Banana Fish

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akimi Yoshida. Originally serialized in Shōjo Comic from 1985 to 1994, the series follows Ash Lynx, a teenage gang leader in New York City. An anime adaptation by MAPPA premiered July 6, 2018. Viz Media released the series in English.

Plot
With a brutal past and not a lot of hope for a better future, Ash is holding steady in his life as the leader of a gang in downtown Manhattan. Mostly he's treading water - trying to stay alive as he struggles to free himself from the unendurable tether of Papa Dino Golzine, the mob boss who has been grooming him to be both his lover and heir since he was a child. Ash's world changes when he stumbles across a dying man in an alley. The man pushes a vial into his hand and utters his last words: "Banana Fish." This phrase isn't new to Ash, and it opens a door to an old mystery and the exquisite possibility of freedom.

Days later, Ash meets Okumura Eiji, a young Japanese man who came to the United States as the assistant to a photographer who hopes to do a journalistic piece on American youth gangs. What begins as a random encounter quickly escalates into a life-and-death struggle, knotting Ash and Eiji together in ways that cannot be untangled.

(Note: The anime adaptation changes the time period of the work).

Official

 * Official English Manga site


 * Official Twitter Account