Banana Fish Episode 22 Review: As I Lay Dying

It’s the final countdown and BANANA FISH isn’t holding back the punches! Everything is on the line and characters that we have grown to love over the course of the series are now on the chopping block. This week’s episode hits us with one hell of a climax that you don’t want to miss, so without further ado, let’s dive into Episode 22, ‘As I Lay Dying’.

Japanese Title: 死の床に横たわりて

Plot

Ash is still in the hands of Col. Fox, so Eiji, Sing, and Cain race off to save him. Meanwhile, Max is being taken to the Mental Health hospital Dino is using to test out his Banana Fish drug.

Episode Highlights

Implied Sexual Assault: This episode comes with yet another trigger warning. After Ash is captured by Fox, he is put through the mercenaries special brand of torture. While we don’t actually see what happens to Ash, the state of his clothes and his demeanor afterwards suggests that Fox did more that rough him up a bit.

Lost in Translation: During the episode, Eiji teaches Ash some phrases in Japanese, but because the anime is in Japanese, their speaking is in English. It’s an interesting move, that gets the same point across and thankfully both Ash and Eiji’s VAs are pretty good with their English pronunciations.

Themes & Trivia

Meaningful Title: All of the episode titles have been references to novels and short stories by famous American authors. This week’s episode is no different, borrowing its title from the 1930 novel by American author, William Faulkner!

Comments

Fox is a mean mofo. He’s on a completely different level from Dino, Yut Lung, and even Blanca. Hell, let’s throw Arthur in there for extra measure. All the other antagonists up until this point have had one chink in their armor, one humanizing element, but Fox has none of that. He is a complete monster. Ash has been abused and used so many times over, but after just one day with Fox, he is left shaking and the fact that we don’t actually see what Fox does to him only makes it that much more horrifying!

But, that’s not even the worst of it, the absolute best and most terrifying part of the episode comes in the last five or so minutes. This series has drilled into our heads that Eiji is Ash’s weakness. We’ve seen Eiji used as bait over and over again, and each time Ash stops at nothing to get him back. But, in this week’s episode we see exactly what happens when Eiji is ‘taken’ from him. Ash loses his shit. And it isn’t like anything we’ve seen up to this point. He goes completely berserk and it is both terrifying and awesome! He loses his humanity completely.

Man Down

This episode is one of the best in the series so far and it is all thanks to the last five or so minutes. With two more episodes left, BANANA FISH proves that it hasn’t run out of steam yet! This series really knows how to hit you where it hurts!

I’ll be back next week with another BANANA FISH review, but in the meantime, be sure to check out MANGA.TOKYO’s other amazing Fall 2018 reviews!!