Banana Fish Episode 9 'Save Me The Waltz' and Eiji and Shorter sort of fighting and running round in circles against each other back and forth like a twisted dance...
Banana Fish is one of the examples where a BL was done correctly. The portrayal of Ash and Eiji’s relationship is done so well; it is not exaggerated or overly sexual, but realistic of what a homosexual relationship could be, ignoring the gang/mafia violence aspect of it of course. Some may believe that their relationship is platonic and that they are friends, but it is clear that their relationship is deeper than just friends. Ash had to choose between saving Shorter or Eiji in episode 9. Despite Shorter being Ash’s closest friend and knowing Eiji for a few days, he chose to save Eiji. In a way killing Shorter was also like saving him, but I don’t think many would choose to kill Shorter in this situation if they were Ash. The approach to gender and sexuality expression is shown completely through male characters. Ash is a very beautiful person who is often described as having feminine features, however, his behavior is more masculine than how he appears. Eiji is a soft character inside and out; I will say he is strong because of how much he has been through, but he is still a very soft and emotional character. Which you often do not see expressed in male characters. Ash was taken by Golzine and abused by him and others for a very long time. Expressing his emotions (or enjoying life) is not something that Ash often has the privilege of. However, upon meeting Eiji, this side of him is able to come out. This anime is also the portrayal of American life within a mafia from the perspective of the Japanese. In other American films or shows of this genre, you often seen gangs that have this very strong sense of family. I think Banana Fish took this concept of family and presented it in the most perverted way. Golzine is like the father of this mafia (they call him Papa…) and he has raised (abused) characters like Ash, who he expects to respect and treat him like a father. I also think this anime expresses the idea that toxic masculinity can be seen in homosexual relationships. All the characters who are actually called gay are rapists and abusers, like Marvin. Overall this anime is one enjoyed by all, in my opinion. It is technically a shonen and appeals to a male audience, and despite it having very different aspects than your everyday BL, many BL enthusiasts also enjoy this show. Also one of my favorite anime intros of all time.
Despite the popularity, I originally did not want to watch this anime because people said they always cry/get super sad even after rewatching it. As an already not happy person, even if I must miss the masterpiece between the "definitely straight-platonic" relationship between the main characters, it would be fine.
Well, I watched it. I actually watched a clip from EP 11 on Instagram before, and I knew what the show was, but I didn't want to be too tempted by a singular cute moment at the time.
After watching, I realized what the sadness meant. Unlike Your Name from the last post, that feeling of relief when there are less than 2 minutes left of the last episode was quickly taken away. I wonder if Eiji knew what happened to Ash while he was on the plane, or if he didn't want to say or worry others. Every time Ash and Eiji talk about each other to others, it's almost like they can read each other's minds because they nailed down every flaw and thought so naturally.
I also found the ending not only way too sad but happily ironic. Ash was clearly worried every time he brought Eiji into another gang brawl or some mess from his business. Almost always, Ash and Eiji both need saving, but Ash manages to save himself and others (not everyone as we see in EP 2). He fears that despite the comfort he has with Eiji, he will only bring danger to his life. Yet, it is Eiji who kills Ash because he is too engrossed in Eiji's farewell letter. If Ash had "saved" himself either by leaving behind the letter to go to a hospital or going to Eiji in person before he left, he likely could've lived.
And what do I think about their relationship? These episodes aren't enough for me to really describe it. It's obvious Eiji and Ash deeply care about each other and understand each other beyond the surface. How they can draw out each other's strengths and vulnerabilities shows how compatible they are like when Eiji just takes it upon himself to wake up Ash after his nap when his own subordinates are too scared to do it themselves. He even hits him to get him up, and the subordinates are probably going to leave Eiji behind if Ash even shouts. Instead, Ash just grumbles like a kid and gets up to shower. Of course, he shouts for soap but Eiji still retrieves it for him quietly and very bravely.
The sparkles that center only around the two (you can see shading is cut off behind Eiji) in their own world are very sweet.
Refusing to Forget "The Reasons Why I Shipped Toi Kuji x Kazuki Yasaka" Part 1
Source: from my Twitter thread. I am rewriting again to celebrate Toikazu's Day on October 1st.
1. Both of them have brother complexes in their family even though in different ways. Then their problems lead them to impact their own morality and lifestyle. Even they want to use Dish of Hope for their each own brother. Here
2. Both Kazuki and Toi have their own beautiful mom who looks the same as them, especially in their hair and eye color respectively. Here
3. Their eyes zoom which reflects some leak scenes (My favorite part of them of course is their eyes and the zoom of the eyes). Here
4. Their merchs sometimes being juxtaposed (just like ReoMabu did). Here
5. Usually the 1st and 2nd protags' official colors are Blue and Red. Kazuki (Red), Toi (Blue) Same cases with other animes' protags.
Banana Fish: Ash (Red), Eiji (Blue);
Yuri!!! on Ice: (Blue), Victor (Red/Purple), turquoise (actual) here
Explain: In the official merch, Victor's official color actually is turquoise, but since he has his Stammi Vicino's costumes are pink and purple, his color can be depicted as pink (or we can mention it red) and purple.
6. Speak of the devil, both of their official colors match with both their hair and eye color. Meanwhile, even though Enta's color is yellow and matches his hair color, not with his eyes which are green. Here
7. Same pattern: One has a slightly hanging bangs style that parted a little bit of his left eye; the other has an asymmetrical parting on his hair, and some can cover one eye. All of them parted on the left eye, except Victor. Here
8. Of course many moments about them from all episodes (except ep 3). Update: even I like Ep. 7 since Kazuki is now smiling and calling Kuji 'Toi' which means he has become close to him. But the result is Enta's jealousness. Here
Source: https://www.tumblr.com/infizero/686998966516219904/heres-my-kazutoi-compilation-that-was-also
(Unfortunately, this video didn't include their moments from episode 1)
9. they have different belt buckle types which can be depicted as their personality. Toi: frame-style buckle Kazuki: box-out buckle When they open/close their buckles, Toi's is more complicated than Kazuki's, just like their rep lives. Here
11. In their childhood, both of them had pure cutesy round eyes and small gaps when they stared at something even though in different vibes. Seems parallel but opposite, isn't it? Here
12. Both of them have the initiative to first clean their soccer field together twice (1st: Toi, 2nd: Kazuki) before they know that the actual culprit of ruining their spot is Enta who is the one who is always on that spot. Here
13. Coincidentally both of them have upside-down lives that begin from 5 years old happiness to 10 years old sadness. Here
14. They have slender and delicate necks, jawlines, napes, and collarbones which are always being exposed in every episode. Also, Toi's Adam Apple looks sexy. Kazuki still doesn't have it yet, huh? No wonder! Here
15. YEAY!!! Finally, the relationship between Kazuki's Miçanga and Toi has been the truth. Even they have their (side)forgotten 1st meeting. Do you remind them of some other couple in another anime?
16. In fact, during the anime their left eyes have always been the focus of their scenes. I know why the left eye is special for being zoomed. Even Enta doesn't get that treatment yet because his eyes are being focused on both. Here
Btw, bonus from Sara herself *even though not related to Toikazu hehe...*
17. Kazuki Leak's OST and Toi Leak's have different basic chords but both of them are full instruments. If you listen their songs repeatedly (minus Enta's) you'll find that they have some synchronized beats and vibes even though different chords and instruments. Even their songs end with a fade-out chorus which gets quieter and quieter, unlike Enta Leak's song chorus which ends with some growing surprising strings (maybe). Here
18. Kazuki and Toi have the letter 'K' in front of their names (Kazuki and Kuji) and the letter 'i' as the last letter in their nicknames [Kazuk(i) and To(i)]. Are they only coincidences or there are the intended meanings behind these, guys? Here
19. The zodiacs Kazuki: Taurus Toi: Scorpio Believe or not, there are some fun important facts about their zodiacs and the compabilities between them. Here
There is also the compatibility description between Taurus & Scorpio
https://www.zodiacsign.com/compatibility/taurus-scorpio/
More compabilities about Taurus and Scorpio (are some of them very similar to Toi and Kazuki's connection).
https://www.astrology.com/love/compatibility/taurus-scorpio.html
No wonder they're matched as a couple.
20. Did you realize that in that new official art, both Toi and Kazuki exchange their color themes throught candied-apple and kimono. Even those things colors matched with their eye colors sometimes. Here
New thought: Griffin and Abraham themselves are the symbolical banana fish
In JD' Salinger's novel "A Perfect Day For Bananafish" the titular bananafish were metaphors for two things: 1: materialism and 2: wartime soldiers' personal experiences.
Number 1: When bananafish enter the holes in the ocean they consume the bananas in there and gain an obsession for them, eating so many that they're too fat to get out, and die.
Number 1 is all Abraham, his obsession with his drug and "justifiable" revenge on the soldiers that bullied him in Vietnam/Iraq.
Number 2: They also represent soldiers who went into war (the feeding holes) and then consumed so many horrors that they were mentally unable to reintegrate themselves back into society, some (many, actually, I've seen some stats and Holy shit) committing suicide out of trauma and guilt.
Number 2 is all Griffin, entering the war as an innocent and then losing himself to drugs and then going into a catamose state before being killed by the other version of bananafish, Abraham
Rules: pick 10 characters from 10 different fandoms and tag 10 people!
I was tagged by @belgianfry, thank youuuu <3
In no particular order, the characters that I've been obsessing over the most lately (not necessarily all time favourites) - and I'm adding the gifs because I have fun doing that, even if makes the post incredibly long looool:
Illya Kuryakin from The Man From UNCLE (2015)
Yes, I picked a gif where he's miserable and suffering, why not LOOOOL. I did NOT anticipate obsessing over this guy for years, but, well. here we are.
2. Ash Lynx from Banana Fish
The EMOTIONAL DAMAGE this show caused me. evil. evil evil evil. But Ash is mine and he's precious, I love him so much.
3. Soren from The Dragon Prince
I LOVE what they did with him and tbh his tragic family relationships (ESPECIALLY his relationship with Claudia) will be the death of me.
4. Cassie Dewell from Big sky
She was my favourite part of the show and I'm VERY SAD that I've almost run out of episodes to gif.
5. Twilight/Loid Forger from Spy x Family
PLEASE GO TAKE A NAP MY GUY
6. Izzy Hands from Our Flag Means Death
You can't give the asshole THAT character arc and expect me not to adopt him on the spot, come on
7. Suwa Rei from Buddy Daddies
I love him and his precious little family so much. I will cry. what a good anime.
8. Regina Mills from Once Upon A Time
She's an old favourite but I have just. been thinking about her a lot lately
9. Stevie Nichols from Wizards of Waverly Place
Okay listen, I have been rewatching as background noise and like. SHE WAS RIGHT. SHE WAS RIGHT OKAY. And the way they just murdered her???? and played it for comedy???? EVIL. Honestly there's a lot that's extremely fucked up in this show but THIS was on top the list
10. Miranda Hamilton/Barlow from Black Sails
I periodically rediscover how much I love this show and THIS WOMAN??? This woman kills me. bye.
.
I'm not tagging anyone specifically, but if you want to do this feel free to @ me, I'm always curious to see which characters people put on their lists!
[said while vibrating very quickly and typing out like 20 different bullet points] i like this series a normal amount
okay so. non-spoiler thoughts:
step 1 YOU SHOULD READ/WATCH THIS. it does have content warnings for literally everything you can possibly think of as needing a common content warning (drug abuse, sexual assault, racism, and thats absolutely just the tip of the iceberg) but my fucking god. no wonder it's been such an influential piece of media on literally every jp anime/manga crime story (especially the BL ones) written since
for a series that is literally one of the early genesis points of BL as a genre i was ABSOLUTELY expecting more actual BL than was in this LOL. not that i'm really upset, bc honestly i really like the way that ash and eiji's relationship is written in a shoujo-y "they obviously care about each other a lot but it's not going to be outright romance" kind of way. bc like, honestly? that makes it way more emotionally satisfying (and devastating). i think it would actually make less sense if anything more happened In the story (though more happening in the epilogue wouldnt hurt LOL)
how the FUCK was this published in a shoujo magazine
the time period change to modern day from the mid-80's has both helped and hindered this series bc like. on one hand. much easier to do everything with a phone. also the update to shorter's character design was excellent,10/10 no notes. on the other hand. the Everything About It makes it so obvious that it was written to be a product of its time.
speaking of ^ ash turning from A Guy Who Knows How To Use A Computer into a hacking genius is so. why. i mean you can update it for sure but Why Like This
god i wish this had more room to breathe sometimes bc the exposition goes WILDLY fast sometimes. why did they try and do 19 volumes in 24 episodes. the 39 episodes that the director wanted would have been so nice to have
that said: the emotional moments that i actually give a shit about and that make up the core of the weight of the story are given what they deserve. at least up to volume 5 they are. gestures at ep 9? and 22 with a pained smile
i literally could write an essay about why it works so well as a spin on the american-style gangster story even while it definitely has flaws. and how its influenced so many fucking things. my god.
it has flaws for SURE but the rest is so good that i don't care. which is rare for me (gestures at nirvanai/neo twewy being other examples)
spoiler thoughts under the cut (like full-very-ending-of-series spoilers) but YEAH UH I LIKE THIS THING CAN YOU TELL BY HOW MUCH I WROTE ABOUT IT.
it does kind of annoy me that literally all of the canon-MLM (probably gay but you know) guys are horrible people lol. like wow love how the gay predator stereotype is on full display here. feeeeels baaaaad. i know i know asheiji homoeroticism i am ON THAT TRAIN
however yut-lung being feminine out of a wish to carry on his dead mom's legacy is kind of a slay. ive seen people go "ugh it sucks that one of the villains is a feminine man' but while he is definitely not a good person hes one of the less terrible villains, just like. as a person. hes also a teenager in shitty circumstances just with way more power and sway
here's the part where I admit that I was spoiled on the ending so it didn't hit as hard for me OOPS. however. the anime DOES leave it open-ended and it fucking irritates me that anime-only people are like "boo i hate the ending bc ash dies!!!" when it is LITERALLY AMBIGUOUS. i have heard that the manga is less ambiguous about it but :') oh well. anime-onlys what are you doing
speaking of ^ i actually like the ending. like i think a lot of people who absolutely hate it must not have a lot of familiarity with gangster movies as a genre bc it is a genre convention that the Main Gangster dies in the end. granted this was a hayes code thing which the manga definitely did not have to do LOL but its definitely supposed to feel unfair bc ash's damn LIFE is unfair.
however i'm glad the anime makes the ending ambiguous bc that feels like a more fitting end. like ash's life was always in limbo, considering what he was doing, so making his life in limbo at the end too? Good. Yes. Do That
the fucking. everything with shorter and the sa-yo-na-ra bit. i die. that shit is so emotionally painful
i know this sounds weird but i kind of wish they dragged out the "what the hell does banana fish mean" thing a LIIIITTLE longer but by that i mean like, halfway point of the series. like they could have used a little more time to figure out what it is. also that would have let shorter live a little longer ay lmao that said this criticism also almost definitely applies to the manga soooo. you know
Watched Episode 9: Save Me the Waltz of Banana Fish yesterday with my brother, and tonight spent some time catching a friend up on Attack on Titan so we watched the episode Assassin's Bullet.
Anyway, if anyone needs me for the next few days, I'm gonna be in a hole in the ground letting the bugs crawl over me as I rethink my choices in "entertainment."
Like watch 3 episodes of it, you’ll find out if its for you
i have a list of relatively silly reasons to like it, and it’s only from the top of my head:
1) Time traveling - almost always fun and interesting in some way
2) It can get pretty creepy - which is good, if that’s what you’re looking for
3) Great characters - there’s a bunch of them, and half of them are lovable weirdos with interesting relationship dynamic
4) Great atmosphere - like really, it’s quite unique
5) Great soundtrack and voice acting + they speak in a dialect
6) Beautiful animation - great action scenes, a lot of them
7) Engaging plot with a bunch of heartwarming moments
8) Well-written romance subplot - like, hey, that’s pretty subjective, but it made me care about a het pair, and that’s really an achievement, last time it happened with tbhk, and tbhk is extremely good
9) Female CHARACTERS - I would recommend this one even if it only had Ushio, but it has even more
10) USHIO MY DARLING - Best girl. Her character would equal 5-10 reasons to watch this anime, i’m not kidding
11) Really Ushio is enough to want to watch this anime
Some spoiler-ish reasons below
12) a hilarious kinda love triangle - not with the main hero, really it doesn’t even add that much drama, if you have similar sense of humor, you’ll find it pretty funny
13) a good ending, finally - i’m sick of stories that just want to punch you in the face in the end just to gain some “artistic value”, because “good endings are lame”. IF you can’t make a meaningful bad or semi-bad ending like in Nabari no ou, or Banana fish, why turn a good one into a failure? Good and neutral endings can be just as emotional as bad ones - if Blue period can make a lot of grown-up-mature-adults care about a story about entrance exams, then any story can, if well-written
14) Ushio - aka best gone-to-be-a-reason-for-time-traveling girl
15) Shin and Ushio’s relationship - like, their interactions really feel special, like in episode 3 (ah i love this one, the ending gave me goosebumps) and that’s beautiful
16) Ryunosuke my dear
17) Be like Shin - be not ashamed of being carried bridal-style
18) weirdest talk about FF7 remake
19) several book recommendations
20) idk that else you need, that’s clearly enough, go watch it, and then return to spread love for Ushio, the bestest girl (optional, but strongly recommended)