News Reporting

Viz Media Reprints Banana Fish Manga


Banana Fish Manga Volume 1 CoverPretty boys, dynamite writing. What’s not to love?

Earlier today, Viz Media announced that they are reprinting the Banana Fish manga. The entire run will return to stores under the company’s main manga imprint.

Akimi Yoshida’s Banana Fish manga launched in the pages of Shogakukan’s Bessatsu Shōjo Comic magazine in 1985. The series, which ran through 1994, spanned 19 volumes in Japan.

Viz Media first distributed the Banana Fish manga in their (now defunct) Pulp magazine. They describe the series as:

Vice City: New York in the 80s… Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A child runaway brought up as the adopted heir, hatchet man, and sex toy of “Papa” Dino Golzine, the East Coast’s Corsican crime lord, Ash is now at the rebellious age of seventeen – forsaking the kingdom of power and riches held out by the devil who raised him, preferring a code he can live with among a small but loyal gang of street thugs. But his “Papa” can’t simply let him go – not when the hideous secret that drove Ash’s older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into his insatiably ambitious hands.

Banana Fish received an anime adaptation, which launched on July 5. The title is being directed by Hiroko Utsumi (Free!) at MAPPA, with Akemi Hayashi (Fruits Basket, Peacemaker) providing character designs. Hiroshi Seko (Inuyashiki Last Hero, Ajin: Demi-Human) is in charge of series composition for the project.

Source: Viz Media (Industry Panel)

About the author

Samantha Ferreira

Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.

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