He Is Part Of Your Soul, As The Poets Say

sentiment from @starpeace

I think this is what's so haunting about banana fish. jk, there are a lot of things that linger when it comes to banana fish. but I think this is what drives the au's where langa and reki or viktor and yuuri are ash and eiji in another life. they crossed oceans to find one another, and found home in another person. where ash (and all associated danger) eventually drew eiji out of his ennui following his retirement and general naïveté, eiji's gentle innocence and compassion (that came without strings) made ash feel safe and loved despite a life riddled with abuse and objectification.

whether you choose to see them as a romantic pairing (vikturi au) or as friends who made one another better through their connection (renga au), the ending they got was heartbreaking. because after everything they survived, everything they sacrificed, having found each other against all odds in the first place - there's no resolution. no happy ending. just more trauma to punctuate a life ensconced in trauma.

ash deserved more. aslan deserved so much more. and he deserved to think that he was worth saving.

He doesn’t know 😔

So, the original ending was supposed to be this shot where Hori sensei and Minato's mother find them near the rail tracks and call them and both Minato and Yori look back and stare into the camera.

The director, Hirozaku Kore-eda also mentioned that while making the film, the idea was that the boys survive the storm and run off free of judgement.

Hood: “How was I supposed to know that 8-year-old girl wasn’t the Riddler?! It was dark! THEY HAVE THE SAME BUILD.”

Banana fish fanart, "back then"

Some art I made for a Banana Fish fanbook back in 2019. Mainly based of the manga's design cause I just love the art so much <3

Digital copy now available on Ko-Fi

Ash and Eiji's first meeting felt like two universes colliding. You can feel the entire room shift even when there's nothing to shake it, and see the colors turn a bit brighter than usual. The moment they locked eyes it feels uncertain yet they were so sure of each other at the same time.

I guess Ash is somewhat guarded since Ibe's there. Knowing how he can't trust adults so much. Yet the next scenes that come after their first eye contact, Ash is interested, testy or maybe teasing even towards Eiji. To say the least they were both interested in each other. Curious.

Banana Fish Miscellaneous -> stageplay, signature artwork, booklet, concept art

(1) Not sure where this one comes from..might have been a booklet newspaper advertising Garden of Light

(2) Signature artwork uploaded by @/haruharummy on Twitter. Do not know how old it is. It was uploaded in 2018, but the user says they received it at a signing event somewhere when they were in high school.

(3) Stage Play images pulled from Mercari JP.

(4) Congratulations artwork found on BFish’s anime website.

(5) Ash Lynx original concept anime design, this one’s not to hard to find but whenever I look for it it’s always zoomed in lol (personally like this concept better his hair is his River Phoenix design.)

(6&7) Stage play scans found on wiki.

Last image is a magazine clipping from 1987.

Mainly think I will be focusing on archiving manga work for this blog and not the anime or stage any other form of adaptation but will see lol

Ash and Michael.

bad habits 🚬