more than he helped him. He’s going to be depressed when he finds out ash is dead. |
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| I was between "good" anime and watched this to fill time, not expecting it to be more than a 5/10. Now that this roller coaster ride is over, I come away with a whole different point of view. This was nearly a masterpiece. Unfortunate ending, but that's life. Eiji is good kid. Probably so is Ash, but he's so damaged by the circumstances in which he was raised. One thing that sticks with me through this whole series is a few episodes back when Eiji says to "come to Japan, you don't need a gun to live there," man that summed it up for me. |
| What an amazing ending! I'm really satisfied with this, even though I love Ash and want him to live but it feels right to me to end his life like this. He survived many things because he had a reason to live but was killed by just a random guy, because he accepted death, he was smiling and that makes me satisfied. Overall I love this show, it made me stressed and thrilled along all the episodes, (I think living with mafia is more dangerous than living with titans). I just wish there will be an OVA adaptation of the side stories, I can't get enough from this show, I wonder why this manga didn't get an early adaptation. Great characters, drama and action is all I need. I've asked if it was a BL to avoid it but after watching first episodes, I just said "BL or not BL, this show is awesome". I will give it 9/10 (-1 for disturbing scenes). Edit: This is the best Shojo I've ever watched, I wish other Shojo shows were like this. |
gofreeDec 29, 2019 3:26 AM
| It was too good to be true to see Ash survive in the end. Everything he has done, even though he made made into this, it has haunted him since he was a child, sadly the things he had done overweigh the rest. Tragic ending but also something that was foreseen. |
BlueHaru said: Well, ASH LYNX IS ALIVE!!! Visit the official website of BANANA FISH, here's the link: https://bananafish.tv/story/ Characters shown in gray are dead and COLORED CHARACTERS ARE ALIVE!!! ASH IS COLORED, THEREFORE ASH IS ALIVE!!! Waiting for Season 2 or a movie! 🎉 Sorry to break it to you but in the source material, the manga, Ash is very dead and Enji is forever depressed. |
Zexys said: Awful, awful ending. I'm not even sad, I'm bitter I wasted so much time with this show. "Ash had to die" No, no he didn't. Not only is it unsatisfying to the viewer, the entire show feels pointless now. The show was about Ash and Eiji, primarily Ash, so all the development he went through was absolutely useless. Eiji is worse off now than when he started. Plus, Ash promised him he'd go to Japan with him, but he's still too busy hating himself to bother. this person wrote a brilliant interpretation on the ending and i thought it was incredibly well-written. if you're interested you can take a look: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1757177 |
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| This was pretty good, But the story lost momentum around the time when Blanca was introduced. It was supposed to be about Banana Fish and how to exact revenge on Golzine and the Corsica Foundation, but then Golzine dies to some random character introduced near the end of the story in Foxx. The Foundation is still free to do as it pleases even with the information about the government officials, and Banana Fish is still as relevant as it was in the beginning since all the incriminating evidence was lost. Then there were the characters that offered little to the story — Blanca, Foxx, and Yut Lung. Blanca was there just to spice up the drama by playing hired guns for both sides, Foxx was there just to add another cliché enemy that was obsessed with Ash, and the same goes for Yut Lung. In fact it wasn’t until the penultimate episode that we got a clearer idea of why Yut Lung was so obsessed with him. Yut Lung had such an interesting story, but the way they handled his story made him change from a manipulative and complex character into one that seemed whiney and needlessly hateful. Finally, the story overall was needlessly obsessed with Rape — every other episode, it was a different person trying to rape Ash (ie. Golzine, Marvin, Foxx etc). At first, it was shocking but then it just became disturbing with how much the Studio decided to use it as a recurring trope. Still, I think the story of Eiji and Ash was pretty good, I also did find the ending to be satisfying, especially if they were hinting that Ash died to symbolically protect Eiji in that last scene. I don’t think Ash going to Japan would’ve worked anyways considering how dangerous it would’ve been for Eiji. Overall, this story was the best in the beginning, but lost momentum with random characters towards the finale, though the ending was pretty decent. |
| I can't even begin to express how much this hurt. I finished the series half an hour ago and feel haunted, I've been unable to stop crying, I'll compose myself and it will just hit me all over again and the tears will resume flowing. I can't believe this. I mean, I was suspecting the worst, constantly doubting whether Ash or Eiji were going to survive, and during this whole final episode I was filled with dread. I knew Lao was a loose string waiting to be tied up and I could sense something was going to go terribly wrong, but the execution of this tragedy is what hit too hard. Once Ash was stabbed the tears were instantly flowing, I knew this was it, and honestly all I kept thinking was... why Ash? His whole life was hell, he lived through atrocities and horrors and he finally found an escape, a respite and happiness with Eiji. He finally found someone to love and it was over! It was all over, there was a chance, a very possible future where he could be happy with Eiji in Japan. He had finally found a future that wasn't full of killing and destruction. This was so, so cruel. The fact that he was running towards his new life with Eiji just to have Lao deliver a soul crushing blow to bring Ash back to reality is so damn painful. Damn I need another tissue, the tears are back and flowing. I know he died happy, but that makes this hurt even more. Ash was truly okay with dying like this, just knowing that Eiji loved him and he had kept Eiji safe till the end. They both deserved so much more. I can't even believe how much this hurts. I'm rambling at this point but my emotions and my mind are a complete mess. I felt myself getting way too attached to this story and I knew it was going to end badly, though not the details on how, but this was traumatising. I can't believe how cruel and painful this story was. I feel like an absolute mess right now. I'm going to go cry a bit more now. |
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| NOOOOO I WANTED THEM TO MEET AGAIN |
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| Oh god... oh god... tell me that didn't happen. I'm too emotional to say anything coherent. Just saying I'm just a pile of tears and snot on the floor like everyone else after that ending... |
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| Even though the 2nd half of this show was much weaker than the first half (Yut-Lung's temper tantrums and Banana Fish just being forgot about all the time plus the randomly shoved in exmilitary goons all being a factor to this), this was pretty great and although I'm deeply saddened by the ending I can accept it for what it is. 8/10 |
| Banana Fish: Started great, became mediocre in the middle and trash near the end. The 2nd half was an utter disappointment in every way. Especially the ending was laughable, i mean come one, Golzine being shot twice and still able to shoot Fox? And then again the fall of the building in a dramatic way (a bit like Arthur) was cheap. Overall i couldn't enjoy this anime that much for the following reasons: - Visuals (not very important for me, but still not my cup of tea) - Portrayal of USA / New York (Yep, like there are only gangs with guns and (homo) rape, the police is ofc incompetent too) - Shounen-ai tropes (i can understand why some say this is BL, because the amount of homosexuals is rather, lets say, unnatural) - Action (For example the train scene shortly before the showdown between Ash and Arthur (episode 13)) - Overall story (especially the 2nd half was a mess, weak antagonists (Fox, Yut-Lung)) - Ash (IQ of 180? Gang leader?, killing machine? Totally unrealistic... and he is only 17) First half 7/10, second half: 2/10. Overall: 4/10. |
| Ego = 1 / Knowledge | "More the Knowledge Lesser the Ego, Lesser the Knowledge More the Ego." Albert Einstein My ratings:  |
parona said: i hate this ending. it’s pointless, cruel and it proves the villains’ point. it tells abuse victims that there’s no happy ending for them. that they can’t overcome their trauma; that they can’t heal. the only way out is death. i love the rest of the story, but this ending is horrible and i will always hate it. Thank you for summing-up all of my complicated thoughts on this ending. It felt pointless and undeserved... Too bad because other than that I really enjoyed it. |
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