Banana Fish Chapter 110 Discussion

Well I finished this a few days ago and it's been peculating in my brain for a while.

I'm kicking myself for overlooking this for such a long because there is so much I loved here. I had started the first couple of chapters a few years ago and put it on hold for whatever dumb reason. *deeply regrets everything*



I honestly don't know what to say about Ash dying. There have been dedicated fans that have theorized and chosen very opposing sides about this manga's ending for decades. Did I want to see him fight his way through and live? Yes. Very much so.  Am I angry with this ending? No i'm actually not angry at all.



If I may point out- I went into this without any spoilers whatsoever but a part of me knew that he wasn't going to make it.

There was just an intuition that there was no way Ash was going to find a "happy" ending and honestly when I saw the chapter of him sitting there dying at the library I didn't feel much. I do remember saying "WHAT" out loud though.

Now what really got me going was the Garden of Light chapter which emotionally destroyed me.

All the characterization culminated wonderfully for me in that chapter and it hit me like a truck.



For all the things that this manga may have discarded along the way (I personally don't think that Banana Fish was ignored btw, for me its purpose was justly served), the characterization of Ash, Eiji, Sing (holy shit Sing), and Blanca, etc. were superbly satisfying to me. What an array of engrossing and rich character relationships. Loved that one line where Sing said something about Eiji and Ash not having a sexual relationship but loving each other like lovers do.

And yes I saw the goofy T-shirts but I was too immersed to even care about how goofy they were Overall I really loved the art in this series, goofy graffiti included too ahaha.



I disagree with Ash being called a Gary-Stu. Sure he may have had characteristics of a Gary-stu but as Smurphinator pointed out Ash was equally, if not more so, flawed than he was perfect. I'll truly remember this character/series for a long time.



I don't rate or rank my manga but for the scope and delivery of almost everything I would personally and most definitely call this a piece of masterful work. Adds to my top favorites mentally and/or on paper.

After I finished reading the ending, I didn't think it was too sad. I was just really vexed by  how Ash died. The story kept dropping hints about his eventual death, but it just had to happen in such a lonely way. Ash could have gotten help, but he would have been locked up anyway. Oh well, there are no ifs...

I didn't cry once from this, but I feel so inexplicably sad. Time is so cruel. Ash dies, and it's time to move on. Eiji and Sing are all grown up now, but Ash will be 18 forever. Why couldn't Ash just live the way he wanted to??!!  

NinoHaruhara said:
wow, this manga is amazing, a masterpiece, can't think of any other way to put it. this was the first BL manga I've ever completed and i couldn't have been more glad, if I had space in my favorites i definitely would have added it. can't wait to watch the anime. 11/10 manga.



It's a shoujo manga, not BL

So, I after several weeks I finally ended the manga. And I must say just like many others, it left me heartbroken. Maybe worst since I didn´t let myself be spoiled so I didn´t know what to expect. Well, since it was labeled as tragedy on manganelo, I knew someone was going to die either way. But for whatever reason I always thought it would be Eiji. Not that I wished it, I really like him, but I somehow thought his ´klutziness´ would get him shot by accident or something like that. That´s why I was so startled when the final scene came in the picture showing Ash dying in the library. I was utterly shocked and sad, of course.

But Garden of Light added a whole new level of the sadness to the story. Only after seeing older, innocent Eiji grieving over Ash it hit me that Ash really died back then and he won´t be coming back. It was incredibly sad. Even now my eyes are dwelling with tears. Very few anime or manga made me crying, but I just had to when I watched Eiji looking at Ash´s photos. I think everybody has.

This manga belongs to my personal masterpieces although I think it will take some time to come back to it for rereading. Looking forward at the way how anime will handle to pass the emotions to the viewer.  But judging from Shorter´s death animated, they will probably handle it amazingly. We´ll see.

Noxidian said:
After I finished reading the ending, I didn't think it was too sad. I was just really vexed by  how Ash died. The story kept dropping hints about his eventual death, but it just had to happen in such a lonely way. Ash could have gotten help, but he would have been locked up anyway. Oh well, there are no ifs...

I didn't cry once from this, but I feel so inexplicably sad. Time is so cruel. Ash dies, and it's time to move on. Eiji and Sing are all grown up now, but Ash will be 18 forever. Why couldn't Ash just live the way he wanted to??!!   In the manga, Ash was 19 and a half by then.  He died in early 1987 according to the guidebook.



#FuckYutLung

That last chapter was a bit...painful.



Wonderful story, full of suspense was not what I was anticipating when I started this shojo manga. As fellow manga readers above me has mentioned, the themes and portrayal of emotions were almost perfect. Despite Ash being a borderline gary Stu, it just shows how brilliant storytelling can justify a character's intentions. Most of the other characters were very well done, and the portrayal of the complex relationships, particularly between Ash and Eiji, and Ash with Golzine showed the mastery in the storytelling. My only problem, as already pointed out, that Banana Fish was somewhat ignored at the end, and the story totally focused on Ash.



Overall, a great series. I'm still torn whether to give this an 8 or a 9 though. Definitely my fav shojo manga alongside Mars.

I finished this manga quicker than any other manga I've ever read in my life because it was just that good. I'm not particulary good with words but I really feel like I need to try and comment this manga.



The heavy themes that aren't common in anime/manga were what caught my attention, I was really looking forward to see how were they going to be approached and I was not disappointed. As mentioned above, I fell in love with the characters relationships with each other, how they connected and how that affected their lives + their own personal growth.



Smurphinator said:


A lot of people have commented that Ash presented as a Gary-Stu, but I don't think that's entirely true. Ash may be gifted as an intellectual sniper fighter, but he has many deep personal flaws. I like how in a lot of ways, Yoshida held Ash accountable for his situation, particularly in the manga's end. Ash was a victim, yes, but Ash was also offered many outs by people who cared about him, especially Eiji, and yet he never took them. Ash isn't perfect by any means. He is self-pitying, self-destructive, and a risk taker with dodgy morals. Even if he ultimately moves beyond this mindset by the end of the manga (racing to the airport after reading Eiji's letter to save himself instead of wallowing in his pain), his past decisions and relationships still come back to bite him. Notably the person who killed him isn't someone of whom he was a victim, such as Dino, or Foxx, or Blanca, or Yut-Lung. It's an enemy he made from a choice he made, because his own flaws created as much of his problems as his circumstance, and those choices don't just go away. I think that's enough to land him out of Gary-Stu territory. He ain't no saint.



I have to agree. Ash is a character with flaws! and that makes me like him even more. He's also not a cold traumatized guy who happens to be naturally beautiful, intelligent and skilled. He's funny and has his 17 year old moments (throwback to that tantrum he threw at the mental hospital after he realized Max and Ibe were stuck in there trying to get him out); and he also cares for his friends.



I love every aspect of Ash and Eiji's relationship. So much. I love how Eiji is both Ash's strenght and weakness, I love how he somehow wanted to live because of him; yet he died, in a way, because of him as well. I knew Ash was going to die. At first it angered me to see how he just died like that but I came to understand that was exactly the point of it he never let his guard down unless he was with Eiji and he died because he in someway was with him, while reading his letter (oh god. The letter. I still cry myself to sleep thinking about it everyday) and in some natural stupid way, despite surviving every chaotic thing that happened to him during the whole manga. He did a lot of things yet he died smiling....he did a lot of things so he didn't get his second chance but he managed to find happiness.



I love how Ash desperately wanted someone to treat him as an human being, someone who cared for him without expecting anything in return and how Eiji is all of that and so much more. I think they complete each other in every way - I see Ash as physically strong character while Eiji as a emotionally strong character; Ash struggles with voicing his emotions and Eiji is very quick and honest on doing so and I could stay here all day...The final chapter when we see Eiji and Sing post-Ash's death were so heartbreaking. It literally felt like someone had just ripped my heart out of my chest just like that and I'm not one to cry but it took me a while to finish it off for crying so hard.. When Sing basically stated that Ash and Eiji were soulmates I think it is the best definition for their relationship. It's something that would only happen once in a lifetime.



Other than that I loved to see how the gangs were portrayed and loved when they came together to fight against a common enemy, I absolutely love Sing and Cain... Sing is such a special character in my heart because he's just so kind and overall a good friend and person and until the end he never left Eiji alone. I also have this love-hate relationship with Yut-Lung (really. The whole manga was me wanting to punch him and sometimes give him and hug; though in the end I really felt sorry for him). I liked Dino's death a lot as well because even in the end he refused to let anyone kill Ash and ended up dying for him (which is pretty ironic since he pretty much killed his innocence..). I also loved to see the difference in their cultures.



I could stay here all day, messily ranting but I'm going to stop now. I loved every bit and it's now my absolute favorite manga ever. And if you're looking for more pain you gotta check New York Sense (it's Eiji's photobook which contains a lot of pics of Ash and the rest, even Akira and Sing's wedding etc and it's very nostalgic...)