The Fujimoto Yukari Interview

In response to a recent ask I got about Yoshida Akimi’s interviews, I thought I’d dedicate a post to one interview in particular and that’s the Fujimoto Yukari interview published in The Soul of Shoujo Manga (少女まんが魂) in 2000. Almost all the buzzworthy stuff Yoshida said about Banana Fish are from this one. @pekorosu​ translated part of this 20-page interview and posted a summary here. I found scans of two excerpts on Twitter user @Matryoshka3’s account (1, 2). I’m reposting the images here because tweets tend to disappear after a while, and I want this one to remain for archival purposes and because fans eventually hear about this interview and want to find out more.

This part was recently translated by @pekorosu​ here. I think the keyword that causes confusion here is きっかけ (“kikkake”) which can be interpreted to mean “reason”, “occasion”, “motive”, “excuse”, etc. They’re all similar in meaning but at the same time slightly different. So Yoshida’s line becomes “They would have had sex, but there just wasn’t any ‘kikkake’ so they ended up not doing it.”

I vaguely remember a Twitter user (enta_jinnai, I think?) commenting on this part of the interview and saying something like “Ash and Eiji never got to have sex because they simply never got around to it. But if they had the chance (maybe more time or more favorable circumstances), they would have eventually done it.” I might be wrong though. Unfortunately, the original tweet is no longer available, but maybe it’s being reposted somewhere and fans who read it get curious about what Yoshida actually said in the interview. But as @pekorosu​ mentioned, Yoshida wasn’t specifically talking about Banana Fish here and I only just realized that because I never read the part of the interview that led up to this point.

We all know how heavily Yoshida was influenced by Midnight Cowboy from various interviews and what she wanted to explore in her works was the connection between two characters that was on a more spiritual level, rather than romantic or sexual. I think what she’s saying here is that she wanted to portray an aspect of the relationship between her characters that didn’t necessarily focus on sex, but also didn’t exclude the possibility of it altogether.

Here’s another part of the interview that, uhh, gets a reaction from fans every time and, unlike the previous one, it directly mentions Ash and Eiji. @brickme​ posted a partial translation here. When I read this part of the interview (or rather its translation), I had no idea about the myth that a unicorn, a wild and untamed creature, could only be captured by a virgin. Now that I’ve read a little bit about it, this interview makes much more sense. Ash, who’s depicted as a wild beast more than once in the story, is drawn to Eiji’s innocence. I really like how Yoshida’s drawn a parallel between this myth and the pure, transcendent bond between the two.

I’ll roughly translate the remaining part that’s included in the scan but not in the translation.

Please correct me if there are any errors in my translation. The word Fujimoto uses when referring to Eiji is 無垢 (“muku”) and, again, it has many meanings: pure, innocent, unspoiled, immaculate, etc. But it literally means “without dirt.” And Yoshida, in turn, says that the pure and innocent nature of Eiji makes him dangerous and also a nuisance, which is interesting to hear, although I understand where she’s coming from.

Come to think of it, it could be said that it was Eiji who brought Ash’s demise. Eiji himself believes so in Garden of Light. Ash was drawn to Eiji’s innocence like moth to flame and although he tried to distance himself from Eiji many times, in the end, it was Eiji’s letter that distracted Ash enough to get stabbed and killed. This, of course, doesn’t mean that they would wish never to have met each other. Ash was happiest when he was with Eiji, as he says to Blanca, and Eiji was grateful that he could spend time with Ash however briefly, as he says to Sing.

Yoshida Akimi interviews

So I thought I’d list all Yoshida Akimi interviews related to Banana Fish (and some related to River Phoenix) in one place. Huge thanks go to @pekorosu​ for sharing their own list and for translating most of these interviews. I included only the ones that have been scanned or have an English translation. The list is in chronological order.

Banana Fish-related:

1. Pafu 1989 interview

Published in Pafu magazine

Year: 1989

Scans of the interview can be found here. 

2. 'Actors' interview

Published in COMIC BOX magazine

Year: 1990

This is the interview that lists the artists that Yoshida used as a reference to create the characters in Banana Fish. Partially translated by @pekorosu and @ichigatsunanoka here (contains scans posted by @bananafishlovers). The Chinese translation of the interview and the cover of the magazine can be found here.

3. Pafu 1994 interview

Published in Pafu magazine

Year: 1994

Scans of the interview can be found here and here.

4. Pafu 1995 interview

Published in Pafu magazine

Year: 1995

Translated by @pekorosu here.  Scans of the interview can be found here.

5. Gackt interview (革命前夜秘密会談)

Published in a MALICE MIZER fan book (耽美実験革命)

Year: 1998

Between Yoshida Akimi and Gackt

Partially translated by @pekorosu here. The Chinese translation of the interview can be found here.

6. Comic Fan interview

Published in Bessatsu Pafu Special Edition

Year: 1998

Not much is known about this interview other than a very controversial part that is partially translated by @iamtrashforash here and by @enta_jinnai here.

7. Fujimoto Yukari interview

Published in The Soul of Shoujo Manga (少女まんが魂)

Year: 2000

Between Yoshida Akimi and Fujimoto Yukari

Partially translated by @pekorosu here. And here and here are two particularly interesting parts of the interview.

8. Queer Japan interview

Published in Akimi Yoshida A to Z: Special Talks and Interviews (吉田秋生-夜明け-)

Year: 2000

Between Yoshida Akimi and Fushimi Noriaki

Partially translated by @pekorosu here. Scans of the interview can be found here.

9. Table Talk (座談会)

Published in BANANA FISH Official Guidebook

Year: 2001

Between Yoshida Akimi, Satou Reimon and Tsuzuki Shinichirou

Partially translated by @brickme here (This post also contains excerpts from the Fujimoto Yukari interview).

10. Gekkan Flowers interview

Published in Gekkan Flowers

Question 6 and its answer are translated by Fujishima Sumire here.

11. Premium Talk #4

Published in Yoshida Akimi Book (吉田秋生本)

Year: 2017

Between Yoshida Akimi, Fushimi Noriaki, and Miura Shion

Partially translated by @rainfall here. And here is the Russian translation of the same pages, as well as the scans of the translated pages. This flood by @karice67 here talks about this interview (and the translation linked above) as well as the Queer Japan interview. 

River Phoenix-related:

1. Japan Visit Press Conference Report (来日記者会見レポート)

Published in JUNE

Year: 1991

Scans for part one are here, and for part two are here. Chinese translation of the report can be found here.

2. River Phoenix Memorial (追悼 リバー・フェニックス)

Published in ???

Year: 1993 (some time in November I guess)

I cannot find the source of this one-page letter by Yoshida for the life of me. Please contact me if you know it. Translated by @pekorosu here. Chinese translation can be found here.

3. Memorial Tribute “Lonely Boy River Phoenix” (ロンリー・ボーイ リヴァー・フェニックス)

Published in SCREEN Special Edition (スクリーン特別編集)

Year: 1993 (20 December)

Scanned and translated by Fujishima Sumire here.

Please write to me if you spot any errors in this list or if you have any contributions like links, scans or translations of other related interviews of Yoshida Akimi. I might edit this post later as I discover new content.