Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Banana Fish
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Ashen Phoenix
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As far as realism goes, I believe it wouldn't have been possible for Ash to pass the pill to Eiji by kissing him, since most prisons allow zero physical contact when someone is being visited, regardless of the visitor(s) being family/loved ones or legal council.
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MarshalBanana
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I'm not quite sure what benefit updating it to the present day has done. Sure they use mobile phones, but those could easily be payphones, and texting could be replaced with a pager. So far it does not seem to have done any harm, aside from misrepresenting New York, it just feels pointless.
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jr240483
 Posts: 4378 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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you could also say the same thing for mirage of blaze which didn't had any romance at all, but its anime version definitely did in a way, though mostly forced if you asked me. and at least it wasn't in the creepy area ala junjo romantica! |
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Gina Szanboti
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I take it you didn't see MoB: Rebels of the River Edge.
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SonicFanA
 Posts: 159 |
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Am I the only one reminded of No.6 thematically while watching this?
I have not read the manga, but I will some point after the anime ends, and I got to say I am enjoying it. I do like that they updated the material. I love Eiji and his style of clothing. I also like that he is the type of person who won't sit around and will do something if he can. |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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As the TWIA article pointed out, remember that the show is caught in a contradiction. The time is updated but the story is only minorly so. "No Touching!" may be standard now, but it wasn't in the 70's/80's of the original. Same as a jailed suspected being sent to prison without so mush as a hearing, or the parts of the city being depicted not presently being slums (but they were in the original story), or the NYPD being so completely crooked (straight out of Sepico), We just have to be open to the warped sense of setting, set in "the present day" but the "realism" is more closely attuned to the previous generation's world |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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I know it’s been several days, but I’ve been thinking on this part of the review a bit because parts of it confused me. I’d appreciate if you or others could maybe provide some examples of other works fitting the criteria that formed this opinion? I still can only think of one example I’ve come across where this would hold true. That title which features a "masculine" character with an abusive backstory is also a very indulgent, trashy, series IMHO and basically was using subjects in the shallowest means. (The artist further went on to completely fetishize in a graphic manner such abuse as well.) That title has so much daylight between it and Banana Fish I’m at a little loss here understanding. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11352 |
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Since they talked about him getting bail this last episode, he's clearly in jail, indefinitely awaiting trial, not prison. Unless he's got someone filing habeas corpus for him, he could well rot in there before anyone noticed, and that's even without Dino paying off people to not notice. As previously mentioned, this happens all the time, probably more now than it did when this was written. The way we think things work, the way they're supposed to work, is not always how they work. Our justice system is severely broken. |
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jr240483
Posts: 4378 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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huh??? 
i never heard of that series let alone recall that series being released on Encore WAM! the only series i knew of that genre where its source materials had zero type of romance, but the anime let on more than usual was mirage of blaze and descendant of darkness. |
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rahzel rose
Subscriber Posts: 824 |
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Rebels of the River Edge is a three part sequel OVA for Mirage of Blaze. And I would argue that MoB's source material does have romance in it. It's just not always of the proper, consensual kind. The novels are full of love/hate, obsession and also sexual assault. On to Banana Fish - Uchida's acting is still wowing me each week. And I cannot get the opening song out of my head. I'm just counting down the days until the single is released. I think my favorite part of episode 4 though was Max and Ash punching each other until they came to mutually grudging acceptance of one another. And for as much as I am also tired of the threat of rape and sexual assault being used constantly, I liked the way the fight scene was animated when Ash beat Bull down. He's quick and clever, and to see him use what was available in that small cell to take down his opponent was pretty neat. |
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Weazul-chan
 Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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If you want to get technical this was from an era before the modern BL genre emerged, when the actual genre known as shounen-ai and the genre known as tanbi (sometimes called june after the name of the main magazine that published the genre and whose last great notable hurrah at the end of the tanbi era was the original anime adaption of the Ai no Kusabi tanbi novels). BL rose to fill the place of those two genres when they became defunct. since it predates the rise of the BL genre it can't be that, but it can be argued to be shounen-ai.
the truth is while they're often called genres it's more accurate to describe them as demographics given what they describe is less the content and more the age range and gender of the primary target audience. |
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SonicFanA
Posts: 159 |
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Am I the only one who watched the part where Ash uses the fork to get his revenge against the jerk from the previous episode multiple times. I also heard that part was anime original.
A little off topic but Gravitation ran in a shojo magazine right? |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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I'm really curious who is translating for Amazon now. I really want them to stop, because I'm really not appreciating their homophobic slurs. It's fine to hate Dino and Marvin and others for being a pedophile, for one thing, it's true, but it's even established in the series that it's more about power and control and being a horrible human being than anything to do with being gay. Seriously, is there any way to get them to stop doing this? They also used wrong pronouns with Land of the Lustrous, so we know this has been a problem with Amazon (though they changed it later, so we do know they can go back and fix mistake!)
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Ashen Phoenix
Posts: 2909 |
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I agree with the review about hoping Banana Fish cuts down on its "sexual assault = drama" tendency. Not to remove it altogether, but the fact that it's such a prevalent part of Ash's story so far will get tiring fast.
It's interesting to see how he uses that to his advantage, like in the cellmate confrontation scene, but I feel with the way he butts heads with so many inmates the same scene could have taken place without the threat of rape. Such a fascinating series so far. As someone unfamiliar with the manga I'm looking forward to the dark, compelling path we're exploring. |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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I remember the English translation of the comic choosing slurs for some reason sometimes too. I can’t recall if that was the pulp or shojo edition or, both. Going to say once more it’s too bad VIZ isn’t re-translating the series again. (Incidentally, I remember the JP version making use of a slur at least once though somewhere so it’s not perfect.) For what it’s worth Arthur always did come off as homophobic to me. Though, he basically was just talking a lot about Dino being old and pervy in this instance. I’ve contacted Amazon twice about the subtitle translations. I don’t know if it’s my English or theirs but, I’m not sure the messages were properly understood. I’ve never used Prime until now either so I have no idea what to expect.
About even earlier works this is a quote from Keiko Takemiya (from Hisoyaka na kyôiku but, you can find this translation in Boys Love Manga and Beyond): “I think that most BL works are lovers’ games: a service [for readers] rather than an assertion of something [by the author].” Which might at first be taken as oh, that superfluous BL! However, I don’t think that’s what Takemiya is trying to say at all. I think it’s about the difference in the end with those two valid purposes. The service and the conventions of a genre that can both fulfill and restrict, how such is used and/or combated and why. This is where I think the review comments are touching a nerve with people. I understand coming into Banana Fish itself fresh, which is great for that perspective and I’m sure something that many people will also appreciate. I’m glad there is recognition of the correlations or, history with it to more contemporary works, even when scholars and manga critics which I am at least most familiar with may draw it closer to shônen-ai works, or like to discuss it in shôjo manga terms. Nevertheless, this issue is more than marketing, biases or taking everything too seriously. Unfortunately, I’m not seeing more interesting conversations over the BL label, but negative discourses and concerning reactions that are harming some people. I hope the flack hasn’t been ridiculous. Still, at the same time I don’t think there is understanding about why some of us who are explaining the BL label or other comments in the reviews are not, at the very least, helpful.
It ran in a teenage girls’ magazine. The sequel EX also shôjo and seinen online magazines. However, Murakami started the idea independently and she also calls it a BL story. (Who wants to argue with a creator.) I think it is valid to bring up since it is another one of those old works that had quite an effect on the BL genre, and one could argue English speaking fans since it was a blockbuster title. Tokyopop marketed it as shônen-ai (though I'm thinking they just meant it's not very explicit). It’s also the only example I can think of that is fitting Rose’s criticism around Ash's character in Banana Fish, something I alluded to earlier. In Gravitation spoiler[Eiri is seen as a mysterious, cool, aggressive character, the idea of him being more desirable because of his abuse comes up at one point too if I remember correctly. Murakami more than once uses rape and past abuse to create a mood whiplash or, doesn't even follow up or is consistent during the series, dragging the topic up more even when the audience would least expect it. In addition she shows her ero-manga roots graphically so in her Megamix comics with the characters, some of which would basically fit shotacon standards.Though, I will say I’ve come across a couple of people who through Gravitation rethought attitudes they previously held coming to a conclusion that sexual assault and child sex abuse were in real life these horrible things that could greatly affect people, so I guess that’s a silver lining. ] Also Murakami admitted she did very little research while creating Gravitation but, she did get to travel to New York. Personally what I found so troubling about Gravitation was for all it's silliness and jumping the shark, out of nowhere once and awhile it hit on some realism around the subjects it uses for its own means and that can catch someone off guard. Banana Fish may have its very wild moments or, where Yoshida was not completely on the ball with certain things, but it's a title drawing on real history with socio-political elements that you can take rather seriously. Last edited by katscradle on Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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