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Anime Limited Licenses Banana Fish Anime

Anime Limited announced on Friday it has licensed the television anime of Akimi Yoshida's Banana Fish manga in the United Kingdom, North America, and France. The company plans to release the series on Blu-ray Disc in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France in early 2027.

Netflix had announced earlier this month that it will stream the anime in "select regions" starting on August 12. Anime Limited confirmed the anime will be available on Netflix in the U.K., Ireland, the U.S., Canada, and France.

Netflix's stream will include English and French dubs. Anime Limited confirmed the English and French dub casts Netflix previously announced for the two main characters, and stated it will announce the full cast for the series at a later date.

The anime was previously available with subtitles on Amazon Prime Video, but left the service recently.

Amazon Prime Video's streams of the anime previously listed "AI beta" dubs for its English and Latin American Spanish dubs in late November. ANN reached out to Aniplex regarding the dubs on November 28 but did not receive a statement. Prime Video removed the dubs in December.

The anime premiered on Fuji TV's Noitamina block in July 2018. The anime adapted the entire manga, but took place in modern day New York, instead of in the 1980s when the original manga took place. Amazon Prime Video streamed the series as it aired with English subtitles.

Viz Media published the manga in English, and it describes the story:

Vice City: New York in the 80s... Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A child runaway brought up as the adopted heir, hatchet man, and sex toy of "Papa" Dino Golzine, the East Coast's Corsican crime lord, Ash is now at the rebellious age of seventeen - forsaking the kingdom of power and riches held out by the devil who raised him, preferring a code he can live with among a small but loyal gang of street thugs. But his "Papa" can't simply let him go - not when the hideous secret that drove Ash's older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into his insatiably ambitious hands.

It's exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to arrive in NYC and make Ash Lynx's acquaintance... and fall with him into the bloody whirlpool of pride, greed, lust and wrath unleashed by the enigma code-named Banana Fish...

Hiroko Utsumi (Free!) directed the anime at MAPPA, and Hiroshi Seko (Ajin, Mob Psycho 100, Inuyashiki Last Hero) was in charge of the series scripts. Akemi Hayashi (Fruits Basket, Peacemaker, Doukyusei -Classmates-) designed the characters. Shinichi Osawa (Ninja Slayer From Animation) composed the music. Akitsugu Hisagi (key animator for Kids on the Slope, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG) was the show's "hard-boiled supervisor."

Source: Anime Limited