Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Banana Fish Trying Too Hard To Be Shocking?
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Graceful Nanami
Posts: 303 Location: United States |
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Banana Fish has always strictly been a story about tragedy and how it affects people. All of it is. Almost none of it is happy and it's not supposed to be. Yeah, not everyone is going to enjoy that but that's what some stories are all about in this world, people. This is one of them and it's what makes it entertaining as hell.
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Errant-Sophist
Posts: 7 |
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Of all the grimdark and edgy anime out there, Banana Fish strikes me as one of the most thoughtful and genuine in its dark subject matter.
Yes, rape and sexual assault are reoccurring themes. But it hardly strikes me as trivialized. If anything, the nonchalant reaction to certain characters being raped or assaulted (namely Ash and Yut-Lung) is mostly just a testament to how jaded these characters are and how much they are willing to both do and endure to survive or achieve their goals. I never noticed any point where rape or assault was used as a joke. It also is pretty distinct from other BL (if this is considered a BL) in that the rapists aren't sexy love interests, they are absolutely disgusting bad guys. Sure, the series is pretty violent. But this is a series about mafia drug wars and crime syndicates. It would be pretty weird if there wasn't any violence at all. And the ones committing most of the violent acts are definitely bad guys, so I really don't get this criticism. |
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Dragonsandphoenix
 Posts: 82 Location: Malaysia |
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The latest episode was one that impacted me the most so far and probably the next episode as well. The plot is executed in a way that is manufactured to get the most angst but as long as you come in aware of that you can just enjoy the ride.
I also would be careful in boxing Banana Fish into certain genres. It is a weird hodgepodge of genre influences but to say that its hackneyed drama (if the show is cosidered to be guilty of this) can be attributed to its shojo roots seems a bit unfair. I have sort of done this in the past and I realise that may be unfair since shojo is not a stranger to effective but also natural drama. I mean yeah it's fair to use the above criticism but just say the plotting is bad (I don't necessarily believe this but I've heard this sentiment), not use the fact that it's categorised as a shojo as an excuse. To end on a more positive note I honestly cannot wait for the next episode since it'll contain probably my favorite scene in the whole manga. |
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Graceful Nanami
Posts: 303 Location: United States |
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YES. Finally, thank you. Both of these. |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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Not going to say a piece of fiction from the imagination of a Japanese woman inspired by American popular culture and scandals is real life. But, I’d also being lying if I said parts of Banana Fish did not remind me of some of my childhood. Sure the content can be upsetting and distressing and make people ask why it’s there over and over. When I first came across Banana Fish as a teenager I didn’t get very far because I didn’t need a story reflecting all the sh*t in the world because the world was exactly that. Eventually though I ended up coming back to it later. There have been and still are a lot of stories piling and tearing their characters up over the years in part because certain works were influential in that way. Yet, I’ve never felt Banana Fish was putting out something unexpected and awful or, was relentless to manipulate the people consuming it. One of the things about the story back in the day was how it portrayed very real sensitive subjects that weren’t a topic much, yet in a significant way. (How many meaningful pieces of media do we still not have with the same subjects?) For all the extremes at the heart is the true life stuff. It’s those shoujo conventions with the internal lives of the characters that are what makes the story memorable. The anime hasn’t been able to completely get there yet on the trauma, morality, etc. because the action pacing usually doesn’t allow a lot of breathing room. There is even less time with a long series being condensed to 24 episodes.
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4820 |
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I think the biggest issue I have with Banana Fish is it's moving at too fast of a pace for the viewers to really connect with the characters. The audience is supposed to sympathize with Shorter's situation but they just move from point A to point B too fast that we're not given any time to take it all in what just happened and to feel for the characters. I still enjoy the show but I think this is part of problem of trying to rush the entire manga into only 24 episodes when maybe it should have been a 39 episode show.
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Romuska
 Subscriber Posts: 799 |
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How wbout I spell it out for you. I was talking about Eiji’s reaction when he said “both.” It was so silly and over the top the way he said it. I just don’t buy any of the drama these rape scenes are attempting or any of the humor they try to force. The rape scene in Fritz the Cat was more disturbing. This show has offered nothing but fan service of the worst kind because they expect us to take it seriously. I should have felt sorry for Shorter but all I could think was “why the hell did they take his shirt off?” The answer of course was to show off his body. That’s it. There is nothing subtle about this show. It’s dated, it’s silly, and I’m done with it. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6524 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Posts deleted. Talk about Banana Fish, not each other.
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Yazu13
 Posts: 129 |
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Easily the most authentic part of this show was a Republican senator showing up to a brainwashing demonstration in a mafia basement.
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Yazu13
Posts: 129 |
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Yeah, that was definitely supposed to be comedic but it just made me cringe. I feel like I'm supposed to like this show, but it's one of the shows I look forward to the least each week. It has the production values, it has a plot that doesn't shy away from gritty reality, but it goes in circles too often and plays up the notion that seemingly every main character in the story is inexplicably gay or one scene away from being raped. It's trying to tell a grounded story, but there's a lack of authenticity here. |
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jrockfreak
Posts: 125 |
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I wouldnt say its been to shocking it all, because all the violence and all the shocking moments have a purpose its easily my favorite show this season. It reminds me alot of 91 days in a way.
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Romuska
Subscriber Posts: 799 |
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Amen to that.
I couldn't agree more. It just feels like they're aiming for a specific tone but it just doesn't work because every turn feels like exploitation or misguided fanservice. I think the biggest problem is that it may be a little too faithful to the source material. It was produced in the 80's but they changed the setting to contemporary and it just doesn't mesh. It would be like producing a shot for shot, line for line remake of Revenge of the Nerds set in 2018. It just wouldn't work. |
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Color2413
Posts: 49 |
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I have to disagree. The idea that a U.S. military procurement officer and senator (regardless of political party) would seriously consider doing business with a gang of sadistic psychopaths who put on a depraved, live show stretches suspension of disbelief to the breaking point, Even the infamous MKUltra experiments of 60 years ago were driven by the CIA, not the military, and the 1975-76 investigation by the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission resulted in serious reform. Adding a military officer and senator to the audience for the mafia's freak show strikes me as the fantasy of a Japanese mangaka whose research sources were mostly popular Western entertainment and not historical fact. |
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