Ban/Ginji (Get Backers)
Dec. 9th, 2004 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantswarrior posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ship_manifestoTitle: The S in Get Backers
Author: Andrea (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mullenkamp)
Spoilers: Minor; basic character/setting information
Personal Website: Altistic
I can see it in your eyes. They've shown you things your soul can't handle. They no longer count on anyone. They've deceived you and you don't trust them anymore. I know, because long ago, I had the same eyes. But when I met Ban-chan, I realized... that all any of us need is one good friend to make life good again.
--Ginji, Volume 2
I first discovered this series through a friend (angrybabble) who recced it on her LiveJournal. It's an action series, sometimes silly and sometimes dark and tragic, about two good friends who run the Get Backers retrieval service. They're hired by people who have had things lost or stolen, with the rather simple purpose of getting those things back. Sometimes it's as simple as going through the garbage to get a briefcase that was accidentally thrown away. Sometimes it's as complicated as bringing back someone's memories. Sometimes it's as large-scale as retrieving a high-tech device stolen from the government.
Ban and Ginji, the two main characters, are pretty good at this retrieval business, and boast of their (almost) 100% success rate. And yet no matter how many cases they manage to take, or how lucrative, they always wind up back where they started - which in their case means living in their car, mooching food off the sympathetic, and taking showers in public fountains.
At one point while describing Get Backers, my friend described it as a show where (to paraphrase) "someone is having a serious conversation about life and friendship and unhappiness, and the two main characters are super-deformed in the background fighting over pizza." Well, I wasn't even a big fan of anime, but my sense of ironic amusement was sold.
I downloaded the first couple episodes of the anime (it wasn't licensed yet, back in February 2003), watched, and despite this friend's mention of the show being incredibly slashy, did not see "teh gay" so readily at first. I wasn't even looking for it. What I saw was a bond between the two main characters that was impressively strong and intimate, as described by their benefactor Paul (or Pore, or however you prefer his name romanized) during the aforementioned scene:
"Money and status... cars... jewels... lovers... Being a human is going through life stealing precious things, and having precious things stolen from you. That's the kind of hopeless creatures humans are. If what got taken was money or things, you can just get it back. But if it was something like 'humanity' or 'warmth'... then what can fill up the cavern made inside a person's heart... is meeting another human who holds the same emptiness."
"Teh gay" came later, but it didn't really matter by that time. Ban and Ginji are an entertaining and interesting pair no matter what form their relationship may take.
Midou Ban
Ban is the sensible half of the Get Backers, or so he'd like to believe. He's the one who's constantly trying to drum up business, being a complete cheapskate to avoid unnecessary (and sometimes necessary) expenses, refusing to work for free, and driving the hardest bargain with clients or negotiators that he possibly can. If he had a motto, it would be "every man for himself".
Part of this is undoubtedly due to his past, which has only recently been detailed in the manga. Hints are made early on, however, that he had a rather extensive education in many subjects, and this is a good thing. He lived by his wits alone, and got used to doing whatever he could just to get by, aside from a period of time when he lived with the only real friends he ever had during his youth. The surviving friend from that time now wants him dead - and in fact, that's pretty much the status quo with anyone who once considered Ban a friend before he met Ginji.
You see, Ban's an extremely dangerous and destructive person. His mysterious grandmother referred to him as a "genius" when it came to fighting, and he frequently brags about his strong grip - 400 pounds of crushing force. When using it to rip people's limbs off or crush their heads or so on, he calls it his "snake bite" attack.
This is not his only supernatural characteristic - Ban also has a skill called the "jagan", or "evil eye". When he makes eye contact with someone, he can make them see a vision, indistinguishable from reality, that lasts exactly one minute. There are limitations - three uses a day, never twice on the same person within twenty-four hours - but his mind is sharp enough to find creative ways to get around any difficulty these rules might cause. Physically and psychologically, he has the capacity to do serious damage to anyone who goes up against him.
On an average day, you don't see any of this. Ban's just an abrasive young man with a habit of groping women (particularly the well-endowed negotiator called Hevn, which doesn't help him with the bargaining), a chain-smoker, absent-minded enough to chronically park in no-parking zones - which leads to tickets and fines and towing fees that eat up whatever money the Get Backers do make before they can use it to buy unimportant things like, say, food. He's cocky, rude, selfish, and sometimes downright cruel.
Despite all this, Ginji always refers to him with the cutesy nickname "Ban-chan".
Amano Ginji
If Ban is the brains behind Get Backers, Ginji is the heart. Where Ban is complicated and distant, Ginji is straightforward and friendly. He doesn't care about bargaining for more money, or often enough whether or not they're getting any money at all - he's a sucker for a sad story, and just wants to give help to people who need it, regardless of what he might get in return.
After all, he has his own sad past, for which the Get Backers' business may be helping him to make amends. He grew up in a highly unsual section of Shinjuku called "Mugenjou", or the "Infinite Castle". Crime and gang warfare ran rampant in this place, exacerbated by people with superhuman powers - and Ginji was the leader of the most powerful gang, Volts. During this period of his life, he was called Raitei (Thunder Emperor), for his ability to generate electricity within his body in a similar way to electric eels. As Raitei, he was incredibly powerful, able to harness the vast energy within Mugenjou and use it against his opponents. He could (and did) kill those who went after his friends without effort. He ruled the anarchist area called Lower Town. He was respected, feared, and... very, very unhappy living such a life.
During the course of the series, you see a very different Ginji. He's cheerful, bouncy, physically affectionate, sings nonsense in the car, and comes off as childish, if not downright dense. Theories in fandom about whether Raitei is just a berserker aspect of Ginji or actually an alternate personality vary; it may be that after Raitei's first manifestation at age 12, Ginji himself never grew up, but let his Raitei persona do it for him.
What changed him from the moody, violent Raitei to sweet happy Ginji? Ban-chan, of course.
No one knows exactly what happened when Ban met Ginji, except for Ban and Ginji. We do know that they were enemies, and had a huge fight. And then at some point soon afterwards, Ginji simply left Mugenjou, and formed Get Backers with his deadly enemy.
Passionate Male Friendship
Get Backers is not a yaoi series. It's not even a shonen-ai series. It's a shonen series, which means fighting and fanservicey females and friendship.
On the other hand, the manga's artist, Ayamine Rando, admits to being a fan of "boys love" manga. Two other characters are about as close to a gay couple as you can possibly get without actually saying they're a couple. (And that's only if you don't count Ginji commenting something to the effect of "Don't they look like a love-love couple on a honeymoon?" at one point.) In one manga storyline, there is a beautiful two-page spread of two male characters kissing - only because the kiss was necessary to save one's life, but still. The anime's character designer has an artbook full of pictures of Ban looking like he's about to molest a chained-up Ginji.
In other words, not only is the subtext everywhere, but it's on purpose.
The biggest part of the slashiness, however, is just inherent in the characters' personalities and the way those personalities react to each other. It doesn't need pictures of Ban and Ginji chained to each other while dressed in leather and fishnet, although that doesn't hurt. It's in, for instance, the way Ginji jumps on Ban, and hugs him. Ginji's awfully cozy with just about everyone, but not to the point he is with Ban, who he picks up and swings around excitedly at one point when they haven't seen each other for maybe six hours, tops. There's the way whenever Ginji is badly injured, he starts thinking about his partner, and calling out for "Ban-chan". (Note to those who aren't familiar with Japanese: the "chan" suffix is an affectionate honorific usually used for someone the speaker considers small or cute, most often used by or towards children and/or girls.) And then, of course, there's the way he followed Ban, puppy-like, out of the only home and the only life he'd ever known, and never went back no matter how hard things got.
While Ginji shows the touchy-feely physical side of affection, Ban shows his affection more subtly. Normally grouchy and putoffish, Ban not only puts up with Ginji's cuddliness, but sometimes even smiles and drops an arm around his shoulders in return. He gives in to Ginji's pleas to help people who can't afford their services. Ginji is one of the very few people in the series who Ban actually calls by his given name; normally he refers to people by family names or rude nicknames. He claims he can hear Ginji's voice no matter how far apart they are. "You're not like me," he says, watching Ginji slipping into berserker Raitei mode - and then proves that he isn't either, by putting himself in mortal danger just to snap Ginji out of it. And, of course, it was selfish, insensitive Ban who first said the hopelessly mushy "S in Get Backers" line.
They're physically and emotionally comfortable around each other. Physically, they have to be - thanks to their homelessness, they're sleeping side by side in a Subaru 360, which is a very small car. They'll get into minor squabbles over the littlest things, and end up rolling around on the floor; even though they both have incredible destructive power, they never do any lasting damage. Neither of them knows all the dark secrets the other has kept inside for so long, but as Ginji says, it's not important. They know each other, and the details of what happened in the past don't matter. And yet Ban, who doesn't get along at all with Ginji's old friends, is the one who says it's perfectly all right for him to dwell on the past sometimes - Ginji's memories are precious, and shouldn't be forgotten.
In the here and now, however, they reject the people they used to be. They are the Get Backers recovery service, with a nearly 100% success rate. They're partners, and together they can do anything.
Ban and Ginji together
There's an analogy Ginji relates about the retrieval business being like solving a puzzle: You can see what kind of picture it's forming, but "you won't know what the true picture is until you place that last piece in." It's as much an analogy to his and Ban's relationship, romantic or otherwise, as anything else. Somehow, despite being polar opposites in so many ways, they complete each other.
Ginji thinks almost entirely with his feelings, while Ban relies on cold logic. Ban will never show vulnerability, while Ginji will offer comfort and understanding even to those who are trying to kill him - so of course he'll offer the same to Ban without prompting. Ginji believes that no one is really a bad person - they're just confused and hurting, like he was. Due to past experience, Ban doesn't know how to like or trust anyone, including himself - except for Ginji, who trusted him when he thought he was unredeemable, and therefore is a constant exception to any number of things Ban thinks.
Ginji might seem like the childish, dependant one, but it's likely Ban who needs Ginji more than the other way around. Ginji retains his old friendships and constantly cultivates new ones, but Ban has no one besides Ginji. But really, he's okay with that. With Ginji, he's free to be all kinds of things he never really had the chance to be before. Ginji makes him smile and laugh and relax, and would never, ever leave him or turn on him, no matter how many times they try to steal the last piece of pizza from each other. And maybe, just maybe, no matter how much he snarks at Ginji's friends, he might have decided that even if they're not his friends, they're decent enough people to have at your back.
As for what Ginji gains from his relationship with Ban, I believe it's something like a safety net that he hasn't had since he became Raitei. He doesn't have to be the strong one all the time, because Ban is just as strong, maybe stronger. He doesn't have to take care of everyone, because it's just him and Ban, and Ban will take care of him if something happens. He doesn't have to do all the thinking and make all the tough decisions, because Ban is more than willing to do that himself. Plus, Ban is living proof that deep down inside even the worst enemy, there can be a friend, if Ginji just tries hard enough to draw it out.
Although they both offer each other security in their own way, neither of them were weak before they met. They didn't need anyone to survive. It could even be argued that from a strictly logical standpoint, they're worse off now than they were before they met. But even though they're broke, homeless, and starving on the street, despite having terrible pasts filled with angst and darkness and violence that constantly come back to haunt them, they're together now, and they're happy.
In finding each other, and discovering the ways that they fill in the pieces that neither of them knew were missing, the two of them have really found themselves. They're both free to let themselves go, to get over all the terrible things life has thrown at them and be silly and dorky. Ban has learned that he's not as heartless as he thought, and discovered that some people can be trusted after all, maybe even himself. Ginji has found that the miserable life that he thought was his fate wasn't the only way he could live, and he didn't have to deny his feelings for everyone else's sake all the time.
But it's not like Ginji's a generic submissive sidekick, either. True, he'll go on at length about how wonderful Ban is, how he's powerful and great and will always come to rescue him. Despite Ban's never saying anything like that about Ginji, and his eagerness to run to the rescue, he really does believe in Ginji. When Ginji's in a tough fight, Ban will sit there on the sidelines and watch - ready to jump in if needed, but trusting that Ginji is strong enough to handle it, even to the point of holding back anyone else who might go to Ginji's aid. Some things a guy's just got to do for himself, after all.
But as the two of them repeat at several points throughout the series, they don't really have to do anything all on their own anymore - because...
I believe in you, Ban-chan. You were the one who told me that the 'S' in Get Backers meant we weren't alone.
-- Ginji, Episode 5
Recs
Fics:
I'm only linking one fic per author (or in one case, authoring team), but if you want to see more, click on their names if they're linked. (Those who haven't actually completed other GB fic - though they should, hint hint - don't have links.)
Strawberry & Vanilla Swirled by Kitarin - In which Ban is a cheapskate and Ginji wants ice cream. Several fics along this line have been written by this time, but this was the first "Ginji loves ice cream and Ban is stingy" fic.
In The Moment: Today by WhiteCat - An ordinary day in the life of Ban and Ginji, with a job which actually allows them to have dinner for once, and then dozing in their car. ...Almost an ordinary day.
Striptease by Ka - Ginji tries stripping for Ban's pleasure. Oh, did I mention everyone in Get Backers is a giant dork, especially Ban and Ginji? Fics in which they remain giant dorks are close to my heart.
Fairy Tales by Kirachu - Ginji asks Ban for a bedtime story. One he hasn't already heard. Throw in some mythology, and things start hitting a little too close to home.
Last Minute by X-parrot - A deathfic. Usually I'm not much for deathfics, but this one is so perfect it broke everyone in the fandom back when it was written.
Looking Through You by Ellcrys and Kitarin - okay, so it's kind of a self-rec, as I'm responsible for one half of this rather lemony account of Ban and Ginji's first meeting, but I asked other Ban/Gin fans for their favorites and this came up. It's almost certainly not how it actually happened, but wouldn't it be nice if it was...?
Links:
dakkanya.net - an all-around Get Backers site with character info and tons of pictures.
Honky Tonk Café - Another all-around GB site, with very detailed character profiles, analysis, and summaries. Spoilers included, but labelled - and actually of the variety that you have to highlight.
getbacklove.net - wen's GB site, Ban/Gin-centric and featuring a lot of gorgeous artwork of our two boys.
Author: Andrea (
mullenkamp)Spoilers: Minor; basic character/setting information
Personal Website: Altistic
I can see it in your eyes. They've shown you things your soul can't handle. They no longer count on anyone. They've deceived you and you don't trust them anymore. I know, because long ago, I had the same eyes. But when I met Ban-chan, I realized... that all any of us need is one good friend to make life good again.
--Ginji, Volume 2
I first discovered this series through a friend (
angrybabble) who recced it on her LiveJournal. It's an action series, sometimes silly and sometimes dark and tragic, about two good friends who run the Get Backers retrieval service. They're hired by people who have had things lost or stolen, with the rather simple purpose of getting those things back. Sometimes it's as simple as going through the garbage to get a briefcase that was accidentally thrown away. Sometimes it's as complicated as bringing back someone's memories. Sometimes it's as large-scale as retrieving a high-tech device stolen from the government.Ban and Ginji, the two main characters, are pretty good at this retrieval business, and boast of their (almost) 100% success rate. And yet no matter how many cases they manage to take, or how lucrative, they always wind up back where they started - which in their case means living in their car, mooching food off the sympathetic, and taking showers in public fountains.
At one point while describing Get Backers, my friend described it as a show where (to paraphrase) "someone is having a serious conversation about life and friendship and unhappiness, and the two main characters are super-deformed in the background fighting over pizza." Well, I wasn't even a big fan of anime, but my sense of ironic amusement was sold.
I downloaded the first couple episodes of the anime (it wasn't licensed yet, back in February 2003), watched, and despite this friend's mention of the show being incredibly slashy, did not see "teh gay" so readily at first. I wasn't even looking for it. What I saw was a bond between the two main characters that was impressively strong and intimate, as described by their benefactor Paul (or Pore, or however you prefer his name romanized) during the aforementioned scene:
"Money and status... cars... jewels... lovers... Being a human is going through life stealing precious things, and having precious things stolen from you. That's the kind of hopeless creatures humans are. If what got taken was money or things, you can just get it back. But if it was something like 'humanity' or 'warmth'... then what can fill up the cavern made inside a person's heart... is meeting another human who holds the same emptiness."
"Teh gay" came later, but it didn't really matter by that time. Ban and Ginji are an entertaining and interesting pair no matter what form their relationship may take.
Ban is the sensible half of the Get Backers, or so he'd like to believe. He's the one who's constantly trying to drum up business, being a complete cheapskate to avoid unnecessary (and sometimes necessary) expenses, refusing to work for free, and driving the hardest bargain with clients or negotiators that he possibly can. If he had a motto, it would be "every man for himself".
Part of this is undoubtedly due to his past, which has only recently been detailed in the manga. Hints are made early on, however, that he had a rather extensive education in many subjects, and this is a good thing. He lived by his wits alone, and got used to doing whatever he could just to get by, aside from a period of time when he lived with the only real friends he ever had during his youth. The surviving friend from that time now wants him dead - and in fact, that's pretty much the status quo with anyone who once considered Ban a friend before he met Ginji.
You see, Ban's an extremely dangerous and destructive person. His mysterious grandmother referred to him as a "genius" when it came to fighting, and he frequently brags about his strong grip - 400 pounds of crushing force. When using it to rip people's limbs off or crush their heads or so on, he calls it his "snake bite" attack.
This is not his only supernatural characteristic - Ban also has a skill called the "jagan", or "evil eye". When he makes eye contact with someone, he can make them see a vision, indistinguishable from reality, that lasts exactly one minute. There are limitations - three uses a day, never twice on the same person within twenty-four hours - but his mind is sharp enough to find creative ways to get around any difficulty these rules might cause. Physically and psychologically, he has the capacity to do serious damage to anyone who goes up against him.
On an average day, you don't see any of this. Ban's just an abrasive young man with a habit of groping women (particularly the well-endowed negotiator called Hevn, which doesn't help him with the bargaining), a chain-smoker, absent-minded enough to chronically park in no-parking zones - which leads to tickets and fines and towing fees that eat up whatever money the Get Backers do make before they can use it to buy unimportant things like, say, food. He's cocky, rude, selfish, and sometimes downright cruel.
Despite all this, Ginji always refers to him with the cutesy nickname "Ban-chan".
If Ban is the brains behind Get Backers, Ginji is the heart. Where Ban is complicated and distant, Ginji is straightforward and friendly. He doesn't care about bargaining for more money, or often enough whether or not they're getting any money at all - he's a sucker for a sad story, and just wants to give help to people who need it, regardless of what he might get in return.
After all, he has his own sad past, for which the Get Backers' business may be helping him to make amends. He grew up in a highly unsual section of Shinjuku called "Mugenjou", or the "Infinite Castle". Crime and gang warfare ran rampant in this place, exacerbated by people with superhuman powers - and Ginji was the leader of the most powerful gang, Volts. During this period of his life, he was called Raitei (Thunder Emperor), for his ability to generate electricity within his body in a similar way to electric eels. As Raitei, he was incredibly powerful, able to harness the vast energy within Mugenjou and use it against his opponents. He could (and did) kill those who went after his friends without effort. He ruled the anarchist area called Lower Town. He was respected, feared, and... very, very unhappy living such a life.
During the course of the series, you see a very different Ginji. He's cheerful, bouncy, physically affectionate, sings nonsense in the car, and comes off as childish, if not downright dense. Theories in fandom about whether Raitei is just a berserker aspect of Ginji or actually an alternate personality vary; it may be that after Raitei's first manifestation at age 12, Ginji himself never grew up, but let his Raitei persona do it for him.
What changed him from the moody, violent Raitei to sweet happy Ginji? Ban-chan, of course.
No one knows exactly what happened when Ban met Ginji, except for Ban and Ginji. We do know that they were enemies, and had a huge fight. And then at some point soon afterwards, Ginji simply left Mugenjou, and formed Get Backers with his deadly enemy.
Get Backers is not a yaoi series. It's not even a shonen-ai series. It's a shonen series, which means fighting and fanservicey females and friendship.
On the other hand, the manga's artist, Ayamine Rando, admits to being a fan of "boys love" manga. Two other characters are about as close to a gay couple as you can possibly get without actually saying they're a couple. (And that's only if you don't count Ginji commenting something to the effect of "Don't they look like a love-love couple on a honeymoon?" at one point.) In one manga storyline, there is a beautiful two-page spread of two male characters kissing - only because the kiss was necessary to save one's life, but still. The anime's character designer has an artbook full of pictures of Ban looking like he's about to molest a chained-up Ginji.
In other words, not only is the subtext everywhere, but it's on purpose.
The biggest part of the slashiness, however, is just inherent in the characters' personalities and the way those personalities react to each other. It doesn't need pictures of Ban and Ginji chained to each other while dressed in leather and fishnet, although that doesn't hurt. It's in, for instance, the way Ginji jumps on Ban, and hugs him. Ginji's awfully cozy with just about everyone, but not to the point he is with Ban, who he picks up and swings around excitedly at one point when they haven't seen each other for maybe six hours, tops. There's the way whenever Ginji is badly injured, he starts thinking about his partner, and calling out for "Ban-chan". (Note to those who aren't familiar with Japanese: the "chan" suffix is an affectionate honorific usually used for someone the speaker considers small or cute, most often used by or towards children and/or girls.) And then, of course, there's the way he followed Ban, puppy-like, out of the only home and the only life he'd ever known, and never went back no matter how hard things got.
While Ginji shows the touchy-feely physical side of affection, Ban shows his affection more subtly. Normally grouchy and putoffish, Ban not only puts up with Ginji's cuddliness, but sometimes even smiles and drops an arm around his shoulders in return. He gives in to Ginji's pleas to help people who can't afford their services. Ginji is one of the very few people in the series who Ban actually calls by his given name; normally he refers to people by family names or rude nicknames. He claims he can hear Ginji's voice no matter how far apart they are. "You're not like me," he says, watching Ginji slipping into berserker Raitei mode - and then proves that he isn't either, by putting himself in mortal danger just to snap Ginji out of it. And, of course, it was selfish, insensitive Ban who first said the hopelessly mushy "S in Get Backers" line.
They're physically and emotionally comfortable around each other. Physically, they have to be - thanks to their homelessness, they're sleeping side by side in a Subaru 360, which is a very small car. They'll get into minor squabbles over the littlest things, and end up rolling around on the floor; even though they both have incredible destructive power, they never do any lasting damage. Neither of them knows all the dark secrets the other has kept inside for so long, but as Ginji says, it's not important. They know each other, and the details of what happened in the past don't matter. And yet Ban, who doesn't get along at all with Ginji's old friends, is the one who says it's perfectly all right for him to dwell on the past sometimes - Ginji's memories are precious, and shouldn't be forgotten.
In the here and now, however, they reject the people they used to be. They are the Get Backers recovery service, with a nearly 100% success rate. They're partners, and together they can do anything.
There's an analogy Ginji relates about the retrieval business being like solving a puzzle: You can see what kind of picture it's forming, but "you won't know what the true picture is until you place that last piece in." It's as much an analogy to his and Ban's relationship, romantic or otherwise, as anything else. Somehow, despite being polar opposites in so many ways, they complete each other.
Ginji thinks almost entirely with his feelings, while Ban relies on cold logic. Ban will never show vulnerability, while Ginji will offer comfort and understanding even to those who are trying to kill him - so of course he'll offer the same to Ban without prompting. Ginji believes that no one is really a bad person - they're just confused and hurting, like he was. Due to past experience, Ban doesn't know how to like or trust anyone, including himself - except for Ginji, who trusted him when he thought he was unredeemable, and therefore is a constant exception to any number of things Ban thinks.
Ginji might seem like the childish, dependant one, but it's likely Ban who needs Ginji more than the other way around. Ginji retains his old friendships and constantly cultivates new ones, but Ban has no one besides Ginji. But really, he's okay with that. With Ginji, he's free to be all kinds of things he never really had the chance to be before. Ginji makes him smile and laugh and relax, and would never, ever leave him or turn on him, no matter how many times they try to steal the last piece of pizza from each other. And maybe, just maybe, no matter how much he snarks at Ginji's friends, he might have decided that even if they're not his friends, they're decent enough people to have at your back.
As for what Ginji gains from his relationship with Ban, I believe it's something like a safety net that he hasn't had since he became Raitei. He doesn't have to be the strong one all the time, because Ban is just as strong, maybe stronger. He doesn't have to take care of everyone, because it's just him and Ban, and Ban will take care of him if something happens. He doesn't have to do all the thinking and make all the tough decisions, because Ban is more than willing to do that himself. Plus, Ban is living proof that deep down inside even the worst enemy, there can be a friend, if Ginji just tries hard enough to draw it out.
Although they both offer each other security in their own way, neither of them were weak before they met. They didn't need anyone to survive. It could even be argued that from a strictly logical standpoint, they're worse off now than they were before they met. But even though they're broke, homeless, and starving on the street, despite having terrible pasts filled with angst and darkness and violence that constantly come back to haunt them, they're together now, and they're happy.
In finding each other, and discovering the ways that they fill in the pieces that neither of them knew were missing, the two of them have really found themselves. They're both free to let themselves go, to get over all the terrible things life has thrown at them and be silly and dorky. Ban has learned that he's not as heartless as he thought, and discovered that some people can be trusted after all, maybe even himself. Ginji has found that the miserable life that he thought was his fate wasn't the only way he could live, and he didn't have to deny his feelings for everyone else's sake all the time.
But it's not like Ginji's a generic submissive sidekick, either. True, he'll go on at length about how wonderful Ban is, how he's powerful and great and will always come to rescue him. Despite Ban's never saying anything like that about Ginji, and his eagerness to run to the rescue, he really does believe in Ginji. When Ginji's in a tough fight, Ban will sit there on the sidelines and watch - ready to jump in if needed, but trusting that Ginji is strong enough to handle it, even to the point of holding back anyone else who might go to Ginji's aid. Some things a guy's just got to do for himself, after all.
But as the two of them repeat at several points throughout the series, they don't really have to do anything all on their own anymore - because...
I believe in you, Ban-chan. You were the one who told me that the 'S' in Get Backers meant we weren't alone.
-- Ginji, Episode 5
Fics:
I'm only linking one fic per author (or in one case, authoring team), but if you want to see more, click on their names if they're linked. (Those who haven't actually completed other GB fic - though they should, hint hint - don't have links.)
Strawberry & Vanilla Swirled by Kitarin - In which Ban is a cheapskate and Ginji wants ice cream. Several fics along this line have been written by this time, but this was the first "Ginji loves ice cream and Ban is stingy" fic.
In The Moment: Today by WhiteCat - An ordinary day in the life of Ban and Ginji, with a job which actually allows them to have dinner for once, and then dozing in their car. ...Almost an ordinary day.
Striptease by Ka - Ginji tries stripping for Ban's pleasure. Oh, did I mention everyone in Get Backers is a giant dork, especially Ban and Ginji? Fics in which they remain giant dorks are close to my heart.
Fairy Tales by Kirachu - Ginji asks Ban for a bedtime story. One he hasn't already heard. Throw in some mythology, and things start hitting a little too close to home.
Last Minute by X-parrot - A deathfic. Usually I'm not much for deathfics, but this one is so perfect it broke everyone in the fandom back when it was written.
Looking Through You by Ellcrys and Kitarin - okay, so it's kind of a self-rec, as I'm responsible for one half of this rather lemony account of Ban and Ginji's first meeting, but I asked other Ban/Gin fans for their favorites and this came up. It's almost certainly not how it actually happened, but wouldn't it be nice if it was...?
Links:
dakkanya.net - an all-around Get Backers site with character info and tons of pictures.
Honky Tonk Café - Another all-around GB site, with very detailed character profiles, analysis, and summaries. Spoilers included, but labelled - and actually of the variety that you have to highlight.
getbacklove.net - wen's GB site, Ban/Gin-centric and featuring a lot of gorgeous artwork of our two boys.
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Date: 2005-03-27 05:09 pm (UTC)*eyes comments* None for two months, then four comments overnight? Was this essay linked from someplace? ;)
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Date: 2005-03-28 05:00 pm (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/community/getbackers_yaoi/
What can I say? You are loved xD!!!
June