Cast: The Villains

Papa Dino Golzine

Dino Golzine is a Corsican mafia leader with a taste for fine wine, good clothes, and beautiful young boys. He originally took in eleven-year-old Ash as a sexual toy, but then groomed and trained Ash to become a world-class criminal. Dino will never forgive Ash for rebelling against his will. "I raised Ash," he says, "I found him, polished him, educated him, and made him what he is now. And it will be I who destroys him!"

Papa Dino is a ruthless, cold-hearted criminal. He delights in playing sadistic mind-games with his enemies; his loyalty is treacherous and his good graces are often temporary. He is the ultimate evil in a series filled with generally despicable characters; Dino is just so chillingly nasty that you can't help but be fascinated by him.

Frederick Arthur

Arthur forever resents the fact that with Dino's help, Ash "muscled in" on his "turf." A former gang leader then resigned to following Ash, Arhur laid low while he plotted his payback. When we meet him at the beginning of the manga, Arthur is secretly allied with Marvin, an employee of Papa Dino. Over the course of the series, he takes over Ash's territory and replaces Ash as Papa Dino's favorite lapdog.

Arthur is as cold-hearted and ruthless as Dino is. Like Dino, he is also ambitious... and sadistic. Arthur delights in seeing his enemies in pain. "Seeing your face makes me want to hurt you," he tells Ash.

Arthur also has a marvelous sense of 80's fashion, with his spiked hair, earring in one ear, tight shirts, and jeans tucked into cowboy boots. His character design is supposed to be based on Sting, the rock musician.

Dr. Abraham Dawson

Abraham is the cowardly younger brother of Alexis Dawson, the original inventor of the drug "Banana Fish." Abraham desires power and recognition, so he foolishly enlists himself into Papa Dino's ranks, offering his scientific knowledge and the ability to recreate the formula for the drug.

Abraham was a military medic in Vietnam who was verbally abused by the bigoted soldiers because of his Jewish heritage. He began experimenting on the soldiers with the Banana Fish drug, partially because he saw them as dehumanized "test subjects," and also partially because he considered his actions as "rightful revenge" for their teasing. Now Abraham works for Papa Dino, manufacturing and "testing" the drug at Dino's whim.

"Daai Yan" Lee

"Daai Yan" means "Big Man" in Chinese, and Mr. Lee, who poses as an ordinary banker by day, is none other than the patriarch of the Lee family and the authoritative leader of the Chinese mafia in America.

Lee is interested in Banana Fish, and will pretend to ally himself with Dino Golzine in order to further his own ends. In reality, however, he wants to eliminate Golzine and the competition that he provides in the black market.

Yue-Lung Lee

Yue-Lung, "The Moon that Rules Over the Darkness," is the youngest of the seven Lee brothers. His existence is kept a carefully guarded secret - the Lee family supposedly only has six brothers, and Yue-Lung lives under the name "Yau-Si," and poses first as Alexis Dawson's brilliant adopted son, then as a beautiful prostitute for Papa Dino.

Yue-Lung is, without a doubt, the most deviously intelligent and ruthlessly manipulative of the cast. He uses people's emotions against them, manipulating them like puppets on a string. He is an assasin who doesn't even need to cloak himself in the shadows of the night - he can move about freely in daylight, and hardly a soul ever suspects his true nature until it is too late. Yue-Lung uses his extraordinary beauty and intellectual charm to enchant his victims into letting their guard down.

Yue-Lung's loyalty lies exclusively with his older brothers. However, despite the fact that he acts submissive around them and obeys their wishes, Yue-Lung harbors a deep, festering hatred for his brothers, especially for Daai Yan Lee. Not only does Lee treat him more like a beautiful object or a faithful dog than a real person, but Yue-Lung also identifies Lee as the murderer of their beloved mother. Yue-Lung secretly plans to avenge his mother's death, someday.

Yue-Lung dismisses sentimentality as "worse than useless," although the incessant pesterings of Shorter Wong eventually begin to strike chords with his long-dormant sense of honor. If anything else, Yue-Lung is clearly tiring of being manipulated like a pawn by his older brothers. Perhaps the stage is being set for his eventual rebellion against the Lee family?