THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Story: 9

Banana Fish is a beautiful story about the adventures of a New York gangster with a dark past named, Ash Lynx, and a Japanese boy visiting America who gets caught up in it, Eiji Okumura. The story starts with 2 things first a flash back scene in the middle east where a soldier kills his comrades and then gets shot in the legs. Second largely with Ash being portrayed as a real tough gangster who is controlling the streets on behalf of the local mafia. However, this sort of story quickly takes a turn into something else, Ash Lynx ends being the little brother of the guy who went insane in the Iraq and believes Golzine the leader of the mafia is responsible so he betrays them and steals a drug called Banana Fish. From this point on the main characters get wrapped up in a huge conspiracy involving congress men, the military, and a large criminal syndicate, and Ash Lynx with his gang and Eiji try to uncover the truth and expose Golzine.

The anime was largely faithful to the source material and did not change all that much, although they did not keep the era the series took place in, it covered the original work well enough. In fact I personally love the atmosphere of New York and the modern interpretation of the series, instead of Vietnam they used a more current war, and they represented current american demographics a lot better. They also changed a few characters backstories to make them more current for example the former Russian agent is now a former Russian special forces member and such. Overall though they kept it faithful to the source material and it was an amazing ride.

Art: 9

The animation is smooth and clean, there were no major problems with it, the fight choreography was pretty beautiful as well and the character design, which really suits the manga version of the characters. The background art for the city was beautifully done, it seems like some of the animators have actually been to New York or at least looked at street views of the city. The weapons in the show could have been done a bit better, and the series decided not to show the aftermath of a lot of the more violent scenes but that's alright the show was aiming to be dark not edgy.

The sound: 8

The openings were absolutely amazing some of the best of 2018, both were great songs, the sound track for the fight scenes and whenever Golzine showed up were very good and livened up the show. I love how the OP songs and the main story were connected really well, and the use of lighter music and background sounds when the characters were doing more slice of life things helped give some relief in a fairly dark show.

Characters: 8

The character development between Ash and Eiji were pretty amazing, Ash starts off being really isolated and closed to the world due to past trauma however with Eiji he beings feeling more human and even able to love like a normal person. Its important to note however, if you are coming into this anime expecting a boys love show, you're going to be disappointed. Although its almost certain Ash is bisexual, Eiji and Ash do not have a romantic life together, the story is primarily focused on the main plot involving Banana Fish, and although Eiji really cares about Ash I dont think hes romantically interested, its closer to brotherly love if anything.

Enjoyment: 8

I really enjoyed this series, its one of my top 5 for this year, and its definitely one of the top 24 episode shows we have had, I believe if you enjoy animes with gangs, street fighting, interesting plot twists, strong but flawed main characters, and a dark atmosphere, then this show is for you.

Overall: 8

I give this show an 8, it was really hard deciding whether or not to give this show an 8 or 9 since it was very close, however I will give it an 8 for 2 reasons. One because although the story was great it relied way to much on Ash or Eiji being kidnapped to move the plot forward, felt like this was a Nintendo game and they princesses. Second because the ending was a little rushed and they couldn't fit in everything important, and had to rush some fights. However it is still a very strong show and definitely a top 5 of 2018.