The forth volume of The Get Backers continues the Limitless Fortress story line but doesn't bring it to a conclusion.  Ban, Ginji, and their associates are in deep trouble as they try to navigate the halls of the fortress and find the mysterious and powerful Makubex.  Will even the Get Backers power be enough to defeat this boy genius?

The Get Backers are hired by a mysterious group of people to retrieve "IL," an unknown object that is being held in a lawless area know as the Limitless Fortress.  The Fortress is a group of abandoned skyscrapers in the middle of the city.  This is the place that Ginji used to rule as the Lightning Emperor.  By returning, Ginji is putting his life at risk.  When he left he let down a lot of people, people who would just as soon see him dead now.  To increase their chances of success, the Get Backers are forced to team up with some friends and old enemies:  Dr. Jackal, Shido, Kazuki and Himiko.
 
As this volume starts, the group has been broken up into three pairs.  Ginji and Dr. Jackal are search for the IL together, but they don't work very well as a team though, since Jackal finds pleasure killing his opponents.  He does come in handy in a fight though, and his abilities are called on almost at once.  They get attacked by a member of Ginji's old gang and a mysterious character who comes from the Limitless Fortresses highest floor, known as Babylon City.  He's much more powerful than he looks, and he may even cause Dr. Jackal some serious problems.

As the three teams wander through the Fortress fighting minor battles with lesser opponents, none of the recovery specialists realize that they are playing right into Makubex's hands.  His computers have taken every eventuality into account and calculated the outcome of all the events.  It seems that no matter what they do, or how their fights turn out, it is exactly what Makubex wants to happen.  How can they find the IL and escape the Limitless Fortress when all of their movements are know in advance by their enemy?

While the Limitless Fortress story arc is good, I didn't enjoy it as much as the earlier stand a lone stories and short arcs.  There is a lot less humor in these stories, and the trip through the fortress starts feeling the same after a while.  The team gets split up, each of the groups fight a major villain, they get back together, and then Makubex proclaims that everything is going according to his plans and the pattern repeats

That isn't to say that this is a boring volume, it isn't.   The fights are entertaining, and the each individual episode is good.  It's only when you watch a whole disc at a time that the show starts feeling the same.  When all is said and done, this is a good set of shows, but not the best in the series.

One thing that is good about this story line is that it does give a lot of background information about Ginji and many of the supporting characters who originally came from the Limitless Fortress.  This back story makes the show more interesting and three dimensional.  I am glad that they took the time to examine the pasts of these characters.

This DVD presents episodes 16-20 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 a couple of interviews.  The first one is a five and a half minute talk with John Minnich who plays Makubex.  They ask him fairly standard questions including how he got his start in acting and what he thinks of his character.  There is also a nearly half hour long conversation with Dan Dietz who is the writer of the English dub for the show.  I found this a little more interesting, with Dan talking about the plays that he's written and how his own writing has affected his anime scripts.

Final Thoughts:

The Limitless Fortress arc is a good, but not as much fun as the earlier volumes. The story line is going on a little long, but it is still fairly interesting.  Even if it's not as funny as the earliest volumes, there are still some light moments.  The best part of these shows is where they examine the history of Ginji and the supporting characters.  If you've followed the series so far, you'll be happy with this volume.  Recommended.