Banana Fish just hurts tbh, the way its been years but I'm still upset that Ash chose to just let himself bleed to death cause he thought Eiji would live a better life without him but in reality Eiji was miserable, loosing the love of his life and dedicating the rest of it to show the world ash through his perspective by using pictures.
Ash was suicidal, often at the middle of life and death without caring which side he lands on but I still wish that at that very moment he chose to live. The saddest part about all of it was, you can see in his eyes that after reading that letter he had hopes of living a better life with Eiji but all of that came crashing down the moment he got stabbed.
Sometimes I blame Akimi Yoshida's writing because Ash's death felt like such a "aha I got you, plot twist" moment and not something that was actually well thought of, completely ruining the development of the characters. But based on what I read she decided about killing Ash from the start so idk her writing probs just sucks lmao jk I would probs think higher of it if it had fore shadowings of him dying, so it would both be shocking yet expected.
So throughout the years what I feel for the manga is more on to the angry side, like ok I like it because it shows how disgusting pedophilia is, a big step coming from Japan themselves (a big contributor to pedophilic fictional things that might and can manifest in real life) but on the other hand I disliked it because
1. She justified her killing ash since he's 'killer' which is a bit off because I think his actions are justifiable because of his up bringing and situation.
2. Her letting sing marry akira ibe, the 10 year gap and them meeting while she's 13 is just iffy for me but idk this one is more of a personal preference.
Messages
thanks for reminding me about banana fish in 2024 and absolutely shitted on my whole mood. anyways, i heard something back then when i first watched it ages ago that the reason she killed ash off was because of the censorship in japan and how 2 men cant have a happy ending but i never thought it was because she found it curious to kill of at young. i mean, it sure was one hell of a plot-twist and many could argue about you’re point whether that if it was JUST a plot-twist, or a plot-twist with more meaning to it. for e.g, back then i remember reading a theory where in ash’s last moments, he chose to let go because he thought that seeing eiji’s letter full of such emotion and the strong send-off ‘goodbye’ message, he thought maybe this was the time he could find peace and decided to let go of all the pain as it bought him such enlightenment that someone could finally understand and stand and will continue to stand by his side, knowing that he had someone who backed him up and comforted him through all of this. bye i just made that up anyways i wont be forgiving you for bringing this up and making me reminisce the horrible days and the fact that there was a chance ash couldve actually lived
HAHAHAHA sorry about that, Actually that "it was because of censorship" excuse is said to most animes so fans can delude themselves lol. Even Yoshida thought it was a bit funny and delusional. Anyway, maybe that's what he really felt even so I still don't like it since Eiji specifically said on the letter "But I'm not going to say sa-yo-na-ra to you, Ash. I know we'll meet, no matter how far apart we are" how can you die after he says that?? like in a non angst way if I was eiji I would've kms just so I can slap ash in the after life cause bitch that's so rude??? Lmao
Anyway, if Akimi Yoshida has 0 haters I'm dead, me and her are going to meet in hell cause how tf is she gonna kill ash without even seeing Eiji one last time. She owes him atleast just that after all of what happened to him, damnnn