This is the first volume of the Banana Fish manga.
Synopsis
New York City, 1985. A dying man leaves bisexual gang leader Ash Lynx a strange drug, the key to something called "Banana Fish." The mysterious potion will lead Ash to a disturbed Vietnam vet who remembers a massacre – and into brutal battle with the mafia over control of the drug.
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.
It's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to arrive in NYC and make Ash Lynx's acquaintance and fall with him into the bloody whirlpool of pride, greed, lust and wrath unleashed by the enigma code-named Banana Fish...
Summary
In 1973, in Vietnam, an American soldier goes mad and guns down his buddies. Since then, the only words he has uttered are “Banana Fish.” Twelve years later, in New York City, police investigate a series of puzzling suicides. Meanwhile, a handsome charismatic young gang leader named Ash is given a mysterious substance and an address by a dying man.
What is the connection between these seemingly random acts of violence? As Ash begins to unravel the mystery, Mafioso boss Papa Dino Golzine takes harsh steps to stop his investigation cold!
Ash’s former patron, Mafia boss Papa Dino Golzine, sends his goons to kidnap Ash’s best buddy, Skip, to force Ash to hand over the vial and its precious contents. In the ensuing brawl, they end up making off with Eiji, a young Japanese reporting on youth gangs, as well. and when Ash sets out to rescue his old and new friend, he is captured too!
In the end, only Eiji manages to escape Golzine’s clutches. He runs to his friends on the NYPD for help. But Ash’s fellow gangmembers are staging a dramatic rescue of their own...!
Characters
- Ash Lynx
- Eiji Okumura
- Max Lobo (young)
- Dino Golzine
- Shorter Wong
- Frederick Arthur
- Shunichi Ibe
- Charlie Dickinson
- Jenkins
- Gregory
- Skip
- Stephen Thompson
- Griffin Callenreese (young)
- Marvin Crosby
- Abraham Dawson
- Wookie
- Alex