I was thinking about Banana Fish and I just realized something about the ending that absolutely devastated me... I'm sure other people caught this, but it took me a while...
At the end, Ash dies while happy because Eiji literally (and figuratively) taught him how to say goodbye - he has closure because of that. Meanwhile, Eiji, while on the plane, can't find it in him to say goodbye to Ash because he didn't get that same lesson (plus Ash was able to say goodbye to him at the hospital whereas Eiji wasn't)
Basically, Eiji teaching Ash to say goodbye was what offered him closure and part of the reason he was happy when he died (the other, of course, being that Eiji hadn't abandoned him). And I think that's simultaneously really sweet and really sad
