TGIF! Here we are again with another Fangirl Friday! This week I’m reviewing a genre fluid manga…technically it’s a shojo manga, but you wouldn’t think it to read it. This manga has everything, gang battles, political deals, mysterious drugs, romance (?), drama, angst, tragedy, and to tie it all up, subtle (like really subtle) BL undertones. The manga I’m about to cover is my favorite series of all time. No matter how much time passes, and no matter how many manga I read, nothing has even come close to it! The series is licensed in English by Viz, but it is currently out of print! I have searched conventions, old book stores and online…and I still don’t have the whole series yet….soon though!
Banana Fish, a 19 volume classic manga series by Akimi Yoshida, was released between 1985 and 1994. The series was immensely popular in Japan, spawning three spin-off stories: Private Opinion, Angel Eyes, and The Garden with Holy Light. The musician, Gackt loved this manga so much that he wrote a song about it entitled Asrun (Aslan) Dream (it’s really good too)! This manga really took me by surprise, the artwork while rough at first really grew on me, and the plot…wow…this is not your typical shojo manga, it transcends genre labels! While this post will be Safe for Work, I do need to clarify that this manga does have some content that may not be suitable for some readers. However, none of said content takes away from the plot in any way, in fact it only enhances it!
Trigger warnings: child prostitution, rape/forced sexual situations, coarse language, death
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