Banana Fish poster

Banana Fish (2018)

Series · 23m episodes · Rated TV-MA · In Japanese

Action, Adventure, Animation, Anime, Crime, Drama, Foreign (non-English), Mystery

A teen gang leader and a photojournalist navigate New York's gritty underworld while investigating a deadly new drug.

Suspenseful and bleak. A full-attention watch at full speed. Emotionally it is devastating.

Streaming on Netflix.

Banana Fish parents guide

Heads up on strong sex and nudity. That is past what the TV-MA on the box suggests. Beyond that, brutal violence and some strong language.

Scare
Mildly scary
A few tense or eerie moments.
Jump scares
A couple
One or two sudden jolts.
Gore
Graphic gore
Blood and wounds shown clearly.
Violence
Brutal violence
Our top level for violence.
Sex and nudity
Strong
Strong means explicit or repeated sex, extended nudity, or sexual assault shown on screen, attempted or completed, even partly off screen. Any one of these is enough.
Language
Moderate
Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is Banana Fish scary?
Only a little. Banana Fish has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
How gory is Banana Fish?
Graphic gore and brutal violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
What is Banana Fish rated, and is it OK for kids?
Rated TV-MA, and it earns it: strong sex and nudity, brutal violence, and some strong language. Not one for kids.

What is Banana Fish about?

A teenaged gang leader in New York City faces his abuser and rival gangs alongside a photojournalist from Japan as they investigate a deadly new drug.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

No. Brace yourself.

Cast and crew

StarringYuma Uchida, Kenji Nojima, Unsho Ishizuka, Hiroaki Hirata, Jun Fukuyama, Yoshimasa Hosoya

More like Banana Fish

Banana Fish is on our Edge of your seat, Netflix, Drama on Netflix, Action on Netflix and Animation on Netflix lists.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.