Get Backers Volume 1

Get Backers is a series that seems to have fallen under the radar of many anime fans but based on this evidence, perhaps somewhat unfairly. There are the ingredients here for a fun, exciting show; enthusiastic young men with magical powers facing off against each other in the high streets of a contemporary Japan will, of course, always provide compulsive viewing. And yet, Get Backers strength also proves to be its weakness; there is nothing here that I haven’t seen before. It’s a tried and tested formula of cool looking characters and cool looking weapons- nothing to make me sit up and feel compelled to watch more.
Indeed, I hope that didn’t seem too harsh, Get Backers remains a good solid show with undoubted potential.

The Get Backers are Ginji and Ban, two young men with extraordinary powers; the innocent Ginji, also known as the Lightning Emperor, has a strong affinity for electricity while the cynical Ban posses super strength and a trump card called the ‘Jagan’, a powerful form of hypnosis that, when caught in Ban’s unnerving gaze, will render his opponents useless for one minute. Ginji and Ban work together as the Get Backers, a company that specializes in getting things back for their clients (did you really expect it to be anymore complicated than that?).

We spent the first few episodes tagging along with Ginji and Ban on two separate (but none the less dangerous) jobs. They prove their good morale fibre by tackling a crooked police officer (on behalf of a teenage girl) to win back a stolen stuffed animal and then attacking a vicious local yakuza gang to honour the desperate wishes of a dying homeless man.
These episodes make for a fun, if slightly boring and predictable introduction to our lead characters, demonstrating not only their wicked strengths and sharp senses of humour but also the playful relationships that they have developed between each other.
Up to this point, the action had been fun but the outcome never in doubt- Ginji and Ban were never going to lose to these suckers; so thankfully, the next three episodes make for a much improved mini-story arc; not only pushing Ban and Ginji to their physical limits against worthy opponents but also providing us with some much needed character back story, lending (particularly Ban’s battles) a sharper and infinitely more interesting edge. This mini-arc also marks the introduction of the Get Backers first true rivals; cool looking characters who help balance the often delirious action with a sense of danger and angst. I am looking forward to learning much more about these people and especially their mooted connections with Ban’s predictably tragic past.

Indeed, many characters in Get Backers seem to have been dealt a tragic history and the plodding narrative is certainly not shy in letting us know. As if on cue, we are suddenly thrown into a formulaic tragic flashback of a mother sewing her sleeping daughter a cute stuffed toy as she lies on her death bed. Some would call this clumsy direction; I say it’s blatant emotional manipulation. 

The Get Backers soundtrack is also a noticeable disappointment in terms of tension building and scene setting. It is very jazz themed but tends to sound a whole lot more sleazy than sophisticated, making important scenes feel cheap rather than exciting or poignant.

In Summary

As harsh as those last few paragraphs may have read, I really did have fun whilst watching Get Backers #1. It’s not going to win any awards for being the most inventive of anime of all time but each little story is progressively colourful and exciting, culminating in a great 3 episode mini-arc that introduces several interesting personalities as well as a perhaps rougher, more brutal direction for the story. I await the next instalment of Get Backers feeling mildly excited, convinced that this is a show with a good potential to become highly involving and far more addictive.