Memory #16: This spread caused the magazine to be pulled from several convenience store shelves in Osaka. It remains the best-selling issue in Go Guy Plus history.
The best memories are often painful. In the Go Guy and Eiji dynamic, happiness is always temporary. A "best memory" might be the day they almost escaped, the night they almost confessed their true feelings, or the hour before everything went wrong. The keyword captures this nostalgia—looking back at a perfect moment destroyed by the next chapter’s events.
Here is the fan-consensus ranking of the top 19 moments captured by Go Guy Plus and Eiji.
The longevity of the phrase "go guy plus eiji 19 memories best" speaks to a larger cultural phenomenon: the search for emotional catharsis in completed stories.
New fans arrive daily to the fandom, often years after the original work ended. They search this keyword to:
Memory #11: The use of turquoise tile reflections against pale skin created a "halo effect" that amateur photographers have tried to replicate for years without success.
In the vast landscape of niche media collectibles, fashion retrospectives, and underground cinematic history, few names evoke as much passionate nostalgia as Go Guy Plus and the enigmatic artist known only as Eiji. For collectors and deep divers, the phrase "Go Guy Plus Eiji 19 memories best" isn't just a string of keywords; it is a code. It unlocks a vault of seminal moments from the late 90s and early 2000s—a golden era of experimental Japanese street culture and limited-edition art books.
But what exactly are the "19 best memories"? Why the number 19? Over the last two decades, fans have curated a definitive list of 19 iconic releases, photoshoots, and collaborative moments between the "Go Guy Plus" publication house and the visionary photographer/director Eiji. Today, we take a deep dive into that list, exploring the cultural impact and the lasting legacy of these 19 milestones.
In the pantheon of anime and manga tragedies, few endings have lingered in the collective consciousness like the final pages of Banana Fish. When we speak of “Go, Guy, Plus Eiji,” we aren’t just naming characters. We are invoking a thesis statement for a generation of fans who learned that love and loss are two sides of the same coin.
"Go" – The Command to Live
Ash Lynx’s final word was not a cry for help, but a command. In the manga, as he sits bleeding in the New York Public Library, his last letter to Eiji contains a single, devastating sentence: “Go.”
Ash, the boy who could never be stopped, chose to stop. He had the strength to call an ambulance. He had the will to fight. But after meeting Eiji, he realized that living meant dragging the person he loved most back into a world of bullets and betrayal. So, he told Eiji to go—to go back to Japan, to go live a peaceful life, to go be free.
"Go" was not an act of despair. It was the purest, most painful act of love Ash Lynx ever committed.
"Guy" – The Ghost Who Walks Beside You
Who is the "Guy" in this memory? It is Ash. It is also the shadow of what could have been.
For Eiji Okumura, Ash became the ghost that never left. The "guy" is the phantom hand that isn't there, the laugh you expect to hear around a corner, the flash of gold hair in a crowd. Eiji returned to Japan with his body intact, but he left half of his soul on a library floor in Manhattan.
The "guy" is the memory of a boy who was sharper than a knife and softer than a whisper. He is the reason Eiji picked up a camera again—to capture the world Ash died to give him.
"Plus Eiji" – The Survivor’s Role
Why is Eiji the "plus"? Because he is the remainder. In the equation of tragedy, Ash was the variable that was subtracted too soon. Eiji is the sum left behind. go guy plus eiji 19 memories best
Nineteen memories. Not eighteen. Not twenty. Nineteen.
In the fandom, “19” has become a sacred, painful number. It represents the age Ash was when he died. It represents the finite, heartbreaking limit of the time they had. Each memory is a snapshot:
…on through the 19th memory: The smile Ash gave Eiji that morning in the library, just before the knife found him.
The Best of What Remains
Why do we say these are the "best" memories? Because they are the only ones that matter.
The best of Banana Fish is not the gunfights or the gang wars. The best is the quiet moment in the kitchen. The best is Ash letting his guard down for five seconds. The best is Eiji saying, “I’m not afraid of you,” and meaning it.
Go, guy, plus Eiji, 19 memories, best.
It is a fan’s shorthand for: “He was only 19. He was a guy who deserved the world. Eiji survived to carry that memory. And even though it destroys us, those 19 memories are the most beautiful thing we have ever read.”
Epilogue for the Brokenhearted
So, if you are reading this and your chest still hurts years after finishing the story, you are not alone. Every time you see a library, every time you hear a Japanese voice say “Ash,” every time you think of a green apple—you are living in those 19 memories, too.
Go, and live well. For Ash. For Eiji. For the guy who loved enough to let go.
Good night, Ash Lynx. Eiji has the memories from here.
It sounds like you're looking for a full feature (comprehensive summary or deep-dive) of the best memories between Go and Eiji from the anime/manga Banana Fish — specifically focusing on "Go" (Go Hirono) and "Guy" (possibly a typo or alternative reference? In Banana Fish, the key relationships are Ash Lynx & Eiji Okumura, and also Shorter Wong, Sing Soo-Ling, Yut-Lung, etc.).
However, I think you might be referring to one of two things:
Given your phrasing "19 memories best" — are you referring to:
Go Guy Plus ceased physical publication in 2012, but their intellectual property was revived as a digital archive in 2021. Eiji walked away from photography completely in 2016. He now reportedly runs a small record store in Kamakura, refusing all interviews about his previous life.
Yet, the "19 Memories" live on. Every month, new fans discover the grainy, emotional world of Go Guy Plus and Eiji. The images feel timeless—raw, honest, and achingly beautiful.