First airing on October 5, 2002, and running all the way to September 20, 2003, Getbackers tells the story of Ginji Amano and Ban Mido, two young men who run the Getbackers recovery service (see, sometimes a show’s name makes sense). For a rather large fee, these two will recover something that you’ve lost, whether it’s a violin, a diamond ring, or even your last few shreds of hope. No matter how big or small the job may be, these two will go out, and bring what’s yours back to you. All throughout the show, Ginji & Ban take on many assignments, and encounter many other individuals who are a lot like them. Some are glad to see them, while others look upon them with disgust. Regardless of the first encounter, Ginji & Ban eventually become friends, and work together to, what else, get things back.
We start off the positives of Getbackers with something I actually haven’t talked about yet, and that’s it’s running time. When this show aired in Japan back in 2002 & 2003, the country was going through a recession at the time. A lot of shows were either getting their budgets cut, or getting canceled outright. Getbackers had the distinction of having a flexible storyline & pacing, as well as a mix of lengthy story arcs with short segments that didn’t lose sight of the show’s big picture. This is all rather interesting given the show’s circumstances, and shows that just about anything can overcome financial adversity.
The second positive of Getbackers is one that I normally talk about later in the review, but with this one, and the circumstances surrounding the show, I think it’s an exception. I was not kidding when I mentioned in my Top 5 Heavy Metal Songs To Make Out To that my next review was a long series. Running at a impressive 49 episodes, Getbackers is perhaps one of the longest shows I’ve ever watched (You’re Under Arrest is longer, but that’s for another day). Given what was going on at the time of this show’s production, that’s incredible. The only reason why I was able to watch the show so quickly was because I actually was watching it on youtube just a few weeks prior to acquiring the DVD collection. Luckily, each episode runs at about 22 minutes, so there’s at least one thing that’s standard about Getbackers.
Getbacker’s 3rd positive is the cast of characters. Right away, Ginji & Ban rise to the top of the list. You couldn’t get a closer pair of best friends than these two guys, since when one of them goes somewhere, the other follows. Not to disappoint any Yaoi fans, but there’s no sexual feelings or tensions between the two (although there are two friends that may be gay for one another, the show never really provides evidence on this). However, their friendship is a genuine one, and while they may argue with one another on a somewhat constant basis, they never let their words split themselves apart (although this happens in one episode, but it’s just a ruse).
Ginji & Ban aren’t the only characters within the show, as there is a host of other characters. We have Natsumi, a timid schoolgirl that is the first customer of the Getbackers, and becomes one of the two workers of the Honky Tonk, the other being Paul Wan (the owner of the place). There’s also Shido Fuyuki (an individual that can control animals), Hevn (a sultry women that often brings in jobs for Ginji & Ban...and yes, that’s how her name is spelled), Kurokudo Akabane (perhaps the most sinister of the main characters), and many more (both primary & secondary). Actually putting down all of the characters would take up more room that I want to use, so I’ll just leave it at that. Suffice it to say, every character has a purpose & place in Getbackers, and while some of the secondary characters might not be memorable (more on that later), they bring something to the table as well.
The fourth positive of Getbackers is the story. What’s interesting about the story is that it takes from both the manga (which I’ve never read, and probably won’t since it’s out of print), and original material (sorta like the Rosario + Vampire anime, but that’s for...later). The first 25 episodes stick to the manga, but with a few changes. When the shows reaches episode 26 & onward, the show uses original material that probably uses at least a few pieces from the comic. Regardless, there all quite entertaining, and not the least bit boring. I especially liked the story of episode 26, when some of the gang travel to a hot springs for a job. I won’t reveal what happens, but I can tell you that it’s one of the funniest episodes.
The final positives of this show is the availability & pricing. In addition to being the longest show I’ve watched, Getbackers is also the most recently produced shows, having just come out on the 10th of this month. Due to this, there are plenty of fresh copies over on Amazon, as well as a insignificant pinch of used copies (5, to be specific). The pricing for new copies isn’t necessarily a wallet breaker, but it may sting it, as the pricing starts at $27.59. Since there are so few used copies, I’m not even going to bother putting down the starting price, but I will say that the pricing is actually greater than the used copies...go figure!
Well, since I described the positives of Getbackers, I now have to delve into it’s negatives. Given what happened during the production of this show, and what happened afterwards, they’re going to be kinda big, although there are only 3. Let’s not delay any further, and look at what blackens this otherwise great show.
We start off the negatives with the animation. Given the circumstances of when Getbackers was made, it’s animation was actually quite limited. Hell, even the authors of The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised & Expanded Edition (who are big experts on the medium) said, and I quote:
“The show itself is a victim of the Japanese recession, with extremely limited animation.”
That’s just the first part of the quote, but you get the jest of things.
However, the show itself is not ugly by any stretch of the means. At many points, the show looks good. Unfortunately, there are far more points when it looks more half-assed, as there are scenes when it looks as if not as much effort was put into it as the rest of the show. This makes it very weird for newcomers to the series, who probably have no idea why the quality changes on a somewhat constant level.
The second negative of Getbackers is the secondary characters. You’ve seen me talk about this before on other reviews, and I’m talking about it here, but in a more shortened manner. Simply put, too many of the secondary characters are 1 dimensional, and have little to no personality within them. Even the secondary characters that are (somewhat) important to the main characters and main story line, are eventually thrown away when they’re no longer useful, even when they have potential to be bigger.
The final negative of Getbackers is the biggest in my opinion, and it’s the voice acting. My god, the majority of the voices sounds downright horrible! Some of the main characters sound alright, as do a handful of the secondary characters, but everybody else sounds like someone that didn’t want to be there, or just didn’t put in a complete effort. There’s one character that, when he talks, you want to kick a baby into a mind field! I won’t say which character he actually is, but you know him when you hear him.
Getbackers gets a 7.2 to 7.5 out of 10. It lasted for a while when first aired, there were a massive amount of episodes, the cast is fantastic, the story stands out, and is incredibly easy to find & buy, but the show has limited animation, most of the secondary characters suck, and the voice acting is god awful.
See you all later this week, when I combine spirituality & heavy metal. Until then, stay Otaku!
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