Banana Fish

Episode 6

This week's Banana Fish feels a breather episode at first. The boys are far away from the violence in New York, so it's time to sit back, relax, and get to know each other better. They learn about each other's pasts, but that turns out to be way more traumatic (in Ash's case) than expected, even for this show. We immediately see some good reasons why Ash was so eager to leave his home, and of course he can't get away from the mob for too long even now. Still, "My Lost City" does an excellent job painting in the background of Banana Fish's cruel picture, setting us up for the next part of Ash and Eiji's story.

Banana Fish's ideas about Cape Cod don't have much to do with American cultural ideas about the place, like affluence or beach vacations. (They also seem a bit turned-around on geography. Cape Cod isn't exactly in the "Boston area"; it's a two-hour drive away.) Instead, the series portrays it as an ordinary small town, full of sad and struggling people. Ash and Griffin are technically half-brothers, and both of their mothers are now out of the picture. Their father Jim now lives with a younger and very kind woman, Jennifer, who helps him manage the Green Hill Diner. We don't see many other people around until the very end of the episode, when one of Jim's neighbors comes to help. It's lonely but pretty, with lots of scenes of our characters—particularly Ash and Eiji together—staring off into the middle-distance at beautiful country vistas.

One interesting thing Banana Fish does is juxtapose Eiji's backstory with Ash's, along with ideas about their respective father figures. We got a little of Eiji's past from his own perspective last week, but this week we hear from Ibe about why he brought him to the U.S. It isn't so much that he wants him to find a new passion as he wants to see him jump again, and he thinks Eiji needs a "change of pace" to find that. Max remarks that Ibe cares about him but also seems jealous of his talent, calling this his "Amadeus Syndrome." It's interesting how much Banana Fish positions Ibe as Eiji's father figure without mentioning Eiji's actual parents. Given how much Eiji is contrasted with Ash as more innocent and naïve, I would be surprised if there's any extremely tragic story there. Still, it leaves me to wonder why they haven't come up.

Eiji's past is nothing like Ash's, of course. Jim eventually divulges the story of why Ash left Cape Cod. His baseball team coach sexually molested him when he was 7. Jim told him in the future to "let it happen" but to stand up for himself afterward, and so Ash shot his abuser a year later. The man turned out to be a serial child murderer, with children's skeletons in his basement. The news called him the "Bluebeard of Cape Cod." For once, Banana Fish does have a purpose beyond "Ash has the darkest life story in the world" for telling us this. Jim's story shows the dynamics of victim-blaming and how he tried to resist his son falling victim to the town's rumors. Even when the courts found Ash innocent, having acted in self-defense, "it's a rural town and people talk," Jim says.

More interesting (and disturbing) is the way that Jim himself seems to have succumbed to those ideas. He recognizes that Ash was an innocent child, but he seems to believe that Ash has some ability to "seduce" at least some of the men who have abused him. When Ash comes in the door at the beginning of the episode, Jim calls him a "whore" and asks him if the men in his company are all his bedfellows. Everyone, including Jennifer, is shocked by his words. He calms down eventually and we see by the end that he cares for his son. Still, it shows the cycle of abuse and ostracization that leaves Ash and other victims abandoned after tragedies like the one he faced.

Banana Fish also spends time building Ash and Eiji's relationship through Eiji's reaction to what he learns about Ash. The older men see it as a reflection of how Ash has been hurt and "damaged", and Ibe remarks that it's no wonder Ash can't trust anyone. However, Eiji sees it as a testament to Ash's strength. He's also quick to note that Ash hasn't been broken by it. Ibe's remarks might be why he seems to fear Eiji getting too close to Ash. It's not only that he wants to protect Eiji's physical safety; he also fears how exposure to possible trauma could hurt him. In some ways, Eiji's remarks reassure him that people aren't "made worse" by their horrific experiences. It is something that people can heal and recover from, and doing so can make those people stronger. Ash and Eiji's relationship seems to be a part of that healing, portraying those scenes as oases of calm. In the scenes where Ash and Eiji talk and practice shooting, the music is soft and lyrical, arguably even romantic.

The only real misstep in this episode is how jarring the modern setting feels, as we're reminded with shots of characters using smartphones. The timeline is also a little disjointed by this change. The abusive baseball coach is mentioned to be an Afghanistan veteran that coached both Griffin and Ash. There's a pretty small gap in time between the War in Afghanistan and the Second Iraq War, for that to make sense. I'm guessing in the original manga, it was World War II or the Korean War, which would make more sense for him to have coached a child who went on to fight in Vietnam.

I was also sad to see Jim and Jennifer's demises at the end of the episode. (While only Jennifer for-sure dies, I assume from Jim's sacrifice and the severity of his wounds that he's not long for this world either.) They served their dramatic purpose, but there was potential to grow that relationship further down the line. It also felt like yet another way to pile on the tragedy in Ash's life. Can the boy ever catch a break? Even as they escape to LA (way too quickly, I would've liked to see that cross-country road trip unfold), the mob is hot on his tail again. At least we finally get another clue about the true nature of Banana Fish is—a poison for assassinations—and why it and Ash are so important to Dino.

Episode 6 is the strongest episode of Banana Fish so far. While the first five gave us plenty of reason to care about these characters and the mysteries surrounding them, episode 6 really made me feel like I know them now. It's also the most sophisticated handling of the child abuse themes to date. I'm beginning to get a sense for why this story is so beloved and seen as a thoughtful handling of difficult topics. I hope Banana Fish can only continue to improve from here.

Rating: A

Banana Fish is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Rose is a Ph.D. student in musicology, who recently released a book about the music of Cowboy Bebop. You can also follow her on Twitter.