Getbackers is a beautiful anime, with a plot that invokes thought in the reader, the action that would appeal to any Shonen manga reader and the intricacy that makes this manga a notch above the rest. A little fact about the author and the manga today: it was written by Shin Kibayashi, (the same author for Bloody Monday and Kindaichi) between 1999 till 2007 spanning 39 volumes. Unfortunate the manga is now out of print. In truth, I have only come to realise last year, how much detail the manga had built up with concepts and knowledge derived in the real world. This post would focus on the main character Midou Ban and the relation to the plot.
A first look at the Infinity fortress and the GB duo's destiny which is already established. The battle between the devil and the god for the salvation or destruction of the GB world.
By creating another dimension with the use of physics, the GB world was born. After its creation Midou Ban's grandmother had the desire to keep the GB world in its chaotic form free of intervention by the control of mankind or in this case, Brain Trust. The Brain Trust wanted the GB world to resemble the real world. Due to Ban's grandmother, actions had been taken to free the GB world from the real world. This led to the creation of Ban and Ginji in the struggle over whether the world is to be free or not. Midou Ban and Ginji were destined to battle each other for the chance to ascend to the top of the infinite fortress to alter the world according to their desire. Ginji was described as the God, for he is created to help shape the world according to the desire of the Brain Trust, which were the creators of their world. Ban was created to destroy Ginji and prevent that from happening, and so he is the Devil.
Details about the subjects, lifted from Wikipedia and GetBackers Wikia.
Infinity fortress.
''Limitless Fortress is subdivided into three specific tiers
– Lower Town, the Beltline and Babylon City. ...
Babylon City, the upper most level of the Limitless
Fortress, is said to be where the Brain Trust resides, and is the home of
Ginji's mother. ... Only those who have won the Ogre Battle may enter Babylon City and when that happens, they can change the world as they see fit....''
''In the manga, the Brain Trust is akin to its counterpart in
the anime - a secret cabal formed by the best scientists, engineers, artists,
politicians, patrons, and super-natural beings. … The members of Brain Trust,
and Brain Trust itself, actually originate from a separate plane of existence.
It is not just Infinity Fortress that is a virtual reality, but all of the
world of GetBackers. In fact, the world of GetBackers was essentially a
"backup copy" that Brain Trust, existing in the "real
world", had hoped to create using the Archive as a template of the world. However, Brain Trust soon realized that their "virtual
world" was going rampant, diverging off actual reality, creating new rules
of physics and phenomenons that would otherwise be impossible in the real
world; this might explain why the characters of GetBackers are gifted with
superhuman abilities, and why pseudoscience is prominent in their world. They
soon realized that their efforts were sabotaged by the Witch Queen, Ban's
grandmother, who led a small group of traitors against Brain Trust. With
little options left open to them, Brain Trust decided to "reformat"
their virtual world, which they deemed too corrupted and damaged to be
salvaged, a full "restart". To achieve this end, Brain Trust ordered
the Archive to begin the reformatting of the virtual world, all while selecting
a single person within that virtual world with the proper willpower and
strength to ascend to Babylon City and assist in steering that world back it
the right path with his willpower.''
''It was then revealed that Ban Midou has a destiny. He was
born to complete the destiny that his grandmother, the Witch Queen had set out
for him. His grandmother believed that the world Professor Amano was trying to
create is a hollow world, devoid of soul, of choice. It is a world not suitable
for human habitation. That is why she sealed the door to Babylon City, to
protect the people in the world of Get Backers. Protect the world from the
whims of those that live in Babylon. She wanted to create a vacuum between
the two worlds, so that no one from that world could lay their dirty hands on
this one. However, Ginji Amano was sent to the world, to reset the world
according to the original design. Thus Ban Midou was destined to fight and kill
or be killed by Ginji Amano in the Ogre Battle. Ginji was sent to the world as
God of the world. Ban Midou was sent to this world as the Devil. They both had
the willpower to alter the rules of reality and change all of existence.''
Beauty of the manga.
Here is where the intricacies of the manga came into play. Interestingly, the Babylon city of the infinity fortress which is the gateway to where the Brain Trust resides is similar to the ancient city of Babylon which had been described as the 'Gateway of the God'.
But back to the focus on Midou Ban as I had mentioned earlier and examine the amount of details that make the character fit together and into the entire concept of the manga as a whole.
1. In the manga it was stated that Midou Ban was born under the star of Asclepius with his birthday on the 17th of December.
2. The term Asclepius was also raised in his incantation whenever he summons his strength to defeat an opponent: ''I shall be the herald of Asclepius. Only he who accepts that
accursed fate shall receive the power of the highest heaven and the deepest
hell that lay hidden within thy venemous fangs. Thus, let thy hammer fall upon
the heads of the foolish. With all the wrath of a Demon God."
So why the link with Asclepius?
We are under the 13th constellation, Ophiuchus between 30 November and 17 December. Ophiuchus, also known as the Serpent Bearer is actually Asclepius of Greek mythology. The Rod of Asclepius, the Serpent entwined rod, is wielded by Asclepius, the man killed by Zeus and then had his image placed among the stars.
Draw some parallels with the character?
In essence, this is why Midou Ban mentions the word Asclepius as he draws the infinite power from the cosmos because he was born under the constellation. Fitting it all together, is why his trademark attack is none other than the snake bite from his hand: Because he wield the power of the snake in his arm just like Asclepius wields the Serpent.
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| Asclepius, |
The next level of detail: Relation to the plot.
Remember when it was said that the destiny of Midou Ban and Ginji were similar to the battle between the Devil and the God for the fate of the GB world? Whether it is to be left in its 'chaotic' state or it is to be recreated back to something similar to the 'real' world? Again parallels can be drawn between the details in the design of Midou Ban and the texts found the real world.
1. Midou Ban was sent to fulfill the wishes of his grandmother in separating the world of the GetBackers from influence of the real world, leaving it to develop in the state which those of the Brain Trust had perceived as chaotic and violent.
2. Midou Ban's grandmother was a member of the Brain Trust of the Babylon City of the infinite fortress, otherwise viewed as the 'Heaven' of the GB world.
In essence he could be seen as an entity that had been cast upon the Earth (GB world) from the heavens (Babylon city) by his grandmother. Otherwise known as a fallen angel. In addition, the fallen angel can also be identified with the devil which is also the portrayed role of Midou in his destiny. Here is a quote taken from Wikipedia that was referring to the New Testament (I'm not very knowledgeable of these things) ''In the New Testament, Revelation 12:3-14 speaks of a great red dragon whose tail swept a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. In verses 7-9, after defeat in a War in Heaven in which the dragon and his angels fought against Michael and his angels, "the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world - he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him."
And lastly, there is a portrayal of serpents in religions as a symbol of evil power and chaos, and is many times being used synonymous with the word Satan. Which also explains why Midou had the power of the serpent.
The amount of detail that we probably wouldn't realise which is being put into the manga makes it one of my favourite. This truly makes it one heck of a good read! Sadly, the 50 episode anime couldn't even scratch the surface of the entire story, instead presenting a more simplified concept of the infinite fortress. Despite the anime's positive reviews, I certainly hope more people would get to the manga rather than the anime, and I truly wish for a remake of the anime that follows the entire story much more closely.
Sources:
Ophiuchus: http://www.neptunecafe.com/Ophiuchus.html
Asclepius: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepius
Fallen Angel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_angel
Photos are obtained from:
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