Hmmmm. Maybe Lovux should make her own contribution.
---------
Just a few days ago, I finally got my hands on another volume of the
Get Backers manga! Now I have caught up with the American serialization! … And it’s killing me. Why the hell did I have to get into a series that is currently on a hiatus? Before the hiatus, Tokyopop spat out a new volume of the adventures of the invincible retrieval agents every second month, but as of today, nothing new has been since December last year. Why?
Lovux blames the financial crisis And why did this have to be timed just in time for Lovux’s discovering of this utterly wonderful series?!
I mean… sure, it was the anime that redeemed me, but it’s the manga where the pure gold’s at. I know that it’s standard that the manga is almost always better than the anime if the manga comes first, but GB is an extraordinary example of that rule. The way the story keep going, with all its little details that hint about greater mysteries that are about to come, the more thoughtful complexities of the characters
and their fighting skills/limitations/potential and the developments in themselves and with other characters, and the gorgeous art. Oh lawd, THE ART. Get Backers has to be one of the most well-drawn manga of all time. The shading, the details, the backgrounds, the flow in hair and clothes, facial expressions, everything is
PERFECT, absolutely
PERFECT!!! When I went from the anime to read the manga, I was shocked at first at how gritty and rough all characters did look, but it doesn’t take more than five or six volumes before they look like you’re used to from the anime. Ayamine Rando’s art improves faster than a cheetah sprints! I mean it!
Just look at
these two guys this guy:
^ Left picture is from volume 1. Right picture is 20-something. That’s HALFWAY through the whole series. HALF. MTHFCKN. WAY. If the guys look like that when only half the story is finished, can you imagine what
massive amounts of bishiness we’re in for in the finishing volumes?! My God, that series
will kill me for sure with all its fangirlworthiness.
(though… what the GB characters went through is
nothing compared to the
fundamental changes that has occurred to Belldandy)
On the other hand, the fanservice is pretty heavy, so if you have a problem with strategically placed pantyshots and skimpily dressed ladies with impossibly huge boobs that bounce all over the place, think twice before taking this series on. For not only was it how the art differed from the anime that shocked me, but the way some females are depicted. OBJECTIFICATION GALORE.
It took me fifteen volumes before I at least learned how to laugh at it. And there are only like, one or two recurring female characters that can fight at all. However, while the girls might not be strong in the battlefield, they are still strong in a sense that they, just like the guys, make their own contributions to the story by having intriguing personalities, well-written
and often not just a little angsty background stories and – this is what differs them from many of the male characters - can use their brains instead of their muscles. In fact, one of my favourite characters from the series happens to be a wise, eccentric lady with a large chest.
Besides, it’s not like we fangirls are totally left alone outside the fanservice apartment. No, not at all! Out of all recurring male characters that have appeared so far, only ONE or possibly TWO have NOT been a smoking hot bishounen. And the one-shot/one-arc characters also have
quite a
majority of bishies in their casts. Drool yourself to death.
AND WE ALSO GET THIS:
But anyway, I really, really recommend Get Backers. I don’t think it’s particularly ground-breaking or unique manga (the whole concept just screams standard shounen), but the way all the elements are executed and work together is brilliant. Aoki Yuya is a genius scrip-writer. Truly a genius. And combined with Ayamine Rando’s detailed, gorgeous bishie-filled art, you just can’t go wrong. Give it a go. Maybe you’ll get as obsessed as Lovux, who knows. But I won’t hold it against you if you end up hating it.
Actually, scratch that I ever called Get Backers a shounen manga. I think it's actually shoujo, badly disguised as a shounen with the "help" of panytshots and bloody battles. I mean come on, look at those sparkles...[/s]
