Something about this anime is special to me. It shouldn't really interest me. Sure, I watched Cowboy Bebop years ago and enjoyed it, but I've never really been able to find myself getting so invested in the story of an action anime, hell, action in any form of media, as I got with Banana Fish. Watching it felt like a drug, I could not stop.
The anime itself seems like the embodiment of its main character: violent, beautiful, dramatic and yet so cold at times. It puts up a façade; from the outside in the show seems to be a fun shonen, not all too introspective and a delight to watch. The viewer will get satisfied by the violence and the eventual outcome of the story. Sure, this show too has epic scenes of gunfights, fistfights and the like, but Banana Fish is so much more than just that. The emotion in this anime is, to my knowledge, unrivaled in this genre of anime (yes, I know it's a shoujo, but I'm talking about regular action anime here). Banana Fish covers a lot of heavy themes like rape, especially with children. The creators seem to have a perfect knowledge of when to deal a blow to your mood, as in some scenes you're heartstrings will be pulled like marionettes. It creates suspense, sadness and pure joy out of thin air, and all that for some animated fictional people as well.
The show's main focus is the relationship between the two main characters, Ash and Eiji. Despite them being polar opposites, they fill each other in perfectly. They both benefit from each other, but are also their biggest weakness. From gang conflicts to governmental corruption, Eiji's inexperience often gets them in trouble, causing Ash to save the day.
Which leads me to the one single problem I have with this anime. It's what my old English teacher would have called 'hardware': some parts of the anime feel so forced and predictable. In the lead up to the grand finale (this lead up starts right after the exposition, mind you!) we slowly start learning more and more about the overarching story. In 24 episodes, the creators have created a story that could easily be resolved in 5. Sure, some character development by the MC's would be missing, but the story itself would still be fully intact. Episodes where one character gets taken away and nearly dies, but is saved in some miraculous way occur more than acceptable. Some forced suspense is fine, but sometimes it just seems like the original manga had too little material for the animators to use. (Now, I haven't read the manga, so I don't know how much the two are alike, but it gives off the impression that they had to stuff up the story a little in order to reach 24 episodes.
My critique is short, because apart from it, there is nothing bad to remark about this anime. I cannot put my appreciation of this show to words, so please watch it for yourself. I ended up giving it a 9/10, as it is great but suffers from one issue.
