Banana Fish
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Banana Fish

Alternative Titles

Japanese: BANANA FISH
English: Banana Fish
More titles

Information

Type: Manga
Volumes: 19
Chapters: 110
Status: Finished
Published: Apr 13, 1985 to Mar 12, 1994
Genres: Action Action, Adventure Adventure, Drama Drama
Theme: Delinquents Delinquents
Demographic: Shoujo Shoujo
Serialization: Betsucomi
Authors: Yoshida, Akimi (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.601 (scored by 1550515,505 users)
1 indicates a weighted score.
Ranked: #942
2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity: #286
Members: 59,288
Favorites: 2,437

Resources

8.60
Ranked #94Popularity #286Members 59,288
Add to My List
Volumes: /19
Chapters: /110

Synopsis

Ash Lynx is a beauty, a genius—and a murderer. Since childhood, he had been in the care of Dino "Papa" Golzine, the mafia boss who turned him into the ruthless killer he is now. At first, Ash was just a pretty face for Golzine's pleasure, but now estranged from him, a 17-year-old Ash runs his own gang with an iron fist.

Eiji Okumura is a young Japanese photographer. Traveling to New York as an assistant, Eiji is set to work on a report about kids living in the streets. There, he meets teenage gang leader Ash and is mesmerized by the boy—who in turn is curious about Eiji's different lifestyle.

But this is the dark underground of New York, and recently a series of murders has surfaced in the city, connected only by the words "Banana Fish." With personal stakes in this mysterious battle, it is up to Ash, Eiji and their allies to discover what exactly "Banana Fish" is, where it came from and how to get rid of it—before the world as they know it descends into chaos.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Background

The first seven volumes of Banana Fish were initially published in English by VIZ Media under the Pulp Graphic Novel imprint with flipped pages from January 8, 1999, to November 13, 2002. The publisher later completely released the series under the VIZ Shojo label from March 3, 2004, to April 10, 2007. For several years, the series also ran in both of VIZ's now-defunct manga magazines, Pulp and Animerica Extra. The manga was also published in Brazilian Portuguese by Panini Comics in 10 omnibus volumes from July 17, 2020, to January 7, 2022.

Characters

Blanca
Supporting
Lobo, Max
Supporting
Bones
Supporting
Randy, Jessica
Supporting
Blood, Cain
Supporting

Reviews

Feb 17, 2013
During the Vietnam War in 1973, an American solider goes insane and starts gunning down his allies and friends. After killing off a majority, we see that he has gained a form of dementia, and keeps repeating one line, over and over: “banana fish”. This manga was created by Akimi Yoshida (who also made Kisshō Tennyo) back in 1985, and it's the most manly shoujo to date. In fact, Frederik Schodt, popular translator (whose works include Phoenix, and Rose Of Versailles) remarks that it's “...one of the few girls' manga [a]...male adult could admit to reading without blushing.” The series, Banana Fish –which ran until ...
Oct 27, 2019
Mixed Feelings
This is a very uncommon shoujo manga, full of action, violence and almost no woman.
Social justice warrior in our current political climate often complain about lack of representation of nonwhite nonmales. Therefore its funny that this manga which i assume targets young females has almost no important female character. Some people might argue that this is no shoujo manga but they would be wrong, the portagonist Ash is written to be the crush of most young girls.His IQ is 200, he sacrifices himself for his loveinterest, he is acknowledged by every other character to be stunningly beautiful (also i find most characters look very much ...
Aug 9, 2022
Banana Fish is a work that gets better the closer you are to “I basically only read shoujo manga”. It is certainly more unusual in its genre, but it’s an “uniqueness” that starts to pale once it’s being compared to more varied works.

First thing that is obviously different from a regular shoujo manga is the artstyle. It’s not frilly and sparkly, it’s clean and readable, overall looking more “mature”. Well, “mature” being a double-edged sword as it also ends up looking as some BL works. That said, it is certainly a change for better over the standard. Both at that time and the current. Still, ...

Interest Stacks

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Recent News

Manga 'Banana Fish' Receives TV Anime

Manga 'Banana Fish' Receives TV Anime

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of mangaka Akimi Yoshida's debut, it has been announced that her manga Banana Fish will get a TV anime broadcasting on Fuji ...read more


Recent Forum Discussion

To be a yaoi, or not to be--that is the question.
Jasonbear - Mar 18, 2010
17 repliesby aedeann »»
Feb 24, 3:31 PM
Poll: Banana Fish Chapter 110 Discussion
Pirating_Ninja - Jul 17, 2013
22 repliesby Old_School_Akira »»
Aug 12, 2022 7:30 PM
Akimi Yoshida fanmail?
NYC1985 - Jan 22, 2020
0 repliesby NYC1985 »»
Jan 22, 2020 8:34 AM
110 chapters?
DDcreature - Sep 2, 2019
1 repliesby Iddea »»
Sep 18, 2019 10:30 PM
Dawn
removed-user - Mar 4, 2019
1 repliesby rogueslayer »»
Mar 9, 2019 4:19 AM