Slightly Biased Manga

…Man.  I almost quit when I got to the part where Ginji defeated his enemy by convincing him not to fight.  That part was so goddamn lame I don’t even have the words.  The rest of the volume isn’t too fantastic either.

Mostly this is just fight after fight after fight after fight between different characters in different places.  We do get an explanation as to what’s up with Amon Natsuki and why the two clans are fighting, but other than that it feels like the plot doesn’t advance AT ALL.  I mean, obviously several opponents are defeated, so everyone’s that much closer to… whatever the hell it is they’re going to do here, but other than completing several battles, nothing happens and nobody meets up with one another.  In fact, several characters split up, thus ensuring things will take even longer since they have to meet back again.

So Himeko fights alone versus a butterfly woman who uses poison powders like she does.  Akabane fights against one of the bosses he knew from when he was the real Dr. Jackal, saving lives and everything.  Ginji fights… okay, Ginji doesn’t even fight, he just gets scared, then somehow “finds his power” and easily convinces his opponent that killing is bad.  Except he doesn’t really find any power, or not anything terribly obvious.  Ban fights one of the other bosses, and his battle is actually the only one that was remotely cool.  Well, Akabane’s was kind of cool since we got the barest hints of his background, but a lot of the time I couldn’t really tell what was going on because the art isn’t very clear during these action scenes for some reason.  Also, there’s a battle at the very beginning between a couple of the Insect bosses that involves Himeko, Ban, and the Observer.  Amon and the whip guy are shown still mired in battle, but that’s just more to let you know they’re still around since they don’t really get their own chapter this time around.

Mmm.  I don’t think I’m missing anything.  If you’re reading this series, feel free to skip right over this volume.  I’m sure the only important bit of information (what’s up with Amon Natsuki) will be immediately apparent when events start moving forward again.

We got to see a great fight right off the bat with Natsuki and Haruki.  The way they interact makes the fight pretty enjoyable, not to mention the fact they both seem to do really well.  Well, Natsuki does, anyway.  We get to find out what his deal is, and Haruki even decides to stand by him once he finds out.  Aww.

Ban and Lady Poison fight.  Again.  This time, Lady Poison goes for his eyes, though.

Hm.  Akabane is defeated in combat, which is amazing.  It’s nothing permanent, but I was still totally blown away when it happened.  There’s a big brawl that involved Akabane, Ginji, and all the other characters against some of the insect soldiers, but it wasn’t all that detailed a battle.

What else… hm.  Ginji is still pretty useless in a fight, but he seems to be adapting.  This impresses Akabane.

Yeah!  The plot really gets going in this volume.  We get to see the lightening lord, a riff between Ban and Ginji, Akabane comes into play, and action, lots of glorious action.

The insect clan seems to be cursed by their bug forms, and it seems like the majority are ready and willing to take out both the beast clan and everyone Shido hired to help him, some are seeking the help of the retrievers and transporters to break them of their curse.  Not sure if that means they’ll spare their lives, but it’ll be interesting to see if this divides the forces in any way.

Did I mention that I love both Ban and Ginji?  Because I do.  We get teased more about the relationship they share, in the non-romantic sense.  We also get to see both at the top of their game fight-wise in this volume, and I just love that sort of thing.  I go between periods of love and hate with this series, but once it gets going, it can be really good.  It’s the lame in-between parts that are tedious to read.

Umm. Here’s another shounen action series, this time aimed at an older audience. GetBackers is infinitely more tolerable than Elemental Gelade, mostly because there is plenty of action as well as… well, actual lechery (Ban does like to grab and squeeze). If it’s going to be in there, do it right. I don’t mind the fanservice as long as the stuff is up-front and the characters are willing to indulge themselves without regret.

I grabbed this volume to read on the train to work, thinking that it would be infinitely more safe to read than MPD Psycho, which is potentially horribly violent, or Garden Dreams, which may feature sex scenes (there was no sex; I didn’t realize it wasn’t a Juné title). Unfortunately, I forgot that Rando Ayamine draws HUGE breasts, and there was a rather long scene where the enemy tempts Ban Mido by surrounding him with large-breasted women. Actually, that was most of the volume. Ban Mido gratefully fell into the obvious trap, squeezing a breast in each hand all the while. It was not something I felt comfortable reading on the train, unfortunately.

It feels like things are still getting off the ground as far as the plot to this story arc goes. We learn a lot about the rivalry between the beast and bug clans, and things are set up as a rescue mission for Madoka. There is a lot of introduction for the bug clan (apparently we had already met two of them, I do remember the bee guy from the last story arc, but I do not remember the son of the spider lady), and a lot of time dedicated to the bug clan’s analysis of the main character’s fighting abilities. There’s still plenty of fighting amid all the exposition, though. Lady Poison gets into a scuffle, and Ban and Ginji each get into light fights of their own. Ginji almost turns lightening lord, and Ban is just plain cool.

I’m not generally fond of the plots to the stories in this series, and I’m not really looking forward to the fight between the two clans. As I mentioned some time ago, I would much prefer backstory for Ban, Ginji, or someone, instead of introducing a new cast of characters each time where some are destined to become allies eventually. While I feel MakubeX is an important enough character to warrant his brief appearances every so often, I just don’t think we need to keep involving the whip guy and the needle guy, and it seems like eliminating either Kazuki or Shido would make things a lot simpler. But alas.

The series does action well, though, which is about all I can ask of it. As a bonus, I also really love Ban, Ginji, and a lot of other characters as well even though most of them are pretty shallow. They’re just so cool.

Marine Red was short and sweet, for some reason I thought it was going to be some big, long affair that drug up Ban’s past. Maybe that’s up next.

I liked story line a lot in comparison to some of the massive affairs we’ve got lately that involve about 50 characters each. This plot involves Ban and Ginji facing off against Dokubachi and Captain Blood. There is vampirism and wine involved. It was pretty cool.

I liked this volume a lot because not only do we get to see Ban in action (no one seems to even put up a fight against him here), but we also get to see Ban in action trying to save Ginji. It was very cute. And for once, the plot was actually pretty straightforward. They tried to retrieve something, there was an altercation, they got the something back, queue comedic ending. A breath of fresh air, and really, quite preferable to any hot spring episode.

Yay! The card story arc continues and concludes in this volume. It was pretty cool. The ending wasn’t particularly notable, except that we got to see Ban in ceremonial witch garb, which was the coolest thing that ever happened to this series.

Another plus: we got to see Akabane. Twice.

Negative: there was a chapter FULL of stupid jokes and comic relief, presumably to add a bit of levity between two rather serious-minded arcs. The characters all get into countless senseless arguments in the middle of a hospital. There was a bonus in this, though. Akabane showed up to wish Ginji well, and when Ginji passed out, someone shouted to get the doctor, to which he replied “No need, I’m a doctor.” Funniest joke in the volume, you see. Aside from the numerous and extremely odd references that will only encourage the female audience to slash Ban and Ginji.

I’m not sure how I feel about this Marine Red arc yet. So far, there’s a TON of action happening in a small space. We get both Hishiki (who I completely forgot about) and Maguruma, who I’ve been waiting to come back as “Mr. No-Brake.”

Um. And… I hear there might be vampires later? Maybe? If I’m lucky? This could also just not be true, too.

So here’s where the storyline moves into a tournament-like plot where each character has an individual enemy to fight.  Surprisingly, the characters don’t struggle nearly as much as in the other story arcs.  Ginji is the only one who takes a beating, but he quickly takes out his opponent when he turns into the lightning lord.

Jubei joins up with the main group at this point, but they’ve lost two members since the beginning, so this is okay by me.  One of the lost members joining back up with them makes it less okay, but you know, I’ll live.

Also not okay is a bunch of minor characters getting into a fight and getting more backstory than Ban and Ginji YET AGAIN.  I do not care about Jubei, I do not care about whoever it was that Jubei was fighting because I’ve never seen him before.  This is my biggest pet peeve, and it is a huge waste of time.  This could be better spent with those characters just not existing and something else more interesting happening with the main characters.

ARGH.  I hate the GetBackers for that reason.

One thing that happened in this volume which was pretty cool was the battle Ban was a ghost at and couldn’t participate in, he just had to watch Ginji get beat.  Also cool is the back-and-forth with Maria Noches and the kids, who may or may not be controlling the flow of the battle with the GetBackers being used as pawns.

Anyway, yes, I love this story.  I think it wraps up in the next volume, so I’m all for that.  Here’s hoping they only get better from here out.

Also, this series just ended in Japan!  Yay!  I know it’s over in the magazine, and there are 39 volumes, but I’m not sure if there are more volumes coming out or not.  We’ll see.  But at least now we know it has an end.

For my reference: Boogiepop Dual 1-2, Dragonball 20-21, Doing Time, Scary Book 3.

So, to use the Divine Design cards against the kids… to beat them at their own game, they have to learn to use them themselves.  Enter the coolest volume of the series ever.

Maria puts Ginji, Ban, Hevn, and Himiko through all sorts of tests to try and get them to unleash the power of Divine Design.  They’ve got to stack eggs, walk through glass, over holes, through traffic, and do lots of other cool-looking things.  Ginji has a knack for it.  Ban, despite his witch’s blood, does not.

Ban’s problem is that he doesn’t want to believe in magic, or maybe dismisses it since his grandma beat him over the head with it constantly when he was younger.  At any rate,  he doesn’t believe, so he can’t do things like put his fist through glass or anything like that.

Maria and Ban have some brief recollections with one another that are cool, and really they just make me want to hear more about Ban’s backstory.  Apparently he’s the only person who carries the blood of a true witch in him, which is awesome.  I’m not sure how that works, since Lucifer and Maria Noches are also both witches, but maybe witches by training and not by blood?  I don’t know.

At any rate: awesome.  We’ll never have it like this again, I think.

So yes, the Divine Design arc is awesome.  Why is it awesome?  Because we get to learn about Ban’s past a bit, and it hasn’t yet drawn in about 10 new regular characters.  I also like the magic element.  While, for whatever reason I was totally put off this series at first by the supernatural powers, I find that I’m okay with the magic explanation for whatever reason.  And Divine Design is certainly magical.

The gang this time involves Kazuki, Ban, Ginji, Hevn, and Himiko.  A respectably small number, especially since it gets pared down gradually as things go on.  In this volume, they take on Divine Design, a group that seems to be using magic cards to control reality like Infinity Fortress, but outside Infinity Fortress, but the group mostly consists of kids.  It was the kid’s moms who hired the GetBackers to retrieve the kids, but unfortunately the kids are on power trips and don’t particularly want to leave.

Since they approach Divine Design as something that can be overtaken with physical strength, they get beaten pretty handily the first time through.  Ban holds his own, but barely escapes with his life.  He refuses to believe the cards are magical, but is saved when he’s about to die, perhaps by his witch blood.  See, it is cool.

Anyway, they dig up a witch named Maria Noches (the only new character so far, not counting Lucifer, the villian).  Maria has larger breasts than Hevn, but to be fair, she’s also 99 years old and doesn’t actually look like that.  The Divine Design training starts next volume.

Ugh, I hate this series so much.  I had to suffer through the last little bit of this Venus story arc, and then a hot springs episode, which is unforgivable.  But since I had a few volumes backlogged and read them all at once, I was able to see where the next story arc goes, and I like it.  A lot.  In fact, I like it better than all other parts of the series combined, times one thousand.

The end of the Venus arc still kind of sucked, and was kind of rushed through in one or two chapters… and had the cop-out ending you were expecting.  The one good thing we got was the Venus making dual peace signs with her arms, courtesy of the evil eye.

The hot springs episode was just stupid.  I’m not even going to dignify that one with any sort of response.

And while the beginning of the next story arc is cool, I can talk more about it in the next volume, where it really gets underway.