GET BACKERS - A TIMELESS HIT OR NOT?
Got something stolen or lost? Leave It to the over-powered duo “Get Backers” to get back everything! You can count on Ban Mido's illusionary technique, evil eye, and the unbelievable stealth of Ginjo Amano, the former leader of a powerful gang called “The Volts,” to recover your lost goods with a “100 percent success rate.” However, despite putting forth such a promising deal, the duo remains terminally broke. They get shown no interest in being hired for work, which leads the two of them to get their hands on sketchy jobs that often result in them encountering “old friends.” Will, they put a halt to their thrilling life? Or continue their dangerous methods for a living, they have yet to decide.
Written by Yuya Aoki and illustrated by Rando Ayamine, the manga series, Get Backers was adapted into an anime series by Studio Reen and began airing from October 2002 to September 2003 for a complete run of 49 episodes. The series was first premiered on the Tokyo broadcasting system. Its completed dubbed version in a total of 10 DVD volumes is also available.
Discussing the prominent elements of this show, let’s first bring our attention to the show’s plot.
PLOT
If I had to pick one word for this show’s plot, it would be “painfully long.” Not only was it long, but it also lacked any exciting aspect to it that would encourage anyone to stick through its entire length.
The plot is your typical shounen plot, set in a unique self-contained habitat titled the “Limitless Fortress,” which is subdivided into three tiers, the Lower town, Beltline, and Babylon city. The lower town is the lowest in altitude. Beltline is the most dangerous territory where you can encounter enemies, and Babylon is the highest in height, where Ginjo’s mother is said to reside. The plot revolves around the duo's adventures and is driven by the characters’ convoluted and complicated pasts.
The show starts pretty decent and carries you through the journey of both Ginjo’s and Ban’s characters at an acceptable pace. However, after a while, it becomes tiresome to stay committed to it. The story seemed super stretched and became too much of a chore to continue after a few episodes. The filler episodes added for comedic relief were much more engaging, personally speaking, compared to the fight scenes that proved to be very underwhelming and lacking in execution. Besides the main ones, the characters were poorly developed and did not help spice up the plot.
ANIMATION
This show did not age well. Being crafted more than a decade ago is the primary reason it would not meet the current animation standards for viewers today. Realistically speaking, it is unfair to compare, but the animation, even for the show’s year of release, looks pretty spotty. It appears as if the color palette for this show was left in the hands of a toddler to decide, as color use did not blend well. They also failed to make the fight scenes fluid. In all honesty, an inferior job was done in the animation department, and it shows. During its time of release, many other timeless anime came out, so it is okay to assume a better job could have been done during the making of this show if they wanted it to be a hit.
SOUND
This show had a variety of music to offer, from pop to hip hop to j-rock; it was contemporary and modern. In my opinion, the openings and endings wouldn't score soaring points in everyone's book, like they didn’t in mine. However, the music played during the scenes, especially during the fights scenes, was pretty decent. The voice acting done for both the main characters was excellent.
CHARACTERS
Thanks to the fantastic character design of Ban and Ginjo, this show can redeem itself successfully when it comes to characters. They conveniently stay consistent with their personalities throughout the show, and I must add the relation between the two was a wholesome element worthy of note. Surprisingly, the show was ripe in boy-love-boy premises. It is undeniable that the ship was a considerable clickbait for the yaoi fangirls out there since both the leads were eye candy that made it even better and convincing. Although neither useful nor significant, the side characters had an acceptable comedic purpose to serve as well. Their chibi versions during comedic scenes are too cute to ignore and also worthy of praise.
IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
If you have all the time on your hands and are bored beyond death, then do give this show a try by all means. It is going to require immense patience to stay committed to this series until the very end. It would have been worth watching if you were still sitting in 2002, but it is too hard to enjoy its full potential according to today’s standards. You wouldn’t sit through two minutes straight in this show without looking past its obvious errors and simply want to give up if you're too critical about the plot delivery, that is. Besides that, if you can build a connection with the characters right off the bat and want to see more of them, do stick around because the ending is fruitful.
CONCLUSION
The show does incorporate all the elements a shounen would require, but there's nothing special or unique about it that would make it stand out. Get Backers seemed more like a kids' show than a teens’ show. It was supposed to be a crazy action thriller but had a moderate amount of blood and gore. This anime could be pretty decent for casual anime watchers, but Get Backers would be known for its many faults to avid watchers. If you're an avid watcher and have seen this show in 2002, you would give it extra points for nostalgia but judge through today's standards; I wouldn’t give it any more than a solid 6/10.
