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Banana Fish Anime Unveils 2nd Promo Video, Opening Theme, Additional Cast

The official website for the television anime adaptation of Akimi Yoshida's Banana Fish manga announced the premiere date, additional cast, and opening theme song information on Friday. The website also unveiled a second key visual and second promotional video. (Note: linked video is region-locked to Japan.)

The newly-announced cast includes:

Makoto Furukawa as Shorter Wong

Yoshimasa Hosoya as Frederick Arthur

Shinji Kawada as Shunichi Ibe

In addition, Jun Fukuyama will play Jusis and Toshiyuki Morikawa will play Blanca.

Five-piece band Survive Said The Prophet is performing the opening theme song "found & lost," which is previewed in the video above.

The anime's first episode will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in Japan at 12:00 a.m. on July 5, and then air on Fuji TV's Noitamina block at 12:55 a.m. on the same night. Subsequent episodes will stream on Amazon one hour after they air on Fuji TV. The series will also stream outside of Japan only on Amazon Prime Video. A preview screening of the first two episodes will be held on June 30.

The anime will be two cours (two quarters of a year) in length, with 24 episodes, and will adapt the entire manga to the end, changing only the setting to the modern day.

The anime stars:

Yūma Uchida (ReLIFE's Kazuomi Ōga, Yowamushi Pedal Glory Line's Yūto Shinkai) as Ash Lynx

Kenji Nojima (Psycho-Pass' Nobuchika Ginoza, Sailor Moon Crystal's Mamoru Chiba) as Eiji Okumura

Unshō Ishizuka (Cowboy Bebop's Jet, Dragon Ball Super's Mr. Satan) as Dino Golzine

Hiroaki Hirata (One Piece's Sanji, Sword Art Online's Klein) as Max Lobo

Hiroko Utsumi (Free!) is directing the anime at MAPPA, and Hiroshi Seko (Ajin, Mob Psycho 100, Inuyashiki Last Hero) is in charge of the series scripts. Akemi Hayashi (Fruits Basket, Peacemaker, Doukyusei -Classmates-) is designing the characters. Shinichi Osawa (Ninja Slayer From Animation) is composing the music. Akitsugu Hisagi (key animator for Kids on the Slope, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG) is the show's "hard-boiled supervisor."

Additional staff members include:

• Chief Animation Directors: Ayumi Yamada, Shinpei Kamada
• Sound Director: Yō Yamada
• Color Design: Chikako Kamata
• Art Director: Toshiharu Mizutani
• Director of Photography: Yusuke Tannawa
• Editing: Hiroshi Okuda

The anime will take place in modern day New York, instead of in the 1980s when the original manga took place.

Viz published the manga in English, and it describes the story:

Vice City: New York in the 80s... Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A child runaway brought up as the adopted heir, hatchet man, and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, the East Coast's Corsican crime lord, Ash is now at the rebellious age of seventeen - forsaking the kingdom of power and riches held out by the devil who raised him, preferring a code he can live with among a small but loyal gang of street thugs. But his "Papa" can't simply let him go - not when the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into his insatiably ambitious hands.

It's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to arrive in NYC and make Ash Lynx's acquaintance... and fall with him into the bloody whirlpool of pride, greed, lust and wrath unleashed by the enigma code-named Banana Fish...

The manga ran in Shogakukan's Bessatsu Shōjo Comic magazine from 1985 to 1994, but the upcoming adaptation is the manga's first anime. Shogakukan published the manga in 19 volumes in Japan, and then reissued the manga in 11 volumes (plus a side-story volume). The series has more than 11 million copies in print. The manga already inspired several stage plays.

Sources: Banana Fish anime's website, Comic Natalie

Thanks to Dennis R. for the embedded video.