What hurts me in this scene is that Ash doesn’t blame Shorter for all that’s happened. Instead, Ash blames himself. He blames himself for being too occupied with the whole Banana Fish mess to not notice how off and shifty Shorter has been acting lately. Instead of antagonizing Shorter, Ash looks for reasons why Shorter did what he did. His conclusion was that Shorter betrayed them in order to protect his sister in New York. Ash understands Shorter, he’d probably do the same thing himself to protect those he cares about. Ash doesn’t blame Shorter for the betrayal, he blame Lee Wang-lung for forcing Shorter to do this. And I think that’s beautiful (இ﹏இ`｡)
The following are scans from the Banana Fish short “That Summer” included in the artbook titled “Angel Eyes”. Images, translations and information courtesy of Boyfruit via the wayback machine.
This story stars Ash and Shorter (with hair!) just being kids. A rare glimpse of peace for Ash.
That Summer
A special season.
Fish and chips.
Banana. Pecan. Chocolate chip. Cherry.
A large-size coke. Wiping our greasy fingers on our t-shirts.
Moonlit Spires 