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March
13, 2004 - "Were the recovery agency with an
almost
100% success rate!"
By The Critic
unrivaled.info
Blonde,
hip, pragmatic and cool, Ginji Amano has the power to generate currents with his
body like an electric eel. Brunette, equally hip, bespectacled and rambunctious,
Ban Mido has the mystically mysterious 'Evil Eye,' the power to create illusions
in the minds of his foes. Together, they are the GetBackers, the best retrieval
team in the world. They can get back anything taken from clients, and their
success rate is (almost) 100%!
Get Backers is the story of two friends Mido Ban and Amano Ginji who call
themselves the "Get Backers" in which they will retrieve anything that has been
lost or stolen for a fee, with an… almost… 100% success rate! At the beginning
of the story we see a broke Ban and Ginji, starving with no place to live. They
are in the streets using picket signs and handouts trying their best to get
work. It seems no one has use for the Get Backers... Things do change over time
as clients begin to seek them out for help on retaining various items precious
to them. They usually hang out at the Honky Tonk bar (running up a huge tab
eating and drinking much) waiting for potential clients who seek them. When a
client does come in, Ban and Ginji will both listen to the job proposal and
decide whether or not to accept the job. Usually Ban will only accept a job if
he feels its worthy of their talents and if the client is able to pay their high
fee, however there are times when Ginji will convince Ban to accept a job for
moral purposes. This setup leads to many interesting and bizarre adventures as
they face different obstacles when retaining the items; sometimes easy and most
of the time difficult. Both characters have special powers they can use in the
aid of retrieving such items. Ban has the ability to use a special technique
called Jagan or the Evil Eye, which induces an dream type illusion that will
seem to last forever (to the victim, the illusion seems like it's really
happening), but it only
last exactly one minute in real time. Ban can use this power to confuse or trick
his opponent to do what he needs them to do. Ginji has the ability to generate
electricity from his body, much like an electric eel. This, along with his great
strength allows him to floor the toughest opponents in seconds. When on a
mission, Ban and Ginji will often face adversaries who will have special powers
of their own. Opponents who are just as strong using their abilities to
keep the item.
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Sexy women (and men, I
suppose) like
Hevn, Ban
and Ginji's manger, are common in the manga pages of Get
Backers. |
This is primarily a shonen type series (a series
for boys): lots of power charging, action, fighting and sexy women to boot,
although others I've spoken to also feel it's a bit bishonen with yaoi type
(homosexual) overtones (bishonen is a Japanese word that means pretty boy in
English but it is also used to describe a type of series with pretty boys aimed
at a female audience; it would appear this title's target audience is not only
males but females as well). When I started reading and watching the
series, I've never really picked up on that. But as time goes on, male
sub-characters in the series do appeared to be a little fruity... But up until
volume 4 in the manga, I haven't seen anything offensive in that regard. Still,
if this kind of thing grosses you out you may want to steer clear of this title.
But I haven't found anything to be distracting yet, not as much as the sexy women
here anyway ^_^.
The driving force behind the series is the chemistry between the main characters
Ban and Ginji: It’s their personalities that really help keep things flowing
whether or not the story is interesting. Ban - a cool, often level headed
individual who will show no sympathy in regards to his potential clients, but
under this hardened exterior is a guy who has a good heart and often does the
right thing. He has the
ultimate skill and seems to be the most powerful character in the series. Ginji
- seems like he’s a simple minded guy. But really he’s just laid back; a
compassionate and friendly individual (although he does seem to have a slight
temper). This seems contradictive, however, of his violent past as he used to be
the former Thunder Emperor of the powerful gang VOLTS, who he left due to their
barbaric way of doing things. Both of these characters together provide a
powerful tag team duo and it works well for their purpose of retrieving items in
the story. I also believe the action is what will
keep most fans coming back for more as it can be quite good at times (often
short, but good). There is also a good amount of humor in the story; its one of
the things that kept me glued to series. There are some pitfalls here. Even though following the adventures of Ban and Ginji can be
interesting, the main story itself is average at times; I never really care to
follow what's going on (although the back story of Ginji's past is
decent). You'll also find some of the sub-characters to be a bit dull although
I've only read and seen about 1/4 of the entire series, so perhaps they introduce
better sub-characters along the way.
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|
Ban
and Ginji go on many different adventures when trying to
recover lost or stolen items. |
The quality of the manga is top notch as Rando Ayamine art is excellent. The
main characters and the women (to me anyway ^_^...) are drawn well as are the
action scenes. Ayamine's style will appeal to most who are into shonen style
manga as the art can rival some of the stuff seen in Shonen Jump. It's above
average compared to most of the stuff available in the U.S. Like I've said
before, character interaction is very good, but the main storyline from story
writer Yuya Aoki is a bit dull at times. I've found the manga to be geared
towards an older audience than the anime: it has explicitly more gory and
violent scenes and there is an increased sexual exploitation of women when
compared to the anime. This is not a title for young kids to read although the
anime may be watched by a broader audience (its possible Cartoon Network can
pick this up and show and air it on adult swim uncut). The quality of the anime is very
good; the voice acting is done well as is the art and animation. It mostly
follows the manga in principle, but it’s so watered down compared to the manga,
I can hardly make the comparison. And it appears the TV series has taken the
style of the characters from the later part of the manga as both Ban and Ginji
look a little older. You can expect to get a different experience from both the
anime and the manga.
Conclusion: Get Backers has the makings of a good series; it has great art, main
characters and humor as well. But for an title who's main draw is action, the sub-characters
here are what bring this potentially good
series down a bit. Still, I don't think this will deter fans from enjoying the series.
Some may find the bishonen aspect to be distracting, but the half
naked women can be equally distracting (or satisfying... depending on who you
are). Despite all this, the main characters
are great and I definitely recommend at least checking out the anime and manga.
Data Specs
- Genre - Adventure, action, comedy
- Episodes/Chapters -
Anime: TV episodes - 49 (Studio DEEN)
Manga: graphic novels - 21 (Shonen Magazine)
- US Distributor -
R1 DVD: ADV - Unreleased
Manga: Tokyopop -
(1/23)
- Coverage Status: Incomplete -
Anime: Raw TV series - (35/49)
Manga: Tokyopop graphic novels - (1/23)
Image Gallery
Getbackers
