GetBackers

GetBackers (ゲットバッカーズ -奪還屋-) is a manga series written by Yuya Aoki and illustrated by Rando Ayamine. The series was serialized and is published by Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1999 until 2007, totaling 39 volumes.

The manga was adapted into an animated television series in 2002. The Studio Deen production aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System from October 5, 2002 until September 20, 2003, for a complete run of 49 episodes. It was also dubbed in English and broadcast by the anime television network Animax across its respective networks worldwide, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and South America.

The series was licensed for an English-language release in North America by TokyoPop, which released 27 volumes between February 10, 2004 and December 2, 2008. It has since lost the license to the property, and all existing releases are considered to be out-of-print.

Plot
The series tells the story of Ginji Amano and Ban Midou, a pair of superpowered individuals known as the GetBackers. The duo operates a freelance repossession service out of one of the seedier areas of Shinjuku, Tokyo. For a fee, they will recover any lost or stolen item for a client with "a 100% success rate". The GetBackers' job often leads them into bizarre and dangerous situations in order to "get back what shouldn't be gone". Their targets range from lost video games to misplaced components of an atomic bomb. The plot mostly revolves around their adventures, often complicated by the pair's convoluted, individual pasts and a mysterious place known as the Limitless Fortress (Infinity Fortress in the manga).

A conglomeration of disused, condemned buildings clustered together to form a self-contained habitat, Limitless Fortress is subdivided into three specific tiers – Lower Town, the Beltline and Babylon City. Lower Town is the lowest in altitude, with several layers extending below ground level. The Beltline, the most dangerous area of The Limitless Fortress, is ruled by Der Kaiser, Ban's father. The citizens of the Beltline are said to be immortal and imperishable, and they "will rise back from the dead everytime they are attacked". Those in the Beltline have a hideous death-like appearance and a frightening strength. Babylon City, the upper most level of the Limitless Fortress, is said to be where the Brain Trust resides, and is the home of Ginji's mother. In actuality, Babylon City is what one might consider the real world, with everything else being a virtual reality creation. Only those who have won the Ogre Battle may enter Babylon City and when that happens, they can change the world as they see fit.

Characters
The main characters of the series is a rescue team called GetBackers. The team is primarily composed of Ban Mido and Ginji Amano but as the series progresses supporting members are added to the team. Each member of the team possesses individual mysterious abilities that aid them in their many recovery missions.


 * Ban Midou (美堂蛮) is a primary member of the rescue team. He used to belong to a gang composed by Himiko Kudo and Yamato. At some moment, Ban killed Yamato without a reason given and later when entering into the Limitless Fortress, he fought against Ginji Amano, who would later become his best friend. Ban's powers include the "Snakebite", a skill which gives his hands a grip of 200 kilograms-force, and the "Evil Eye" (邪眼), an ability to induce minute-long hallucinations on the target of his choosing.


 * Ginji Amano (天野銀次) is a primary member of the rescue team and also the former leader of a gang called "The VOLTS" in the Limitless Fortress. He received the title "Lightning Emperor" (雷帝) because of his ability to control electricity and because he was the ruler of the entire Lower Level of the Limitless Fortress. He can also generate enormous amounts of electrical energy. When Ginji left the Limitless Fortress by unknown reasons, the group was divided and some of the members try to survive without Ginji.

Manga
The GetBackers manga series is written by Yuya Aoki and illustrated by Rando Ayamine. The series was serialized in is published by Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1999 until 2007, totaling 39 volumes containing twelve story arcs with the name of "Act" and a short number of side stories. The manga was published in the United States by Tokyo Pop and currently twenty seven volumes have been released.

Anime
The anime adaptation of the GetBackers series is produced by Studio Deen and based on the manga series of the same name written by Yuya Aoki and illustrated by Rando Ayamine. The series premiered on TBS in Japan on October 5, 2002 and ran for forty-nine episodes until September 20, 2003. The anime is licensed by ADV Films. As of September 1, 2009, all of ADV's catalog are transferred to AEsir Holdings, with distribution from Section23 Films. It was also broadcast by the anime television network Animax across its respective networks worldwide, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia The series was released to Region 2 DVD in Japan by TBS in seventeen individual volumes with three episodes per disc.

The anime follows the original storyline until the 33rd episode, which ends the Venus DeMilo story. Afterwards, it introduces stories not found in the original, although some episodes are similar to some chapters of the manga and some of the same characters are introduced, but with different characteristics.

Apart from the Japanese, and the English dubbed Anime from ADV, there is another English version dubbed By Sony Pictures Entertainment(SPE). This dubbed version was aired from Dec 2004 to Aug 2007 by SPE owned Animax (a 24hr Anime Channel) in South East Asia & South Asia. Unlike the ADV which relied on only Japanese version of the Anime, the Sony Dub used both Anime and Manga as a Reference while writing Scripts/Dialogues. As a result there are some noticeable difference in character traits in the Animax version. The only presence for this version are Youtube and other Video Streaming sites since no Getbackers DVD was ever released by SPE.

Drama CDs
Two drama CDs have been released for the story arcs not found in the TV series, namely the Kami no Kijitsu, Marlin Red and Kiryuudo arcs. The first, entitled 'GetBackers "TARGET G"', was released February 21, 2003. . The second entitled 'GetBackers "TARGET B"' was released on March 21, 2003. The dramas are performed by the TV series voice actors.

Reception
As of January 2009, the GetBackers manga sold 18 million copies in Japan. Numerous publications for manga, anime and related media have written on the series. Reviewers commented that fans of the anime may end up surprised when they will read the manga. The series has been praised for using the "simple concept" in order to create a good plot. The manga has been noted to have a large number of types of fan service, showing several kinds of beautiful women and noted a "relationship" between the two main characters and giving the series a nice bishōnen tone. The art of Rando Ayamine has been praised for having the dark and gritty mood emphasizes he makes in the series making readers think that the Jagan scenes of Ban Mido is a "horrifying nightmare". The Tokyopop translation of the manga has been criticized for making the main characters sound like gangsters giving them strange dialogues.