August 7th, 2022
Thoughts on the Ending
Anime Relations: Banana Fish
While rewatching Banana Fish, why not write about it? I can share my suffering with the internet, right? First of all, to those who have not watched Banana Fish that may have stumbled across this, here’s your spoiler warning: I’m about to give a summary of the first five or six episodes, plus a lot of background information on Ash and Eiji, before moving into my thoughts on the very much debated ending.
Summary
Banana Fish focuses on two main characters: Ash Lynx, a seventeen-year-old boy living in New York, and Okumura Eiji, a Japanese college student who has come to New York as a photography assistant to a news reporter. For a basic summary, this is the story of a young teenage boy enacting his revenge on mafia don (and his former “owner”), Dino Golzine. However, let’s get some background on Ash and Eiji first.
Golzine picked Ash up off the streets after Ash had run away from his home. Ash’s mother had left and his father was… emotionally unavailable. This left Ash to be raised by his older brother, Griff. Griff, however, left to serve in Iraq when Ash was six years old. The following year, Ash was raped by his Little League coach who, even after Ash’s father attempted to report it, was never convicted nor even suspected by the community. Ash was blamed, and his own father simply told him to just let it happen the next time and ask for money in return. Ash did exactly that until he couldn’t take it any longer, and shot and killed the man when he was eight years old. Ash then ran away from home and was found by Golzine. Golzine used Ash as one of his male prostitutes for years, but Ash climbed in ranks using his smarts, sharp shooting skills, and his amazingly good looks. Ash was sent to juvenile prison at fifteen for killing three people, and this is where he meets his good friend, Shorter Wong, a Chinese boy (I promise, his ethnicity is important to the story). After being released, he finds his brother in a hospital for veterans from Iraq and decides to take care of him.
Okumura Eiji is a nineteen-year-old college student from Japan. He was an accomplished pole vaulter before he was injured and was forced to retire. Well, perhaps he had a mental block that prevented him from vaulting, because we see him make it over a high wall in order to save Skip and Ash later. Eiji was at a loss for what to do and feeling down, so reporter and photographer, Shunichi Ibe, invited Eiji to join him on his trip to America. Shunichi is acquainted with detective Charlie Dickinson and Iraq war vet Max Lobo. Max and Charlie had met in the police academy and we can see that Shunichi and Max seem to have been previously acquainted as well. Since Max was in prison when Shunichi arrived in America, Charlie takes care of Shunichi and Eiji for the first few episodes. It was a photograph of Eiji that helped Shunichi make his break as a reporter and he felt the need to help Eiji in any way he could. Shunichi invited Eiji to come with him, hoping that this trip would be the breath of fresh air that Eiji needed.
Our story picks up with seventeen-year-old Ash who, with the help of Shorter, has most of lower Manhattan under his control. Ash’s already complicated life gets even more complicated when he discovers an unknown substance given to him by a dying man along with an address in LA. Ash comes to discover this substance to be the drug “Banana Fish,” a government experiment to control people and make them into an assassin by making them highly susceptible to suggestion before they themselves go crazy and, ultimately, die. In the opening scenes of the show, we see these effects in Griff who would then be tormented by nightmares for years to come before being shot and killed by a scientist who helped invent the drug, Abraham Dawson.
Eiji arrives in New York and joins Shunichi in interviewing Ash and taking pictures. Ash seems to take an instant liking to Eiji which we can see through his willingness to let Eiji hold his gun which he never lets others touch. Perhaps it's Eiji’s genuine personality that Ash picks up on when he decides to trust him. However, as soon as the two meet, they are thrown into conflict. Arthur, who has always been jealous of Ash and is now out for some kind of revenge, used his men to kidnap Skip, a young child who hangs out with Ash and his gang, and Eiji, who just happened to be with Skip. He uses the two to lure Ash out and bring him back to Golzine, alive but not unharmed. Ash is brought face-to-face with a man who often purchased Ash’s past “services” and would record the act. Eiji is able to escape, by using an old pipe to vault over a wall, and he rushes to find help. However, this altercation ends with the death of Skip and the man who had abused Ash from a young age. Ash is framed for the death of the man, though it was Golzine that had planned both the death and the framing of Ash to try and “tame the lynx” by sending him to prison. But this time in jail does the opposite for Ash as he learns more about Golzine and his involvement with Banana Fish through Griff’s old military friend, Max. Max happened to be in the same prison and was asked to look after Ash, but Max quickly finds out that Ash doesn’t really need the help.
Shortly after Ash is released, Max is as well. The two of them work together with Shunichi, Eiji, and Shorter to find out the truth behind Banana Fish. The group heads to LA where they discover not only the mafia involvement in creating this drug for the government, but also the Chinese clan, the Lee’s, who Shorter had to answer to. I’ll spare you the rest of the details so this post doesn’t become painfully long, but now you have a general idea of what this show is about and the tone. This isn’t some rom-com or even your typical criminal-catching kind of show, it’s a lot more… depressing.
Extra Readings Summary
To talk about the ending well, I want to mention the extra readings you can do. First, there are four side stories by Yoshida herself: Garden of Light, Angel Eyes, Boy Flying in the Sky (or Fly Boy in the Sky), and Private Opinion. Two other things that often will get discussed alongside the ending are A Perfect Day for Bananafish (J.D. Salinger) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Ernest Hemingway). All of these are a pretty short read if you’re interested! I found all of them online except for Private Opinion, so I had to read a detailed summary about it…
Garden of Light
Talk about ripping my heart out and leaving me to die… this was a beautiful after story that follows Shunichi’s niece who admires Eiji. The story takes place seven years after the conclusion of the original story and we get to see both Sing and Eiji living in New York, practically sharing Eiji’s apartment despite Sing having his own luxurious place. Eiji had followed in Shunichi’s footsteps, becoming a photographer. The after story picks up when Eiji is preparing for an exhibition and Shunichi’s niece comes to visit. It concludes with Eiji shedding tears over his photos of Ash and Sing, too, crying in front of Eiji’s stunning exhibit of these photos. I think that this would be the first side story I would recommend because it shows what happens next and how Eiji is doing.
Angel Eyes
As if we weren’t already attached to Ash and Shorter, Yoshida had to hit us with this. In this side story, we get to see how Ash and Shorter first met: in prison. Shorter was cellmates with Ash who he took pity on at first since he was so pretty and the guys would hit on him constantly. This caused Shorter to feel the need to protect Ash, but he very quickly discovered that there was no need. This side story shows us Ash in the eyes of Shorter which made me miss Shorter so much, but also helped me see more of Ash's character.
Boy Flying in the Sky
Here we get to learn more about Eiji and Shunichi’s first meeting. We get to see such a cute side to our precious Eiji in his pole vaulting days. After watching Eiji on TV, Shunichi seeks him out to interview and photograph him for an exhibit. During the interview, Eiji confesses he had felt like he was in a slump. One thing leads to another and we get to the start of the series with the two of them traveling to New York. We kind of already knew the backstory here, but we can get more details. There wasn’t a lot here that I think can relate to the ending, however it was still precious and I recommend it!
Private Opinion
I had to read a summary of this one since I am poor. Also the only versions I found that I could get where I’m currently living were in Japanese and Korean… which would take a lot of work for me to read… so, summary it was. In this side story, we get to learn about Blanca’s first impressions on young Ash Lynx. Blanca chose to teach Ash how to fight not because of him being blackmailed by Golzine, but so that Ash could protect himself. Blanca hoped that Ash would one day find true love because that is when his full potential would be unlocked. I hope to read this one day once my Korean or Japanese improve enough, or I can find it in English, because I love seeing Ash through the eyes of those who cared about him.
A Perfect Day for Bananafish
What a strange short story… I read it through a couple of times and still have some questions. This story focuses on the Glass couple: Muriel and Seymour Glass. The story opens with a phone call between Muriel, who is vacationing in Florida with Seymour, and her mother. In this conversation, we gather that Seymour has some problems. If I had to guess, with no psychology background, I’d say PTSD. We learn that he was in the army, previously hospitalized, and has a physiatrist. Seymour had been spending their vacation playing piano and going to the beach without his wife. While spending his time alone, it seems as though he has befriended two children: Sybil and Sharon. We read about his time with Sybil as the two play on the beach. Personally couldn’t decide if this guy was just good with kids or was a creep, but I guess that’s not the purpose of the story. The purpose of the story: Seymour was looking for a bananafish. A fish with “peculiar” habits and a “tragic life,” “very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in[to a hole with bananas]. But once they get in, they behave like pigs” (6). Bananafish get their fill, get stuck in the hole, develop banana fever, and die. I think you can already guess how this may relate to our lovely comfort anime. This short story ends with Seymour returning to his hotel room as his wife sleeps and killing himself. The next short story referenced in Banana Fish isn’t much happier either.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
The title of the final episode’s namesake: this short story by Ernest Hemmingway. The beginning text to this story is referenced by Ash:
Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Nhaje Ngai,” the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude (Hemmingway, 1).
Quick summary, we get to read the final moments of a man who had been injured while taking pictures in Africa. Perhaps this man, Harry, would relate himself to this leopard. Harry lived his life lying and living as “that which he despised,” the rich, presummedley ever since the one woman he had loved had left (7). He had been climbing a social mountain, dating rich women, and ended up forgetting his goal and dying on a high peak. With his current partner, a rich, middle-aged woman, he had traveled to Africa, got a small injury while taking pictures, left that injury untreated resulting in infection, and ultimately died. Harry’s conversations, thoughts, and memories are written in this story as he dies. When I read through this the first time, I simply read it as is. I later read it while keeping Ash in mind and… I can definitely see why Yoshida would have Ash reference this story. I will go into more detail on that in the reflection.
Reflection
Upon hearing the title Banana Fish for the first time, I would have never thought it would be such a heart-wrenching drama. It had us all hooked. I had no context outside of cosplayers and fan edits on TikTok when I first hit play on episode one, so to say I was surprised might be an understatement. And the Shorter edits and cosplays!! I sobbed at episode nine, I really expected him to be there forever. All the characters had us feeling some kind of emotion. Like Max, Max almost felt like the Maes Hughes of this story. I got just as attached to his family as I did to him! But I felt complete and utter disdain for Arthur and Golzine, I can’t think of many antagonists I hate more than Golzine. Getting attached to each character, especially Ash and Eiji, made the ending hurt so much more.
Now, now, now. Was the ending well done, was it an appropriate ending for this work? I argue that it was an artistic choice done by Yoshida and that, while utterly heart-wrenching for the viewers, was an appropriate and well done ending. Of course I, like any other fan, would kill to have Ash and Eiji reunited and living a happy life in Japan, but after everything that was said and done, the ending makes sense. Even outside of being an artistic choice, I don’t think Ash could’ve legally made it to Japan to live there anyway, visa applications are rather extensive and he had been to prison and killed people (though not convicted)... I don’t know, it feels like it would’ve been hard to leave America. But they could’ve lived a happy life somewhere in the States, right?
Before I continue, I did not do any outside research on Salinger or Hemmingway. I am using my own interpretations and things I have read from and heard from other fans. One day when I have more time and energy, and another urge to hurt myself with this anime, I may research some more. Until then, everything here concerning the extra works is personal opinion and interpretation.
So, now, let’s talk about Banana Fish in relation to the outside short stories. First, in A Perfect Day for Bananafish, I would relate this directly to the drug Banana Fish in the anime.
Let’s look at some things that Seymour said about bananafish. First, when he is asked what bananafish are and what they do, he answers, “Their habits are very peculiar… they lead a very tragic life” and that “they swim into a hole where there’s a lot of bananas. They’re very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs… Naturally, after that they’re so fat they can’t get out of the hole again” (6). When asked what happens to them, Seymour responds, “Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. They die… they get banana fever. It’s a terrible disease” (7). This “banana fever” makes me think of Griffin and Shorter and how the drug affected them. As soon as the drug was injected, they went crazy out of fear. Once they were affected by the drug, they could no longer “get out of the hole again,” they could no longer return to how they used to be. A Perfect Day for Bananafish ends just as tragically as Banana Fish. Someone who could no longer escape the pain of their past chose death over continuing to live that way. Perhaps Seymour’s PTSD was more evident in his outbursts of anger and in the way his wife and mother-in-law talked about him, but Ash too had been suffering from the trauma he had experienced. However, a difference is Seymour chose to take his own life while Ash chose to resign to his death.
While A Perfect Day for Bananafish seems to directly relate to the drug and only hint at Ash’s character, I think that The Snows of Kilimanjaro relates directly to Ash and his character. I think it does in two ways: Ash’s attitude towards life and his attitude towards death. First, his thoughts on life. I have a handful of quotes we can look at together.
“‘Listen,’ he said. ‘Do you think that it is fun to do this? I don’t know why I’m doing it’” (6)
“He slipped into the familiar lie he made his bread and butter by” (6)
“How could a woman know that you meant nothing that you said; that you spoke only from habit and to be comfortable? After he no longer meant what he said, his lies were more successful with women than when he had told them the truth. It was not so much that he lied as that there was no truth to tell” (7)
“But he would never do it, because each day of not writing, of comfort, of being that which he despised, dulled his ability and softened his will to work” (7)
“If he lived by a lie he should try to die by it” (8)
“He had loved too much, demanded too much” (11)
For the first quote, our main character was being mean to the woman with him and it seems like he’s apologizing for being mean, but I think maybe he was saying he didn’t know why he had been lying this whole time. He had been lying about loving her, lying about his personality, lying to everyone around him for so long that he forgot the reason why he started to lie in the first place. Similarly, perhaps Ash too forgot why he was putting on his facade. He definitely was putting one on. Eiji got to see who Ash was at the core, the hurt and all. And while the facade Ash put on was still a part of him, it wasn’t all of him. Trauma is a funny thing, and maybe Ash had been hiding his pain for so long he began to forget why.
While reading through this short story and how the main character had grown so used to acting, I specifically thought of all the times Ash used his charms to get into and out of certain predicaments. When he and Shorter were in jail, he used his appeal to get information he wanted. We can also see him use this appeal to try and save Skip from sexual assault and later to break out of his confinements in the “rehabilitation” facility. People liked Ash, and whatever it was that they liked about him he would play into to get what he wanted.
The last quote I have listed hurts a bit. All throughout literature and visual arts, we see love make people do crazy things. Sometimes it’s good and other times… it’s too much. I’m sure you can think of quite a few examples. In the case of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Banana Fish, I think that love and loving brought too much pain and uncertainty for the main characters to cope with. In Hemmingway’s short story, we read about a man who loved a woman once. He loved her and he loved his work, but when he lost her (a breakup, not death… it’s not quite that tragic) it was like he lost himself. Whereas Ash I think loved his Dad and was let down, loved his brother and lost him, liked a girl and she was killed, and when he finally came to love someone else he was scared.
We can’t talk about this short story without mentioning the opening which Ash himself quotes. A leopard was found frozen so high up on the mountain that people wonder why it was there to begin with. What was he doing up there? The fact that this opens the short story makes readers directly correlate this leopard with the story of the dying man we read about. He had gotten so high, but he can’t remember why he was there nor why he started climbing. Ash tells this story with himself in mind. Ash had run away from home and had been abused his whole life. He probably can’t remember what his dreams were as a child. He probably couldn’t think of many things he was genuinely interested in anymore. He had lost himself in the world of the mafia and gangs. He knew he wanted revenge and it was the only thing that kept him walking along the snowy slopes. But if he died up there, he would find it inevitable. But let’s look at some other quotes on death too:
“So now it was all over, he thought. So now he would never have a chance to finish it. So this was the way it ended, in a bickering over a drink. Since the gangrene started in his right leg, he had no pain and with the pain the horror had gone and all he felt now was a great tiredness and anger that this was the end of it. For this, that now was coming, he had very little curiosity. For years it had obsessed him; but now it meant nothing in itself. It was strange how easy being tired enough made it” (3)
“Ayee he was tired. Too tired. He was going to sleep a little while. He lay still and death was not there. It must have done around another street” (15)
“No he would not care for death. One thing he had always dreaded was the pain. He could stand pain as well as any man, until it went on too long, and wore him out, but here he had something that had hurt frightfully and just when he had felt it breaking him, the pain had stopped” (16)
Hemingway’s main character gave up. He was tired of the climb, tired of the snow, tired of trying so hard. The pain had gotten so bad that he didn’t even feel it anymore, he had just grown numb to all of it. No wonder Ash brought up this story. Ash was tired, he had tried for so long and numb and ready for it to end.
Of course, I would want a happy ending for Ash and Eiji. Who wouldn’t? But if these two stories were brought up, I would say that the ending Yoshida chose was not only kind of foreshadowed, but also an artistic choice that was well done. I know that simply mentioning two stories that have tragic endings doesn’t necessarily mean that we should expect the same kind of ending. However, the moment that Ash related himself to the leopard I think we all got a bad feeling. But why would I say that it’s an artistic choice that was well done? Yoshida could have very well given us a happy ending, but I think that she wanted to show the reality of the pain of the world. Kind of like how both A Perfect Day for Bananafish and The Snows of Kilimanjaro did, Yoshida pointed out how pain, suffering, and trauma affects a person. She delved into the bad sides of humanity and asked what a realistic response would be and gave it. Life isn’t full of happy endings, something that we’re all most likely aware of already.
If you’re thinking about reading or watching Banana Fish for some entertainment, I warn you that I don’t think that’s what it’s for. There are plenty of anime and manga I could recommend for pure entertainment, and this is definitely not one of them. I would recommend this if you want to be challenged, if you want to think a bit about some of the sad realities that people face. I walked away from this heartbroken and disgusted that our world can be so cruel. Maybe you’ll watch it, feel similarly, and be motivated to try and bring change somehow. Or maybe you’ll be aware for the first time that this kind of reality exists for some. Or maybe you’ll begin to show more compassion for those who have been hurt by the world. Whatever it is, I think that it’s your response that Yoshida wanted when she wrote it: a call to recognize the good, bad, and ugly. Or maybe it’s just as a TikTok I saw recently said, the heartbroken Yoshida said “we all going down” (user: @allis.inwanderlust posted 7-23-22), and I’m overthinking it all.
Summary
Banana Fish focuses on two main characters: Ash Lynx, a seventeen-year-old boy living in New York, and Okumura Eiji, a Japanese college student who has come to New York as a photography assistant to a news reporter. For a basic summary, this is the story of a young teenage boy enacting his revenge on mafia don (and his former “owner”), Dino Golzine. However, let’s get some background on Ash and Eiji first.
Golzine picked Ash up off the streets after Ash had run away from his home. Ash’s mother had left and his father was… emotionally unavailable. This left Ash to be raised by his older brother, Griff. Griff, however, left to serve in Iraq when Ash was six years old. The following year, Ash was raped by his Little League coach who, even after Ash’s father attempted to report it, was never convicted nor even suspected by the community. Ash was blamed, and his own father simply told him to just let it happen the next time and ask for money in return. Ash did exactly that until he couldn’t take it any longer, and shot and killed the man when he was eight years old. Ash then ran away from home and was found by Golzine. Golzine used Ash as one of his male prostitutes for years, but Ash climbed in ranks using his smarts, sharp shooting skills, and his amazingly good looks. Ash was sent to juvenile prison at fifteen for killing three people, and this is where he meets his good friend, Shorter Wong, a Chinese boy (I promise, his ethnicity is important to the story). After being released, he finds his brother in a hospital for veterans from Iraq and decides to take care of him.
Okumura Eiji is a nineteen-year-old college student from Japan. He was an accomplished pole vaulter before he was injured and was forced to retire. Well, perhaps he had a mental block that prevented him from vaulting, because we see him make it over a high wall in order to save Skip and Ash later. Eiji was at a loss for what to do and feeling down, so reporter and photographer, Shunichi Ibe, invited Eiji to join him on his trip to America. Shunichi is acquainted with detective Charlie Dickinson and Iraq war vet Max Lobo. Max and Charlie had met in the police academy and we can see that Shunichi and Max seem to have been previously acquainted as well. Since Max was in prison when Shunichi arrived in America, Charlie takes care of Shunichi and Eiji for the first few episodes. It was a photograph of Eiji that helped Shunichi make his break as a reporter and he felt the need to help Eiji in any way he could. Shunichi invited Eiji to come with him, hoping that this trip would be the breath of fresh air that Eiji needed.
Our story picks up with seventeen-year-old Ash who, with the help of Shorter, has most of lower Manhattan under his control. Ash’s already complicated life gets even more complicated when he discovers an unknown substance given to him by a dying man along with an address in LA. Ash comes to discover this substance to be the drug “Banana Fish,” a government experiment to control people and make them into an assassin by making them highly susceptible to suggestion before they themselves go crazy and, ultimately, die. In the opening scenes of the show, we see these effects in Griff who would then be tormented by nightmares for years to come before being shot and killed by a scientist who helped invent the drug, Abraham Dawson.
Eiji arrives in New York and joins Shunichi in interviewing Ash and taking pictures. Ash seems to take an instant liking to Eiji which we can see through his willingness to let Eiji hold his gun which he never lets others touch. Perhaps it's Eiji’s genuine personality that Ash picks up on when he decides to trust him. However, as soon as the two meet, they are thrown into conflict. Arthur, who has always been jealous of Ash and is now out for some kind of revenge, used his men to kidnap Skip, a young child who hangs out with Ash and his gang, and Eiji, who just happened to be with Skip. He uses the two to lure Ash out and bring him back to Golzine, alive but not unharmed. Ash is brought face-to-face with a man who often purchased Ash’s past “services” and would record the act. Eiji is able to escape, by using an old pipe to vault over a wall, and he rushes to find help. However, this altercation ends with the death of Skip and the man who had abused Ash from a young age. Ash is framed for the death of the man, though it was Golzine that had planned both the death and the framing of Ash to try and “tame the lynx” by sending him to prison. But this time in jail does the opposite for Ash as he learns more about Golzine and his involvement with Banana Fish through Griff’s old military friend, Max. Max happened to be in the same prison and was asked to look after Ash, but Max quickly finds out that Ash doesn’t really need the help.
Shortly after Ash is released, Max is as well. The two of them work together with Shunichi, Eiji, and Shorter to find out the truth behind Banana Fish. The group heads to LA where they discover not only the mafia involvement in creating this drug for the government, but also the Chinese clan, the Lee’s, who Shorter had to answer to. I’ll spare you the rest of the details so this post doesn’t become painfully long, but now you have a general idea of what this show is about and the tone. This isn’t some rom-com or even your typical criminal-catching kind of show, it’s a lot more… depressing.
Extra Readings Summary
To talk about the ending well, I want to mention the extra readings you can do. First, there are four side stories by Yoshida herself: Garden of Light, Angel Eyes, Boy Flying in the Sky (or Fly Boy in the Sky), and Private Opinion. Two other things that often will get discussed alongside the ending are A Perfect Day for Bananafish (J.D. Salinger) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Ernest Hemingway). All of these are a pretty short read if you’re interested! I found all of them online except for Private Opinion, so I had to read a detailed summary about it…
Garden of Light
Talk about ripping my heart out and leaving me to die… this was a beautiful after story that follows Shunichi’s niece who admires Eiji. The story takes place seven years after the conclusion of the original story and we get to see both Sing and Eiji living in New York, practically sharing Eiji’s apartment despite Sing having his own luxurious place. Eiji had followed in Shunichi’s footsteps, becoming a photographer. The after story picks up when Eiji is preparing for an exhibition and Shunichi’s niece comes to visit. It concludes with Eiji shedding tears over his photos of Ash and Sing, too, crying in front of Eiji’s stunning exhibit of these photos. I think that this would be the first side story I would recommend because it shows what happens next and how Eiji is doing.
Angel Eyes
As if we weren’t already attached to Ash and Shorter, Yoshida had to hit us with this. In this side story, we get to see how Ash and Shorter first met: in prison. Shorter was cellmates with Ash who he took pity on at first since he was so pretty and the guys would hit on him constantly. This caused Shorter to feel the need to protect Ash, but he very quickly discovered that there was no need. This side story shows us Ash in the eyes of Shorter which made me miss Shorter so much, but also helped me see more of Ash's character.
Boy Flying in the Sky
Here we get to learn more about Eiji and Shunichi’s first meeting. We get to see such a cute side to our precious Eiji in his pole vaulting days. After watching Eiji on TV, Shunichi seeks him out to interview and photograph him for an exhibit. During the interview, Eiji confesses he had felt like he was in a slump. One thing leads to another and we get to the start of the series with the two of them traveling to New York. We kind of already knew the backstory here, but we can get more details. There wasn’t a lot here that I think can relate to the ending, however it was still precious and I recommend it!
Private Opinion
I had to read a summary of this one since I am poor. Also the only versions I found that I could get where I’m currently living were in Japanese and Korean… which would take a lot of work for me to read… so, summary it was. In this side story, we get to learn about Blanca’s first impressions on young Ash Lynx. Blanca chose to teach Ash how to fight not because of him being blackmailed by Golzine, but so that Ash could protect himself. Blanca hoped that Ash would one day find true love because that is when his full potential would be unlocked. I hope to read this one day once my Korean or Japanese improve enough, or I can find it in English, because I love seeing Ash through the eyes of those who cared about him.
A Perfect Day for Bananafish
What a strange short story… I read it through a couple of times and still have some questions. This story focuses on the Glass couple: Muriel and Seymour Glass. The story opens with a phone call between Muriel, who is vacationing in Florida with Seymour, and her mother. In this conversation, we gather that Seymour has some problems. If I had to guess, with no psychology background, I’d say PTSD. We learn that he was in the army, previously hospitalized, and has a physiatrist. Seymour had been spending their vacation playing piano and going to the beach without his wife. While spending his time alone, it seems as though he has befriended two children: Sybil and Sharon. We read about his time with Sybil as the two play on the beach. Personally couldn’t decide if this guy was just good with kids or was a creep, but I guess that’s not the purpose of the story. The purpose of the story: Seymour was looking for a bananafish. A fish with “peculiar” habits and a “tragic life,” “very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in[to a hole with bananas]. But once they get in, they behave like pigs” (6). Bananafish get their fill, get stuck in the hole, develop banana fever, and die. I think you can already guess how this may relate to our lovely comfort anime. This short story ends with Seymour returning to his hotel room as his wife sleeps and killing himself. The next short story referenced in Banana Fish isn’t much happier either.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
The title of the final episode’s namesake: this short story by Ernest Hemmingway. The beginning text to this story is referenced by Ash:
Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Nhaje Ngai,” the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude (Hemmingway, 1).
Quick summary, we get to read the final moments of a man who had been injured while taking pictures in Africa. Perhaps this man, Harry, would relate himself to this leopard. Harry lived his life lying and living as “that which he despised,” the rich, presummedley ever since the one woman he had loved had left (7). He had been climbing a social mountain, dating rich women, and ended up forgetting his goal and dying on a high peak. With his current partner, a rich, middle-aged woman, he had traveled to Africa, got a small injury while taking pictures, left that injury untreated resulting in infection, and ultimately died. Harry’s conversations, thoughts, and memories are written in this story as he dies. When I read through this the first time, I simply read it as is. I later read it while keeping Ash in mind and… I can definitely see why Yoshida would have Ash reference this story. I will go into more detail on that in the reflection.
Reflection
Upon hearing the title Banana Fish for the first time, I would have never thought it would be such a heart-wrenching drama. It had us all hooked. I had no context outside of cosplayers and fan edits on TikTok when I first hit play on episode one, so to say I was surprised might be an understatement. And the Shorter edits and cosplays!! I sobbed at episode nine, I really expected him to be there forever. All the characters had us feeling some kind of emotion. Like Max, Max almost felt like the Maes Hughes of this story. I got just as attached to his family as I did to him! But I felt complete and utter disdain for Arthur and Golzine, I can’t think of many antagonists I hate more than Golzine. Getting attached to each character, especially Ash and Eiji, made the ending hurt so much more.
Now, now, now. Was the ending well done, was it an appropriate ending for this work? I argue that it was an artistic choice done by Yoshida and that, while utterly heart-wrenching for the viewers, was an appropriate and well done ending. Of course I, like any other fan, would kill to have Ash and Eiji reunited and living a happy life in Japan, but after everything that was said and done, the ending makes sense. Even outside of being an artistic choice, I don’t think Ash could’ve legally made it to Japan to live there anyway, visa applications are rather extensive and he had been to prison and killed people (though not convicted)... I don’t know, it feels like it would’ve been hard to leave America. But they could’ve lived a happy life somewhere in the States, right?
Before I continue, I did not do any outside research on Salinger or Hemmingway. I am using my own interpretations and things I have read from and heard from other fans. One day when I have more time and energy, and another urge to hurt myself with this anime, I may research some more. Until then, everything here concerning the extra works is personal opinion and interpretation.
So, now, let’s talk about Banana Fish in relation to the outside short stories. First, in A Perfect Day for Bananafish, I would relate this directly to the drug Banana Fish in the anime.
Let’s look at some things that Seymour said about bananafish. First, when he is asked what bananafish are and what they do, he answers, “Their habits are very peculiar… they lead a very tragic life” and that “they swim into a hole where there’s a lot of bananas. They’re very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs… Naturally, after that they’re so fat they can’t get out of the hole again” (6). When asked what happens to them, Seymour responds, “Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. They die… they get banana fever. It’s a terrible disease” (7). This “banana fever” makes me think of Griffin and Shorter and how the drug affected them. As soon as the drug was injected, they went crazy out of fear. Once they were affected by the drug, they could no longer “get out of the hole again,” they could no longer return to how they used to be. A Perfect Day for Bananafish ends just as tragically as Banana Fish. Someone who could no longer escape the pain of their past chose death over continuing to live that way. Perhaps Seymour’s PTSD was more evident in his outbursts of anger and in the way his wife and mother-in-law talked about him, but Ash too had been suffering from the trauma he had experienced. However, a difference is Seymour chose to take his own life while Ash chose to resign to his death.
While A Perfect Day for Bananafish seems to directly relate to the drug and only hint at Ash’s character, I think that The Snows of Kilimanjaro relates directly to Ash and his character. I think it does in two ways: Ash’s attitude towards life and his attitude towards death. First, his thoughts on life. I have a handful of quotes we can look at together.
“‘Listen,’ he said. ‘Do you think that it is fun to do this? I don’t know why I’m doing it’” (6)
“He slipped into the familiar lie he made his bread and butter by” (6)
“How could a woman know that you meant nothing that you said; that you spoke only from habit and to be comfortable? After he no longer meant what he said, his lies were more successful with women than when he had told them the truth. It was not so much that he lied as that there was no truth to tell” (7)
“But he would never do it, because each day of not writing, of comfort, of being that which he despised, dulled his ability and softened his will to work” (7)
“If he lived by a lie he should try to die by it” (8)
“He had loved too much, demanded too much” (11)
For the first quote, our main character was being mean to the woman with him and it seems like he’s apologizing for being mean, but I think maybe he was saying he didn’t know why he had been lying this whole time. He had been lying about loving her, lying about his personality, lying to everyone around him for so long that he forgot the reason why he started to lie in the first place. Similarly, perhaps Ash too forgot why he was putting on his facade. He definitely was putting one on. Eiji got to see who Ash was at the core, the hurt and all. And while the facade Ash put on was still a part of him, it wasn’t all of him. Trauma is a funny thing, and maybe Ash had been hiding his pain for so long he began to forget why.
While reading through this short story and how the main character had grown so used to acting, I specifically thought of all the times Ash used his charms to get into and out of certain predicaments. When he and Shorter were in jail, he used his appeal to get information he wanted. We can also see him use this appeal to try and save Skip from sexual assault and later to break out of his confinements in the “rehabilitation” facility. People liked Ash, and whatever it was that they liked about him he would play into to get what he wanted.
The last quote I have listed hurts a bit. All throughout literature and visual arts, we see love make people do crazy things. Sometimes it’s good and other times… it’s too much. I’m sure you can think of quite a few examples. In the case of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Banana Fish, I think that love and loving brought too much pain and uncertainty for the main characters to cope with. In Hemmingway’s short story, we read about a man who loved a woman once. He loved her and he loved his work, but when he lost her (a breakup, not death… it’s not quite that tragic) it was like he lost himself. Whereas Ash I think loved his Dad and was let down, loved his brother and lost him, liked a girl and she was killed, and when he finally came to love someone else he was scared.
We can’t talk about this short story without mentioning the opening which Ash himself quotes. A leopard was found frozen so high up on the mountain that people wonder why it was there to begin with. What was he doing up there? The fact that this opens the short story makes readers directly correlate this leopard with the story of the dying man we read about. He had gotten so high, but he can’t remember why he was there nor why he started climbing. Ash tells this story with himself in mind. Ash had run away from home and had been abused his whole life. He probably can’t remember what his dreams were as a child. He probably couldn’t think of many things he was genuinely interested in anymore. He had lost himself in the world of the mafia and gangs. He knew he wanted revenge and it was the only thing that kept him walking along the snowy slopes. But if he died up there, he would find it inevitable. But let’s look at some other quotes on death too:
“So now it was all over, he thought. So now he would never have a chance to finish it. So this was the way it ended, in a bickering over a drink. Since the gangrene started in his right leg, he had no pain and with the pain the horror had gone and all he felt now was a great tiredness and anger that this was the end of it. For this, that now was coming, he had very little curiosity. For years it had obsessed him; but now it meant nothing in itself. It was strange how easy being tired enough made it” (3)
“Ayee he was tired. Too tired. He was going to sleep a little while. He lay still and death was not there. It must have done around another street” (15)
“No he would not care for death. One thing he had always dreaded was the pain. He could stand pain as well as any man, until it went on too long, and wore him out, but here he had something that had hurt frightfully and just when he had felt it breaking him, the pain had stopped” (16)
Hemingway’s main character gave up. He was tired of the climb, tired of the snow, tired of trying so hard. The pain had gotten so bad that he didn’t even feel it anymore, he had just grown numb to all of it. No wonder Ash brought up this story. Ash was tired, he had tried for so long and numb and ready for it to end.
Of course, I would want a happy ending for Ash and Eiji. Who wouldn’t? But if these two stories were brought up, I would say that the ending Yoshida chose was not only kind of foreshadowed, but also an artistic choice that was well done. I know that simply mentioning two stories that have tragic endings doesn’t necessarily mean that we should expect the same kind of ending. However, the moment that Ash related himself to the leopard I think we all got a bad feeling. But why would I say that it’s an artistic choice that was well done? Yoshida could have very well given us a happy ending, but I think that she wanted to show the reality of the pain of the world. Kind of like how both A Perfect Day for Bananafish and The Snows of Kilimanjaro did, Yoshida pointed out how pain, suffering, and trauma affects a person. She delved into the bad sides of humanity and asked what a realistic response would be and gave it. Life isn’t full of happy endings, something that we’re all most likely aware of already.
If you’re thinking about reading or watching Banana Fish for some entertainment, I warn you that I don’t think that’s what it’s for. There are plenty of anime and manga I could recommend for pure entertainment, and this is definitely not one of them. I would recommend this if you want to be challenged, if you want to think a bit about some of the sad realities that people face. I walked away from this heartbroken and disgusted that our world can be so cruel. Maybe you’ll watch it, feel similarly, and be motivated to try and bring change somehow. Or maybe you’ll be aware for the first time that this kind of reality exists for some. Or maybe you’ll begin to show more compassion for those who have been hurt by the world. Whatever it is, I think that it’s your response that Yoshida wanted when she wrote it: a call to recognize the good, bad, and ugly. Or maybe it’s just as a TikTok I saw recently said, the heartbroken Yoshida said “we all going down” (user: @allis.inwanderlust posted 7-23-22), and I’m overthinking it all.
Posted by kblizzard0 | Aug 7, 2022 7:28 PM | 0 comments