The Show:
The eighth volume of The Get Backers contains five stand alone
stories. I really prefer the single episode stories, and this volume
has some really good ones. Humor seems to be the keyword for this
disc, since many of the shows are of a lighter nature and it includes one
of the funniest episodes in the series. In addition we learn some
more about Himiko's background, and her relationship with Ban. This
is a solid volume, with all five stories being very good.
Series recap:
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.
Volume 8:
The disc starts off with The Get Backers being offered a job to recover
a kidnaped child. It seems that the grandfather, a rich industrialist,
has taken the baby to raise as an heir since the child's father had no
left the family to marry the woman he loved. Ban and Ginji originally
tell the couple to go to the police, but when Himiko overhears, she accepts
the job for them. It seems that this hits a little close to home
for her, since she was stolen from her family as a baby, never to be reunited.
We learn a lot about Himiko's background in this show, including a few
things that are sure to be developed in later shows.
Then Natsumi, the waitress in the Honkey Tonky and Ban and Ginji's client
in the first episode, decides to take on a case by herself while the Get
Backers are out of town. An old lady has lost a precious memento
of her dead husband's. She doesn't exactly remember what it looks
like, but that won't stop Natsumi. This is a humourous episode with some
good moments.
Beastmaster Shido Fuyuki gets an episode to himself next.
He's promised to to go to Madoka's concert, but that's a little difficult
when his past comes back to haunt him. An old enemy shows up to even
the score. This man is an insect master though, with the ability
to control all manner of insects and spiders. How can Shido control
his animals when he's wrapped in a spider's web?
The third episode is one of the most humorous shows in the series.
Ginji gets put in the hospital when he chases a rice ball he dropped off
the top of a building. While he's recovering, all of his friends
come to visit, and every one of them manages to get into trouble.
There are several competing storylines, and every one of them is filled
with laughs. I especially liked the running joke where everyone who entered
Ginji's room would find he and Himiko in a totally innocent but very suggestive
looking position. Ginji didn't seem to mind at all, but Himiko was
irate that anyone would think she'd fall for someone like the Lightning
Emperor.
In the final show on this volume, Ban and GInji travel to the country
to Madoka's mountain retreat, only to meet up with the thieving monkey
that they encountered in volume six. This time the monkey has his
whole tribe with him, and this group of primates are much more than the
Get Backer can handle. So they turn to Shido, and ask him to tame
the herd. He does, but in doing so accidently becomes their leader,
a position that he rather enjoys. It's up the Ban and Ginji to make
his see reason. Another very funny episode.
This was one of the best volumes so far. It had some good action
and fights, some tricky recoveries, and it revealed more background on
one of the supporting characters. In addition to all of that, many
of these shows were very funny. I laughed more at this volume than
any other in the series. Things just seemed to come together to make
this an outrageous volume.
The DVD:
This DVD presents episodes 36-40 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 good. There was some problems with the English track though.
At the beginning of the first episode the music is way too loud when compared
to the dialog. This evens out after a few minutes. Aside from
that, 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:
The only extras on this disc are clean opening and closing animations
and a few trailers.
Final Thoughts:
The longer story arcs that The Get Backers sometimes engage in
tend to drag a bit, that why I was very happy to see that these five episodes
were all stand alone stories. They told some entertaining tales in
this volume and set up some sub-plots that I'm sure will be expended upon
in the future. Most of all though, this was a very funny disc.
Three of the five stories were comedies, and they all worked. My
favorite volume of this series so far. Highly Recommended.
Buy: