Banana Fish- Will this be the next great Action-Drama anime?(1st ep summary+review)

1st Episode-The plot (second part with spoilers)

Spoiler-free: This new summer-2018 series revolves around Ash,a 17-year old boy and the former “lover”(one-sided relationship) of the Mafia boss Golzine “Papa” Dino, who manages to become the leader of a local gang in New York, USA and gets in a lot of trouble because of a drug.

Spoilers: One day, while he follows two suspicious gang-members, he encounters a shot man, who gives him a piece of paper with an address (I think it’s his address but I’m not sure)  and says the words “Banana Fish”, before falling to the ground. Later we find out that Banana Fish is actually a drug that was dealt to Ash’s older brother, Griffin, in the military. This resulted in him killing some of his comrades and then going crazy. So, after hearing again about “Banana Fish”, from the now dead man, Ash begins to take interest in the drug and wants to find out more, so he takes a sample of the drug that he holds in his necklace to a doctor to find out what it actually is. “Papa” Dino becomes aware of Ash’s interest in the drug and later finds out that something important is missing ( We don’t know yet what it is…my guess: maybe the drug that Ash holds in his necklace), so he sends Marvin, one of his man to go after Ash and make him talk, he isn’t allowed to kill him tho(because “Pappa” actually likes Ash). Although he isn’t allowed to kill him, Marvin actually holds a grudge against Ash, so when he is asked by Arthur, to help him “beat” the gang leader he actually accepts. Towards the end of the episode, Ash meets Eiji Okumura (19-year-old japanese college student), an assistant photographer who is there to take his interview for a magazine. Finally the pub where Ash and Eiji are located is attacked by Arthur’s man, this results in Eiji’s and Skipper’s(Ash’s friend)  kidnapping. In the last scene the main character follows the car that abducted his friend and the assistant photographer.

 

Title-meaning:

• Banana Fish represents the drug that made Ash’s big brother go mad and kill some of his coworkers. The drug seems to be something really important to the Mafia, since “Pappa” doesn’t want Ash to find out anything about it.
• The term “Banana Fish” is also used in one of Salinger’s novels and it represents a fish, that when encountered will “make you suddenly feel like dying”.

Characters: 

Main:

Ash Lynx: 17-year-old; former lover of “Pappa” Dino; gang-leader; doesn’t like killing people but still does it

Okumura Eiji: 19-year-old photographer from Japan; college student; looks like a kid; kinda shy

Secondary: 

Golzine “Pappa” Dino: Mafia-leader; gay; “loves” Ash and calls him “sweetheart

Griffin: Ash’s older brother; paralyzed in a wheelchair; commited murder while drugged in the army.

Marvin: works for Dino; hates Ash

Arthur: gang-member; also hates Ash

Skipper: kid; Ash’s friend and helper

Shorter: cool punk-guy; also Ash’s friend

The Doctor: sells Ash medicine, most probably for his brother; helps him take care of his brother; helps him find out more about the drug

My opinion:

This anime has a lot of potential, I really enjoyed every single minute of this episode. The characters have really nice and unique designs. Nothing seems to be missing from this episode, the plot is interesting and easy to follow and the dialogue is well made, it doesn’t get boring. I think this first episode was a really good introduction to the “Banana fish” universe and it got me really hyped for the next one.

If you haven’t checked it out and you enjoy those Action-Drama series, then you should give this anime a try….you won’t regret it.

If you already have or even if you haven’t watched this anime yet tell me what you think about it in the comments! Thanks for reading!

AllAboutAnime-out.