motif in manga (such as Ashita no Joe), Midnight Cowboy, and Yoshida's own California Story. The concept of the mind-controlling banana fish drug originated from Yoshida's interest in Central Intelligence Agency research into mind control, such as MKUltra and Project ARTICHOKE, and her research into similar programs in the Soviet Union leading her to consider drugs as a tool for warfare. Yoshida has had an intellectual interest in drugs since high school, noting that her generation was influenced by and developed knowledge of drugs in a broad sense due to the influence of the drug culture of the era. The author has stated that depicting Cold War-era politics became more difficult as political realities changed over the course of Banana Fishs nearly decade-long run – principally the dissolution of the Soviet Union mid-serialization – but that she ultimately did not strive for strict realism in her depiction of politics and current events. Release Banana Fish began serialization in the May 1985 issue of the manga magazine Bessatsu Shōjo Comic, a monthly supplement to the manga magazine Shōjo Comic, where it ran until its conclusion in the April 1994 issue. The total length of the series is roughly 3,400 pages. The series was released amid the so-called "manga boom" of the mid-1980s and 1990s, which saw the popularity of manga increase amid the emergence of new creators, series, genres, and magazines, as well as an increase in the popularity of manga in international markets. Bessatsu Shōjo Comic publisher Shogakukan published Banana Fish as nineteen collected volumes under its Flower Comics imprint. North American publisher Viz Media serialized an English-language translation of Banana Fish as a launch title for its manga magazine Pulp beginning in 1998. When Pulp folded in 2002, serialization of Banana Fish continued in Animerica Extra, which itself folded in 2004. Viz also published two editions of collected volumes of Banana Fish. The first, published from 1999 to 2002 and spanning the first seven volumes, features flipped artwork and censors some expletives. The second, published from 2004 to 2007 and spanning the full 19 volumes, is printed in the original right-to-left format and includes a re-translated script. The series was reprinted by Viz in 2018, shortly after the release of the anime adaptation of Banana Fish. List of volumes Related media Side stories In addition to the main manga series, Yoshida wrote and illustrated four one-shot (single-chapter manga) side