Banana Fish, Akimi Yoshida

[cyphomandra]

Shorter tries to fight the drug, but it's hopeless, and he starts attacking Eiji. Eiji is forced to fight back with a knife he’s been given, and Ash starts yelling instructions (Ash, Ibe and Max are all chained up). Arthur (evil guy formerly in Ash’s gang, who’s now working directly for Dino) is with them, enjoying the show; Dino and various politicians who tend to have their faces conveniently masked by speech balloons are watching on closed-circuit television.

Shorter begs for Ash to kill him, to end it, and Arthur puts a gun with one bullet in it on the ground; when Shorter gets Eiji down and is about to stab him Arthur gives Ash just enough slack in his chains to break free and shoot Shorter, fatally. The doctors take Shorter’s body away to study, Eiji, who’d grabbed Shorter when he was shot is also dragged away, and Arthur taunts Ash, saying that Eiji will be used for sex and then given Banana Fish and told to attack Ash.

However, Sing and the others are moving into place for an attack on Dino’s mansion. Yut Lung is also plotting and, in addition to his hairpins/acupuncture needles turns out to have an earring transmitter for communicating with his henchpeople. He kills Ash's guards and gives Ash access to the key to his chains, deliberately not setting him free while he (Yut Lung) is there. Dino's plots advance with another political death, and Sing and Ash's gang attack. My fondness for Sing increases (he’s competent, he’s loyal, he’s aware that he’s probably stuck on the wrong side and is dealing with this without expecting sympathy) as I see his chosen weapon is one of those wire things.

Ash gets himself free with some impressive gymnastics and frees Max and Ibe. They break into Dino's arsenal; Max and Ibe then try and make their way out, while Ash heads off to find Eiji with a ridiculous amount of weaponry (on page 100 is the immortal line, “"Get back!! He's got a grenade launcher!") and an awful lot of damage ensues before Ash manages to track down Eiji and blow away the door to his room. This is all really nicely laid out and paced; there’s a page, for example, where Ash is preparing to shoot people that does a lot with a few images, and the sound effects are also really impressive and enhance the whole action sequence.

Dino finds out about the attack, and tells the younger Dawson to abort Shorter’s autopsy and get out with his notes. Yut Lung catches him while he's escaping and paralyses him, leaving him as a present for Ash. Ash meets up with his gang and hands over Eiji, going back to get Shorter's body (largely because Eiji thinks he should).

When he finds it the brain is missing and Dawson is there - Ash kills him, has a small breakdown over Shorter’s body and then torches it, which is where Sing finds him. Sing wants to avenge Shorter, but Ash won't tell him what really happened (which for a change actually makes some sort of sense rather than just being a decision made to increase tension) and casually defeats Sing when he tries to attack him. Yut Lung catches up with Sing's gang and orders a retreat.

The media report the attack as youth gangs targeting a community philanthropist, probably for burglary. Max and Ibe catch up with Charlie, who’s with Nadia, and Eiji and Ash are back with Ash's gang, where Ash promptly – and deservedly – falls asleep.