Banana Fish, Akimi Yoshida, v11

[cyphomandra]

The Baron is losing it, to Dino’s amusement. Dino points out possible interventions, although now it's too late for them to do much good. The baron authorises the guards to kill Ash, despite Dr Mannerheim wanting to keep him to experiment on. With the elevators locked, Ash (the professor on his back) heads for the garbage chute, glancing thoughtfully at some laundry on the way… Max and Ibe are getting closer to where Ash *was*, as they’re now bumping into some of his fellow patients. Ash and the professor are climbing down the laundry chute on a rope made of sheets. And this all goes wrong again when Max & Ibe knock out a guard and toss him into the nearest garbage chute, knocking Ash and the professor off, although they're on a different and lower chute by now and end up falling unharmed into garbage. Ash leaves the professor there while he goes to explore. Max and Ibe finally get caught, possibly deservedly. However, Ash, now outside the building, is checking out the vehicles for his escape when he overhears some familiar voices… He is not at all thrilled at the prospect of following Max & Ibe and their captors back into the building but, after an awful lot of what I presume is internal shouting, stashes the professor, takes the guard’s gun and heads off.

Mannerheim attempts to interrogate Max & Ibe. There is a fair amount of arguing between Mannerheim, Dino and the Baron, and the Baron reaffirms the order to have Ash shot on site. Max & Ibe are locked in a room. A guard comes in and then keels over, revealing Ash behind him. Max, obviously stuck at least one plan behind, announces that they’re there to rescue Ash, and Ash, demonstrating almost superhuman restraint, does not slam the door shut on them again. He does start yelling, tho’, so the other two grab him and run, although they encounter a guard almost immediately and Ash breaks free to shoot him. The three of them get out of building with Ash cross-dressed as a nurse, which is the sort of obligatory plot insert I will put up with given how much I’m enjoying the rest of it, and they steal an ambulance, pick up Professor Dawson and get away, although the triumph of the moment is undercut by Ibe telling Ash that Eiji is missing.

The arguing over who is responsible for the escape leads to Dino shooting the Baron, ordering Mannerheim about and staking his claim on Ash again. Ash decides to look for Eiji while the others plan to stash Dawson in a summer house in Long Island. Ash goes to talk to Cain, and his rather startled troops (who were all convinced Ash was dead) and yes, this bit would work for me much better if Cain had his own agenda in addition to providing local colour, back-up and useful info for Ash. He mentions Sing, tho’, and there’s a nice jump to Sing plotting with Eiji and Ash’s gang, planning on breaking into Mannerheim’s institution. Fortunately Ash walks in before this goes horribly wrong and Ash has to break back into the place again, and then drags Sing out on to the roof on finding out that Eiji’s told him about Shorter. Ash is unhappy about this and deliberately works Sing up again before snapping at Eiji for intervening, but Eiji manages to defuse things and tell Ash how glad he is to have him back (there is also hugging. It's rather sweet).

Dino visits Yut Lung, which cannot possibly be a good thing, and Yut Lung lays out exactly what he’s learnt about Banana Fish, and Dino’s role in it, before offering Dino a bargain – he’ll wipe out the board of the Union Corse for Dino if Dino wipes out the rest of the Lee family for him. Ash tells Eiji that he’ll stop trying to make Eiji go back to Japan (I am unsure why this makes Eiji see little cartoon octopuses). Over dinner, Ash asks about what Eiji’s been doing; Eiji tries and fails to conceal his time with Yut Lung.

Yut Lung shows Dino his greenhouse (not a euphemism) and his collection of poisonous plants, including an alkaloid hallucinogen that inspired Banana Fish. They elaborate on their deal, and Yut Lung states that he has a plan to get rid of Dawson and give Ash to Dino.

Ash and Eiji, however, are taking the Staten Island ferry to see the others. They discuss Stephen King books and Ash’s mother (I do like that he has mother issues rather than father ones, as opposed to most American literature), and in addition to being saddled with the first name “Aslan” Ash also has the middle name of Jade. Ash suddenly gets jumpy, and says that they won’t go to Long Island but will ride the ferry back instead; jump to the others in Long Island, and Ash ringing them to say he’s not coming. Ash says he feels as if they’re being followed.

Ash goes back to the library, researching Banana Fish, but he keeps getting that feeling. He gets twitchy about sending Eiji out for hotdogs by himself and goes with him. Yut Lung has a conversation with another of his brothers who likes shoving him around, but then armed guys in dark glasses (presumably Dino’s, and I don’t mean the glasses) burst in and shoot Wang Lung. Yut Lung is all over the place in a rather unsafe way here – he’s coldly aggressive with Wang Lung, then starts going on about wiping out the entire Lee family and avenging his mother, despite his brother pointing out that this includes him, and then has a reasoned phone conversation with Dino before putting his hand over his face to avoid looking at the bloody corpse of his brother slumped in the fireplace next to him.

Media coverage acts as a thread for a montage sequence – the CIA are going to be pulled in to control Dino, and Ash starts wondering about Chinatown. Max and his reporter friend (Steven) come to Ash’s hang-out. Ash hands over his report on the drug. Max updates him on Dawson (in a secure hospital, probably permanently damaged. Ash offers to go after Kippard for the others, as their next step, and then he ends up on the street, trying to find out why he feels as if he’s being watched. He doesn’t catch anyway, but there’s a torso shot of someone in a trenchcoat watching, unseen. And this person then visits Dino, and is revealed to be Blanca, a formerly retired assassin who, after his observations, is prepared to take the job Dino is offering.