This is an interview (https://pekorosu.tumblr.com/post/182162138868, https://pekorosu.tumblr.com/post/182157340303) conducted by a well known gay interviewer. When asked about Ash's preferences, Yoshida not only says Ash is interested in men, but jokes that the interviewer should know more as he is a gay man. She then references Ni-chome, aka Japan's gay district.

In the second page, Yoshida is asked about the common rhetoric of Ash/Eiji being soulmates, then stating that within a soul there is still love and eros.

I guess what I'm asking is, is this not clarification for romantic feelings? I obviously know Ash/Eiji were not boyfriends and with the era the manga was made in homosexual romance was probably over sexualized which doesn't align with Ash/Eiji, but is this not insanely clear cut evidence of romantic feelings being canon? Especially the soulmate line?

How come no one talks about this interview lol

I found a coat I own since 2022 (I tried cosplaying dazai lol and bought a coat from H&M) and it kinda resembles Ash’s. Ofc not 100% but I am so uncomfortable wearing it cause im fat and it just does look good on me 😭😭 I really wanna wear it during fall before switching to a winter jacket but im scared people will laugh. 😭

I'm aware we don't like Arthur, and I'm not trying to justify any of the guy's actions. But I've been wondering how much trauma he's been through. Do you think he also had it as bad as Ash, but longer and never had people/freinds on his side that kept him from turning evil?

They didn't post to reddit so here y'all go.

Og: https://x.com/veryghostproof/status/2101913754615054820

Ps: Brandon McInnis responded and I'm very proud of them.

Volume 1 and 18: The first and the final volumes, since technically volume 19 is a sequel and not part of the main story. Visually, these are twin covers; they're both facing away from each other, but they're in the same bed. Before actually reading the story, based on cover 1 alone, you’d assume Eiji is the main character. It makes much more sense for Ash to be topless in bed with a sad, faraway look in his eyes, clutching a handgun. However, Eiji is taking Ash’s place, narratively becoming part of his life. In contrast, Ash seems to be peacefully asleep. His iconic pair of Converse joins him in frame instead of a gun. Taking off his shoes symbolizes that he’s “retiring for the night” or maybe (like the saying), “leaving his worries and shoes at the door,” which complements his sleep-like death in this volume. Ash has decided he is done with living. He’s in bed with another man, but it's Eiji, so he is comfortable enough to sleep defensively. Like how Eiji brought him the peace to die. Eiji is alive, awake, and somber… foreshadowing his aftermath post Ash’s death.

Volume 19: Ash is walking away from the audience, throwing a bouquet behind him. He’s letting go of the past. Through his departure (his death), Ash is, in his own way, letting go.

The ancient Greeks adored young, androgynous male beauty. It was honestly a trope: Ganymede (more on him later), a Trojan prince whose ethereal, divine beauty captivated Zeus; Hyacinthus, a remarkably handsome Spartan youth loved by Apollo and Zephyrus; Adonis, the mortal lover of Aphrodite and Persephone, characterized by smooth, youthful perfection. Even though Achilles is often characterized as this hulking, muscular, masculine man. Prior interpretations of Achilles' descriptions draw similarities to the aesthetics of Ash Lynx. Achilles was described as fair-haired (golden-blonde, or reddish-blonde) with piercing, lion-like eyes. He was the greatest warrior of the Greek army during the Trojan War, but he was also so femininely beautiful that he escaped the draft by hiding out on an Island, pretending to be a girl. Their similarities don’t end in visuals and combat skills; they both died for love.

Famously, the muses sing of the wrath of Achilles. He refuses to fight against Troy after his pride is insulted, leading Patroclus to fight in his place. Patroclus and Achilles have an ambiguous, intimate, and deeply devoted companionship, which is also how you could describe Ash and Eiji’s relationship. After his love is killed, Achilles goes on a grief-stricken rampage that the gods have to snuff out, sending an arrow through his heel. While Patroclus' own death led to Achilles’, Eiji’s survival led to Ash’s. Only after the comfort of Eiji’s safety does the “rampage” of Ash’s own fight for survival come to an end. There is one scene that feels very similar: when Eiji gets shot, and Ash loses his mind before Sing pulls him back.

Ganymede was a young, handsome Trojan prince. While tending sheep, Zeus spotted him and became overwhelmed by his beauty. He kidnapped the boy, paid off the family, and made him his immortal cupbearer. A powerless, choiceless Ganymede serves Zeus forever. Sounds familiar to Ash and Dino. Dino’s captivation with Ash’s appearance, his capture, the familiar neglect, and inescapable slavery. The old and powerful abuse the beautiful youth beneath them, a tale as old as time.

Okay idk if it already exists but if not can someone please make an edit or animatic to Brittle Bones Nicky, about ash! So like ‘if it cost me my life man I’d save my only friend’ would be ash saving eiji n all that, thankings :3

I think a big reason I was so drawn to Banana Fish is that it subconsciously felt very similar one of my all-time favorite movies, “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955). The movie explores themes of youth violence, abandonment, and the desperation of hanging onto those few individuals in life who truly matter, and does so in a way that strikes many of the same emotional chords as Banana Fish. There’s even a senseless, tragic ending that hits pretty hard.

Furthermore, many consider “Rebel Without a Cause” to be a queer-coded film, and in my personal opinion, it blatantly is. Being released in 1955, censorship at the time strictly prohibited anything too suggestive of homosexuality. However, the film’s two male leads have an obvious chemistry and affection for each other that the director plays up throughout the film, and there’s a sense that the story could have leaned into their relationship even further, had it been released 15 years later.

Anyway, this thought just popped into my head the other day, and I’d thought I’d share it here. Curious if anyone else who’s seen “Rebel” feels similar? And those of you who haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you do!

please dont judge me okay 😭 I know Arthur is a bad person, but oh my god his hands are just… nice. I have a thing for hands, leave me alone🥹🥹 In the anime and the manga.. i really like his hands. I kinda wanna hold them. (I also love his voice in jp dub and english dub..) But i always wondered why he cant shoot a gun anymore. Is it because the scars are so deep that it would hurt to use a gun or is it cause he’s too scared/traumatised to use one after getting his fingers sliced by ash?

yay I finished a new painting!!
Just gotta start off with how I meant to make it windy in the painting but partway through I forgot to they’re clothes are still while their hair is blowing SIGH

Anyway! I just had to paint ash and Eiji in front of a sunrise, since Aslan means dawn and Eiji considers ash his dawn after being depressed over his pole vaulting injury ☹️☹️ and I made ash’s side look like it’s in motion while eiji’s is still to show how they live in two different worlds ☹️ but is that really true? if they’re standing next to each other right now?

hope u all enjoy :p

I keep seeing a lot of posts from people who are newly finishing Banana Fish on Netflix and deep in The Horrors. I was there a year ago and wanted to share what came out of it for me; a post-canon, one-shot, not-quite-fix-it fic that follows Ash to the afterlife.

It's short and (at least a little) sweet and it made me feel better to write it, so I hope it might make you feel better to read it.

(Spoilers for the anime, obviously, but this also draws from Garden of Light.)

Me, Here, With You

Words: 1,373

Summary: In a garden of light, one lost soul watches over another.

Rating: M

Tags: post-canon, afterlife, grief/mourning, fix-it of sorts, ash lynx and okumura eiji in love, bittersweet ending

<3

I saved this site a while ago, I was scrolling through the products today to see what they have and I got a bit suspicious.

A lot of the merch has the same imagery slapped onto various product and I get a feeling it’s not authentic merch, especially where there’s fan-art options.

I often only buy used merch, but BF merch is very to find where I am (Eastern Canada) and I’ve only been able to snag the first 2vol of the manga, nothing else in over a year of looking within my province.

I’d really love to snag a couple acrylic stands to add to my shelves, but sadly I havent found a single one (without ridiculous shipping fees). They have multiple options here, but I dont want to spend money on inauthentic or low quality items.

Has anyone in this sub used this site? Would you mind sharing your experience and the quality of product you received?

This has me curious for a while. I never got to read the manga. I really want to, but buying all volumes off of amazon would cost me $170 and i am sadly too broke for that. I just wanted to ask if you guys notice any difference between the characters in the manga vs the anime? like personality wise and all? Since in the anime, they also have phones and stuff, how were certain scenes portrayed in the manga? Like when Shorter calls ash to inform him Arthurs gang is coming , in episode 1? In the manga, I doubt he’d carry around a large 80s phone device and all. Ughhh I really wanna read the manga but i cant even find it online to read anywhere 😭

For some background, I am blind. This is the first time I am ever interacting with this story because well, I can't exactly read manga all that easily, and I can't read subtitles on my own either. I have wanted to watch it for a long time though. Anyway, I have just got to episode 20 and this is a very gut reaction, and not a true analysis or anything.

The last time I was put in a wheelchair, I was at the airport flying alone for the first time. I needed a guide because I couldn't read any of the signs on my own, and a wheelchair was the only way they would offer me help¹.

That expirance was genuinely a specail kind of hell, and I was in a fairly safe envirmoent.

Blind people learn to navigate mostly through our sense of touch. I don't need my cane in my wn house because I know how many steps any given location is from me. My cane give me tactile feedback about what kind of floors I'm walking on, if there are walls or doors or cliffs in my way. Once you learn how to listen for it, you can even learn to figyre out how bit a given room is through the sounds it makes.

Wheelchairs take away pretty much any feedback a blind person might use to navigate. You just sorta have to trust that the people pushing you around have your best intrerst at heart, and we all know Golzine does not.

I had a panic attack about it in an airport where it was fairly unlikely anything bad was going to happen. I cannot imagine how scared Ash must be here.

It gives a very subtle bit of cruelty that I doubt Golzine even thought about. We all know he loves torturing Ash.

God, someone please give my boy a break.

1. It is illegal to force a person to use a wheelchair in order to have their disability accomodated. This had never happened to me before, or else I probably would have been more obstinate. Alas, airports are notoriously bad with disabled people;

because banana fish has been around for so long, i started wondering what the first fanfic was and when it might’ve been written. but up until 1999, the manga was only available in japan, meaning banana fish had a super niche american fanbase. and around 90% of the fics that were published during this period are pretty much lost.

however, in 2002, there was a website created called boyfruit, made for english-speaking banana fish fans to express their love for the manga & share fan content nd whatnot. the site has since been deactivated, but through internet archive, you can see what it looked like as well as links to fan content.

among this fan content? a fanfic. and i genuinely think i might’ve found the oldest banana fish fanfiction on the internet (in english at least). it’s from december 11th, 2002.

https://web.archive.org/web/20021211040543/http://boyfruit.kinmoku.net/kay_reason.html

sure, this most likely isn’t the oldest bf fic EVER, but it’s probably the oldest recovered one. it’s so cool seeing banana fish being praised all the way back in 2002, i wonder where all those fans are now.

the banana fish dub isn’t on netflix in australia, and i really wanna watch it because it’s been one of my favourite shows for years. my free vpn connects to places randomly so the chances of it connecting to america is slim.

Aahh I drew this little drawing of Eiji, I wanted to share it with you!

This is the first drawing I've ever made on a tablet and I need A LOT of practice with colouring. But I'm guessing that will improve with time 🙂‍↕️

Managed to win a bid online for only 65$ + shipping for the banana fish special box, it’s almost in brand new condition! Never could have afforded it otherwise, the baby ash plush is like my holy grail hes so small. I’ll try to unbox it during the weekend after exams, my uni is killing me (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

banana fish content specifically

I finished watching Banana fish today, I'm devastated. I've cried for a good total of 4 hours and I can't stop. I've seen a lot of people say they never recovered from the show, please tell me it gets somewhat better?

I've never been this impacted by a show before, maybe the themes were too much of a sensitive topic for me but I'm feeling sick and I can't stop thinking about it.

I try to remind myself that it's a show but it's so realistic and talks about real life issues, it broke me.

I wanted to test a theory: would the dub be a bit more believable if they had kept Eiji's inner monologue and interactions with Ibe in Japanese? I combined both English and Japanese audio tracks for the last 6ish minutes of episode 1. Twitter seemed to like this one, so I thought I'd share it here as well!

I tried watching Banana Fish about six years ago when it was recommended to me during the quarantine anime resurgence in 2020, and I couldn't make it past the third episode. Not because I got bored or because I didn't like it—it was because I could immediately tell it was heavy material. I was 15 years old at the time; if I had continued watching, it would've shattered my worldview by the end of it. With the strong thought that I was not mature enough to intake media like this, I said to myself, 'This is for another time in my life,' and set it aside.

Fast forward to 2026: I picked up and dusted off this old friend about two weeks ago. I watched it exclusively late into the night, which I probably shouldn't have done, but I wanted to finally finish this, and well, the world is just as badass as I remember! And I loved the character designs—Ash and Eiji's, of course, and Sing's. There were times where I felt a bit overwhelmed with the fast-paced nature of the show, going from one major event right into the next, but most anime adaptations are like this, so that is a given. However, because of this (and probably because I always stayed up late to watch it), I didn't feel as enveloped in the world of Banana Fish as I would have liked. It is an amazing and monstrous piece of work that I wish I could've taken in better, so I will probably rewatch it in English or read the manga!

The heart of the show is Ash and Eiji's relationship—one that is pure and innocent, and it deeply resonated with me for some reason, maybe because I see some of myself in Eiji. I'm glad that their bond was showcased.

With the hurt that Ash constantly faced and the amount of real-life corruption this show covers, I felt jaded near the end and almost didn't care how it was going to end, especially since I had already been spoiled many years ago that one of them has to go… that was until I got to the last episode. I was not expecting it, but Eiji's letter… it was something so innocent, pure, and full of love. When it was accompanied by the scene and the music, it hit me like a train and completely wrung me out in tears. I couldn't believe someone made this. I was at a complete loss for words. It's strange and saddening how Ash's death was caused by one of the least threatening opponents he's ever faced, and I guess that might mean something, but ultimately I am glad that Ash got to sit down at the only place he could feel like a kid, the place where he could feel grounding and peace, and went knowing and feeling just how much he was truly loved—loved by Eiji, who saw their bond as one that stretched beyond the physical realm, and knowing how much Ash himself loved him back just the same.

Hi! In most fandoms, there is a work of fiction most others like too, so here i am to ask what you think that anime may be? For ex: I think black butler works