Review Banana Fish official guidebook – Rebirth by Tampopo24

The ultimate guide!

By resuming the publication of Banana Fish when readers were no longer expecting it, Panini had already given us a great gift, with the discovery of its large format edition and its bonuses, readers were delighted, now with the arrival of the Guidebook they can only be thrilled. Panini has really pulled out all the stops here! Thanks to them.

We find in a large flexible format which initially brings together, as in the original Japanese, all black & white chapter covers of the title in even larger format than the manga, which allows toadmire the evolution of the author’s line. Stunning ! Added to this, a color poster in the intro with a map of New York and landmarks in history on the back, as well as some color illustrations in the middle emotionally emphasizing all the melancholy of Ash and Eiji. Comes next a big “information” part as in any guidebook where we are told that it was updated during the Japanese reissue of 2001.

I loved the richness and seriousness of the object. Admittedly, I would have liked a little more color illustrations but perhaps the publisher will offer us the artbook Angel Eyes to complete the collection? In the meantime, all of the content and the object itself are of high quality. On a very beautiful paper and in a flexible binding very pleasant to handle, we learn a lot of things. The author is not content to pile up knowledge but also offers analyzes of her work and her characters as well as their cult scenes.

I liked the involvement of the author that I felt in each page. When she describes a character and chooses to highlight such and such a scene, she nevertheless explains, briefly of course, but we feel her presence behind and her sharp mind and a bit of sarcasticness at times. It’s quite funny and hilarious.

Afterwards for those who have already read Guidebooks, they will not be out of place in the construction of this one which resembles the others in every way, with the heroes who necessarily have more pages than the other characters, the cult scenes highlighted, the biographical details or the small key quotes. It’s just interesting to have as a bonus an analysis of the author on each character and not just her biography.

Similarly, the author brings real elements that enrich the reading and the story of the manga.. For example, she comes back to the History of Manhattan, she also deciphers her own plot by adding documents, maps, which allows everything to be traced step by step with a context. Similarly, the part which offers to analyze different elements of the work like the drug that gave the work its name, the American conspiracy or the famous end of the work, is a part that I loved because the author also gives her inspirations and responds to readers’ speculations. It was then interesting to hear his voice as it was the case in a “round table” part where we discuss the voice with magazine editors almost informally, which still allows us to come back to the work of ‘another way.