Me And My Brain Just Few Mins Ago For No Reason:

All this Mordetwi tiktoks and memes lowkey makes me wanna write a fanfic or smth

HElp KDSFILKSIOK

The real reason he walks with a limp 🤷‍♀️

I wasn't aware of this up until now, thank you for sharing this

okay you know what? i’m gonna say it.

i appreciate akimi yoshida’s work as a writer and i love banana fish. that being said, i think some of the shit she’s pulled is absolutely deplorable and i won’t stand for it.

for starters, she’s sent out this awful message that trauma survivors are always going to be confined to their past, which we’ve seen being conveyed through her reasoning behind ash’s death. for those of you who don’t know what i’m talking about, she’s basically said that there was no chance that ash could have had happiness, mainly because of everything he’s been through. (fuck that, by the way. if you’re a trauma survivor, know that there is happiness in store for you, regardless of anyone else’s opinions.)

secondly, we have the bury your gay trope, as many people have already pointed out. that’s just deeply homophobic. i don’t think i need to go into detail with this one, we all know how banana fish ends. 

she also villainized her main protagonist, claiming that he was nothing but a “murderer,” and going by the eye-for-an-eye ideology. she said that if he killed, he deserved to be killed in return.

next. she paired up a 30-something-year-old with a 20-something-year-old. now you might think that’s okay, but it’s not. why? because said 30 y/o knew said 20 y/o when the latter was a child. is it still okay? yeah, didn’t think so.

yoshida also used substantially racist caricatures similar to the anti-black portrayals of black people in the media.

then we have the absolutely horrifying spectacle that is the official art of blanca x ash. the main theme of banana fish is the effects of pedophillia and child sex trafficking, and how appalling the whole concept is. we’ve seen throughout the storyline how big of an impact it has had on the main protagonist. despite this, yoshida published art that depicted blanca (a full-grown, adult male) and ash (a child, at the time) being intimate. there have been no official comments made as to what exactly was going on in said art, but fans have speculated that it could be symbolic. we won’t go into detail of that right now, but i think we can all agree that this whole situation is extraordinarily self-contradictory.

i think yoshida is a good writer and i love this incredible story she’s given us, with all these amazing, complex characters. however, i do not agree with any of her reasoning and quite frankly, i think it’s disgusting.

feel free to add on if you have any more points

my contribution to keeping the PH miu404 fandom alive

Helluva Boss yo

I can’t properly describe how good it is cuz of my limited vocabulary but it’s great and I can’t believe that it’s free to watch on yt

Hange asmr

I've only been listening to Japanese Hange asmrs(which wasn't even alot cuz only 1 youtuber made Hange asmr and it was only 3 videos and there wasn't even a Hange x listener) which made me miss out on the AMAZING English Hange x listener asmrs and yesterday I tried listening to one AND now I'm listening to another asmr and I regretted ignoring them before in my yt recommends now I love it and I love Hange and I wish they were real have I mentioned I love them-

Stan Azuki for clear skin and free therapy(and a little bit of angst) P.S. This is a draft from months ago but I forgot to post it

UGHHH as much as i want them to get together already, I think Aya’s reaction is valid because keep in mind Aya doesn’t know what Mizuki thinks of her and doesn’t know that all those flirty(?)/sweet lines said to her was a desperate attempt of Mizuki trying to keep up the image of a cool guy persona or smth like that, hence why she always goes, “WHY DID I SAY THAT OMG” after saying those lines cuz it was never intentional(I’m not certain about this cuz idk if Mizuki’s feelings towards Aya is romantic, and she’s actually subconciously or conciously projecting it)

As for Mizuki, I relate to her in some aspects, like not being able to find the right timing in talking to an extrovert alone, not being able to wear flashy things you like in school cuz you don’t want to be the center of attention, overthinking and being anxious, being intimidated by popular extrovert kids, and so on. What she did was understandable but not justifiable cuz she was aware that Aya had a crush on her guy persona and still decided to keep up the act and unintentionally(and this is really important to take note of), toyed with her feelings. 

In Aya’s eyes, a classmate whom she wanted to be friends with turns out to be the “guy” she liked, and was completely aware of that fact, and still kept talking to her pretending to be a guy, being the witness to her blushing flustering girly side which she never showed to any guy in school; she felt deceived, embarrased, and betrayed. 

They need time to gather up their thoughts and feelings for now, and I want Aya to get the apology she deserves, and for Mizuki to clear up her misconception about how Aya thinks of her.

Anyways about how I think they’ll reconcile, look at this art the author posted before on twitter:

It was captioned, “Just me, the two of us” LOOK AT THEIR CLOTHES THEY’RE BOTH WEARING BLACK THEY’RE MATCHING AND IN THEIR OWN LITTLE WORLD 

So yeah, I’m thinking that the way they’ll reconcile is through music, rather than direct communication 

Here are other arts the author posted on twitter captioned, “’...Sorry, I thought you noticed, which made it harder to talk to you even more...’" I THINK THAT’S GONNA BE MIZUKI’S LINE WHEN THEY RECONCILE AHHHHHH

So here I think, Aya already knows Mizuki’s identity, and keeps looking at her, waiting for her to say smth, and Mizuki keeps avoiding eye contact

Then here we see them both flustered, cuz Mizuki made the first move in attempting to reconcile through music(see how they’re sharing earphones) then she says the line in the caption 

That’s it for my ramble, anyways stan Azuki(idk their official ship name)

Yay

Ash & Eiji’s Mysterious History Of Love Affairs With Women

Could it be that they are virgins!?

Whenever the main characters of a manga are two boys around their age, it’s common for a lady to get involved. However, in BANANA FISH, no woman gets involved with any of the main characters. Far from it — there are very few female characters and they all have perfectly minor roles. Because of that, there might be worries that all of the characters would get frustrated.

So, I became intrigued by Ash and Eiji’s love affairs with women up until now and decided to analyze them.

Firstly, Ash. He doesn’t seem to be gay but he’s been attacked by perverted old men countless times. That being said, Ash was never the one to lead them on (although he did seduce men during his operation), and there were no scenes of him calling out to a woman either. There was only one time when he talked about girls with Eiji, while drinking beer on a Halloween night. To Eiji’s “you were popular with women, weren’t you?” (why did he use the past tense?), Ash nonchalantly replied with a “yeah, sort of”. As there are plenty of women who want to be the boss’ lady, he could pick and choose whoever he wanted if he felt like it. But Ash coolly stated that “he would refuse those unsightly women even if asked”. From his words, it can be understood that not only old men, but also many women had approached and made a pass at him. He may have been raped or attacked by an older woman.

Actually, when he was 14, he maintained a sexual relationship with a 42-year-old female tutor in Golzine’s mansion. The tutor justified her actions by claiming that “Ash was the one who seduced her” and was dismissed by Golzine. Based on these facts, it can be be inferred that Ash has at least some experience with women. Whether he had sex out of his own volition and desire apart, it’s unthinkable that he might be a virgin. If the women who approached him in his early teens were lining up, Ash would surely get wobbly. Since he “could pick and choose whoever he wanted if he felt like it”, there must’ve been nights when he was into it after all.

But during this same Halloween night, he told Eiji another part of his past — a very sad one. At 14, Ash came to really like this one girl, but, as she was mistaken for Ash’s woman, she ended up getting killed. Chances are that Ash had never even kissed her. Ever since this incident, he absolutely stopped himself from falling in love or dating anyone else. Being in his position, the likelihood of exposing anyone he came to love to danger was huge; alternatively, situations in which he thought he was loved but realized that the other party was actually expecting something in return happened quite a few times. Because of that, it seems that Ash ended up having a tendency to be unsuitable for love. Considering the situation, Eiji was surely the only one truly special to Ash.

Meanwhile, this very Eiji is strongly suspected of being a virgin. Eiji was a high school student in the countryside of Izumo city¹, Shimane prefecture. Besides, he spent all of his time practicing, day after day, as a serious member of the track and field club. Even though it wasn’t mentioned whether it was an all-boys high school, there were absolutely no girls in the school scenes, nor in the pictures taken by Ibe. There were only boys around. Since he had a cute face and was a promising high jump athlete, Eiji undoubtedly had some fangirls; but he was the sort of high school student who really had no interest in such things.

After graduating from high school, Eiji went on to university with a sports recommendation. Eiji seems to have actively joined the track and field club — this also left no time for him to enjoy mixers with college girls. On top of that, he got injured soon after joining and ended up slipping into a slump. In such cases, people would commonly become desperate and visit soaplands or hang around a woman’s place, but Eiji isn’t much of a dexterous type when dealing with his problems. He was in such an indecisive state that Ibe forcibly took him along to the US under the pretext of being a camera assistant. Then, he ended up meeting Ash before he could have some fun with blonde ladies in America — and the rest is history. He has been violated by Golzine, but he has never been approached by a woman.

In addition, as an evidence that backs up the “Virgin Eiji Theory”, there’s one remark from his Halloween night chat with Ash: after being asked whether he had a girlfriend back in Japan, Eiji faltered — he knew that by “girlfriend”, Ash meant “a sexual relationship”. Flustered, he answered “well, if it’s just a friend......” in an attempt to dodge the question. Because he was uncharacteristically jumpy, whether they were really “just friends” seemed quite dubious.

Ash has kissed Eiji once, it happened during the time he was in jail and tried to pass a capsule with a message on to Eiji. (It’s their only direct love scene.) As he watched them, Ibe got worried that it might’ve been Eiji’s first kiss — his guess was probably right on the money. Even if Eiji had ever kissed someone in Japan, it certainly wouldn’t have been voluntary — maybe it was forced onto him by an assertive senior, or someone could’ve stolen a kiss while he was drunk. Far from losing his virginity, Eiji has never even experienced a proper kiss.

However, as Eiji was still in his teens, it was still alright. So how about after Ash’s death? Set sever years later, “Garden of Light” introduces a 28-year-old Eiji. Just as ever, there doesn’t seem to be any woman around; he might still be a virgin, no changes here either. It’s pretty concerning as it feels like he’s remained faithful to Ash.

NOTES:

1. Izumo looks like a very countrysideish city, so dating around doesn’t seem to be as common as it would be in big cities like Tokyo. I guess being from a smaller place made it already hard for Eiji to have had any relationships... It wouldn’t be surprising for him to have barely even talked about those things — considering his devotion to sports. Ash being so used to such subjects (not because he chose to, but still) really widens the gap between the lives they’ve led. I’ve touched upon this before but y’know, I can never stop talking about those two :’)

I made a miu404 quiz if anyone wants to try hehehehe