The Show:
The second half of The Getbackers series gets underway much like
it started. With the multi-part Limitless Fortress saga completed,
Ban and Ginji go back to their job of recovering things for people, though
they never seem to make any money at it. The cases aren't as important
as what they were working on in the last story, but it sure is more humorous.
In case you didn't catch the earlier volumes, the Get Backers are a
pair of young guys, Ban and Ginji, who run a business retrieving stolen
or lost objects. Business isn't very good right now. They live in their
car, and have run up a huge tab at a local restaurant. Even giving their
lowly standing, they are quite good at their job. Once they take on a job,
these goofy guys always recover the object they are sent after.
Part of the reason for this amazing success rate is that both members
of the team have superpowers. Ginji is a human electric eel, who can generate
a powerful electric charge with his hands, and Ban has a 'jag-on' the ability
to create a powerful illusion for up to a minute. With these powers, and
a stubborn streak that doesn't allow them to give up, the Get Backers are
able to recover just about anything.
After the long Limitless Fortress series, the show gets back to the
basics with a series of stand alone stories. First off, they are
hired to find a diamond ring that a lady lost while spending a relaxing
weekend at a hot springs. Translation: road trip! The gang
all goes to find the mysterious person who's been stealing items out of
the woman's bath.
Then it's a battle of wits between Ban and Ginji and an innocent little
high school girl in order to get a business man's lost briefcase.
The guys don't stand a chance. The third episode offers a rather
difficult assignment for the team: A man hires them to get his memory
back.
The last story is a multi-parter which is concluded on the next disc,
where Ban and Ginji really having their work cut out for them. They
are hired to get the arms to the Venus de Milo. The job is even more
difficult than it sounds; there are several other people after the arms,
including deadly Dr. Jackle.
This volume was a lot of fun. Though I enjoyed the Limitless Fortress
saga, I thought it dragged on a little too long and was glad to see them
getting back to shorter stories. These single episode adventures
pack a lot of humor and action into a half hour. Though they aren't
as complex and involved as the longer saga, they are more enjoyable in
a lot of ways. The second episode on the disc, where they have to
get some information out of a high school girl was one of my favorite shows
in the series. The trouble they had dealing with this young girl
was really funny, and her personality was great. I hope she makes
another appearance before the series is over.
The DVD:
This DVD presents episodes 26-30 on a single DVD that comes in an Amaray
case with an insert listing the titles of the episodes and the extras.
Audio:
This DVD offers the choice of the original Japanese in stereo, or a
5.1 English dub. I viewed the show with both soundtracks, and they
were both very good. Both were clear and had good range. The
5.1 dub was more dynamic than the Japanese track, with a little more strength
to the bass. The English voice actors did a good job, putting feeling
into the characters without making them sound goofy like some dubs.
The rear speakers are used to good effect.
Video:
The anamorphic widescreen image looked pretty good. The colors
were bright and the image was sharp. There were some digital defects
with aliasing in the background being the most noticeable. Fine lines
tend to shimmer when the camera pans over them, and there was some cross
colorization in the few black and white scenes. These weren't distracting
and this is still a good looking DVD.
Extras:
This DVD includes clean opening and closing animations, and an 18-minute
interview with some of the English voice talent. They apparently
filmed these with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, but on the disc it's presented
at 1.78:1. (Either that or everyone who works on this project has
oval shaped heads.)
Final Thoughts:
This volume of The Get Backers returns to the formula they used
in the first several shows; single episode humor based shows that have
a good amount of action. If you enjoyed the first
couple of volumes, you'll enjoy this one too. Recommended.
Buy: