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BANANA FISH

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BANANA FISH was serialized in Bessatsu Shoujo Comic from 1985 May issue to 1994 April issue. It has 19 vols of comics edition and 11 vols of bunko edition, both of which are still in print.

This story starts in South Vietnam, 1973. Griffin suddenly begins firing at his fellow GIs. Max Lobo shoots him to stop him from firing. Griffin is out of his mind and can only say "Banana Fish". The story jumps to New York, in 1985. Ash Lynx, a street kids leader, comes across a man who is shot and dying. The man hands Ash a locket and says "Los Angeles Westwood 42....... See Banana Fish". Ash goes home and asks his elder brother Griffin, who has become a human vegetable, what Banana Fish is. Dino Gorzine, who is a homosexual Corsican Mafia boss and loves Ash, is also interested in Banana Fish. Eiji Okumura comes from Japan with Shun-ichi Ibe, a photographer. They meet Ash to take street kids' photos. Dino frames Ash and he is sent to a prison. Ash meets Max Lobo there. While Ash is in prison, Griffin is killed by Dino's henchmen. Later, Ash is released from prison and attempts to kill Dino with the help of his friend Shorter, but they fail and escape.

If you want to read more, see here.

Frederik L. Schodt is introducing BANANA FIISH in "DREAMLAND JAPAN, Writings On Modern Manga" 1996, Stone Bridge Press

BANANA FISH has spin-offs. Eiji and Ibe first appeared in "Fly boy, in the sky" in Bessatsu LaLa winter issue in 1984.
"Private Opinion" is a story about young Ash and Blanka. "Angel Eyes" is set in a reformatory, where Ash met Shorter for the first time at the age of 13. "Hikari no Niwa" is a story about Eiji and Shin eight years after BANANA FISH.

BANANA FISH has been translated into Chinese, Korean and English.

English version

BANANA FISH English version has been running in PULP magazine since 1997 December.

There are three issues with a BANANA FISH image in the cover
      
1999 January1999 September2000 April


The translators are Matt Thorn (from the beggining to 2000 March issue), Bill Flanagan (2000 April), Zachary Braveman(from 2000 May to November) and Akemi Wegmuller(from 2000 December).


Following pages have scanned images from PULP magazine following the PULP copyright page
. January   February   March   April   May   June   July   August   September   October   November   December

The first five vols of comic books have been published so far.

English TitlePublisherPublished inISBN
BANANA FISH VOL.1VIZ Communications1998.91-56931-320-2
BANANA FISH VOL.2VIZ Communications1999.51-56931-369-5
BANANA FISH VOL.3VIZ Communications1999.121-56931-438-1
BANANA FISH VOL.4VIZ Communications2000.101-56931-544-2
BANANA FISH VOL.5VIZ Communications2001.61-56931-673-2



You can see the cover images below

BANANA FISH VOL.1
BANANA FISH VOL.2
BANANA FISH VOL.3
BANANA FISH VOL.4
BANANA FISH VOL.5


You can see the sample pages.

vol. 1 samples
vol. 2 samples
vol. 3 samples
vol. 4 samples


Lynx

Club Zip Homepage
Club Zip is a doujinshi circle in Taiwan. It's an English site.


icomics
BANANA FISH review

BANANA FISH
In Shoujo&General


REVIEW- BANANA FISH VOLUME 1 TPB
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