✨Warm summer nights✨
Something that I love and appreciate about Ash Lynx that I don't see many people talking about is his lack of desire for personal revenge. It's such a small and obvious detail, that I don't think we stop to think about it enough, but Ash is not consumed by revenge. Even after everything that happened to him, we never see him express a desire to kill or torture Dino, or anyone else who hurt him, we just wants to be free. Even with researching banana fish he's just trying to figure out what's wrong with his brother so that he can cure him, his motive is never revenge. Wanting to destroy and make Dino suffer would be a completely understandable reaction, yet all he wants to do is prevent other children from experiencing the same things he did.
The only times we see Ash express a desire for revenge, is when people he loves are hurt. This is seen several times with Eiji, such as when he's shot and he chases the men and shoots them with rage in his eyes, or when Shorter dies and he kills Dawson as he begs for mercy. This is why at the start I emphasised *personal revenge*. But I just think that his overall lack of thirst for revenge and just deep desire to be free is an extremely important facet of his character, that really just highlights who he is on the inside beyond all the violence and suffering, and is also very telling of his strength.
This is also one of the reasons why I dislike the "yut lung is just ash without eiji" rhetoric, because I feel like it does such a disservice to both their characters. Yes, they've lived through similar trauma and are in several ways parallels to each other, but they're different people with or without someone to support them. First of all, before Eiji, Ash did have someone, Shorter, and he had other people he cared about such as Skipper and his gang. Obviously none where as influencial or life changing as Eiji was, but painting him as being completely alone before meeting Eiji simply isn't true. Secondly, Ash and Yut lung are very separate people with separate personalities and with indivual nuances to their stories despite their similarites. One of these is the desire for revenge. As I established Ash isn't consumed by personal revenge, but Yut Lung very much is, his entire first arc is his search for revenge agaisnt his own brothers, whom he wants to kill.
Yut Lung isn't Ash without Eiji, he's just Yut Lung. He's a different person with different responses and reactions to the world around him, and of course, having someone to love and care for him would be monumental, but he'd still be a completely different character to Ash, and in my personal opinion, would have a harder time accepting that love than him (as we see briefly with his connection with Sing).
Of course there's also differences in their stories that I think are worth noting. I won't do it on this post because frankly I've been procrastinating making lunch and I need to do that rn. But reducing Yut Lungs's character to an "ash without eiji" is truly tragic in my opinion, and not only a disservice to him as a character but also to his story. Yut lung isn't just there to be a parallel to Ash, and I feel like we sometimes forget that. Anyway I'll get more into the nuances of Yut lung's character, and the nuances of his and Ash's stories and they way they both parallel and differ from each other if y'all want. If not I'll probably forget, and it'll just live in my mind, keeping me awake at 4 am.
banana fish x Mitski
Song lyrics from *I'm your man* by mitski
repose
Source: Shogakukan Bunko edition. Please note that the volume and page numbering are different from the more ubiquitous Flower Comics edition.
Vol. 4 pg. 254, police’s report:
Height: 5′9′‘ (175 cm).
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg).
Note that the police’s data likely originated from Ash’s stint in jail. Hence, these were probably Ash’s height and weight when he first met Eiji. (Thank you, @maluron , for bringing this to my attention.)
Vol. 5, pg. 65, Ash himself:
Height: 5 ft. 11 in. (180 cm).
Weight: 135 lbs (61 kg).
By the time the Christopher Winston arc rolled around, Ash had grown by 2 inches.
Vol. 10 pg. 34, Foxx’s report:
Height: 5 ft. 11 in. (180 cm).
Weight: 150.5 lbs (68 kg).
Note that Ash lost a lot of weight during his time in Golzine’s hands, and this data was probably taken before he fell sick.
Banana Fish: Another Story, Fly Boy in the Sky, pg. 275-276, Ibe was comparing Eiji’s height to that of another pole-vaulter, Kazuhiko Mizuno (187 cm):
Height when he was 17: 172 cm (15 cm shorter than 187 cm).
Note that Eiji’s weight is never mentioned in the series. That said, we know Eiji could manhandle Ash (from bedroom to bathroom to dining room and back to bathroom; see Vol. 7 pg. 226):
…while Ash has never been shown to carry Eiji around.
In other words, Eiji is definitely shorter than Ash, but it doesn’t mean he’s a lot weaker in terms of raw muscle power than Ash. Ash is a canonical speedster who prefers stealth, ambush, and one-on-one combat, and whose main weakness is his relative lack of stamina and power. In fact, Blanca criticised him for not having enough bulk on his frame (Vol. 8 pg. 59). Meanwhile, Eiji can literally catapult his entire body weight metres into the air using a fibreglass pole.
Please use this as reference when you want to write/draw some R18 stuff for your fan creations, and remember that when the going gets physical in more ways than one, Eiji is more likely to manhandle Ash than Ash is to manhandle Eiji.
The Fallen Angel - Ash Lynx
I made this oil painting and I'm making it available for download, support a traditional artist!
behind the scenes of hirokazu kore-eda's monster (2023)
people who write fics. how do you feel about comments on super old ones you wrote like 2+ years ago
New Eiji art by Banana Fish anime director Ayumi Yamada (山田 歩) ✨
Isn’t he cute?
I’m so happy she still draws for Banana Fish occasionally.
Please follow her on Twitter, so we’ll keep getting blessed with her Banana Fish artworks🥺
https://x.com/24_ayame
happy halloween to my beloved blorbos!!!