I finally finished Banana Fish.
Lol. Lmao even. Show only has high marks because "muh gay bois" when I legit believe Ash is not a true homo since he was continuously raped since he was eight and conditioned into that lifestyle. The gay lifestyle wasn't portrayed in a positive light here, but "uwu twinks five stars~!" just wow. (But hilariously enough, seems like no one talks about this show anymore five years later. Lol.)
Pretty certain the manga has better execution than whatever the fuck the anime was doing, but I'm also just sitting here wondering what the fuck is wrong with fujoshis for interpreting Ash finding actual human connection for once in his life as "Omg they're such boyfriendssssss". Knowing that Eiji was originally going to be a girl until the mangaka decided to change her mind at the last minute because "Ooh wouldn't it be interesting" (and holy shit does Eiji act like a woman) meant that maybe there would've been a romantic approach to it, but at the same time, I have a feeling that it was always going to be a "Just friends" platonic relationship. Which I think sounds more interesting, personally. Like for a shoujo series to have it to where the main boy and girl, despite a "will they, won't they" vibe, remain friends sounds like it would've been a bit extraordinary back in the '80s. It's a shoujo that's not a romance already, but imagine a male-female friendship through and through. That was like almost unheard of.
Also I harped on it before, but legit, modernizing the story fucked it up. Some of the plot points in it I couldn't even let suspension of disbelief take hold of due to how down-to-earth a lot of the plot was to begin with, but it's a lot of shit that was already more-or-less an open secret/a "lol no duh" in 2018 compared to the shitshow it truly would've been in the '80s if any of what was proposed/shown would've come out to the public back then.
I dunno, I guess the story in general was just really not for me, or at least it turned out that way. The set-up was always super interesting, even back when I was 16 and first reading up on it was intriguing. And yet it felt like the story took a different turn like a third of the way in, and kinda forgot what it was supposed to be about. Legit disappointing, I just feel misled.
Oh, and I hate this in modern anime where they have such shit pacing that they rarely actually play the ED proper and is just credits over footage and the ending song is quiet. It never looks good, and it was just awful here. The second ED got fucked by it, it's an actually poignant ED but you only got it properly a few times. Thanks, MAPPA, holy shit.
". It's the best kind of girl.
