Get Backers Volume 1: G & B On the Case - Anime Advanced
- Anime Advanced
- Eric Maly
- 11/02/04
- click here
"An overall excellent anime and one that I would quickly recommend to experienced and novice anime fans alike. This series is easy to get into and enjoy."
Get Backers Vol. #1: G & B On the Case
Media DVD Region 1 Genre Drama Publisher ADV Films MSRP $29.98 Running Time 125 minutes Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Release Date 08/24/04 Age Rating 15+
What happens when Lupin the 3rd meets the right side of the law?
Disc Description
Everyone knows the feeling of coming home and finding their home broken into. Your possessions thrown around, dresser drawers are ransacked and everything you own has the unmistakable feel of a stranger?s fingers on them. Then you realize some of your belongings are missing. Don?t despair, call Ban and Ginji, the Get Backers. They?ll dodge bullets, go up against evil foes and risk their lives to get back your stuff. They?re one phone call away, and they?re ready to take your case!
Disc Review
Content: (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)
Have you ever lost something and wished there was some way to get it back? Well, if you live in Shinjuku, you have the convenience of hiring the 'Get Backers', the recovery service with an almost 100% success rate. Of course, this service comes with a pretty penny.
Ban Midou and Ginji Amano are two best friends that comprise the infamous duo of the 'Get Backers'. They are not your normal, run-of-the-mill guys, however. The brunette and bespectacled Ban has an extraordinary 200-kg grip and the Jagan, or Evil Eye, to back that up. His Jagan can create illusions that are like a dream to anyone that he makes eye-to-eye contact with. The catches? It only lasts for one minute, he can only use it three times in one day and he can't use it on the same person within a 24-hour period. Naive, blonde and almost perpetually happy, Ginji Amano, dubbed the Lightning Emperor, was the former leader of Shinjuku's strongest and most notorious gang, The VOLTS. Ginji has the peculiar power of Human Electricity Conducting. The easiest thing to relate him to is an Electric Eel, which Ban jokingly refers to him as several times throughout the episodes.
However, this duo has hard luck and an even harder time with money, which makes them susceptible to taking on small cases. Enter Natsumi Mizuki, a high school student that had the misfortune of stumbling upon a Yakuza deal with a crooked cop. She got away from them, but not without losing the mascot cat from her bag. She wants to have the Get Backers take the case. Ginji is all for it, since they're broke, but Ban is dead set against it, asking for advance payment before he can take the job. Paul, the owner of the Honky Tonk Restaurant and intelligence agent for the Get Backers, informs Ban that the pizza they just devoured was enough payment, since it was for Natsumi. Grudgingly, they take the case. The next day, they set up plan after plan to attempt to get the cat back from the cop. Each one fails miserably, until they walk in the lobby and find the cat, ironically, in the lost and found. By this time, the cop has found and kidnapped Natsumi and is attempting to interrogate her to see who she is working for. Now the Get Backers have to get back their client! Confronted with the cop and several Yakuza, the Get Backers decide to get this over with quick and dispatch all of them rather quickly. Case completed!
Instead of getting money, Natsumi works off her debt by working at the Honky Tonk, which doesn't sit well on the boys or their stomachs. Starving and without a home, Ginji and Ban are on the streets, living out of their car, when a homeless man shares some of his riceballs with them. He then presents another case for them: get back his daughter that was stolen by the Yakuza. Ban, yet again, informs that he doesn't do charity and the old man understands. However, Ginji's soft heart comes through, since the old man did give them food. Ban agrees and they are off to a Yakuza compound. After sneaking their way in, they run into Rika Yamamura, the daughter of the homeless man. As they are escaping, however, she tricks them and they are trapped by the Yakuza. This is where Rika informs them that she is now the Boss's girl and she would never return to her father, since he ran his factory in the ground and sold her off to pay his debts. After some banter back and forth, the Lightning Emperor and Ban do the dirty work and get out of there. However, Rika is not in tow. She decided to stay behind. When they got back to the old man, he had been beaten by some kids and was in critical condition being loaded into an ambulance. Ban used the Evil Eye on the old man just so he could see his precious daughter one last time.
The last three episodes on the disc deal with one story arc. Hevn, a friend of the Get Backers that has a knack of getting the pair in trouble, lands them a job with Dr. Ohtaki. The case presented to them? They have to get back a box, whose contents' value is comparable to Platinum. Ban asks as payment to get 1/10 of what is in the box that was stolen from Ohtaki in Hokkaido, but is being taken by a group of Transporters to Shinjuku. However, this is not any group of transporters. It is the most dangerous group that money could put together. The driver, Maguruma, also known as 'The Man Without Brakes' and the two accomplices, Himiko Kudou, AKA 'Lady Poison' and Kuroudo Akabane, AKA 'Dr. Jackal'. Himiko is aptly named, since she carries around seven different poison perfumes that have different effects on people. Kuroudo is a person that is hated even in the transport business, since he takes pleasure in killing others. How can Ban and Ginji catch a semi-truck that has a driver that does not use brakes? Easy. Ban and his Nitro-powered Little Ms. Ladybug put some Initial D drivers to shame. Catching up to the truck proved costly to Ginji, since he was caught by Himiko's Devolution scent of perfume. After losing the Get Backers, the truck comes up on an 'Interception Service', that tries to steal the cargo. However, Dr. Jackal dispatches the group rather quickly and gruesomely. The Get Backers eventually catch back up with the truck, where a fight breaks out with Ban vs. Himiko and Ginji vs. Dr. Jackal. Ban and Himiko go off in their direction, which is the back of the cargo truck with Ginji and Dr. Jackal in the middle of the road. Ginji attempts to find the knives that Dr. Jackal has by burning his coat, but when Dr. Jackal takes off the coat, it reveals nothing! However, the knives are still appearing in Dr. Jackal's hands. As Ban and Himiko fight, we realize that they have a history. Apparently, Ban killed Himiko's older brother. After Ban gets knocked off the truck by Maguruma, it starts going back towards the fight of Ginji and Dr. Jackal. They take Ginji hostage and stash him in the back of the truck. While back there, Ginji tries to have a heart-to-heart talk with Himiko and learns a bit about her past with Ban. It appears that she used to work with her older brother and Ban as a recovery service. After a bit of talking, Ban shows up once again and hits Himiko and Dr. Jackal with his Jagan. After the dream is over, you see Ginji being yanked back into the car by the ropes Ban used to tether the car to the truck. With the package in their possession, they are mostly home-free, minus the fact that Ban used his Jagan on all three people in the truck.
The final fight of the story is one that was rather good, but could have used a bit more action. Himiko and Ban's fight involved more talking than anything, but it gave a lot more insight on the past that these two shared. Ginji and Dr. Jackal's fight, however, was a rather good one, taking all sides into account. It had plenty of action, but it came down to Ginji's quick thinking that won the fight for him. Utilizing his remaining energy, he created a magnet to pull all of the weapons out of the body of Dr. Jackal. While driving back to Dr. Ohtaki, the duo run into the truck once more. Himiko put a paralyzing perfume vial on a timer and set it inside their car. The truck started to bear down on the pair, but at the last moment, it swerved, since Ban used the Jagan on the crows that were flying around the road. After that, the two left in the truck, Himiko and Mr. Maguruma finally come to terms that the Get Backers won this round. With their target in their possession, they get back to Ohtaki's house, just to find that what was in the box was a Platinum Melon! As per the bargain, they got 1/10, which came out to 1/20 of the melon for each of them. Needless to say, they were less than thrilled with risking their lives for a melon.
Video:
As we have seen from ADV in the past, Get Backers has been wonderfully presented. The video is clear, crisp and the colors are what they should be. No flaws could be detected throughout the episodes.
Audio:
Both language tracks on this disc are masterfully done. The voices and sound effects are great and sound excellent. Stereo quality has been given special attention to, so to anyone with surround sound, this will be an acoustic treat.
Menus:
The main menu is presented to us with Ginji on one side and Ban on the opposite. This menu is also accompanied by a clip of the opening theme song. Navigation is made simple and quick with an episode selection on the front and an option to scene selection. There are even brackets around what you have selected as the language, so there is no confusion. The only drawback is the static backgrounds and no interactive menus. Other than that, the menus were some of the quickest and easiest I have seen.
Extras:
This first disc gives us the normal clean opening and closing, but packs an extra punch. The 'Behind the Scenes' with a good number of the American voice actors was a nice touch, giving the history of what they have done and the like. The commentary on Episode 1 and 5 was lively and funny. It made you look at the series in a bit of a different way. I thought the commentary was rather good. DVD Credits and ADV Previews were also added on to this disc.
Dialogue:
The dialogue in this DVD is one of the high points, since one of the episodes rely solely on the dialogue of the characters. Since this could be considered a 'buddy' story, the dialogue is important in the banter back and forth between Ban and Ginji and ADV has done an excellent job in capturing the feeling. The subtitles are presented in a clear, easy to read font and are also timed excellently.
The English track is great, and I thought the voices they got fit the characters almost perfectly. For once, a dub could almost be considered as good as the subtitles, but there are some subtle points that are missed through the dubbing. I promise though, that both tracks are almost equal.
The Bottom Line:
Starting out with this series, I didn't know what to expect. I had already read a couple volumes of the manga and thought that it couldn't carry the same feel that it had. I was wrong. The anime was as good as the manga and at points, outshined it. The characters were portrayed excellently and done almost flawlessly. The animation of this series is wonderful and has a direct influence from Lupin. The shifts in storyline were seamless, going from two small cases to a very dangerous and large case. The music also set the mood rather well throughout the series from the very beginning. Get Backers has just the right mix of action and low points to make it a great series to watch. It has a perfect balance of storyline, characters and dialogue. I feel that this has the potential to be one of the best series of the year. If one aspect of this anime does not compel you to watch it, at least one other one will. I feel that almost anyone could watch it and automatically enjoy this series. This series will take us on one great ride, but this volume is only the first hill of the rollercoaster known as the Get Backers Recovery Service!
Content Easy to follow storyline. Gets right into action and gives some background information on characters at the same time. Excellent movement between episodes. 8.9
Video Flawless animation with great color schemes. Excellent presentation and the quality that we have come to expect from ADV. 9.2
Audio Stereo sound is put to great use with this anime. The English and Japanese tracks sound great. 9.1
Menus Navigation through the menus is quick and easy. The only problem is the fact that there is no interactivity. 8.4
Extras Along with the normal extras, there are also interviews and commentaries. Great addition on to the DVD. 9.0
Dialog The subtitles are very well done and easy to read. Excellent dialogue throughout the story, considering it was an essential part of a couple of episodes. 8.9
Verdict
An overall excellent anime and one that I would quickly recommend to experienced and novice anime fans alike. This series is easy to get into and enjoy.
9.1[not an average]+ Great story with balance of humor and action+ Almost flawless English track+ Great animation- No interactive menus- Some fight sequences are cheapened- Some action seems too over-the-top
Posted on Tuesday, November 02, 2004 (Archive on Thursday, December 02, 2004)