| Ginji Amano | |
| |
| GetBackers character | |
| First appearance | GetBackers manga chapter 1 GetBackers anime episode 1 |
|---|---|
| Voiced by | Japanese Shotaro Morikubo Ryōko Shiraishi (as child) |
| Profile | |
| Age | 18 in the manga- 21 in the anime |
Ginji Amano is a fictional character in the manga / anime series Get Backers. In the original Japanese version, he's voiced by Shotaro Morikubo, while his childhood voice was done by Ryōko Shiraishi. He is the "G" in the Get Backers. He is 21 years old in the anime (18 in the manga)
Brief Introduction
He's the current partner of Ban Miduo and was once the fearsome "Lightning Emperor" and the leader of a gang called "The VOLTS" in the Infinity Fortress. He received the title "Raitei" (literally, "Lightning Emperor" or "Thunder Emperor") because of his ability to control electricity. This control grants him several unique abilities such as amazing regenerative power as well as the ability to become a human magnet and battery. Despite Ginji's dark past, his demeanor is one of an unassuming, energetic, and friendly boy with a strong sense of justice. He makes friends easily, often without trying - and is trusting and open to an almost naive extent. But when exposed to remnants of his past, he has a tendency to revert to his darker "Lightning Emperor" persona. For comical purposes, he also turns droopy and super deformed, most likely designed after a tare panda. He's frequently beaten up by Ban (comically) for doing stupid things.
Little of his past is known. We do know that his childhood guardian is Takeru Teshimine, then ruler of the Infinity Fortress. Before his departure, Ginji founded "VOLTS", a gang led by The Lightning Emperor, and "The Four Kings of the VOLTS" to protect the Infinity Fortress from the monsters of the Beltline.
The Lightning Emperor
("Raitei", 雷帝, variously translated as "Lightning Lord", "Lightning Emperor" or "Thunder Emperor"). Although sharing the same body as that of Ginji, Lightning Emperor is the polar opposite of the happy-go-lucky Ginji. He first came into being when Ginji was a young boy, as the Beltline Monsters invaded the lower levels of the Infinity Fortress. Ginji and a friend were attempting to escape from the hunters, when Ginji's friend was struck by an arrow. It took less than the time it takes to blink, but the whole invasion force was annihilated in an instant. From that point on, whenever Ginji is confronted with a difficult situation, emotionally or physically, Raitei appears to make everything that troubles Ginji disappear. However, this ultimately causes more pain for the peaceful Ginji as death is the last thing he ever wants.
The source of Raitei's power is actually the limitless energy currents flowing through the Infinity Fortress and as such, he draws as much power from them as he needs. Sometimes though, this can put the Infinity Fortress in a sticky situation if Raitei calls for more power in a single instant than the tower is capable of producing. For this reason, he is dangerous to the "Brain Trust" in Babylon City who possess the "Archive" (the sum total of human knowledge past, present and future) as he could potentially erase the "Archive" if he blacked out the Infinity Fortress (this fact was later used by Der Kaiser in the Voodoo Child arc). Also, another reason why Ginji/Raitei is so dangerous inside the Infinity Fortress is because his existence is "random" in the Babylon City Archives. This means his existence was not foretold and therefore his existence inside the Limitless Fortress changes all the prophecies made by the Brain Trust.In the manga storyline, Ginji reverted to Raitei many times. But, in the Kiryuudo arc, he once lost much of his powers after one such rampage. Fortunately, Shido Fuyuki managed to revive his powers later with the use of his Shikizoku power.
There appears to be a hidden danger whenever Ginji turns into Raitei: If he rampages long enough as Raitei, there is a chance that he might not be able to revert back to Ginji Amano. It's because of this that Ban warns him not to turn into Raitei under any circumstance.
When transformed into Raitei, Ginji glows with a brilliant light and has bolts of electricity (even orbs of plasma at times) flowing around him. His features will also harden and he's merciless towards almost anyone. However, it has been shown that anything that acts like a black hole can defeat Raitei by draining his powers away (as demonstrated by Yukihiko Miroku [although at a later point in the Beltline, Raitei blew away the black holes with no problem] and the fight during the Queen's Challenge).
Also, Raitei was able to defeat the Voodoo King, an antagonist in the "Get Back the Lost Time" arc. With this final victory, Raitei disappeared into a pile of dust, from which Amano Ginji was to emerge. Seemingly, Ginji's other self has disappeared forever...
It's been revealed that Raitei was actually created by Ginji's mother, a professor with links to Babylon City and the Infinity Fortress as a whole.
Appearance
It becomes apparent later in the story that Raitei takes over as Ginji’s cold-blooded and enraged character trait when Ginji feels great emotional, physical and psychical pressure or sees his friends in danger. Raitei rampages with the aim of making everything disappear that could bother “Ginji”. Raitei’s powers are vastly beyond those of “base” Ginji for the first half of the manga. It is noted that only Ban Mido has ever beaten Raitei at 100%.
Once Ginji left the limitless fortress another side of Ginji was released. His Chibi-side. As a Chibi Ginji can seem anywhere from a foot to 2 feet in height. He is extremely adorable, he maintains his amazing speed and is able to take damage (mainly from Ban) without any permenant affect. As a Chibi Ginji has a happy dance with two fans that he can do on the ground or on Ban's head. As a Chibi Ginji has two extra form of transport, the first is an innertube that allows Chibi Ginji to swim and the second is Ban Mido who the Chibi sits on, clings to and basically piggy-backs on as much as possible. Himiko gets extremely irritated by this in the Manga. It is said that if Raitei rampages long enough, Ginji could possibly never revert back from this state. In fact, the second time that Ginji ever reverted into his 100% Raitei stage allowed him to transform into his much younger teenage self which is packed with great power, enough to put Ban in a pinch. It was said that when he first transformed into Raitei, he was at his absolute strongest. He manipulate time to transform back into this state. His power alone was greater than that of the Limitless Fortress and exceeded all of time and space. Just by transforming he was causing dimension rifts to become distored. He is able to generate an electrical explosion by forming a high energy electrical arc which rapidly vaporizes buildings, metal and insulation material. His lightning attacks at 100% attacks on a high molecular scale level; thus he is able to reduce his target to zero. Every one of his abilities at 100% are enhanced and are at his best. This version of Raitei was created with enough power to reduce everything in the world into zero. Not even molecules would be left upon his power. (This was stated by the Muejenjou - reprsentation of all time and space; basically all of existence...) Later one, he was able to achieve 100% against Masaki Kurusu and against the Voodoo King while maitaining full control.
Plot overview
In the manga storyline, Ginji reverted to Raitei many times. Usually an outside factor assists in the awakening of the Raitei such as the Babylon City Candy, Divine Design cards or Shido's awakening ability. But, in the beginning of the Kiryuudo arc, Ginji was stabbed and released the Raitei by harnessing the power of natural lightning. As a result he destroyed the neighborhood while leveling multiple buildings in the process and lost much of his powers. During the subsequent journey Ginji fights without his electricity and proves that he is more then just raw power, finding true 'strength' in himself. Ginji's intuition and instinct grew expoentially to the point that he could easily read and see all of Kuroudo Akabane's moves, but Kazuki, Juubei, Shido, Semimaru Kanade, and over 400 lightning timing super soldiers as well. He was in harmony with nature itself to the point that he could sense things and chi energy of any thing; where Kazuki and Akabane's expert senses failed in comparison. Ban strongly believed that Ginji was/is stronger then the Raitei; that there is a weakness in the Raitei that only Ban can see. Ginji was able to use high frequency waves to commincate and tap into the soul of the living mud men in order to aid him against their master.
At the end of the arc Shido Fuyuki managed to revive his powers later with the use of his Shikizoku power.
There appears to be a hidden danger whenever Ginji turns into Raitei: If he rampages long enough as Raitei, there is a chance that he might not be able to revert back to Ginji Amano. It's because of this that Ban warns him not to turn into Lightning Emperor under any circumstance.
Near the end of the 'Get Back the Lost Time' arc
It's been revealed that Raitei was actually created by Ginji's mother, a professor with links to Babylon City and the Infinity Fortress as a whole.
Raitei was able to defeat the Voodoo King, an antagonist in the "Get Back the Lost Time" arc. Just as the two struck each other with unrivaled power, Raitei's wings appeared from behind him either indicating that he was at 100% or that Ginji was using his true power. With this final victory, Raitei disappeared into a pile of dust, from which Amano Ginji was to emerge. Seemingly, Ginji's other self has disappeared forever...
The Ogre Battle then began. Ginji took on Ban in the final battle. Ban commenced to literally attack Ginji ruthlessly with everything that he had. Ginji would not fight back however. Ban tore off Ginji's arm and continued to attack him ruthlessly. In the end, Ginji chose to hug Ban instead of fighting back. He said that the 'S' in Get Backers means neither of them have to be alone. He looked back at Ban's past missions and noticed how he always helped out his customers and changed their destinies for the better because of his kind heart. He did not see Ban as a devil and chose their friendship over the battle. In that moment, the decison was made. Ban's famous quote "Just a minute" was heard and it was found out that Ban had used the Jagan for a fourth time, because he believed in Ginji's will just as Ginji belived in Ban. Ginji won the Ogre Battle.
As the Heaven's Door opened up, Ginji was escorted by Teshimine and Makube up into Babylon City. It was here that he was confronted by Dr. Kuroudou Akabane. Akabane explains to him that the world that he sees is Shinjuku. Akabane begins to explore the town and everything is not so different. However, Kazuki is a real girl, and Juubei is a real acupunturist. Soon Ginji meet his mother for the first time. As his "mother" revealed, the actual nature of the Brain Trust to him and gave him a choice of whether to destroy the world and recreate it in his image or stay in the world he is in. Ginji stated that, despite their world, compared to the "real world", was far more violent and dangerous; he did not believe that "happiness" came through "peace", comparing Ura Shinjuku in his world with the "real" Shinjuku that the Akabane Kurudo of the "real world" showed Ginji prior to Ginji's meeting with his mother. Ginji desired for a world that he was familiar with, a world that had bonds with the people he knew. Although Ginji's world is not what Ginji's mother considered to be "her ideal world", she ceded to Ginji's desire for his world, admitting to herself that, with Ginji's willpower, things were likely to turn out to be for the best. With Ginji's wish fulfilled, Ginji himself returned to his world to the company of his friends as the reformatting undid itself, saving everyone that had been doomed to the battle of Babylon City.
Ginji was able to ascend into Babylon City to accept the right to become God of the world that he chose.