etBackers stars Ban Midou and Ginji Amano claim a 100 percent success rate in returning lost or stolen property to its original owner. Their claims are put to the test in the series' first five episodes, as a high-school girl hires them to reclaim her precious handmade stuffed cat; a homeless man requests they rescue his daughter, who's fallen into yakuza hands; and a wealthy businessman sends them to retrieve a stolen strongbox. The cases sound mundane enough, and they initially are, but Ban and Ginji themselves aren't: When the chips are down, they reveal a range of odd powers. Ginji can manifest amazing electrical forces, while Ban has super-strength (his grip has "200 kilograms of force," as he and Ginji frequently point out in combat) and a hypnotic power he calls "the Jagan."
These powers come in handy when Ban and Ginji are facing down crowds of gun-toting mobsters, as they do in the first two episodes. The stuffed-cat case is complicated by the fact that the girl lost her toy while escaping a corrupt cop who believed she was spying on his mob transactions; the case of the kidnapped daughter is complicated by the fact that she likes her yakuza home and would sooner set her boyfriend on Ban and Ginji than leave quietly with them. Sparks fly and eerie illusions come into play as Ban and Ginji handily deal with their outclassed adversaries.
But their powers become necessary for bare survival in the three-episode lockbox plot arc, which pits them against some equally talented freelance "transporters" who have been hired to defend the lockbox from the likes of Ginji and Ban. Among their enemies are "Dr. Jackal," a quick-moving sadist who can manifest razor-sharp weapons out of his bare hands, and "Lady Poison," a girl with phenomenal chemical weapons—and a secret connection with Ban. In fact, there seems to be a lot of secret history in GetBackers, and barely an episode goes by without some new piece of angst-filled background cropping up.
A believable buddy series
GetBackers is a lively, colorful series, with a lot of intense, graphic action and nicely animated motion, but the clear sense is that Ginji and Ban are both deeply tragic figures with a great deal of history. Ginji was once a feared gang leader, which leads to oblique flashbacks in which shadowy figures describe him as an "invincible being" and "the emperor of this limitless fortress." Ban's connection to "Lady Poison," aka Himiko, spawned a complicated grudge that seems to stem from an even more complicated promise. Even the first meeting between Ginji and Ban is briefly hinted at in an explosive-looking scene that sets the stage for intense drama to come.
But GetBackers handles comedy capably enough at the same time. Ban and Ginji have an easy, amusing chemistry that manifests through egotistical banter, squabbling, occasional actual fights and comfortable camaraderie; it says something for the script and the cast alike that they can effortlessly go from trash-talking their opponents to calling each other names to supporting each other through bad experiences, all without stretching credibility. The characters have distinctly different tones; Ban is more mercenary and more adult, while Ginji is warmer but more of a big, soft-hearted kid. They complement each other well, both in combat and in conversation.
Their opponents complement them in an entirely different way. The series' first two episodes are entertaining, in a goofy sort of way, but GetBackers doesn't really kick into high gear until the real baddies show up to put Ban and Ginji through their paces and make them break a sweat, and to give the series the dangerous edge it was lacking. Those baddies are also a window into an unpredictable and interesting world where "transporters," "recoverers," "negotiators" and "interceptors" are all somewhere between legitimate professions and RPG character classes. GetBackers is a fairly lengthy series, but if it continues to manifest this level of creativity and excitement, fans will certainly want to stick around for the whole 49-episode run.
Apropos of nothing, Shannon McCormick (who voices Dr. Jackal in the English dub, in his first anime voice-over role) is a guy I met in college, and whom I regularly saw perform hilarious original skits at a local amateur theater night. I was psyched for the weirdness of hearing a familiar voice coming out of an anime character, but Shannon does such a terrific job that I didn't recognize him. He's part of a uniformly solid cast.
— Tasha
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