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Dec 20, 2018
I haven’t cried actual tears over fictional characters in a while but damn. I’m a mess.
I was a little hesitant to start Banana Fish, mostly because I couldn’t quite figure out wtf it was about. My gods, do not let anything weird, the age of the source, or anything deter you from watching/ reading this beautiful beast. My friend got me hooked on the anime, and I plowed through the manga once episode 19 of the anime got released because I’m impatient and can’t wait. I’m so glad I did, I have even more appreciation for all the work that went into the anime. But
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be warned, it is in a tragedy category for a reason. So many tears.
this is kinda long and spoilery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eiji Okumura is an innocent cinnamon roll fresh from Japan. After an injury ruined his pole vaulting career, he finds himself lost and unsure of what to do with his life. Ibe takes him under his wing and enlists him as his assistant in America where he is reporting on street gangs.
Ash Lynx is on the polar opposite of the innocence spectrum. The 17-year-old is the leader of a thriving gang in Manhattan and has been through hell and back. After his brother left for the army, Ash ran away and was kidnapped by Dino Golzine, the head of a child prostitution ring. Under Golzine’s “care” Ash was trained to be his personal pet, where he learned how to please customers, behave as a member of high society, as well as fight and wield firearms.
Ash instantly takes a liking to Eiji during an interview with Ibe. Their bond deepens when they are captured by a rival gang and Eiji sacrifices himself in order to save the others. They end up working together to uncover the mystery of Banana Fish, a new synthetic drug, while dealing with the struggles of rival gangs and Golzine.
The differences from anime to manga were minimal, mostly slight appearance changes. Ash is a little more soft and fluffy in the anime, and Shorter never shaves his mohawk. There’s a lot of backstory missing or displaced, which I’m assuming was just due to time constraints that always exist with anime. They tried so so hard to make scene match the art in the manga, I appreciate that aspect so much. They were very detailed in sticking to the source materials. Even with them modernizing it a little, the biggest change is that they all have cell phones and it doesn’t really make a difference to the story.
This is really the best addition to the shounen-ai genre. Ash and Eiji just love each other for a multitude of reasons, and it’s nothing sexual. They just compliment each other, and fit together like puzzle pieces, like the Jian bird from Chinese mythology that has one wing and one eye and must fly in pairs to make a whole. There’s nothing creepy or forced about Ash and Eiji, they just care about each other and want to see each other happy. It’s just so wholesome.
I love all of the characters. The side ones are fleshed out, they have a story that matters as well. You really get to know each and every one of them (at least in the manga, the anime has some time constraints :c but it still counts ok.)
And oh the end… the end fits so perfectly. It makes me horribly sad and I really wish Ash could have found long term happiness. He was granted little blips once Eiji came into his life… but we never got to see him completely happy and at ease. His whole life was pain, and I just so wanted to see him happy and safe and in Japan with Eiji forever. He’s so loveable and just a damaged baby and I want the world for him. But his death makes sense in this setting. It’s realistic and really just completes the series in a way. I was definitely more emotional about the manga but I always am with reading. The animation would beautiful and they kept it true to the manga and oof my lil heart hurts all over again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 30, 2018
Creepy story, creepy characters, cute art. What's not to love? I wouldn't even consider this a horror anime, at least in the traditional sense. It's more like Mental Illness: The Anime!
Two victims of abuse and abandonment survive through unhealthy coping mechanisms. Shio has a large dose of stockholm syndrome, where she falls in love with her kidnapper, sociopsychopath Satou. Added bonus: everyone is a pedophile since Shio is like 6 years old. Literally everyone except "dude what the hell is going on with you we never hang out anymore" Shouko.
I love how the story was told from Satou's POV instead of the classic "outsider
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who gets dragged in" POV. You want so badly to find some redeeming moment for the protagonist, but there's just isn't really one. She's doing what her little jacked up brain sees as right, justified because it's for the person she loves.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 19, 2018
I really did try to go into this with a positive attitude. I wanted to like it. This season could have very well been 12 episodes instead of the excruciatingly drawn out 25. Really all that tells me is VERY. POOR. WRITING. With this show being so popular and having such a high MAL score I had high expectations. I am being sorely let down. I didn't even want to finish watching this season. I usually only drop shows if it is boring me to death. I was almost to my limit with this one.
Lets hop to the spoilers.
Story: A mess. It is all
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over the place. I mostly only kept watching because I want to know WHY this universe is how it is. Why is everyone mutated? How did the world react in the beginning? We finally saw a glimpse of the world's (japan's) reactions, at the end? of the 2nd season? How does that make sense. Maybe they did that so people would keep watching their flaming pile of garbage. There are so many gaps that need to be filled. I feel like they are just writing from the seat of their pants without much of a plan, a *basic* plot to follow. They ruin the action packed anime they seem to want by drawing everything out. The season started out interesting with the sports festival, the obstacle race was really the highlight of the season. But come on, do we really need 1 episode for every single 1v1? no.
Art: It really hasn't changed or improved since the first season. It is nothing novel. It's like if they animated Yu-Gi-Oh! with the software we have today. The eyes bug me less this season, though they still take up more of their face than eyes in Clannad; that's an accomplishment.
Sound: The dub is the only reason for a decent score. I've had my volume the same level watching this entire season and wow does it randomly get loud and quiet and all over the place.
Character: ahahhah what character? Deku, the glorified narrator. Yay we finally got everyone's favorite tortured soul's story. But.. IcyHot got over his daddy issues in a few short minutes because some kid he barely knows is yelling at him. "Jk my dad wasn't so bad I'm going to spend all summer with him cy@" He had potential to be a beautiful tragic backstory character but they seem afraid to get into anything deep here. Everyone's favorite Shouty McShout kind? of? tried to get a back story. Bakugo: Origins. Are you kidding? That was all footage we saw in the first season... there's no new info here. l a z y.
Enjoyment: Condensed, the story is interesting enough to barely finish. Since everyone is obsessed with this show I expected better. Fandom ruins things though.
Overall: It's so much longer than necessary. The repetition. I mean, finally Wimpy did SOMETHING useful in the very end, but it was a little too easy. I'm sick of seeing cue-ball eyes all over my dash. cant wait till this fad is over. I see it going the ways of SAO. Everyone freaks out about how good a show is.. then a few months, a year, and it's a meme for how awful the story actually was. the hype will die. eventually. and then we can be in peace once more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 18, 2018
A good anime for doing homework or while at work or doing literally anything productive because I don't know how anyone can sit around and watch this while not multitasking.
You really only need to pay attention to 1/16th of the show to know what's going on. the rest is fluff.
I guess this is my spoiler line but who on this god forsaken earth hasn't watched this show by now I'm so sick of seeing it so that's why I even bothered. Usually not the case but everyone says it gets better. does it? does it really?
no.
Story: Typical. Done before. Pathetic useless
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kid saves the world. not this season, but it's going to happen it's so predictable.
Art: I'm okay with the art I guess, I really hate their eyes. I mean I can't draw worth shit so what do I know? But someone popped some cue balls in their eye sockets and drew pupils on them.
Sound: I'm giving it a high rating because the dub isn't terrible. Re: multitask so my spine doesn't slide out of my body from boredom. Re: I don't speak Japanese. I can't stand most dubs, so props for finding voice actors that aren't 100% unbearable.
Character: dear god. deku is the most annoying piece of garbage. I'm whiny and awful and bully people who don't want to be around me in the name of being disgustingly nice! I hope he dies. IcyHot fills in for 'bad boy v.2' because you need that tortured soul tragic backstory bad boy. Kacchan is really the only worthwhile character and even he is pretty awful. He's mean and isn't trying to be something he isn't. he's 100% his original self.
Enjoyment: I longed for my dentist's chair. I would rather be getting told how I need to floss more while they make me bleed than watch this anime again.
Overall: It's childish and unoriginal. I would have loved to see the impact of everyone having these crazy powers, like the world being thrown into chaos even for a little bit? Like that had to happen. The change didn't even happen THAT long ago but everyone accepts it as normal. WHY did everyone even get these powers. I guess if you are a child you might like it. Good for some good background noise while doing finances.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 9, 2018
Overall really enjoyed this anime. Not usually into mecha style, but this was refreshing with the pistil/stamen compatibility factor.
Fleshed out characters, most were fairly realistic for younglings.
Spoiler zone ~~~~~~~~~
The end was unfortunate, it was super rushed. It was odd to not see kokoro pregnant at all. She was a few weeks and not showing, and then suddenly the baby was born. Then the baby grew up, and suddenly they had 4 kids and everyone else was having kids. It was rushed, I feel like they could have done an OVA or movie to flesh out them growing up. But it seems
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they want to continue on with getting hiro and zerotwo back to bodies if they continue on with the story, so I guess that just shows how long they've been gone. I do hope they continue on with this series, since there were a lot of super real moments, like 'irl we need to change or this is our future'.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 25, 2018
Sukisho started out with potential to be deep and emotional... I was expecting some sad medical drama ?? I guess that's the best way to describe my expectations.
It took so long to get to the point; it was overly drawn out. I kept groaning my way through the silly episodes because the plot developed ever so slowly. It was silly forever, and then the plot jumped off the cliff into the darkness.
The characters were a little confusing, but probably the best part of the anime. A part of me loved the strange yaoi dystopia where women don't exist. There wasn't a lot
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of development though, it took too long to even get to know the characters.
The dissociative counterparts were a bit unrealistic, but heaps better than a lot of media about DID. It bothered me how different the voices and looks of the counterparts were though. Ran's voice made me die inside a bit every time he popped out. That alone made my give such an awful rating for sound... I guess this anime is 13 years old now, but the art was pretty bad. Early 2000's weren't exactly good years for anime, but still. Many others released around the 2005 era weren't so bad about art and sound.
Overall a good idea I guess? But poorly executed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 25, 2018
This is the most pointless anime that has ever been created. I was super excited to have a new yuri with pretty art, but this was terrible. What even was the point? All I want in the yuri world is something as beautiful and representative as Yuri on Ice. I don't think that will ever happen, the yuri creators are too obsessed with fetishizing.
Wehh they aren't actually related its fine!! no. stop. The amount of time they just went back and forth was depressing. It didn't even start out well, since the creepy rapey incest began right away.
This would have been
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a better story if they got over themselves and learned how to be proper siblings. But you wouldn't get that creepy fetish thing that the writers were after.
It had every element of that forced yaoi trope, except a decent story line. Everything was creepy and forced, I don't even understand the ending? Even Junjou Romantica, with how forced and rapey that was, they had redemption. They had cute moments, they figured out their issues. But Citrus is all over the place.
They couldn't stick with one story line. Introduction of new key characters was awkward as hell. Surprise! Matsuri just *happens* to be at the same obscure arcade you are wow!! The whole Matsuri thing was just for a small "life lesson" at the end and to blackmail Mei?
Then Sara and Nina just appeared *surprise* same day same time wow!!! and wow you guys get along great amazing.
Mei actually seemed happy with Sara, but then they just had to force her and Yuzu together. I don't even believe that's what Mei wanted. She said she didn't want to lose Sara, so she did what Sara and her Nina asked. She only walked hand in hand with Yuzu because THEY wanted her to. It was reluctant.
The characters were soulless. They creators did a terrible job at showing backstories, at forming emotional bonds for the watchers. Mei had 0 emotion, she showed a flicker here and there, with her daddy issues and when she was with Sara, but she was nothing. She might as well have been a mannequin. They didn't form character's emotions enough to make the watchers care. Yuzu, we had her internal monologue and chats with Harumi, she was probably the most developed character. But Mei is a main character and should have been fully developed. There was so much potential for them to develop character, but instead they just went down the rabbit hole of rapey. There could have been character development when Mei was being cold, and her and Yuzu weren't talking. What about Mei's internal monologue?? Even Himeko, who doesn't matter, was more fleshed out than Mei.
I only finished this anime because I was expecting some massive character development, kept waiting for some heartbreaking revelations. But it never came and they just carried along their creepy, toxic ways.
I hate this anime with a burning passion. I wanted it to be good, I really wanted to like it. But I don't know how this flaming pile of garbage got produced.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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