Banana Fish – Episode 3

Oh boy, episode 3 answers a few questions and yet creates even more questions as it goes. First, let’s look into what we learn about ‘Banana Fish’, the series namesake.

-We learn that Banana Fish is most likely a person or a organization. So there goes my theory that it’s the name of the drug that Ash got from the dying man and is trying to hide from Dino. Still, i’m more than a little convinced that it’s tied to the drug in some way shape or form.

-The man who died in front of Ash in the first episode was a journalist that had been investigating Banana Fish for years and probably got too close to learning the truth.

-it’s made up almost entirely of LSD, but is causing strange behavioral side effects that are not related to LSD in the slightest. So there has to be some other kind of drug mixed in with the LSD.

It’s not much, but it’s something. In this episode, we also meet Max. The insider that Charlie was going to have protect Ash in prison.
He was absolutely nothing like what I imagined. I suppose because he was calling in a favor to protect Ash, I imagined that Max would be a lot more threatening or intimidating. While i’m not saying he couldn’t hold his own [he’s ex-military for crying out loud], I’m saying that he was a little too passive and normal to really be able to intimidate any of the inmates away from trying to harm the younger boy.
Max was in the military at the same time as Ash’s brother, in fact, we saw him in the first episode as the one that shot Ash’s brother in the legs in an attempt to save himself and the men that hadn’t already been gunned down. He’s also a journalist that has been chasing down Banana Fish since returning from the war.

While all this interest and intrigue are amazing. Let’s be real, the best part of the episode is where Ash walked over to Eiji, kissed him deeply and squeezed his ass. Just to pass on a note tucked away in the shell of some pain medication. I mean, that’s one way to pass a message without anyone else noticing.
It says something about Eiji that he managed to hold himself together really well through that. What was probably his first kiss, he felt the shell of the medication passing into his mouth. Instinctually knew how important it was, dismissed himself to the bathroom to remove it from his mouth and knew to open it and read the message inside. He’s a clever boy, I have to give him that.

The note in question, tells him to go track down the Doctor that Ash gave the drug too and tell him to basically get out of dodge. They are in way too deep and they don’t know what they are messing with. So Eiji heads to Chinatown to do just that, but unfortunately for him Arthur caught wind of their meeting in jail and Arthur seems to think that Ash wouldn’t meet with someone for a casual chat.
So he has Eiji followed and in the end, he captures him at the doctors place. I’m so nervous for this boy, he doesn’t deserve this!

Also, my friend finally answered for me what it was that the animation sort of reminded me of. It has a very studio Ghibli style too it despite not being animated by them. The sense that the style looked familiar was driving me insane.