TL;DR: fantastic start but drops hard.
Synopsis: our very attractive 17 year old (hurr durr) gang leader who is investigating a strange drug that makes people go insane.
Banana Fish takes the cake as the most disappointing anime I have ever watched, by far. It’s also the gayest one. Not gay as in it sucked (which it did), but it was just… gay. The series goes out of its way to put the characters in multiple homoerotic situations (e.g. bondage, MtM rape, etc.) and about half of the characters are gay or bi. While homoeroticism can be funny, it gets old.
Banana Fish starts off as a very promising series. While street gangs are a more common trope in western media, they are very underused in anime, which makes this a more respectable premise. Suddenly, things go south very quickly, and several characters are kidnapped and must be rescued.
These first 5 episodes or so are incredible; some of the best anime I have ever watched. However, the anime seems to refuse to grow out of its fetish for kidnapping characters are making them do gay shit. Which gets very boring, very quickly.
For what it’s worth, the visuals are great, though they aren’t good enough to make up for what is a fairly mediocre and disappointing series.
Scoring
Design (13/15):
Distinguishment: (4/5)
Animation: (2/2)
Sound: (2/2) - i think the sound design was good too? hard to remember
OST: (2/2)
Character designs: (1/2) - kind of bland, honestly
Backgrounds: (2/2)
Script (31/50):
Character Investment: (7/10)
Character Realism: (0/2) - everybody is gay, and ash is a mary sue
Character Complexity: (1/3) - eh
Plot solidness: (1/5)
Plot complexity: (6/10)
Ending: (5/5) - one of the better things about the anime
Pacing: (4/5) - don’t remember
Stakes: (7/10)
Value (7/15):
Thematic elements: (1/5) - nothing worth talking about
Skill: (2/5)
Originality: (4/5)
Enjoyment (12/20):
Did I like it: (12/20)