[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GetBackers.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[HeterosexualLifePartners Best of friends.]]]]
-->''We get back what shouldn't be gone! The recovery service with an (almost) 100% success rate!''

A 1999 manga by Rando Ayamine (original concept by Yuya Aoki), published in ''Weekly Shonen Magazine'', ''Get Backers'' focuses on Ban Mido and Ginji Amano, two superpowered pals who run a repossession service to help people get their lost stuff back. Ginji's body can generate a [[ShockAndAwe powerful electrical current]], and Ban has both [[SuperStrength a two kilo-newton grip]] (look it up) and the "EvilEye", which can induce powerful hallucinations through eye contact.

They inevitably run into conflicts of interest (such as an equally superpowered "delivery service"), which they deal with by [[{{Badass}} kicking ass]]. Though it starts out as a light-hearted {{shonen}} action series, it later took a sharp right turn into CerebusSyndrome country with the Limitless Fortress arc.

The anime, which aired from 2002 to 2003 (49 episodes), was produced by StudioDEEN, a studio known for other series that have achieved international popularity such as ''FruitsBasket'', ''RanmaOneHalf'', and ''RurouniKenshin''. It was co-directed by ''[[RurouniKenshin Kenshin]]'' director Kazuhiro Furuhashi.

The manga was licensed in North America by {{Tokyopop}}, who published the first 25 volumes before pulling a ''[[{{Dragonball}} Dragonball Z]]'' and opting to release the last third of the series as ''[=GetBackers=]: Infinity Fortress'', starting with volume 26. Unfortunately, Tokyopop [[OrphanedSeries lost the license just a couple months later (vol.27 was their last)]][[hottip:*: For the uninitiated, ''[=GetBackers=]'' was one of the many unfortunate casualties of Kodansha yanking all their Tokyopop licenses at once—other manga affected included TP's first mega-hit ''LoveHina'', which had been finished for years, and ''{{Manga/Beck}}'', which was orphaned like ''GB''. No one is 100% sure why Kodansha did it, but most speculation is that it was because they wanted to consolidate all their licenses in one foreign publisher, in this case Del Ray, to save time and money. Indeed, the fact that Kodansha would later buy out Del Ray's manga division & distribution channels (and take on some of their staff) and turned it into their own North American imprint, would lend credence to this theory]], so the final 12 volumes have not seen a legitimate English-language release, and most likely never will.

Ban and friends appear in the MassiveMultiplayerCrossover game, ''VideoGame/SundayVSMagazineShuuketsuChoujouDaikessen''.
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This series has a [[Characters/GetBackers character sheet]]. All character tropes should go there instead.
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!!This manga/anime provides examples of:

* ArtEvolution: The manga has this in spades. Himiko and Ginji have the most dramatic change, but compare any pre-Volume 9 character with a shot of them after volume 22 or so. The differences are amazing.
* AchillesHeel: Ban's Jagan's limitations
* AffablyEvil: Akabane, and in manga, [[spoiler:Kagami]].
* AnotherDimension: [[spoiler:Pretty much the entire world]], but this was only in the manga.
* AllJustADream: Evil Eye.
* {{Badass}}: Plenty of characters, most notably Ban.
* {{Backstory}}: Practically all major characters and villains have more than one flashback throughout the series, constituting to very complicated backstories.
* BadassLongcoat: Akabane. Ban (in the anime only) would fall under the "excessively long shirt" subset.
* BigBad: [[spoiler:The Voodoo King]], but only in the manga.
* BigDamnHeroes: Too many occasions to count. Ban has a lot of these, but so do Ginji, Kazuki, Juubei... everyone at some point or the other, really.
* BigFancyHouse: Various clients, including Madoka.
* BoatLights: [[spoiler:Characters possessing the Stigma have this effect, with the notable exception of the Voodoo King, who has Stigmas in all ''three'' of his eyes!]]
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: Emishi & Amon/Shido, Ginji & Ban. A panel of Juubei tossing a needle into Saizou is captioned "Juubei's tsukkomi level up!"
* BoringInvincibleHero: What brings down the series is that both Ban and Ginji always manage to succeed in their objectives with at most minor injuries and almost never lose a fight to anyone, [[spoiler: and the only reason they lose is that they lack something that immediately puts them back as invincible in the final arc]]. Their title is in fact, the "Invincible Get Backers".
* {{Bishonen}}: Most male characters in the anime. Specifically, Kazuki, who retains his bishounen status even in the manga.
* BloodstainedGlassWindows: Juubei vs. Toshiki & Orpheus.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The manga-to-anime transition shows this to some extent -- in the anime most of the ecchi scenes were completely removed, there's barely any bloodshed even during the most heated of battles, and Ban is definitely not a pervert.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Divine Design: Kazuki; Lost Time: the rest of Fuuga.
* BrotherSisterTeam: Manga only—[[spoiler:Ban and Himiko.]] Juubei and Sakura [[spoiler:get to become one when they're brainwashed]].
* ButNotTooForeign: Ban is a quarter German.
* CallingYourAttacks
* CanonImmigrant: Definitely Kaoru Ujiie and Kagenuma Sarai. Where exactly Masaki and Kanou fall on this scale is iffy: their first appearance in the Eternal Bond arc is very close to the anime's beginning.
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: The anime is very much this. The manga to a much lesser extent.
* CastHerd
* CastSpeciation: Somewhat averted. There are multiple blind characters, doctors, string-fighters, and animal whisperers, but the last two are somewhat justified by being family skills.
* CatchPhrase: Ban's "Just one minute," and "Did you have a nice dream?" Also, Ginji's cheeful "I feel like I'm forgetting something..." (in regard to Akabane).
* CharacterMagneticTeam: Several characters in the Limitless Fortress (Mugenjou) remark that Ginji has the ability to draw people to him and make them ''want'' to follow him.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Ban, and several of the mooks in the series.
* ClothingDamage: Himiko, who gets all her clothes ripped off about five times per arc. Actually, ALL of the girls basically come under this as any time they fight, their clothes are off no matter what. To be fair, Ban occasionally suffers from this trope, too.
* CombatSadomasochist: Takuma Fudou, who seems to love the pain he receives as much as the pain he deals out.
* CooldownHug: [[spoiler:This and [[CooldownHug Cooldown Touch]] are Ban's primary methods of snapping Ginji out of his PsychoElectro or BrainwashedAndCrazy states.]]
* {{Crossdresser}}: Kazuki, usually not by choice. Usually. The outfit he wore in his Fuuga days is pretty... fabulous, to say the least.
* CreepyCoolCrosses: [[spoiler:The Stigma is a creepy cool cross engraved on the eyeballs of certain characters.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Ginji is totally this.
* CursedWithAwesome: Ban and Ginji. Also Shido.
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: EVERYONE has one of these around here. Ban may use his Jagan only 3 times a day, lest he suffer fatal consequences. Ginji becomes a megalomaniac if he strains himself. Akabane's weapons are [[spoiler:made out of his own blood]].
* DeadlyDoctor: Akabane. That is all.
* DiagonalCut
* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: A recurring cause of debt for our heroic duo.
* DysfunctionJunction: Anyone who has Witch's Blood, is a Voodoo Child, or lived in The Limitless Fortress at some point... oh, wait. Basically, ''every single character in the series'' is messed up in the head in some way, even the ones that aren't.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Kazuki, sort of.
* EvilCostumeSwitch
* EvilEye: Ban's power.
* {{Expecting Someone Taller}}: Ren's reaction when figuring out who Kazuki is.
* FiveManBand: Several.
* {{Fanservice}}: Hevn and Himiko and all the other random big breasted girls who show up wearing nothing but bras for no real reason. Partially suspended in final manga arc, where winter forces Hevn to get dressed properly—but introduces Maiya Kokuchouin, who is 13 and makes Hevn look positively shy.
* TheFaceless: In the anime, whenever Raitei and the original Four Kings are shown in flashback, the 4th King, Masaki Kurusu is always hidden in shadow (FridgeBrilliance because he has the superhuman power to generate/manipulate light) and only his blackened silhouette is shown. This lasts until the first episode of the final story arc, where he is formally introduced.
* FermatsLastTheorem: Lucky the Wonder Dog is given a problem like this to solve. The dog answers that it's unsolveable (x = "nothing"), which is what ''really'' clues Ban into the fact that the whole "genius dog" thing isn't a parlor trick... the dog's actually been [[spoiler:infected with the same virus that caused apes to mutate into humans, the so-called "Missing Link Virus."]] It... doesn't make ''sense'' in context, but there is an explanation.
* FourIsDeath: Ginji's Four Kings and [=MakubeX=]'s New Four Kings.
* GagPenis: Shido. Anime only.
* GroinAttack: Madoka vs. Hishiki
* HairColors: Ginji (blonde, but [[JustifiedTrope justified]]), Makubex (grey), Himiko (dark green), Kagami...
* HeterosexualLifePartners: This trope ''is'' Ban and Ginji. Some of the official art from the anime makes it even ''more'' obvious.
* HotSpringsEpisode: At least once in the manga, twice in the anime.
* HotMom: Manga only... [[spoiler:Ginji's]]
* HomoeroticSubtext: Everyone. And I mean '''''everyone'''''. This series is a SlashFic writer's wet dream!
* IHaveTheHighGround: The Lightning Emperor and the Four Kings are often shown sitting or standing on large piles of rubble. A later filler episode has Emishi parody it, then Kazuki play it straight, then Emishi completely destroys Kazuki's coolness factor by bringing him into the parody as "the Beauty Warrior of love and good looks". Kazuki is not amused.
* IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight: Fudou loves doing this to Ban.
* ImportantHaircut: Manga only. [[spoiler:Kazuki, to the horror of fangirls everywhere.]])
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Sakura's cloth, Akabane's scalpels, Ban's arm cursed by the Greek god of medicine...
* IncestSubtext: Manga-only, [[spoiler: Himiko and Ban]]. There is lots of ShipTease between them and she, who is blissfully unaware of the fact that they are actually siblings, is explicitly stated to be in love with him. Whether those feelings are mutual is up for debate.
* IntimateHealing: Uryu's resurrection.
* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Ban's Evil Eye only works once on a person.
* JerkassFacade: Manga only. [[spoiler:Ban's father]]
* KnightOfCerebus: [=MakubeX=].
* LegacyCharacter: Ban and Ginji are the third generation of the Get Backers. The second gen was the trio who gave them their Subaru 360 and the "last piece" analogy. The first gen was [[spoiler:Paul and Ban's father, der Kaiser.]]
* LetsGetDangerous: Manga only. [[spoiler:Paul]]
* LudicrousGibs: Some of the cuts Akabane makes are just... amazing.
* ManipulativeBastard: [=MakubeX=], Kagami, and in manga, [[spoiler:Akabane]].
* MasterOfIllusion: [=MakubeX=]. Also Ban, to a lesser extent. And, to an even lesser extent, Kagami.)
* MacGuffin: Every single plot revolves around one of these. Subverted in second half of manga. [[spoiler:Madoka pops up as a retrieval target. In the last arc, they are to retrieve Himiko, among other stuff.]]
* MoreThanMindControl: The Archangels.
* MsFanservice: Hevn, but Himiko sometimes has this (albeit unintentionally).
* MrFanservice: Ban, who whips his shirt off more often than any other guy in the manga, and Kazuki.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: Takuma Fudou to Ginji, over Ban. Seriously. "When you're around, Midou doesn't even notice me. Midou's eyes are not on me... because you're in the way!"
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Dr. Jackal, Lucifer
* {{Necromantic}}
* NeutralFemale: Natsumi, and later in the manga,[[spoiler:Rena]].
* NonActionGuy: [=MakubeX=], at first. Paul ''seems'' to be this way in the beginning.
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Averted when an item to be delivered turns out to be a key nuclear bomb component.
* OccultBlueEyes: Ban Midou has almost preternaturally blue eyes, as well as being an actual case of association with witches, as noted above. He also has the ability to give the EvilEye.
* OfficialCouple: Shido and Madoka. [[spoiler: Hevn and Masaki.]]
* OneHundredAndEight: Akabane. His scalpels number that many, to be accurate.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Kaoru Haruki. Her surname is Emishi's given name, and her given name sounds identical to Kaoru Ujiie's, although they use different kanji. There's also Rena Sendou and Ren Radou.
* OnlyOneName: Hevn, [=MakubeX=]
* OrgasmicCombat: Takuma Fudou tends to have this, but only when he fights with Ban.
* OvertookTheManga: The anime diverges from the manga right before the "Divine Design" arc begins. The last part of the anime to come directly from the source was "Lost Arms of the Goddess". [[hottip:*: Technically, Interlude 3 from Volume 14—the HotSpringsEpisode—was the latest chronological chapters to be animated, occurring immediately prior to "Divine Design", but the anime moved it up to episode 26, before "Lost Arms of the Goddess"]]. The majority of Season 2 is either {{filler}} or the anime staff making a good-faith attempt to end the show in a way that makes at least some sense without direction from the still-in-progress manga.
* PantyShot: As often as possible, especially for poor Himiko.
* ParentalAbandonment: Manga only. Lots, but somewhat mitigated by the fact that most of the characters are over 18 by the time the series starts[[hottip:*: Himiko is the exception; she's 16 in her first appearance]].
** [[spoiler:Let's see: After learning that he's a freak, Ban's mom declared him a child of the devil (and this was after his father had placed a seal on it at birth). He was then set loose at a tender age. For Kazuki, his family was killed by a rival clan, later revealed to have been helmed by his younger brother, who was given away at birth. Shido is the son of the leader of the Fuyuki tribe, but his parents were probably killed in the Kiryuudo war and he ran away to the Limitless Fortress (a.k.a Mugenjou) in his early teens because the Kiryuudo thought he was the one with the chimera. Natsumi's parents are dead. [=MakubeX=] was abandoned as a baby and adopted (yet not named) by Gen. Himiko is an aborted fetus brought back to life, raised by her brother, and he was killed by his best friend Ban (at his own request). Rena's father is dead, her mother is emotionally distant, and her stepfather raped her. Madoka's parents are either dead or don't notice that their blind seventeen-year-old daughter has a twenty-one-year-old former gang leader ''and'' his animal posse shacking up with her, or that she was kidnapped by his enemies—but hey, it's a pretty BigFancyHouse! As for Ginji, he's technically a created being. His mother, after her son's death, created Ginji in the alternate dimension which houses the Limitless Fortress.]] Subverted by [[spoiler:the Kakei siblings, who left home of their own free will, against the advice of their father; and Uryuu Toshiki, who's illegitimate and ran away from home after either beating the crap out of or outright killing his younger-but-legitimate brother for the right of inheritance.]]
* PerpetualPoverty: Man, they can't ever catch a break!
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Yep, everybody again.
* PoseOfSupplication
* ProphetEyes: Manga-only. Several characters, including Akabane, Kagami, and Natsuhiko Miroku. Note that none of them are actually blind.
* PunchClockVillain: Straddling the line between this and TrueNeutral is Mister Maguruma.
* PsychoElectro: Ginji in his "Lightning Emperor" form.
* PsychoForHire: Akabane... again. And Fudou.
* RapidFireTyping
* RapunzelHair: Kazuki's floor-length hair. Also, Sakura and Emishi. In the manga, Himiko after [[spoiler: fusing with mirror!Himiko]].
* RazorFloss: Kazuki, also known as "Kazuki of the Strings".
* RedBaron
* TheRestShallPass: It seems to be required to pair off the heroes and villains.
* SadlyMythtaken: In Greek mythology, Asclepius was a famous doctor. While he is associated with snakes, he has absolutely nothing to do with the evil demon snake in Ban's arm.
* SatelliteCharacter: Sakura to [=MakubeX=].
* SayMyName: Especially in the manga, where speech bubbles containing just names can fill up an entire page. BAAAAN-CHAAAAN!!! KAZU-CHAAAAN!!! Shido! Shido! Shido! Makubex! Makubex! Makubex! Juubei! Toshiki! Madoka! Hevn! Himiko! Ginji!
* ShesAManInJapan: Kazuki in the Tokyopop translation, corrected later.
* SinisterSilhouettes: The Four Kings.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Can happen quite a lot in this series.
** Japanese fans tend to romanize Kazuki's name as Kadzuki or Kaduki, which is technically correct given the second kanji in his given name.
** Emishi's homeland has been alternatively romanized as "Rouran" and "Loulan".
** Tokyopop's release of the manga had a BlindIdiotTranslation for the first 4 volumes. Probably the most {{egregious}} mistake was transliterating Paul to "Pore". This, like most other issues, was fixed in later volumes.
** And of course the ever-present question of what to do about the Japanese "long-O"; it crops up a lot in this series. "Midou" vs "Mido", "Fudou" vs "Fudo", to name a couple.
*** This resulted in unintended consequences in the English dub of the anime. They kept the "u" in Ban's name, but the actors screwed up the pronunciation as a result (they finally got it right halfway through the series).
* SuperDeformed: Ginji, for the most part. This is {{lampshaded}} in the manga and ''especially'' the anime, with Ban remarking on it and being able to pick [=ChibiGinji=] up one-handed.
* StalkerWithACrush: Takuma Fudou towards Ban, which is even {{lampshaded}} by the latter, who calls him a "damn stalker zombie".
* StatusQuoIsGod[=/=]FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Something always fixes it so that Ban and Ginji never make a profit.
* StupidSexyFlanders: Kazuki is this for both Ban and Ginji... as well as for other characters. There was even a part where both Ban and Ginji saw him bathing in the hot springs from the back, and tried to peek because they thought that they ''finally'' found a hot naked girl to spy on.
* TheFourGods: As guards in Divine Design.
* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Emishi, although his accent is more technically Kyoto-ben.
* {{Introdump}}: The first scene of the 'three transporters' is like this, as they have to call each other both by their actual names, and their professional monikers.
* ThePromise: Ban to Yamato; Juubei to Kazuki
* TrueCompanions: Just about everyone Ginji knows finds their way into a large, complicated group. Ban doesn't really like any of them, though, and professional obligations come first.
* WaxOnWaxOff: Stacking eggs.
* WeGottaStopMeetingLikeThis:
--> '''Akabane''': [to the GetBackers] "We've just got to stop meeting like this."
* WeHelpTheHelpless: The entire premise.
* WeirdnessMagnet: The vast majority of the Get Backers' clients have ''something'' shady going on.
* WellDoneSonGuy: The "friend" variant—Toshiki and Kazuki.
* WhipItGood: Emishi's Loulan Dancing Whip.
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: [=MakubeX=] and (manga only) [[spoiler:Kazuki's brother; doesn't help that he is initially evil.]]
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: The Specialist.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler:Kazuki (manga only).]]
* YagyuJubei: Namesake of Juubei Kakei.
* YearInsideHourOutside: While the illusions of the Evil Eye last only 60 seconds, it seems that there's no limit on how long you can make someone ''think'' something is happening, allowing for very creative scenarios to be created.
* YourMindMakesItReal: Infinity Fortress and Divine Design.

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