The Get Backers
Voiced by: Nobutoshi Canna (Japanese), Naomi Shindo (Japanese, child); Jason Liebrecht (English, episodes 6-49), Rich McDonald (English, episodes 1-5), Héctor Indriago (Latin American Spanish)
One half of the titular duo, Ban acts like a jerk to just about everyone except Ginji, and sometimes even to him. A "fighting genius", incredibly intelligent, and very well-read on a number of subjects. Was once a thief with Himiko and her brother, but seemed pretty burned out on life until he met Ginji. Fights using his "Snake Bite" arm and his Jagan eye's illusions.
He is a quarter-German, and it's from his German grandmother that he gets his witch blood. His right hand has an over 200kg grip, a benefit of his family's curse of Asclepius (or Ophiuchus in the manga). The Magical Eye—left as the Japanese Jagan in ADV Films' release of the anime—is another curse, which he can use to give anyone he makes eye contact with a realistic nightmare that lasts exactly one minute. These curses have their downsides: the Jagan can only be used three times in 24 hours - any more and he will disappear. It is said his family is destined to have terrible luck.
You'd almost have to agree, based on how things go - he's had to kill two friends on their request (Yamato and Eris) and can never seem to catch a break when it comes to money.
He was raised by Maria Noches, his grandmother's apprentice, though he ran away from her at a young age. From there he spent some time with Himiko and her brother Yamato, and after he had to kill Yamato he left for the Infinite Fortress where he met Ginji.
- Ace Lightning Syndrome: Ban's inability to control his strength when he loses his temper is a recurring cause of their debt.
- All Just a Dream: How Ban almost always uses the Evil Eye. Things seem bleak, sometimes the bad guy wins, only for everything to turn around at the last minute, revealing that he's been under the control of Ban's Evil Eye the whole time. More often than not, this trick is pulled with the audience as much as the character who's suffering its effects. He sometimes uses it for more beneficial and heartwarming effects, though.
- Animal Motifs: He's characterized and likened to a snake... which probably makes sense, given that the name of one of his trademark techniques is "Snake Bite". His cat-eyes certainly contribute to it as well. He's even called "Snake Bastard" by Shido.
- Battle Aura: He gets a rather unique one where when he gets serious, Ban's aura manifests as the winding coils of a massive serpent.
- Big Brother Mentor: Plays this role for Ginji and Himiko, and even seems to extend it to Shido, Kazuki and Makubex at times. Yamato was this for him.
- Big Brother Instinct: Kagami found this out the hard way after doing things to Himiko.
- But Not Too Foreign: He's a quarter German on his father's side. 'Mido' is his mother's last name.
- Catchphrase: "Just one minute." And "Have any good/bad dreams?"
- Cursed with Awesome: For the longest time, Ban's "Curse" seemed to be to utter a totally badass mantra before completely kicking ass with his amped up snakebite. Some thirty-two volumes into the series we finally start learning why it's a curse.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Well, the Jagan is there, but there's also the "Serpent Holder", a powered up version of his snakebite. It really drains him and tires him out, but it doesn't seem too bad until volume thirty-two.
- First-Name Basis: Switches from "lightning brat" to "Ginji" after they retrieve Natsumi's dog. Maybe half of the recurring characters call him by his last name. Himiko, Maria, and Paul are three of the very few who use his given name with no honorific whatsoever, while Ginji uses the cutesy and affectionate "Ban-chan".
- Hey, You!: Starts calling Ginji by name soon after they became partners. Himiko, Yamato (in flashbacks), Paul, and Maria he always addresses by first name with no honorifics attached. Pretty much everyone else gets insulting (though oddly fitting) nicknames. Lampshaded during this conversation between Ginji and Paul in the manga;Ginji: ...That's when Ban-chan started using my name, and you know how bad he is at remembering names!
Paul: You know that's not true — he actually remembers everyone's names. He's just not willing to use 'em. - Hidden Depths: Appears to just be a homeless perv with weird powers who gets things back with his best friend. Then you learn he's a brilliant violinist and thoroughly educated in a number of subjects. Then you learn why...
- Insufferable Genius: It's even stated outright in the manga omake. He's hated at first by pretty much everyone he meets, as he's very condescending and arrogant. Though in all fairness, he is justifiably so - he really is a genius.
- In the Blood: In the arcs where his hair is 'down', he looks very much like Der Kaiser; both men have similar abilities and somewhat similar personalities as well.
- Master of Illusion: The effect of his Jagan. One of the very rare cases where a hero has powers like that.
- Power Gives You Wings: When he overcomes the curse of Asclepius in his battle against Der Kaiser, Ban's aura takes the form of an angelic wing emerging from his right shoulder.
- Screw Destiny: His grandmother foretold that either he would kill Ginji or Ginji would kill him. His response? To give Ginji a hug. To be sure, it wasn't exactly Screw Destiny. His Heroic Sacrifice was averted only because Akabane was feeling generous.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: His Jagan has shades of this as its abilities are not rigidly defined aside from its basic limitations (can't use on person more than once a day, can't be used more than three times, lasts 60 seconds). However, he often demonstrates a variety of applications for it that make it difficult discern what the Jagan is capable of. He can distort the subject's perception of time to increase the duration of the illusion. It apparently gives him a certain degree of telepathy since he can generate illusions using images and knowledge known only to the person being affected. The overall effectiveness of the illusion tends to vary, up to and including making the target hallucinate his own death effectively enough to literally fool destiny.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: A pretty good example of the trope, though maybe minus the 'tall' part (Ginji's actually taller than him, according to
Word of God). - Teen Genius: Constantly called this by other characters. Even his grandmother admits that he's one, although she also mentions that he's useless at everything else.
- Tsundere: A Type-A one, very much more tsuntsun. Especially the way he calls Ginji an idiot at least five times per chapter, kicks him, whacks him over the head, slams him to the ground with a (comedic) hammer...though of course, it's all his way of showing affection.
- He often teases Himiko for being a "washing-board girl" (due to her "flat" chest) who has no worth because of her "lack of sex appeal", pretends to not care about what she does or where she goes...but is still the devoted Big Brother Mentor who goes rushing off to save her whenever he senses she's in real danger.
- Unstoppable Rage: A minor case, since he's usually surprisingly calm during battle — but tends to invoke this during certain fights.
Voiced by: Showtaro Morikubo (Japanese); J Shanon Weaver (English)
Voiced as a child by: Ryōko Shiraishi (Japanese), Gary Livingston (English), Rafael Monsalve (Latin American Spanish)
The other half of the titular duo, normally bubbly and affectionate, but definitely not someone you want to cross. In the past, he was the leader of the VOLTS street gang, but ended up leaving for various angsty reasons. He's very dependent on Ban, likely because he's not used to having someone he can depend on; instead being the person everyone else looks to. Everyone loves Ginji, and he loves everyone, so it worked for a little while, but eventually threatened to destroy everyone around him. Fights with electricity.
His alter ego the Lightning Emperor (Japanese: Raitei) requires electricity only the Limitless Fortressnote (Japanese: Mugenjou) can provide, unless he blacks out an entire city section. Ban makes sure Ginji doesn't turn into the Lightning Emperor, as it can be difficult for Ginji to control himself in this state.
He grew up in the Limitless Fortress, and used to have black hair before his electricity turned it blond.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Things will usually go his way. At first, it comes off as he was just Born Lucky. It comes to the fore when inside Infinity Fortress where this reaches near Reality Warper levels.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Even when he is not in 'Lightning Emperor' mode, he is still a force to be reckoned with.
- First-Name Basis: Switches from "Midou-kun" straight to "Ban-chan" after their first recovery mission together.
- Healing Factor: An often overlooked power of Ginji's is his ability to heal rapidly from severe injuries. After his first fight with Akabane he healed all of his cuts as soon as he ate. His Lightning Emperor from takes this up PAST Eleven with the ability to instantly heal from injuries such as a sword to the gut and a KNIFE TO THE HEART!!!
- During his battle with the Miroku Seven on Battleship Island, the Lightning Emperor's regenerative abilities reach the level where he can take a sword blow from Natsuhiko without flinching and the first half of the cut has already completely healed before Natsuhiko has even finished his attack.
- No Sense of Direction: Played for laughs. Even if he has no idea of where to go, he usually finds it faster than anyone else or comes in at just the right moment.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: His hair was brown/black before he got his electricity powers.
- Physical God: His Lightning Emperor form is pretty much a god inside Infinity Fortress, considering that he draws power from the Infinity Fortress itself. At the end of the series, Ginji becomes a literal God of this world himself when he wins the Ogre Battle and was given the choice to keep the world or reformat it. However, it is not clear whether he keeps his Godhood after making the choice and returning from Babylon City.
- Psycho Electro: If he uses his powers for a long time, his Superpowered Evil Side arises)
- Reality Warper: It was explained in Volume 10 and elaborated in Volume 25 that Ginji's inner belief allows him to unconsciously overcome and change destiny. However, it should be noted that he is an anomaly within reality, not subjugated by the rules of the Archive.
- Red Baron: Ginji is also known as "The Lightning Emperor."
- Super-Deformed: Called tare, he turns into a walking, plushie version of himself when he's being the comic relief. Needless to say, several females in the series, namely Hevn and Maria Noches, find this adorable.
- Tender Tears: It's not uncommon for the manga to cut from a heartwarming scene to a shot of Ginji sniffling happily.
- Unstoppable Rage: In this aspect, he completely outdoes his good pal above. The Lightning Emperor is later revealed as being the embodiment of all the Limitless Fortress residents' anger, hatred, despair and pain. So you can't really blame the guy for having no self-control, can you?
- Would Hit a Girl: Only when he goes berserk and becomes the Lightning Emperor. He's shown to be willing to electrocute and torture his old friend Sakura when she gets in his way, and even Akabane seems surprised that Ginji would do something so ungentlemanly as beat the living shit out of a woman.
