Published in the U.S. by TokyoPop
Slugline: For guys that have superpowers, it does seem odd that they can't afford food out of snack machines.
Get Backers is about the specialist recovery team of Ginji and Ban, a pair of hapless guys who are barely making enough money to feed themselves despite having an "almost 100% success rate" in their job. This also is despite Ban having electric powers while Ginji has the evil eye, allowing him to inflict illusions on his victims. By the end of the first volume part of their support network is revealed, but only the most basic caricatures of them are shown.
Get Backers is a long, ongoing series that still has not been completed, but the first volume makes it hard to understand how this title survived long enough to grow in popularity. Not that it is bad, but the characters of Ban and Ginji are walking stereotypes. They want to help an old man reconcile with his daughter, but there is yakuza in the way. How the story unfolds from that premise is so predictable that as soon as a character spoke I could tell what was going to happen for the next ten pages or so, and that included the "tragic" ending that could be seen as far off as when the character was introduced. The fact that the art and layout just confused things at times didn't help either.
Get Backers is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.
- Ferdinand
1 comment:
You're too hasty with your review. Indeed, the first couple of volumes are rather cheesy, but it gets better afterwards, both art and storyline.
The art was pretty sucky in the first few books but it improved so much within a few volumes that I was rather surprised.
Elements in various parts of the story also ties up with a lot of scientific theories, and indeed it makes you think a lot. That doesn't surprise me since the original author is also the writer of the Kindaichi Files.
I won't pretend that I'm an expert on Get Backers, but I'm on Vol 8 and already hooked. Maybe you should give it another read.
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