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

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards announced the winners of this year’s awards on Friday evening during San Diego Comic-Con 2026. Sanho’s Purgatory Funeral Cakes won the Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia award. Dark Horse Comics published the work and Danny Lim translated the work.

The other nominees for the award this year were:

Shintaro Kago‘s “Blood Harvest” from the Brain Damage book (translated by Zack Davisson) that collects Kago’s short manga won the Best Short Story award. The author’s “The Curse Room” short story from the same book was also nominated.

Kodansha USA‘s hardcover release of volumes 1-5 of Katsuhiro Ōtomo‘s Akira manga (edited by Haruko Hashimoto, Ajani Oloye, and Lauren Scanlan) won the award for Best Archival/Collection Project.

Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989 by Andrea Horbinski won the award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work.

Kazumi Yamashita earned a separate nomination for Best Writer/Artist for the first volume of the Land manga, but Jamal Campbell’s Zatanna won the award.

Anime director Rintarō‘s My Life in 24 Frames per Second manga was nominated for Best Graphic Memoir, but George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger‘s It Rhymes with Takei won the award.

The Art of Manga (designed by Tessa Lee) and Fruits Basket: The Complete Box Set (Collector’s Edition #13) (designed by Wendy Chan) were nominated for Best Publication Design, but Shawn Dahl with Chip Kidd won the award for The Essential Peanuts.

Viz Media‘s release of hakei’s DeadAss was nominated for Best Digital Comic, but Tony Cliff’s Practical Defense Against Piracy won the award.

Manga creator Gō Nagai was inducted to the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame this year. The awards announced on Friday morning that Akira Toriyama was also inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Taiyo Matsumoto‘s Tokyo These Days manga (translated by Michael Arias) won last year’s award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia. The awards last year inducted both Shigeru Mizuki and Junji Ito into the Hall of Fame.

Source: The Beat (Samantha Puc)