BANANA FISH ART JOURNAL EXIHBITION

In OSAKA 4.4-4.15.2019

The BANANA FISH original painting exhibition in Osaka Abeno Harukas.

New Ash Lynx Figure

Series: BANANA FISH

Product Line: ARTFX J

Manufacturer: Kotobukiya

Sculptor: Tanabe Shin

Specifications: Painted, non-articulated, 1/8 scale ABS & PVC snap-fit kit

Figure Height (approx.): 250 mm | 9.8 "

From Banana Fish comes a scale figure of Ash Lynx! He's been recreated in elegant formal wear. His natural air of refinement is on full display. Ash's hand strokes through his hair while he holds a single rose behind his back. The ribbon on the rose and his coattails gently float in the wind, making it appear as though Ash is really there.

Price: $230.49

Math with Banana Fish

Ok Ash, we got you.

You can find the English translation of the Japanese lyrics of RED here. 

The “Survive Said The Prophet×BANANA FISH SPECIAL MOVIE” in the bonus DVD is basically two music videos of “found & lost” and “RED” (TV-size versions), featuring scenes from the Banana Fish anime.

 

Inspiration

I was digging around in old photos of Stefan Edberg, Swedish professional tennis player and the inspiration for Ash’s earlier design in the Banana Fish manga.

So here are the results:

• BANANA FISH Volume 1 feat. Ash Lynx, English serialization by Pulp.
• Ash in Volume 1. That hair…
• Stefan Edberg after winning the Junior Grand Slam, 1983. Age 17.

• Edberg in 1984, Milan.

And in the Olympics, 1984. Age 18.

In 1987, River Phoenix visited Japan for the premiere of Stand By Me. I’m not sure when exactly Yoshida began shifting Ash’s appearance to more closely match River’s (I’d have to figure out when the volume with the first big style change was published in Japan), but he would have been around 17 at the time of that visit. 

I just like looking at these little comparisons and I hope someone else finds them interesting! I had never seen younger pictures of Stefan until now.

Introduction

『BANANA FISH』（バナナフィッシュ）

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akimi Yoshida. 

Originally serialized in Shōjo Comic from 1985 to 1994, the series follows Ash Lynx, a teenage gang leader in New York City. With a brutal past and not a lot of hope for a better future, Ash is holding steady in his life as the leader of a gang in downtown Manhattan. Mostly he's treading water - trying to stay alive as he struggles to free himself from the unendurable tether of Papa Dino Golzine, the mob boss who has been grooming him to be both his lover and heir since he was a child. Ash's world changes when he stumbles across a dying man in an alley. The man pushes a vial into his hand and utters his last words: "Banana Fish." This phrase isn't new to Ash, and it opens a door to an old mystery and the exquisite possibility of freedom.

Days later, Ash meets Okumura Eiji, a young Japanese man who came to the United States as the assistant to a photographer who hopes to do a journalistic piece on American youth gangs. What begins as a random encounter quickly escalates into a life-and-death struggle, knotting Ash and Eiji together in ways that cannot be untangled!