Ginji Amano

Infobox animanga character
name = Ginji Amano
series = GetBackers


caption = Ban Mido by Yuya Aoki and Rando Ayamine
first = "GetBackers" manga chapter 1
"GetBackers" anime episode 1
voiced by = Japanese
Shotaro Morikubo
Ryoko Shiraishi (as child)
age = 18 in the manga- 21 in the anime
born = nihongo|Ginji Amano|天野銀次|Amano Ginji 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 Ryoko Shiraishi. He is the "G" in the Get Backers. He is 21 years old in the anime (18 in the manga)

Creation and conception

Person

He's the current partner of Ban Mido 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.

Raitei

("Raitei", 雷帝, variously translated as "Lightning Lord", "Lightning Emperor" or "Thunder Emperor"). Although sharing the same body as that of Ginji, Raitei 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). During the era of the VOLTS, only one man was known to have handed the Raitei defeat: Ban Mido_{Citation Nedded}. 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.

Plot overview

Reception

Ginji has ranked highly in the popularity polls of the series, continuously placing in the top ten and ranking first once. [cite book |title=GetBackers volume 14 |last=Aoki |first=Yuya |coauthors=Ayamine, Rando |year=2006 |publisher=Tokyo Pop |isbn=1-59182-976-3 |pages=p. 94 ]

References

ee also

List of fictional characters who can manipulate electricity