Banana Fish Episode 1 Review: A Perfect Day For Bananafish

One of the most hotly anticipated anime of the Summer 2018 season is here and I AM SO EXCITED!! It’s been over 30 years since the Banana Fish manga was first published in Bessatsu Shoujo and now it’s getting a brand new anime series!! I can’t wait to see how the characters I fell in love with years ago fair in their transition to the screen, so let’s dive in and take a look at BANANA FISH!

Japanese Original Episode Title: 第一話バナナ・フィッシュにうってつけの日

Plot

Based on Akimi Yoshida’s manga series, BANANA FISH tells the story of Ash Lynx an attractive gang leader as he attempts to take down crime lord Papa Dino while uncovering the secrets behind the mysterious phrase ‘Banana Fish’, a phrase he overhears first from his brother and again from a dying man after he hands him a mysterious powder. What do they all have in common? Only time will tell. With the help of Eiji Okumura, a young Japanese photographer, Ash might just be able to uncover the secrets of ‘Banana Fish’.

Episode Highlights

Not for the Kiddies: In the anime’s cold open, a soldier goes mad and massacres most of his platoon, before being forcibly taken down by one of his own men. Gratuitous violence before we even hit the two-minute mark!!

Art Upgrade: The art from the manga was pretty hit or miss, so MAPPA decided to go all out and revamp the whole thing, with new character designs and everything. So far I’m liking the new art, it’s much more fluid and cleaner, buuuut, the characters don’t look the same so it’s a bit jarring for me personally.

Scenery Porn: I am a sucker for beautiful, detailed backgrounds and boy does this series have them in spades! These are some gorgeous backgrounds, full of such lush detail!! The sweeping shots of the city are breathtaking, the artists really managed to capture the beauty of New York while also keeping things pretty realistic. Special nod to the graffiti!!

Bar Brawl: Ash and Co are attacked by some of Papa Dino’s goons and a literal bar brawl breaks out! Mayhem and chaos ensue, but the choreography of the fight and the fluidity of the animation was perfection!

Themes & Trivia

Adaptation upgrade: The original manga series took place in the 80’s but the powers that be decided to bring the story to 2000’s in this modern anime adaptation.

Meaningful Title: The title of the series comes from the title of J.D. Salinger’s 1948 short story, ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’. The title of the first episode is a callback to the original reference. They even bring it up in series when Ash mentions the phrase ‘Banana Fish’ to an acquaintance.

CSI New York: Is an American police procedural television show that ran from 2004-2013, Eiji makes references to the show when touring the police station.

Iraq War: Along with the other changes the anime made from the manga, Ash’s brother is a veteran of the Iraq War (rather than the Vietnam War), which began in 2003 and ended in 2011.

Smith and Wesson: Is an American manufacturer of firearms, Ash’s gun is a modified version of their .357 Magnum revolver.

Comments

Oh my gosh!! Okay, so full disclosure, I absolutely love the Banana Fish manga, so I set the bar really high with this anime and there were things I liked and things I didn’t like. For one, I really loved the updated art style, however, there were instances where the art kinda goes downhill. It’s kind of jarring when the backgrounds are on point, but the characters look half done and vague (this was most noticeable during wide shots). The anime also updated the setting from 1980’s New York to 201? New York (?) it’s kind of vague, but characters are seen using smartphones and Ash’s brother is a vet of the Iraq War so the series at least takes place after 2011. I don’t hate the change, and it makes sense why they did it, but, I fear there will be a lot of scenes from the manga that won’t make their way into the anime because they are simply too dated to be relevant.

Also, I’m not going to be the first person to mention this, and believe me this is most definitely not meant to be praise, but, Ash looks an awful lot like Yuri P. from Yuri on Ice and Eiji looks and acts a lot like Yuri K. …AND. I. AM. NOT. AMUSED. I noticed the similarities and I am not a fan!

Just A Day in the Life

So, as a fan of the manga, I give my seal of approval on the first episode of BANANA FISH! Yeah, there were some things I didn’t necessarily like, but, as a whole, this was a damn good episode! They managed to update the series while retaining the feel of the original manga series. BANANA FISH hits the ground running and I am definitely geeked to see where they take the series in the coming episodes!!