Lao Yen-Thai

Lao Yen-Thai’s Role in Banana Fish

Underneath the surface hostility, Lao is driven by a single, consuming priority: keeping Sing alive and positioned to inherit Chinatown’s throne. When Ash Lynx kills Shorter Wong, Lao’s resentment calcifies into something far more dangerous, not because he craves bloodshed, but because no one ever gave him a reason to believe otherwise. Pulled into Yut-Lung’s schemes through blackmail, he draws a personal line at targeting Eiji Okumura, a man he considers innocent, revealing that his moral code, however rough, has real edges. His challenge to Ash, “All he cares about is that Japanese boy,” reads less like villainy and more like the honest grievance of someone who was never let into the circle of trust.

Who Voices Lao Yen-Thai in Banana Fish?

Soma Saito brings Lao to life in the Japanese production, lending the character the same coiled tension he brought to Tatsumi in Akame ga Kill! and Vinegar Doppio in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. A 9th Seiyu Awards winner, Saito has a particular talent for characters who sit at the jagged edge between antagonist and ally, making him a natural fit for someone as morally complicated as Lao.