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Banana Fish Gets Branded Smoothies (Sans Fish) at Lawson
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Akimi Yoshida's Banana Fish manga has a rather unappetizing sounding title, but isn't stopping LAWSON convenience stores from slapping it on some of its food products. Starting on July 31, LAWSON will sell banana smoothies with illustrations of the series' lead characters Eiji and Ash on the cups. There are four different cup illustrations in total, although one design is a secret.
Customers can also purchase bromide art prints from the series and original goods like pillow cases and mirrors using Loppi terminals. Pre-orders for original goods open on July 1 until July 31 and orders are expected to ship in September. LAWSON will reveal all the goods in its Loppi catalog and on the collaboration website on July 1.
Fans can also try to win artwork signed by Eiji and Ash's voice actor Kenji Nojima and Yūma Uchida through LAWSON's official Twitter account. More details will be revealed soon.
Banana Fish'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 take place in modern day New York, instead of in the 1980s when the original manga took place.
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.
Source: LAWSON campaign site, Comic Natalie
