The gangster in question and target of their investigative report is 17-year-old gang leader Ash Lynx (you’d use a snappy fake street name, too, if your real name was Aslan Jade Callenreese). (Spoilers: it isn’t – Eiji has predictably gotten kidnapped twice already, and we’re only four episodes in.) Eiji is naive and gentle-hearted, going so far as to ask a gangster if he can hold his gun, then simper in embarrassment that the gangster admits point blank to having killed people before. Before you manga readers tell me that the lead relationship is never clearly confirmed, there is already buttloads of canon homosexuality, or at least homosexual acts – if not feelings.ġ9-year-old Eiji Okumara treks from Japan to the crime-ridden streets of New York City as the assistant of a photojournalist, Shunichi Ibe, who is putting together a report on American street gangs and apparently thought it was a good idea to let a teenager tag along. Yes, there’s gay, and yes, it is explicit. What is the elusive titular “Banana Fish”? Will gang violence irreparably destroy the very fabric of society? And is it gay? BANANA FISH: where “can I touch the gun in your pants” is both literal and sexy A gay 80’s shoujo manga, because #diversity means that violent New York City drug smuggling crime syndicate dramas are for everyone, and that includes teen Japanese girls.
Because that’s what this is, in case you haven’t Wikipedia’d the shit out of MAPPA’s new series yet.
If you are a gay anime fan who had never heard of Banana Fish until 2018 – join me in pretending to the smug BL connoisseurs clutching their gay 80’s shoujo manga that you totally fucking had.