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
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
Brain: I thought of a dance to go along with the jazz frog song
Me: that’s nice, am washing dish-
Brain: You gotta do it after you’re done YOU GOTTA ITS SO GOOD
Me: aight im do-
Brain: OK NOW DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE DANCE
Me: *dances*
Brain: ok that was cool so do you aspire to be a milf who cooks too much on purpose so she could share with everyone and always comes up with cute nicknames to call people like, sweetiepie, honeyboo, tatertots, etc. outfit styles ranges from country girl to badass stripper and acts extra af
Me:
Me: omg how did you know-
Brain: well duh also hey check this out *dissociates*
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-
I’m gonna keep replaying the scene between connie and samuel until I got no more tears left to cry cuz why not
OMFG
I MADE SOMETHING TERRIBLE
I think Ash had wanted to die for a very long time, although there’s no indication that Ash has self-harmed(I only watched the anime) whenever his loved ones is put in danger, he doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself, and I think one of the reasons for that(besides him caring deeply for them) is he is suicidal, cuz ever since he was a child, he was sexually abused and taken advantage of by sick perverted men.
Spending time with Eiji did give him comfort and but his whole life he was abused, manipulated and raped, over and over, I’m no therapist but I’m pretty sure Ash isn’t mentally stable after going through all of that, and I think it takes more than a caring, loving and selfless person to heal Ash’s wounds. (I’m not saying Eiji didn’t change Ash’s life, Ash loved Eiji for sure) Eiji did give him hope in living so I think that’s why Ash rushed to the airport when he saw the ticket, in that moment, he did want to spend his life with Eiji.
Sadly, he was stabbed, and I think that triggered Ash’s suicidal thoughts, cuz come on, that stab wound was treatable. Ash survived a gunshot wound before, stab wound is no big deal for him. My theory is while he was running, he was imagining the life he could have with Eiji in Japan, but *STAB*
He was brought back to reality, and he was reminded of the countless people he’s killed and that died for him. He’s being chased by police, gangs, criminals, and Lao is only one of them, What if those people would chase him even when he’s in Japan with Eiji? Will they easily give up just because he’s travelled to another country? What if his friends he’ll leave behind get hurt and held hostage by the gangs, then demand Ash to return? Will he be able to move on and start a brand new life with Eiji in Japan happily?
Bleeding, he finally decided to give in to his suicidal thoughts. He chose to not get help and bleed to death.
ok here’s why I think suicidal thoughts is what drove him to do that. First of all, he could’ve gotten some help and STAY, Eiji wasn’t forcing him to live with him, Ash could’ve be like, “Yeah, I can’t live with you, but you can come visit me from time to time, ok? love you” that way he protects his gang friends, and Eiji is in a safe country so no need to worry for him.
Ash was an insecure, suicidal, traumatized poor boy.
So yeah, this is my theory, and I don’t blame anyone for the outcome of the story no matter how sad it is, because they all had their reasons.
New episode(ep 33) of Valdemar route wasn't loading at all!!! so I kept closing and opening the app then I reinstalled it as a last resort!!! But!!! my!!!! account!!! lost!!! all!!! data!!!
hearts that i collected from logging in daily so i could donate it to Ronelle!!! GONE!!!
the new Valdemar episode that I wanted to play!!! LOCKED!!!
ok so while writing this I checked my account again and thought REALLY HARD cuz when you have an account your data is saved automatically.....but mine's gone....so it's possible that I didn't log in at all in the first place?
was about to blame it all on dorian but nvm
I just realized that not laughing at suicide jokes doesn't mean you're mentally healthy I'm still a depressed patata😭
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)
HElp KDSFILKSIOK
The real reason he walks with a limp 🤷♀️