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It kind of pisses me off that people keep referring to Banana Fish as a yaoi, or at least that it has a yaoi undertone. Now i'm not saying that yaoi is a bad genre, actually i'm a huge fan, but in this particular case I don't think "yaoi" is a suitable label for this amazing story.

I suppose logically, or realistically, I can see why people would say the relationship between Ash and Eiji was a beautiful homosexual relationship, but in my idealistic little head, i'd like to think that it's possible to have such a beautiful connection with someone and still just be friends with them. I believe that it's possible to have such a deep connection and still be friends. I guess...all i'm trying to say is that i'm irritated by the fact that people don't seem to consider the possibility of have a non-romantic connection with someone, that very well may be as deep as the one with your soul mate, but still doesn't necessarily indicate romantic relations.

:(

Man, someone at JustManga gave it a low score for not being yaoi enough. What a prick, if you go into this wanting Ash and Eiji to make out every 5 seconds and you ignore the well crafted story and subtle relationships, you don't deserve to read good manga! And no, they don't make out any more in the artbook either :P

Yeah, I certainly agree, yaoi is by no means an appropriate genre title for this work. Y'know when Sing tells Akira "They loved each other very much. But that's not to say their relationship was sexual, because it wasn't"? I like how he described Ash and Eiji's relationship, it was real, it was beautiful, no, they didn't have sex and they won't, so if you can't accept that, then shoo!

Ironically enough, I've seen some super conservative people say it's too yaoi for that kiss in volume 3. So, wtf? It's infuriating super yaoi fans by not being yaoi and it's offending anti-gay marriage rights for being too yaoi? Can't win sometimes.

Yaoi means there's sex going on and they didn't read it if they're saying that with Ash and Eiji. The manga itself is pretty innocent. The artbook turns it up a notch. There's some suggestive poses in there that I wouldn't do with a friend that I felt absolutely no physical attraction to while supposedly sharing some deeper emotional connection. Basically, there's a tiny bit of fanservice. Still, not yaoi.. it is maddening.

I agree that Banana Fish couldn't be called a yaoi manga. It definitely isn't. But I do think that it has certain undertones. Not yaoi as such, more shounen-ai I guess is how I would put it. But it's just that, an undertone that runs throughout the story and nothing really happens.
I like how Sing describes their relationship in that short chapter at the end. I think he describes it very well.
Either way, it's a great series and anyone who doesn't read it for any of the reasons people have mentioned, then they're the ones missing out.