I have no solid or conclusive evidence but I bet my money that Togashi watches JoJo or at least has watched some JoJo.
I haven’t watched Jojo myself, but it would not surprise me in the least!! That’s really cool!
And yeah, Tserriednich is absolutely terrifying, and he gets increasingly more terrifying with each chapter. The parallels between him and Kurapika, him and Oito, him and Chrollo, and him and Neon are getting stronger and stronger. His abilitiy is, to quote @aspoonofsugar, essentially very similar to Neon’s in that it is future-oriented, but unlike Neon’s, it only gives him the ability, so it’s more selfish. I’m so excited to see where Tserriednich goes–he is a horrific, disgusting man, but an absolutely fantastic villain and actually scary to boot.
We will see! I don’t anticipate that, though. The chapter yet again implies that Endeavor gave the same advice to Touya only to have it go horribly wrong (hence Dabi’s scars). My predication for what is going to happen is essentially this by @ erenatsuki on twitter:
I just hope someone, anyone, makes the potential connection.
I don’t think so, but it’s not impossible. I do think Silva considers Illumi a member of the family and is serious about not killing family (hence the whole ‘Alluka is not a member of the family’ ‘that thing is not human’ schtick). Which is heartbreaking because Silva clearly considers Illumi some kind of disappointment–Tsubone remarks that he and Milluki are too much like their mother, and despite being the two eldest and Illumi the very eldest, both of them were passed over for Killua to be the heir.
The blatant evaluating of his children based on what they can or cannot do is a type of dehumanization, and it’s heartbreaking. Hence that does make you wonder how deep this dehumanization of Illumi (and every child but Killua) goes, and whether the parents could eventually turn on their children if they disappoint them too much (like Alluka being the prime example). I don’t know.
I also don’t know that Illumi would know about it–I think he genuinely just wants Killua to love him and thinks dying is a way to accomplish that. I think Illumi ironically feels most worthwhile and accomplished when he’s with Killua (if he can’t be the heir, at least he can raise the best heir, and if the heir loves him then it’s all okay), acting as his big brother, but he has no concept of how to healthily go about it. I also think Illumi might very well want the humanization that love can bring via Killua more than anything (since a search for purpose & love is Killua’s arc as well, and Illumi is shadow Killua), but at the same time his focus on earning things/worth/value is never going to get him any kind of love from Killua, but only drive them apart.
I have! It’s hilarious you asked me this, because I randomly thought of this movie just this morning and I have no idea why. It’s a great movie, but hard to watch.
Yeah… I was saying to a friend on Twitter today that Ash is an adult legally as of the previous episode, but he never got to be a child, which is why he often acts like a child in some ways with refusing to listen (it’s also a real psychological coping mechanism) but not, of course, in other ways.
It’s one of Banana Fish’s strengths, I think, that Ash’s qualities that could easily rub a reader or viewer the same way–IQ of 200, talented leader, good at killing, stunning beauty–are actually all more curses than gifts. Each of these traits is used against him multiple times, and it is very sad watching the adults in Ash’s life define him by his talents and not by what he is (a kid).
@aspoonofsugar is writing a meta on Ash and his various father figures, so I will hold off on fully writing about it because it’s gonna be good, but of all Ash’s father figures, only Max really treats him like a child and not like a project. Jim and Dino flat-out suck but in kind of opposite ways, Blanca is complex and I think does see Ash as a child more so than the other two do, but also fails Ash spectacularly in that he doesn’t treat him that way because of his own issues.
And then we have Max. I actually think Max does treat Ash like a normal child and that’s incredibly important, because as we see in the episode last week, it’s precisely because of Dino’s attitude of “he’s not just any child” that Ash winds up hurt. Jim, Dino, and Blanca have all defined their relationships with Ash by the things that set him apart from other people (traumatic things for Jim, talent for Dino and Blanca) whereas Max (and Eiji, but in a different sense than Max) treat Ash like a person they love. Which is why it’s fitting they’re the ones who tell Jim off.
Chapters: 11/12 Fandom: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji, Sing Soo-Ling & Lee Yut-Lung, Lee Yut-Lung & Shorter Wong Characters: Lee Yut-Lung, Sing Soo-Ling, Shorter Wong, Ash Lynx, Okumura Eiji Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Redemption, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence Summary:
Yut Lung grew up as a pawn in the Lee family. Determined to topple his brothers and grasp a new role for himself, he is accustomed to playing every person he knows. When he is warned about Golzine’s intentions to inject Shorter with Banana Fish, he chooses to free Shorter instead, and then finds himself in a new game, one he may not know the rules to.
I’m really so happy to hear you like it so much! And I’m also so glad you’re liking Yue as a character–his complexity is so compelling for me, and how his arc compliments Ash’s and Eiji’s and Sing’s too… I love him so much and writing him (and all the characters, really) has been a ton of fun. I hope I am writing him well.
I plan to update tomorrow, and then one more chapter, plus perhaps a few side chapters/epilogue.
hamliet 