GetBackers

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Get Backers
GetBackers
ゲットバッカーズ -奪還屋
(Get Backers Dakkanya)
Genre Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Shounen, Supernatural
Manga
Authored by Yuya Aoki and Rando Ayamine
Publisher Japan Kodansha

United States Canada United Kingdom Tokyopop
Republic of China Tongli (Chinese)
Singapore ChuangYi (Chinese)
Indonesia m&c comics (Indonesian)
Serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine
Original run 1999 –
No. of volumes 37 (current)
TV anime
Directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, Keitaro Motonaga
Studio Studio DEEN
Network Japan TBS
Singapore India Thailand Argentina Brazil Animax
Philippines ABS-CBN, Studio 23
United States The Anime Network
Original run 5 October 2002 – 20 September 2003
No. of episodes 49

Get Backers [Japanese: ゲットバッカーズ -奪還屋 (だっかんや) Gettobakkāzu Dakkan'ya] is a manga series written by Yuya Aoki and illustrated by Rando Ayamine. It is published by Kodansha in Japan and serialized in Shonen Magazine. The series has lasted for 37 volumes and is still running in Japan, with a projected length of around 40 volumes [1]; currently, the first 16 volumes have been released in English by TOKYOPOP, with Volume 17 scheduled for release on 13th February 2007.

In 2002, the series was adapted into an anime series, produced by Studio DEEN, which aired from 2002 to 2003 and ran for 49 episodes. It was broadcast by the anime television network, Animax, across its respective networks worldwide, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and South America. The series has been licensed in North America by ADV Films and given a 10-volume DVD release.

Contents

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
See also: GetBackers Story Arcs

The manga tells the story of a pair known as the GetBackers, consisting of Ban Mido and Ginji Amano. The duo reside in one of the seedier areas of Shinjuku in Tokyo, and are often broke and resort to sleeping in their car. Ban and Ginji operate a freelance repossession service or dakkanya (奪還屋). For a fee, they will recover any lost or stolen item for a client. The two boast an "almost 100% success rate" (100% in the anime). Their motto is: "We get back what shouldn't be gone".

However, Ban and Ginji are not ordinary human beings. They each possess mysterious abilities which they use to carry out their many recovery missions. Ban's powers include the "Snakebite", a skill which gives his hands a grip of 200 kilograms-force, and the "Evil Eye" ("Jagan", 邪眼, a Japanese term roughly meaning "evil eye"), an ability to induce minute-long hallucinations of Ban's choosing in whomever he makes direct eye contact with. However, this ability cannot be used on the same person twice in a 24-hour period, and he has to rest between uses. The Evil Eye can also only be used three times in one day. Ginji, on the other hand, can generate enormous amounts of electric energy in his body for tasks such as attacking opponents, or overloading electronic systems; this has earned him the moniker of "Lightning Lord" (雷帝, "Raitei", a Japanese term also translated as "Thunder Emperor", or "Lightning Emperor").

Despite the simplicity of their job's description, Ban and Ginji's profession often places them into bizarre and dangerous situations in order to obtain the objects they must find. Their targets range from everyday objects such as a video game a school kid has lost to an even much more dangerous object which might just affect the safety of the nation (such as a vital part of a atomic bomb). As such, the plot mostly revolves around the dangerous (yet sometimes silly) adventures they both go through, which is often complicated by connections to the pair's dark and twisted pasts, and a mysterious place called Infinity Fortress (無限城, "Mugenjou", a Japanese term also translated as "Limitless Fortress", "the Infinte Castle" and "Maze City").

There are numerous "acts" in the story. Each act, divided into a number of chapters, describes a different recovery task taken on by the GetBackers. As the story develops, new characters (some with past relationships with Ban and Ginji)are revealed, and details of a shadowy conspiracy involving the GetBackers slowly rise to the surface.

The plotline of the anime is initially similar to that of the manga, but diverges sharply after the 25th episode as the anime attempted to compress the ongoing story arcs into a manageable anime arc with a reasonable ending. The second Limitless Fortress arc is not in any way connected to the one in the Manga, though some of the characters featured have also recently appeared in the manga.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Characters and Groups

Ban (right) and Ginji
Enlarge
Ban (right) and Ginji
Main article: Characters of GetBackers

Both the anime and the manga have large casts of characters, spanning the original GetBackers (Ban Mido and Ginji Amano), their friends and enemies, and a large array of secondary characters. Most of the characters appear in the manga, although their circumstances, personalities and roles are different than that of the anime.

[edit] References

The series refers to many actual persons, and events. It also references pseudoscience, albeit with a fictional twist. Although they don't have a direct impact on the main story, the background information they provide gives the series more depth than the average action series.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
  • In the Get Back the Magical Sunflower! arc, the titular sunflower is supposed to be the "13th Sunflower" drawn by Vincent van Gogh. In reality, he only drew 12 at once on a canvas (or 15, depending on the actual painting; see Sunflowers (series of paintings)).
  • In the Venus de Milo arc, besides the arms of the statue, the nose of the Sphinx is also on auction. In reality, both artifacts are considered lost.
  • The Divine Design arc has many references to Christianity and the Bible.
  • The Marlin Red arc has references to World War II, along with the Axis powers' alleged research in germ warfare/the occult (a virus which turns humans into vampires is used in the manga). It's also mentioned that Romania, being on the same latitude as the Bordeaux region of France, could in theory produce good wine. On the other hand, Captain Brandon became a vampire as he wanted to assassinate Adolf Hitler himself for Hitler's ravages on Romania during the war.
  • The implosion lens mentioned in the IL arc is an actual component in implosion-typed atomic weapons (e.g. Fat Man, used during World War II; in the story, "IL" is the codename for the computer disc containing the program needed to manufacture MakubeX's A-bomb).
  • The environment within Infinity Fortress is said to be a mixture of real objects and virtual reality, resulting in a "half VR dimension".
Spoilers end here.

[edit] Episode List

List of Episodes in GetBackers anime
story arc ep no episode title related manga arc
1 The Initials are "G"(Ginji) and "B"(Ban) (anime only)
2 GetBack the Rusted Bonds Act 1. Enter The GetBackers
Platinum 3 Operation: Recover the Platinum Act 3.
Givers and Takers
4 Recovery Service vs Transport Service
5 Deathmatch at Sunrise: The Lightning Emperor vs Dr J
The Stradivarius 6 Get Back the Divine Melody Act 4.
The Sound of Life
7 The Animal Transformation of the Beastmaster
8 Timbre of Life, Resound
13th Sunflower 9 Get Back the Phantom Sunflowers! Part One Act 5.
Magical Sunflower
10 Get Back the Phantom Sunflowers! Part Two
Operation Recover "IL"
(first Limitless Fortress arc)		 11 Breach the Limitless Fortress - Operation Recover IL Act 6.
Return to the Infinity Fortress
12 The Unknown Boy, MakubeX
13 Explosion: Fuuchouin - School Thread Technique
14 The New Four Kings
15 The Loulan Dance Whip That Twirls in the Night
16 Explosion! The Lightning Emperor Angry
17 Recovery Team. Rendezvous!
18 Crash! Shido vs Emishi!
19 Oh, My Friend - Kazuki vs Juubei
20 The Man from Babylon City
21 Blade of Revenge: Ban vs Fudou
22 Awakening: The Advent of the Lightning Emperor
23 Attack! The Virtual Corps
24 The Final Fight! Ginji vs MakubeX
25 Get Back the Limitless Future
26 Steam Recovery: The Hot Springs Travel Diary?! Interlude III.
Let's Go to the Hot Springs!
27 High School Girl vs. Recovery Service (anime only?)
28 The Man Who Lost His Past (anime only?)
Venus de Milo 29 Get Back the Arms of the Goddess Act 7.
The Lost Arms of the Goddess
30 Mystery Assassins: The Miroku Siblings
31 Hera and Krait
32 The Mission Start! Ginji vs Miroku
33 Get Back the Eternal Goddess
34 The Get Backers Break Up?! The Enemy is Ban Midou (anime only?)
35 Get Back the Flame of Life (anime only?)
36 The Children of Destiny (anime only?
37 Natsumi Does Her Best! (anime only?)
38 A Recital Just for You Interlude II.
Shido and Madoka
39 Ginji Hospitalised? It's a Hospital! Eveybody Assembled! (inspiration from the hospital scenes at the end of the Divine Design arc)
40 Monkey Counterattack! (anime only?)
41 Farewell, My Beloved (anime only?)
42 The Cost of Betrayal (anime only?)
Return to the Limitless Fortress
(second Limitless Fortress arc)		 43 The Man Who Came Back... The Limitless Fortress, Once More (anime only)
44 The Last of the Four Kings
45 Demon of Revenge - Fudou Passes Away
46 Brain Trust
47 Bust Into Beltline! Ginji vs Masaki
48 Fated Confrontation - Ban vs Akabane
49 GetBackers

As can be seen in the above table the anime follows the manga up to episode 25. In the second half of the anime there are only two story arcs and only one, the Venus de Milo arc, appears in manga, with the remaining episodes being one-shot stories.

Notes:

  • Episode titles are those used in English dub by ADV.
  • Story arc names are not official but only for the conveniance of this table.

[edit] Other media

[edit] Theme songs

Opening Theme
  1. Yuragu Koto Nai Ai (揺らぐことない愛; Unshaken Love) by Tamura Naomi (Episodes 1-25)
    • Lyrics: Tamura Naomi
    • Music: Tamura Naomi, Kawamoto Morifumi
    • Arrangement: Kawamoto Morifumi
  2. Barairo no Sekai (薔薇色の世界; The Rose-Colored World) by PIERROT (Episodes 26-49)
    • Lyrics: Kirito
    • Music: Aiji
    • Arrangement: PIERROT & MASAHIDE SAKUMA
Ending Theme
  1. Ichibyo No Refrain (一秒のリフレイン; One Second of Refrainment) by Otoha (Episodes 1-13)
    • Lyrics: Otoha, Doujima Kouhei
    • Music: Doujima Kouhei
  2. Namida no Hurricane (涙のハリケーン; Hurricane of Tears) by Bon-Bon Blanco (Episodes 14-25)
  3. Mr. Deja vu by naja (Episodes 26-37)
  4. Changin' by Nona Reeves featuring YOU THE ROCK (Episodes 38-48)
  5. Yuragu Koto Nai Ai by Tamura Naomi (Episode 49)

Besides these songs, there's an "image" song for some of the main characters. These songs are based on the characteristics and personalities of the characters, and are sung by the characters' seiyu. They can be found on the Get Backers Target G or Target B CDs.

Target B
  • Ban: Evil Eyes
  • Kazuki: 花鈴 (Karin; "Flower Bells")
  • MakubeX: 核 -Core-
Target G
  • Ginji: Born Again
  • Akabane: 死の純度 (The Purity of Death)
  • Shido: Beast Master

[edit] Drama CDs

A series of drama CDs has been released for the story arcs in the manga which are not found in the anime. Currently, the series has covered the Kami no Kijitsu(Divine Design), Marlin Red and the Kiryuudo arcs. Seiyuus who voiced characters in the anime return to voice their characters in the narrations. A note of interest are some of the seiyuus who voiced characters found in the manga but not in the anime. They include Tanaka Rie (Gundam Seed's Lacus Clyne), Neya Michiko (Full Metal Alchemist's Riza Hawkeye and Last Exile's Maestro Delphine) and Saito Chiwa (Last Exile's Lavie Head). Even more interestingly, in the Kiryuudo arc, 3 of the Kiryuudo are voiced by seiyu who have voiced characters in Godannar: Honda Takako, Kaida Yuko and Kosugi Juurouta.

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
  • Yoshino Hiroyuki was one of the few seiyu who voiced different characters in the anime and in the drama CDs (though both characters appear in the manga as well, with Shuu in the anime and Amon Natsuki in the drama CDs). The other is Takagi Wataru (Kait in the anime and Semimaru Kanade in the drama CDs).
  • In the drama CDs, the fight between Himiko and Rena is an insider joke; Himiko is voiced by Kuwatani Natsuko while Rena is voiced by Saito Chiwa, her friend and "coopee" partner.
  • The characters featured on the spines of the manga volumes have always been either Ban or Ginji, until volume 30, when Kazuki was featured instead. Volume 35's spine once again features Ban.
  • With FFXII, there are now at least three seiyu who had voiced prominent characters in the FF universe.
    • Sakurai Takahiro (Kagami): Cloud Strife from FFVII
    • Natsuki Rio (Hevn): Lulu from FFX
    • Tobita Nobuo (Akabane): Vayne Solidor from FFXII
  • Coincidently, in the "Get Back the Lost Time" arc, Kagami confronted the latter two, and fought with Akabane for a second time.
  • In the Kiryuudo arc, Juubei (Koyasu) battled against Senimaru (Takagi), as did Akabane (Tobita); in the Hellsing OVA, the Valentine Brothers (Koyasu and Takagi) attacked the Hellsing manor on orders from Montona Max (Tobita).

[edit] External links


GetBackers
Story arcs • Episode List
Characters
GetBackers: Ginji Amano + Ban Mido
Volt Kings: Kazuki Fuuchouin* | Shido Fuyuki | MakubeX | Masaki Kurusu
Transporters: Kurodou Akabane (Dr Jackal) | Himiko Kudo
Infinity Fortress Characters: Juubei Kakei* | Haruki Emishi | Sakura Kakei* | Kyoji Kagami | Toshiki Uryuu*
Crew of the Honky Tonk: Hevn | Paul Wan | Natsumi Mizuki
Other Characters: Maria Noches | Saizou Toufuuin* | Madoka Otowa | Miroku family
*Fuuga member - italics: manga only character
Other Topics
Infinity (Limitless) Fortress - Fuuga (Elegance)
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