User:Hse643/sandbox

She is akin to other figures who roam about sometime during the Twelve Days and reward the good, punish the bad, and receive offerings. She is a mysterious, contradictory figure of unclear origins. Pre-Christian, Christian, and syncretism of the two have all been postulated as explanations of her origins.

=Names and etymology=

=Origin= Written records of the Befana and Befanata date to the Middle Ages. Her origins are the subject of speculation by scholars who have variously proposed they lie in paganism, Christianity, or a mix of the two. John B. Smith said she, like her High German counterpart Perchta, is nothing more than the personification of Epiphany invented by medieval Christians who had a tendency to personify feast and fast days while Jacob Grimm found it incredulous that two separate cultures would personify a feast day as a supernatural figure ("a name in the calendar had caused the invention of a supernatural being") and concluded it was far more likely that the Befana and Perchta were pre-Christian in origin and that they blended with the Christian holiday name. Generally the pre-Christian origin is the one most proposed and the Befana is often said to be a goddess or the remnant of one.

=Parallels= In particular, her resemblance to the female German figures of Holle and Perchta is often noted by scholars, even if just in passing, and the Befana is considered their Italian equivalent. The Befana and Perchta "both bring well-being".

=Interpretations and theories= The mystery of the Befana has led to many interpretations and theories over the centuries. The Befana may be connected to a prehistoric European bear cult that was practiced among hunter-gatherers and which dates as far back as the Upper Paleolithic.

=Character bios=

Voices only
Kelsey Kling Madoka Dan Dietz Sarai Omar L. Gallaga Hishiki Lowell bartholomee アンデッド andeddo Kurobe 1& 2 Guy Harvey Robert Faires Mitsuo Senda Tomomichi Nishimura Kazuma Tsuguma shimatsu-ya 始末屋 disposer Young Kazuki Justin kee Yumiko Kobayashi Threadmaster Kazuki anime of the Strings Young Juubei Marcos Lara Romi park Flying Needles Juubei anime Witch Queen Atsuko Mine ポイズン・マスター poizun masutaa ubai-ya robber奪い屋 Hachisu Paul Norton 蜂巣 Abukawa Judson Jones 虻川 kyoudai “brothers” :name: {ref|B2|ep. 2} K2 dub put drama cd in parenthesis ref name=dramacd {gnr|ch|3} Miroku Shimon 弥勒紫紋 Ryuuji kanji 龍二 redi レデ [ィ7つの毒香水を操る魔女 lit witch who manipulates 7 poison perfumes 7 poison perfumes manipulate witch] Yabukita goddess arc appearance Kiriudo-Kabuto, other clan members, Kirihito霧人 Takuma Takewaka, Oni鬼蜘蛛 Hozumi Gouda, Kage影蜘蛛 Yuko kaida, Tobi飛蜘蛛 Youko Honda, Ageha揚羽 Emi Shinohara, Murasaki紫丸 Kenjirou Tsuda, Hakumon白紋 Juurouta Kosugi, Mou Birei網美隷 Mou Birei Kabuto kanji missing Hevn (ヘヴン)

Sam ray Maguruma Tadahisa Saizen
Gouzou Maguruma (馬車號造) A transporter who drives a large semi truck whose professional moniker is Mr. Unstoppable/The man with no brakes. He is often seen on jobs working with either Lady Poison, Dr. Jackal, or both and is a minor recurring antagonist to the GetBackers on their jobs, mostly in the manga. However, he bears no true hatred towards them (despite excitedly saying he’ll squish them like bugs in his debut arc) and is seen being friendly to them while neither of them are on the clock, moreso in the manga. At the end of the Lost Arms arc in the manga, he assists Ban in turning Liu, the main villain of the arc, in to the police as he has friends that became drug addicts thanks to him. WhiIe they start off enemies at the start of Marine Red, after being attacked by bees, the GetBackers save him and he returns the favor by driving Ban, Himiko, and Kazuki to Hell Valley in the next arc. He is seen driving a cab when he is not working as a transporter, such at the end of the Givers & Takers arc where he drives the cab the GetBackers take to their client’s house to return what was stolen from him. This job is also referenced by a brief cameo at the end of the final episode. He does not appear as often in the anime due to his scenes being cut or some arcs not being adapted, though he does have a minor non-speaking appearance in one filler episode where he is paired with Dr. Jackal on a job transporting a rare type of blood. His last appearance in the manga is in the final chapter where he is once again partnered up with Lady Poison and Dr. Jackal transporting Ban’s mother somewhere. He has a brief cameo in the final episode passing the GetBackers in his cab as they head off to their next job in their car.

Shunsuke Akutsu
Shunsuke Akutsu (阿久津俊介) Jeffrey Mills Katsuyuki Konishi The main antagonist in the Sound of Life arc, he is the young head of a yakuza family and a famous violin prodigy like Madoka Otowa. They were both students of Maestro B together. He switched out the Stradivarius gifted to her by their teacher for a fake when they had a concert together. The party he is throwing for Mafiosi is infiltrated by the GetBackers, Natsumi, Paul, and Hevn in disguise, but Akutsu quickly figures out they are fakes and orders Ginji’s old friend Shido, now working for him, to dispose of them as entertainment for his guests a la the Coliseum. When this plan fails, he flees back to his study, playing the Stradivarius to lure Madoka there. When Madoka arrives and demands he give it back, he does, saying he stole it believing it would allow him to produce beautiful music for he lacks soul, but he claims he now realizes that it cannot. After Madoka, Hevn, and Ginji leave with the violin, he recounts to a servant how he had never wanted to be part of the yakuza life and tried to escape it by fleeing to Italy and learning the violin, but soon became entangled with the mafia there and his success became reliant on them, ending up in the exact life he was trying to avoid. After the early death of his father, the previous head of the family, Akutsu returned to Japan to become its new head, retaining close ties with the Italian mafia while still desiring to play; however, he realizes he will never surpass Madoka, shattering his dream. He then orders disposers, the Kurobe brothers, who have served his family for generations to “bury” Madoka and the violin, wanting her to understand what it is like to have a broken dream. He is last seen preparing to play at a concert, but is given a nightmare by Ban as punishment for trying to kill Madoka and the GetBackers earlier. He sees a younger version of himself who stares pitifully at him, who he demands stop looking at him like that. This seems to trigger a mental breakdown and the last that is heard of him is that he is taking a break from performing, to the disappointment of his many in-universe fangirls. He came in xx place in the first character popularity poll (vol 13).

Clayman Megumi Ogata Katherine Catmull
A mysterious phantom art thief who specializes in paintings all rumored to be fakes, no personal information is known about them, not even their real name, by any other characters (at first). Starting out an antagonist on an early case against the GetBackers, Clayman becomes their client and later ally when the GetBackers’ client betrays them and tries to kill them. Clayman loves turning new people onto art and begs the GetBackers to “eternally” save the paintings they have stolen, which they do when they reveal their client as an art fraudster, thus saving the paintings from destruction. Clayman is also an expert sculptor and master-of-disguise, able to disguise themselves as well as other people with clay masks specially made for this purpose which are nearly impossible to see through. The craftsmanship is so good as to trick Ban temporarily into thinking someone else is capable of the Evil Eye despite knowing this is impossible, but any damage to the mask makes them crumble, revealing the true face of the person behind it. At the end of the Phantom Sunflowers arc, not only is Clayman revealed to have been disguised as a department store curator (and to have taken his place while the real one was bribed to leave Japan and never return), but also as a woman due to Ginji hitting her unexpectedly with 50,000 volts (about the same intensity as a stun gun). Her late mother was a medium who channeled dead artists so they could complete their final masterpieces and it is these works which Clayman steals, wanting to share these masterpieces with the general public by hanging them in bright places where lots of people can see and appreciate them; thus these works are both real and fake. She reappears in a later arc to hire the GetBackers to steal the Venus de Milo’s newly found arms and thus “recover” her eternal beauty by keeping what her arms look like a secret as this unknown factor is what keeps her beautiful. It is thought that she and Hevn are hiring people for the same job, but it later turns out to be two separate but related jobs both involving the Venus de Milo. Clayman also has some skills in balloon-making as she specially makes some for Ban for this case; these are later revealed to be so expensive (even with a discount) they keep the GetBackers broke. Ban suspects there is a reason she hired them for the Venus job when she could easily steal the arms herself and later posits a connection between her and the Shinjuku artist Kait. He is proven right at the end of the arc when she is revealed to be friends with Kait whom she met in Paris when she was living there. Unfortunately, she did not know he had come to Japan and thus was unable to save him from becoming addicted to the designer drug Aphrodite. She helps the GetBackers reunite him with his ex-girlfriend Hera and they appear to get back together. In the Phantom Sunflowers arc, she briefly teams up with Himiko and seems to grow quite fond of her in a short amount of time, offering to team-up as art thieves. Himiko declines, having too much pride in her work as a transporter, but Clayman succeeds in turning her into an art appreciator. A piece of splash art, of dubious canonicity, hints at something more between them. While the Japanese dub hides her gender until the reveal, the English dub gives her an obviously female voice from the beginning, thus making her gender less of a mystery than it was in either the Japanese dub or the manga. Clayman (クレイマン)

Fudou Bill Wise Masahiko Tanaka
Takuma Fudou (不動琢磨) A minor recurring villain with a “throbbing” desire to seek deadly vengeance upon Ban for ripping his left arm off in a fight before the series’ beginning. After losing his arm, Fudou became obsessed with killing Ban as revenge and most of his actions and dialogue relate to this goal, sometimes very graphically describing how he wishes to kill him and often act as double entendres. He also hates it when Ban looks at characters other than him and in a flashback even attempts to kill Ginji for taking up all of Ban’s attention. In general, Fudou loves violence, killing, and drawing blood, even his own. At one point in the I.L. arc, he feels Ban is not putting up enough of a fight and starts cutting up his own chest in frustration. MakubeX describes him as living only to fight and Ban described him once as only living for his own desires, namely power and death. In this respect, he is not much different from Akabane. Fudou possesses a fearsome, nigh-invincible precognitive ability to predict his opponents’ moves a number of seconds into the future, typically one or two but occasionally three (though in the anime’s final arc he sees four and five seconds ahead), which has earned him the nickname Enlightenment/Seer Fudou. Since he can successfully predict the future, it is rare for him to lose, meaning a fight with him means certain death. Ban is one of two characters explicitly known to have survived a fight with him (Ginji is the other) and even then Ban says he barely won (chap 48), getting Fudou angry enough to get an opening and take him off-guard with his Evil Eye but now that Fudou knows about it, it is useless against him. Fudou is introduced working for MakubeX as one of his New Four Kings in the I.L. arc, sporting a new mechanical prosthetic arm made in Infinity Fortress and specifically chosen as an opponent for Ban. The details of how MakubeX and Fudou met and became allies is otherwise vague as are how Ban came to meet Fudou and what lead to him ripping his arm off. Both Fudou and Ban used to be Plunderers and knew of each other, but a slight difference occurs between media: in the anime, Ban simply says they used to share a profession but the manga says they used to work together, indicating a falling out. Within the New Four Kings, Fudou only seems to not clash with Kagami (though he once said he liked Juubei’s style) and once threatened to rip Sakura’s face off. Overall he is short-tempered and impatient, wanting to take revenge on Ban for his missing arm, though still listens to MakubeX’s orders and follows his plans with MakubeX not scared of Fudou despite his demeanor and completely trusts him to obey him as it is written in the Archive, though no deeper explanation of why Fudou does so is ever given. He is apparently killed by Ban’s Snakebite during a fight, although virtual clones continue to harass Ban and his allies until they get close to MakubeX’s lair. He later reappears in the final arc in the anime when the GetBackers return to Infinity Fortress, having recovered from his injuries with Kagami remarking that he possesses remarkable healing abilities. Some vague time after his prior fight with Ban, Kagami finds him, gets a doctor to heal his arm, and again gives him the opportunity to fight Ban, Kagami wanting to see Ban when he gets serious. Ban kills Fudou for good and gives him a dying dream of them fighting with Fudou winning. Either before this or during the dream (it is unclear), Fudou confesses he wishes he could go on fighting Ban forever and that he was happiest when fighting him. Fudou only reappears in the manga in flashbacks to the GetBackers’ early days as a kind of starter villain, though this introduces continuity issues, mainly the “blank second” Ban uses to defeat him which is mentioned for the first time yet later on chronologically is never used again to defeat him in Infinity Fortress despite its efficacy. By getting Fudou to blink, it resets his precognitive ability but Fudou thinks he is still seeing the future, making it possible to hit him with an attack he is unprepared for. Get him angry enough to get an op to use the jagan arm made in IF Fudou is further aided by his powers of precognition - albeit only from one to three seconds in the future. This gives him the ability to see and anticipate his opponent's moves before they strike. Skeleton arm only 1-3 secs in manga but 4-5 in anime filler サトリ satori

Jouya Derek wade
ruler of light cheerful sociopath obsessed with Masaki once briefly gets scared of Uryu like koaru short-tempered and doesn’t get along too well w/ other members of group fight often

Teshimine Robert S. Fisher Shinichiro Miki
Takeru Teshimine (天子峰猛) was the one who found Ginji shortly after he was abandoned in Infinity Fortress and raised him for a few years before disappearing for unknown reasons, thus being the closest thing Ginji has to a father, which he himself eventually notes. Ban berates him for abandoning Ginji, but Ginji himself holds no ill feelings towards him for this and is even excited when he runs into him again, clearly still wanting to have a relationship with him. Teshimine himself also desires to get back the special relationship they used to have, but cannot do that until he does something else first. His volume 13 character profile mentions he is from Babylon City and this is later confirmed in the final arc, where he also seems to be a member of the Brain Trust. He has a cross-shaped design in his left eye with a scar over it, later revealed to be the stigma, the mark of someone who has seen Babylon City and potentially knows its secrets, but is missing these memories after leaving. He first appears in the I.L. arc, visiting the Honky Tonk, speaking with Paul, showing that the two know each other, and dropping off a disc for him to use in their fight against the summit (Babylon City) which was incredibly dangerous to acquire and leaves. Paul says if he waits he can see Ginji but Teshimine declines, saying it is better that way. At the same time, Ginji encounters a virtual copy of him in Infinity Fortress that verbally abuses him, angering him enough to force out his power and make him become the Lightning Emperor which he claims is the real Ginji. He also claims he only took in an ungrateful brat and monster like him so he could harness his power for himself and rule Infinity Fortress with it. Ginji eventually unleashes enough energy to destroy the virtual copy. Throughout flashbacks to Ginji’s time with him, Teshimine fought off the raiders from the Beltline who invaded Lower Town, thus being a powerful character though how he fought is not shown until later. On one of these occasions, a female friend of Ginji’s named Longhua is killed by said raiders, triggering Ginji’s first transformation into the Lightning Emperor from grief. The manga implies/states that shortly after this Teshimine abandoned Ginji and later, in the final arc, he says it was the Lightning Emperor that made him flee Infinity Fortress in terror because of his power. Another flashback during the Eternal Bond arc has Teshimine teach Ginji, through card games, not to focus solely on his strongest card or he will lose them all, even weak cards having value. This encourages Ginji as he has temporarily lost most of his electrical abilities. The importance of the disc he gives Paul is not revealed until the Voodoo Child arc; it contains a virus. MakubeX uses it to temporarily shut down Infinity Fortress, saving Ginji’s life even though this was not its intended purpose. How Teshimine intended to use it to defeat the summit is never revealed. He reappears at the beginning of the Lost Time arc to tell Ginji he knows where his biological mom is: in Babylon City. Though Ginji wants to reunite with him right away, Teshimine refuses as he has unfinished business to attend to, focusing on repairing his relationship with Ginji afterwards. He goes to Infinity Fortress separately from the GetBackers where in the Beltline he meets a mysterious, powerful stranger named Sarai Kagenuma, who asks if he can accompany him to which he agrees. They continue to ascend the Beltline, both wishing to defeat the Voodoo King, Teshimine because he killed his family (who are never alluded to prior to this nor mentioned afterward). When Sarai is merged with his other half, the Voodoo King, he fights and attempts to kill Teshimine, who survives and makes his way to the battlefield where he is fighting the Lightning Emperor. After the two wipe each other out, the stigma is revealed to be a medium through which the Ogre Battle will be observed, thus objectively determining the winner who will decide the fate of the world. Teshimine acts as one of the witnesses, apparently temporarily recovering his memories of Babylon City and rooting for Ginji, encouraging him by saying it is his mother’s dying wish. After Ginji wins, he accompanies him to the top of the stairs to the summit with Professor Makube but cannot go with him as only one person is allowed to enter. After Ginji makes his decision and comes back, Teshimine visits the Honky Tonk and discusses with Paul moving in with Makube, saying there is a lot of work that needs to be done to improve the world. The anime version of Teshimine starts out more or less the same as in the manga, but deviates heavily in the anime-exclusive last arc as a means to wrap up the anime’s story as the manga was still years away from finishing and many details about his past had not been revealed yet. The subplot about him giving the disc to Paul was dropped completely as its significance would not be revealed until after the anime ended. At the beginning of the last arc, Teshimine returns to Infinity Fortress, observed by Kagami and Sarai, and interrupts a fight between former Kings Shido and Masaki Kurusu. He confronts Masaki about his reasons for returning and the latter engages in a quick battle with him where he seemingly kills him. Flashbacks show Teshimine as a VOLTS member who asked Masaki to watch over Ginji for him when he told him he was leaving, thinking it was for the best he not be so close to Ginji, implying they are fairly close to each other in this version. This is the complete opposite of the manga where Teshimine was not only never a member of the VOLTS, abandoning Ginji before they formed, but also left Ginji by himself, apparently not too long after the Lightning Emperor appeared, so Ginji was also much younger when this happened. As a result, Teshimine and Masaki have no connection in the manga and do not interact with each other even after the latter switches sides. It is revealed in the final episode that he did not actually kill Teshimine shortly after he tells the heroes he was actually trying to find a way to defeat the Brain Trust while acting like he was still obeying them. The final shot at the end of the episode silently shows Teshimine next to him, Jouya, and Kazuki, watching Uryuu and Juubei train together in Infinity Fortress, implying new additions to the New VOLTS. The anime gave him tonfa as weapons, as seen in his fight against Masaki, which later made their way into the manga as well in the Lost Time arc, though heavily modified. They are regular tonfa in the anime. However, both anime and manga have the real Teshimine confirm that what the virtual copy of him told Ginji in the I.L. arc is more or less true: he was planning on using Ginji’s power to bring peace to Infinity Fortress. Later he came to regret this and so abandoned Ginji thinking that it was for the best, that he not be close to him, though what he does after again appears to diverge between media. In the anime, he seeks to help Ginji from the outside while in the manga it is vaguer but seems to involve defeating Babylon City by any means necessary and also looking for Ginji’s mom.

Uryu Jude Hickey Katsuyuki Konishi
Toshiki Uryuu (雨流俊樹) Hell Knight Jigoku Kishi left IF when Elegance disbanded Introduced as a subordinate of Lucifer early in Divine Design, he is later revealed to be a former member of Kazuki’s gang Elegance, which disbanded to merge with the VOLTS. Uryuu did not join and left Infinity Fortress without telling Kazuki. Lost and looking for his purpose in life, he was found by Lucifer who offered him one. Uryuu joined him as part of his company Tower Arts and rose to the rank of Chief Executive Officer, also becoming a powerful Dominator. His nickname during his time in Elegance was the Hell Knight and this is reflected in his guardian card, the card he has the closest connection to and so primarily fights with. Lucifer initially instructs him to protect his “angels” (the missing kids), but is later sent to fight his former leader, Kazuki, who is angry at him for disappearing suddenly back when Elegance broke up, searching the Fortress everywhere for him. Uryuu mocks his concern and quickly defeats him as Kazuki has no knowledge or way to defeat Divine Design, becoming possessed by the power of the cards and turning him into a minion of Lucifer’s called Orpheus taking immediate orders from Uryuu. While otherwise being an obedient servant, Uryuu thinks he hears him chuckling at him but whenever he confronts Orpheus, his face is impassive. Whether Orpheus actually is laughing at him or Uryuu is just imagining things is never made clear. After Orpheus captures Hevn, Uryuu is seen with Lucifer musing about how to retrieve the card she is clutching in her hand from her unconscious body, but he figures out she is Maria’s Trojan horse, sent to undermine their efforts to win the game. After the GetBackers, Himiko, and Juubei break Lucifer’s protective seal, Uryuu and Orpheus go and end up confronting Ginji while Ban looks on helplessly. The two attack Ginji, who refuses to fight them. Their apparent victory is interrupted by Juubei, who saves Kazuki and then fights his former comrade during which Uryuu recalls the tensions that existed between them back in Elegance and how he had always hated him, implied to be because he reminded him of his father. Uryuu was the older but illegitimate son of the head of a family martial arts school based on aikido who was passed over in favor of his younger, legitimate brother. Uryuu thought because he was older and stronger this should automatically make him the heir, but his father disagreed, saying “You are strong, but that is all you are.” Uryuu could not accept that his place was under his brother so he fought and defeated him (though the flashback panel shows a lot of blood raising the question of if his brother survived the fight), stole the scrolls that were inscribed with their school techniques, and fled, eventually winding up at Infinity Fortress, where he eventually met Kazuki as a young teen who brought him into his gang, calling his fighting style the most beautiful he had ever seen. When Kazuki introduced him to Juubei, despite being civil Uryuu took an immediate dislike to the other boy. They developed a rivalry that managed to stay civil that continued until Elegance’s break up. In one incident where the three were attacked by rival thugs, Uryuu was planning on killing them, hence his nickname of Hell Knight, but was stopped by Juubei who was protecting Kazuki. In the process of chastising him for this act, he told him “You are strong, but that is all you are.” Thus Uryuu feels he cannot be free of his troubled past until he rids himself of the people who still hold him back, namely Kazuki and Juubei; only then can he move forward as Lucifer’s subordinate and help him create a paradise. Uryuu also notes he is always the one supporting other people trying to reach the top, never reaching for it himself. This is why he did not join the VOLTS: he thought Kazuki was too good for Ginji and did not understand why Kazuki would abandon his dream to reach Infinity Fortress’ summit and uncover its mysteries in favor of supporting someone else accomplishing that. He could not accept that Kazuki’s place was under someone else and left. Just when it seems he and Juubei are going to kill each other, their fight is stopped by Kazuki, getting injured in the process. As Uryuu witnesses Juubei cradling Kazuki, he dejectedly notes Kazuki does not need him when he has Juubei. Juubei affirms this but says he needs him because protecting Kazuki is a lonely job and offers out his hand. As Uryuu reaches out to take it, Lucifer, being aware of what is going on, crushes Uryuu’s guardian card which causes the cursed claw mark on his chest to rip out his heart, killing him. This enrages Juubei and Kazuki who swear vengeance on Lucifer; Uryuu’s body is unhappily left behind as they and the GetBackers continue on to Lucifer’s location. After he is defeated, Lucifer and Maria reveal the claw mark was an illusion that insured loyalty to him and when a powerful Dominator betrayed him, he wanted to set an example for his other minions. Uryuu only died in the upper reality the cards draw their power from and is still alive in lower reality (the everyday world). Lucifer agrees to participate in a dangerous resurrection ceremony that requires powerful witches to perform it to revive Uryuu. Said ceremony requires Ban giving magical mouth-to-mouth to Uryuu’s body, an incident infamous among the series’ fanbase (at least some of them) as this action is essentially a kiss. After Uryuu wakes up, Juubei and Kazuki take him to a hospital where the former offers him to come back to Infinity Fortress to meet the new young ruler of Lower Town. He agrees and begins working under MakubeX alongside Juubei. He is notable in being one of the few characters not charmed by Ginji or the Lightning Emperor, instead preferring Kazuki’s charisma. Although initially unimpressed with Ginji, after repairing his relationship with Juubei and Kazuki he does not hesitate to show up as back-up when the GetBackers and their other associates require it. He reappears in the middle of the Eternal Bond arc along with Juubei to assist Shido in his fight against the Kiriudo, sent by MakubeX. They save Kazuki, Ginji, and Akabane from being killed by Kanade but are severely injured in the process, later encountering Kaoru Haruki and being healed by her. Afterwards, he participates in the tag competition MakubeX arranges at Infinity Fortress as part of Kazuki’s team along with Juubei. Halfway through the Voodoo Child arc, Elegance is temporarily reformed to compete in the Queen’s Cup tournament, consisting of the five most important members, Uryuu among them (the others being Kazuki, Juubei, Sakura, and Saizou). He easily defeats his opponent but this is a trap and he becomes possessed by the black string wielded by the Dark Fuuchouin, a branch of Kazuki’s family, along with the Kakei siblings, serving under Saizou who had secretly joined them in the past. The three follow Saizou back to the Voodooists’ headquarters in the Beltline where they loyally serve their new leader, Queen Himiko. When the GetBackers approach. After being freed from the black cocoon. Uryuu appears in the anime’s final arc under much different circumstances than in the manga due to the arc he debuted in not being adapted, but is otherwise much like his manga version, with the exception of not being short-tempered and having his backstory relating to his family removed. Instead of being a minion of Lucifer’s, he is a minion of Masaki Kurusu’s though his role essentially remains the same: to confront Kazuki, though his anime version is not interested in killing him, just wanting answers. He acts as a sort of guardian figure to Ren throughout the arc, watching over and defending her from his more volatile comrades who he argues with fairly often, being the one who took notice of her outside Gen’s apartment when he and Masaki paid him a visit and convinced her to follow him. When the GetBackers enter the Beltline, Kagami dispatches Saizou and the brainwashed Elegance members to stop them and Uryu faces Ban. After being freed from the black cocoon, he, Juubei, and Sakura distract Beltline monsters so the rest of the group can advance. They eventually advance themselves; Juubei parts so he can face the Dark Fuuchouin instead of Kazuki while Uryu and Sakura save Ren and join up with the rest of her group to stop MakubeX’s dream from becoming reality. Soon after, Uryu, Sakura, Ryuho, Amon, and Emishi attempt to take on the Voodoo King but are killed by him. They are revived after Ginji’s wish and Uryu leaves Infinity Fortress to be with Kazuki and Juubei, though the specifics of their lives after the wish is never revealed. Uryu appears in the anime’s final arc under much different circumstances than in the manga due to the arc he debuted in not being adapted, but is otherwise much like his manga version, with the exception of not being short-tempered and having his backstory relating to his family removed. Instead of being a minion of Lucifer’s, he is a minion of Masaki Kurusu’s though his role essentially remains the same: to confront Kazuki, though his anime version is not interested in killing him, just wanting answers, and settling his rivalry with Juubei but being stopped by Kazuki, reconciling with the two, and moving back into Infinity Fortress. He acts as a sort of guardian figure to Ren throughout the arc, watching over and defending her from his more volatile comrades who he argues with fairly often, being the one who took notice of her outside Gen’s apartment when he and Masaki paid him a visit and convinced her to follow him and join their group. He engages in a brief fight with his former leader Kazuki and co-officer Juubei but is abruptly stopped by Kanou’s interference, which he did not want, and their subsequent escape. Juubei eventually confronts him on his own in a church to settle their score but Kazuki stops them mid-fight just before their attacks land. When Uryu demands to know why he turned his back to him, Kazuki responds it is because he knows his fighting style well enough to know he never attacks a person from behind. The revelation that Kazuki was always looking at him when he thought he only ever looked at Juubei causes him to break down in tears. Ren opens a door, letting them out, and they make it to the room she is in. After the defeat of the rest of Masaki’s group and briefly checking on an unconscious Kanou, he plans on leaving the Fortress, but, like in the manga, Juubei convinces him to stay because he is needed. The last shot of him shows him and Juubei training together under the watch of Kazuki, MakubeX, Emishi, Sakura, Teshimine, Masaki, and a pouting Kanou while all of them are being secretly observed by Kagami.

Liu Mengyan/Ryuu Mouen
劉 孟焔 Travis dean Katsumi Chou *asterisks One of the biggest crime bosses of Underground Shinjuku, he is Hera’s sponsor and the chairman of the exclusive art auction. In particular he controls the drug trade in Underground Shinjuku. The rare designer drug Aphrodite is especially important as Liu intends on ruling the world with it someday with the art auction being an important step towards that goal. Said auction is just a cover for a drug deal with other mafia bosses with Liu aiming to make a fortune off the Venus de Milo replica body made entirely of hardened Aphrodite, but to outsiders it seems the real prize are the recently discovered arms. He is ruthless, ambitious, cold, calculating, and manipulative, using people’s weaknesses against them as in the case of Kait and Hera and does not tolerate failure among his minions, berating them when they fail to stop the recovery services in any capacity. He is easily irritated when both recovery services manage to evade disposal, though he hides this from his business partners and pretends all is going well to ensure the continuation of the auction, getting increasingly frustrated, making his affable façade drop more often as the arc unfolds. When the recovery of both the arms and statue ends the auction, the other bosses promise to never make a deal with him again due to his incompetence, thus ending his ambitions and career as a drug lord. Angered, he tries to make a comeback with some Aphrodite he set aside by making a deal with MakubeX, but is greeted by Kait and attacked by zombies. This is then revealed to be a dream of Ban’s Evil Eye, leaving him in a state of shock (“for a long time” in the manga chap 112), and he is actually in a police station wherein he is promptly arrested for drug possession. The dream varies between the anime and manga, the former toning down the horror and drug-related aspects. In the manga, illusionary Kait says Liu got him addicted to Aphrodite and forced him to forge artwork for his bogus art trade. Then when he found out about Hera, arranged it so she found the Venus de Milo’s arms, implying they were fake all along, so he could profit from them. Liu is shocked Kait is there but does not deny what he says, implying it is true, and is then surrounded by Aphrodite victims wielding syringes of the drug, Zhuolong and Binghu among them, and plunging them into him. In the anime, Kait simply appears from behind MakubeX, says it is his turn, and Liu is surrounded by zombie-like people piling onto him, completely cutting Kait’s explanatory dialogue. The anime implies Ban had something to do with leading Liu to the police station, but this is explicit in the manga, where he was aided by Maguruma lending him his cab and a uniform as revenge for friends Liu had hurt. He makes his last chronological appearance briefly in a flashback in the Birth 1 arc as a mob boss just getting started, though he is already noted by Ryuuji to be heartless (chap 221?). He is after the large stash of drugs stolen by Ryuuji and Youko and tries to get its location from him but to no avail. The manga explicitly states he is Chinese; any mention of this is removed from the anime but can still be inferred.

Hyouko “ice tiger” 氷虎 Christopher Loveless Masayuki omoro
Shakuryuu 灼龍 “burnt/fire dragon” Ben Wolfe Tomoyuki shimura Zhuolong Binghu Bald Chinese martial artists who work for Liu and are his primary minions. In the anime, they are his only minions as the Khan Brothers were completely omitted. Zhuolong wields fists of fire and mostly fights Shido. Binghu wields an ice sword and mostly fights Emishi, who displays some familiarity with their techniques but this is not elaborated upon further. They are loyal minions though they fear failing their boss and are willing to do anything to not fail him, even risking their lives. When the GetBackers try boarding the ship carrying the arms, they stop them and get into a brief skirmish, but just as Ban readies to fight them for real with Ginji making a break for the ship, they jump into a speedboat and head for the ship as well. Later they try to watch over Hera on orders from their boss but are thwarted by Akabane and instead run to protect their boss’ true objective. They are sent to dispose of Emishi and Shido after the former defeats the Khan Brothers in a cage match and spend the rest of the arc pursuing them, which each failure to do so increasingly irritating Liu. After trapping their targets in an underground mine on the island the auction is taking place on, they once again get into a fight with them but as Shido and Emishi are stronger than they were before, Zhuolong and Binghu are losing. Embarrassed, Liu reminds them via intercom that the only reason their clan was able to survive was because they served his clan and to stop the intruders no matter what. They then inject themselves with some Aphrodite directly into the part of the brain that controls the body’s limits, making them stronger, intending on taking their opponents with them into hell, Zhuolong dousing himself in gasoline for good measure before attacking Shido who escapes using his Living Shadow technique. Emishi hears Binghu’s body being ripped apart from the inside and pleads with him to stop but to no avail, but figures out the secret of his ice sword and defeats him with his whip. The last that is heard of them is that they are in critical condition but terrifying, deformed illusions of them appear in the dream Ban gives Liu at the end of the arc, attacking him with syringes full of Aphrodite. Their final fight plays out somewhat differently in the anime. They are fighting Shido and Emishi to a standstill, recall a warning from Liu, and give their bodies a power up from their martial arts techniques. They are briefly able to overcome their opponents but are soon defeated by them the same way as in the manga. They were cut out of the anime version of Liu’s dream entirely as the dream itself is shorter and toned down. In the manga, they later appear briefly in a flashback during the Birth 1 arc when Ryuuji, who the GetBackers have been hired to retrieve, recalls how he lost his memory in an encounter between him and Liu’s syndicate when Liu was just starting to climb the mafia ladder.

Khan Brothers
汗兄弟 Two minor giant minions dressed in Chinese clothing who work for Liu. They only appear in the manga. Descendants of the Xianbei who destroyed the Loulan Kingdom and enslaved and abused the Loulan women afterwards, they are proud of this fact and taunt Emishi with it, also insulting the Loulan generally as weak trash. They are arrogant, quick to be offended, and disrespectful of women overall. They are first seen on the cruise ship carrying the replica Venus body by a disguised Emishi and Shido when a maid accidentally bumps into them and is told had they dropped it, she would’ve paid with her life, triggering Emishi’s memory of what happened to the Loulan kingdom and women. Later, when Emishi and Shido are found out and trapped, they are sent in to execute them under the guise of entertainment for the auction’s guests. Facing Emishi, they brag about what their ancestors did to Emishi’s and use a Loulan weapon found after its destruction to try to kill Emishi and Shido, saying Emishi should be honored to be killed by warriors like them. At first they have the upper hand, but are defeated by Emishi using his whip made from the hair of the Loulan women as a kind of karma. Emishi is not impressed by them either due to their quick defeat. Northern Wei dynasty

Hera
Hera (ヘラ) Christina J. Moore Yumi Fukamizu young Hera Andrea Skola The woman who found the Venus de Milo’s arms and was bringing them to the high-profile art auction on Battleship Island to showcase the joining of them with a replica statue to be broadcast in front of the entire world; her name would go down in art history and it would be her personal revenge on the goddess who destroyed her happiness. How she came into the possession of the Venus’ arms is not made clear in the manga and outright omitted in the anime. In the former, she says she paid for them and at the end, it is implied they are fakes that Liu manipulated behind the scenes to make sure she got a hold of. She is the ex-girlfriend of the artist Kait, who, unbeknownst to her, told Liu about her. Eight years ago, he wanted to create a work of art to surpass the Venus’ beauty with her as the model, but the more he worked on it, the more it drove him mad as he realized it was a pointless endeavor because nothing could ever surpass the Venus’ beauty. This eventually drove a wedge between them and they broke up, but how differs slightly between media. In the manga, Kait broke into the Louvre to see the Venus, stabbed a security guard who tried to stop him, and got arrested, with the relationship ending thereafter. It is vaguer in the anime. Hera says she was cast aside and Kait disappeared from her life, but the animation shows Kait at the Louvre touching the Venus, causing an alarm to go off, seemingly implying he got arrested in the anime as well without Hera being aware and without the stabbing of the guard. She became a bitter alcoholic afterwards, particularly in the manga with both Yukihiko and Ginji commenting upon it (chap 100), taking revenge upon the Venus and Kait being the only thing giving her hope for any chance of happiness. When Ginji suggests getting it back for her, she says nobody, not even herself, knows where to find it (ep 32). She is escorted to the auction by her sponsor, Mengyan Liu (Mouen Ryuu), and two of his underlings, though she seems to be oblivious to the fact that he is a crime boss and that the auction is full of Mafiosi. Ginji outright says she is being used (along with Miroku ep 32). It is for this reason that Akabane, hired by her to protect the arms, is protective of her as a non-combatant and a woman, even threatening Liu’s minions should they think of harming her. Despite this, Hera yells at him the most as she perceives him as not doing his job well enough and once even attempts to hit him with a wine glass, though he catches it. She has less squabbles with the other protectors she hired, the Miroku Seven, though only Yukihiko cares about her well-being, being the soft-hearted one, something for which he is teased for by his sister Kirara. While she does criticize Miroku for sloppy work, it does not seem to affect their relationship very much. She has no qualms with ordering him to torture and kill Ginji, though she is slightly more sadistic and violent in the manga, even throwing one of her wine glasses at him after he comments on her alcoholism (chap 100). After the Getbackers, Emishi, and Shido steal the arms and replica body, she chases after them and shoots at them with a handgun, but is unsuccessful at stopping them. Ginji tells her to come back to Shinjuku because Kait is waiting for her there. She shows up, with another gun, but only to seek revenge on the GetBackers for ruining her revenge on Kait and the Venus. Even after meeting Kait and learning his addiction to Aphrodite was what stopped him from seeing her, she still refuses to believe he really loved her, recalling he once said that loss is what makes art and human relationships beautiful. After being taken to Kait’s rundown studio (apartment in the manga) and seeing the piece Kait completed inspired by her, she embraces him and tearfully apologizes to him, finally understanding that he did love her and still does. It is presumed they get back together with Hera taking care of him. They are seen for the final time in the manga in a collage of all the people the GetBackers have helped with her apparently caring for Kait. Her manga profile states she is half-French (with the other half presumably being Japanese). Any mention of her being mixed is omitted in the anime. thrown away

Kait Kaito
Kait (カイト) Adam Sultan Wataru Takagi entranced disappeared artistic genius who only comes around once in 100 years The ex-boyfriend of Hera, Kait is an artist said to possess talent that only comes around once in one hundred years (chap 100). Eight years ago while living in Paris, he sought to create a work of art more beautiful than the Venus de Milo with Hera serving as the model, but once he realized he never could due to the Venus missing its arms, thus making her the most beautiful piece of art in the world, he went mad and became obsessed with the Venus, even destroying his own art and trashing his studio. How he and Hera broke up differs slightly between the anime and manga. In the latter, Kait snuck into the Louvre to see the Venus and stabbed a security guard who tried to stop him which got him arrested; his relationship with Hera ended some time after this. The anime is vaguer. Hera says she was cast aside and Kait disappeared from her life, but the animation shows Kait at the Louvre touching the Venus, causing an alarm to go off, seemingly implying he got arrested in the anime as well without Hera being aware and without the stabbing of the guard. At some later point, he ended up in Japan, specifically Underground Shinjuku near Infinity Fortress, where he continued his art, painting both public murals and privately. One day about a year ago, shortly after Ginji joined up with Ban, while painting a mural by the Fortress, Kait was approached by Ginji who complimented his art and inquired about the inspiration. He responded she was the goddess he loved most in this world, still having feelings for Hera, and later asked the GetBackers to retrieve the arms of his goddess when they had the opportunity (ep 33). Later he got addicted to the rare dangerous designer drug Aphrodite, found by his old friend from Paris, Clayman, clutching a mannequin, mistaking it for Hera, thinking she had returned to him. In the present, his addiction has rendered him mute and immobile, unable to express himself, but after Hera sees the piece he created of her and embraces and apologizes to him, he is seen crying and thus has some understanding of what is going on around him. It is presumed he and Hera get back together with her taking care of him, though if he ever fully recovers is never addressed nor whether they marry like they originally planned. He appears in the illusion Ban gives Liu to herald revenge where, in the manga, Liu remarks he is all but dead. Also in the manga, this illusionary Kait says Liu made him a junkie and forced him to forge statues and paintings for his bogus art trade and when he told him about Hera, he arranged for her to find the missing arms (thus implying the arms were fake all along) so he could make his big drug deal. Liu never denies any of this so it can be assumed what the illusionary Kait says is true. All of this is omitted from the anime, which generally censored anything to do with drugs.

Der Kaiser
Der Kaiser (デル・カイザー) is Ban’s absent father and the son of the Witch Queen who is later revealed to be the ruler of the Beltline where he resides with his bodyguards, the Drei Ritter, the Miroku Seven’s father and older brother and sister. He is half-Japanese and half-German and is married to Ban’s unnamed, fully Japanese mother, his wedding ring a near-constant focus whenever he is on panel. Having lived part of his life in Germany with his mom, he knows German. Nothing about his father (Ban’s grandfather) is known. Whether Der Kaiser is his birth name or an appellation he later started to call himself is not made clear. He first appears in a flashback in the beginning of the Eternal Bond arc when Ban is recalling how his mother rejected him. A man is seen with his arms around her shoulders comforting her, but his face is obscured and he is not confirmed to be Ban’s father nor named until late in the Voodoo Child arc. He is next mentioned by Akabane, saying he would be proud of the monster Ban is becoming, when he, Himiko, and the GetBackers are making their way towards the Queen’s Cup tournament location, where just the mention of him sets Ban off and has nothing but negative feelings towards him, characterizing him as a bad father. Der Kaiser is properly introduced as a spectator for the Queen’s Cup, with his appearance gradually revealed as he is needled by Kagami who sits next to him, looking like an older Ban with his hair down and the cross-shaped stigma in his left eye. He is capable of powerful magic which he actually uses, unlike his son, the first instance of which is used against Kagami, giving him a short, vivid nightmare not unlike the Evil Eye. He is unfazed by Kagami’s constant reminders that his son could die as a result of the tournament. Over the course of the arc his goal is revealed: to use Ginji as a sacrifice so he can take control of the Archive, freeing it from the control of Babylon City and the Brain Trust, and become the ruler of the entire Infinity Fortress, rewriting history according to his whims, seeing Ginji’s death as an acceptable loss in this pursuit. Though when this plan fails, he seems nonplussed and later confronts the GetBackers after Himiko is kidnapped by Kagami, inviting them to come to Infinity Fortress, the Beltline in particular, if they want to recover Himiko. Later at his residence in the Beltline, Der Schloss, a manor which he built himself, Kagami is again seen taunting him. Shimon Miroku tries attacking him but after this fails, Der Kaiser points out he is not the type to show up in person and puts their plan of attaining the “keys”, the GetBackers and Himiko, into action, sending the Drei Ritter after the former and Paul. Said three eventually make it to Der Schloss, where, after defeating his bodyguards, Paul engages in a battle with his former friend and first generation GetBacker partner, wanting to return the favor he owes him. They are evenly matched and Ban eventually intervenes to fight his dad in a different location, where Der Kaiser taunts him for being weak like his mom and reveals his own curse of Ophiuchus/Asclepius, a gigantic chained dragon. Ban increases his own curse’s power but just as it appears he will use it to defeat his dad, Ginji appears and appeals to his humanity, causing Ban’s scaled arm to transform into an angel wing coming out of his shoulder and ceasing his attack. Der Kaiser reveals this was his plan all along, to have his son overcome his curse of Ophiuchus/Asclepius, and tells him how proud of him he is. A brief reconciliation with Paul and Ban follows, Der Kaiser smoking a final cigarette, before apparently disappearing into light, his heart becoming a key needed to open the door to Babylon City, thus ensuring the GetBackers a place in the Ogre Battle to determine the fate of the world. Flashbacks reveal he first met Paul as a teen in Shinjuku and they got into a fight with neither winning with Der Kaiser afterwards proposing they start a recovery service, mocking the other boy’s terrible name suggestion but going with it anyway. After an undetermined amount of time, he met and married Ban’s mother and had a baby boy, naming Paul the godfather and using Paul’s suggestion of calling him Ban, revealing the baby had kicked him too after trying out suggestions. Shortly after his son’s birth, Der Kaiser sealed his cursed arm, secretly witnessed by Paul. His family stayed in Japan until Ban was three, then moved to Germany to live with his mother. Around this time, Ban used his cursed arm’s true form to kill several men in front of his mother, the aftermath of the carnage witnessed by his father, causing his mother to have a mental breakdown where she rejected Ban, saying he was not her child but that of a demon. Whether these men attacked them and Ban was simply defending himself and his mother is not clear but given the fact that Der Kaiser had earlier said he had to protect his defenseless wife and child from their enemies (the shamans), it is a possibility. After the rejection, he is seen wishing for Ban to hate him and his cursed blood but not his wife. He then leaves his wife and returns to Japan to defeat the Brain Trust with Paul. They make it to Babylon City but fail in their mission, running back to the boundary between the Beltline and Lower Town with their memories of their time at the summit missing and with a stigma in one eye each. With the doors to the Beltline closing, Der Kaiser decides to stay and try to defeat their enemies from within, helping his son from afar. Paul berates him and is punched across the threshold, promising to make it back one day to pay his friend back. Trapped in the Beltline, Der Kaiser and the Drei Ritter battle the Voodoo King, but perish, the former ripping out his own heart turning it into a key, sacrificing himself so the leader of the shamans does not target his young son as one component to opening the doors to Babylon City is the blood of the Witch Queen who sealed them, meaning they have been dead for years prior to the start of the story. Der Kaiser waits for Ban to come so he can claim him as a key and entrusted Paul with passing on the GetBackers name. He briefly reappears for the final time to revive Himiko. Exactly how is left unclear, but appears to involve trading his key for hers, switching places, and disappearing or dying for good, potentially into some kind of afterlife. Ban comments he was a great GetBacker for being able to get back Himiko, exactly what you would expect from someone from the first generation. Near the end of the series, Kagami reveals Himiko is Ban’s sister and, since Maria already mentioned she was a descendant of the Witch Queen, this would logically make Der Kaiser her father; however, nothing he says or does supports this revelation and he takes no interest in her at all except as a key.

Miroku clan
an old Japanese family of martial artists who specialize in bladed weapons, particularly swords, which in at least two cases are made from a meteorite or meteorites, making them very heavy and requiring the wielder to be very strong and skilled in order to use them effectively. Kazuki knows of them due to the fact that all the old Japanese martial arts families tend to be aware of each other and between the end of Lost Arms and the beginning of Divine Design (i.e. in the hot springs interlude chapters), reveals to Ban that he dug up information on them but is stopped by him from revealing what he knows, but it is possible it was related to the witches or the deaths of the Drei Ritter given later events in the manga. The Miroku clan is sworn to protect the few surviving witches and seem to serve the Witch Queen and her family in particular, the Drei Ritter acting as her son, Der Kaiser’s, bodyguards and the Miroku Seven being childhood friends of Ban’s. As such they appear to spend quite a lot of time in Europe, with the Miroku Seven journeying to Japan from there because of a protection job (i.e. the recently found arms of the Venus de Milo). This was omitted in the anime. Due to most of the plot in the present day taking place in Japan, however, they spend most of their screentime in Japan. The family is in danger of dying out and thus they have taken precautions to continue their line, namely adopting Eris and betrothing her to the future personality of the merged Miroku Seven, finally marrying when the final of the seven personalities emerges when the other six reach adulthood, in an arrangement much like that of a shim-pua marriage (though it has never been practiced by the Japanese in real life). This plan fails when Ban kills Eris and with the deaths of the Drei Ritter and the six older personalities of the Miroku Seven, Yukihiko is the sole surviving member of the clan.

Eris
Eris was adopted into the family for the sole purpose of marrying the unified Miroku and continuing the family line. The clan also provided protection from the shamans but why she would need protecting from them is never elaborated upon. She did not love any of the six Miroku existing at that time but instead loved Ban, who may have reciprocated her feelings. She appeared to try to keep it a secret and once when Ban and Natsuhiko fought over who would give her a flower crown, she happily took it from them both. Unbeknownst to her though, Natsuhiko noticed but was ignorant of the depth of her feelings. She was tricked by the shamans into becoming a monster for the sole purpose of killing Ban; she had just wanted him to love her and was told he would be left alone. She begs Ban to kill her before she transforms completely so she can die as a human. Ban eventually and tearfully does so. Soon after, Natsuhiko discovers her dead body with a bloody Ban nearby. Natsuhiko pledges to her corpse in a coffin that the Miroku Seven will avenge her death and will not merge until they do so. None of them are ever told the true circumstances surrounding her death. The first six Miroku cared for her deeply but Yukihiko struggles to care about their vendetta since he never knew either her or Ban. As a result, Ban gives him a dream so he can meet her and understand his siblings’ feelings which he does; she appears to be kind and inclusive.

Tokisada is rash, hotheaded, short-tempered, and attacks without making plans and so often suffers the consequences, bearing scars, including one across his left eye, for which he is teased about by his siblings. Brute strength is his specialty. He is the most foulmouthed, along with Tsubaki. Kirara is the only girl, giggles quite a bit, and is flirty towards Ginji in their initial fight which seems to have developed into a crush by the time they reappear during the Lost Time arc but this is never given any more attention before she dies. She wields a polearm longer than she is tall and is the fastest sibling, but is also the weakest powerwise. Her language can be crude, though she is not outright foulmouthed like Tokisada and Tsubaki. Ukyou has long wild hair, acts outwardly crazy, and wields an electric-proof scimitar while fighting Ginji. Despite his weapon of choice, his fighting style incorporates acrobatics with him riding on said weapon. He has a tendency to call other people idiots or morons as a verbal tic and is the most openly bloodthirsty. Hikage is blind and has white hair unlike the rest of them who have dark or mostly dark hair. Due to his blindness, his other senses are sharper and only two characters have dodged his sword: the titular GetBackers. His fighting style is iaido. He is the calmest and most rational of the Seven and polite overall, even when attacking. He often acts as the voice of reason among the others. In their debut arc, he is stated to be the oldest but when they return in the Lost Time arc, Natsuhiko states he is the oldest. Tsubaki wields dual knives and appears to specialize in close combat. He considers himself the executioner of the Seven and is noticeably bloodthirsty but less so than Ukyou. He is the most foulmouthed along with Tokisada. He is the only one to have two-tone hair, starting off white at the scalp but then abruptly becomes black halfway to the ends.

Natsuhiko in the present is a very cold, sadistic, and calculating figure and the one who appears to want Ban dead most of all. He gets seasick and is a torturer who can go too far; Yukihiko comments that he cuts off fingers and ears98. Flashbacks show he was quite different before Eris died: he genuinely considered Ban his friend and seemed nicer though very worrisome and insecure, his future death, who the final Miroku would be, and how they would treat Eris weighing heavily on his mind. He noticed Eris’ affection for Ban and told him he wanted him to take care of her after he died, though he did not like Ban’s crude remarks about her body. He was shocked when he found Eris’ body with Ban standing nearby but promised her corpse the Miroku Seven would avenge her. After finally getting to fight Ban in the Lost Time arc and marking him for his sins before sending him to hell, he still desires to know why Ban killed her, though Ban never gives him an answer. Yukihiko interrupts their fight and takes over, but the first six are reconciled with Yukihiko before they die.

Yukihiko is the youngest, wears glasses, and is the kindest and most gentle of the Miroku Seven, often caring about complete strangers, such as Ginji and Hera, and abhorring violence unlike the other six, though he is not above using his knowledge for shady purposes, like when he dislocated all of Ginji’s joints without telling him to sell the image that he had tortured him and the hostage story to Hera and Liu. However, he comments that this ability is convenient with a heart symbol, scaring Ginji. He also makes friends easily as shown when he befriends Ginji during the Lost Arms arc. While he is after Ban to kill him like his siblings, unlike them he habors no real vendetta against him due to the fact he knew neither Eris nor Ban growing up and so does not feel the connection nor betrayal that the others do, though he has heard bad things about Ban from Natsuhiko. He is still the most forgiving. He was born immediately after Eris’ death and, as the personality that would have emerged from the unification of the other six, was her true fiancé. His father tells him to not bring dishonor upon the family name before he and his two eldest children die. Yukihiko states in the Lost Time arc that he is simply a weapon and after being defeated and the other six dying, wonders what his purpose in life should be with no family and no fiancée. Ban gives him a dream so he can finally meet Eris, then he and Ginji leave him to rest, having been badly injured in his fight with Ginji, while their group continues on. While the GetBackers and their allies encounter him on their way back from the summit, it is never clarified where he goes or what he does after Ginji makes his wish.

Drei Ritter
Der Kaiser’s bodyguards consisting of the Miroku Seven’s father, Shimon, unnamed elder sister, and unnamed elder brother. They are introduced at the beginning of the Lost Time arc when their lord is in the manor he built in the Beltline contemplating his next move when he is visited by Kagami who taunts him. Shimon attacks him but is revealed to be an illusion. Der Kaiser then sends them after the GetBackers to collect them as keys. They are stopped by Paul and a fight ensues, though when it seems like Shimon will defeat him, the GetBackers interrupt and the Drei Ritter retreat back to the Beltline. When the GetBackers and their allies reach Der Schloss, Der Kaiser’s manor, they are again confronted by the Drei Ritter. Paul again fights them to teach Ban and Ginji, easily defeating the unnamed siblings but having a harder time against Shimon though Paul eventually defeats him for good, giving the Miroku patriarch the fight against the Gale Emperor he craved for years. After Ban’s fight with his father, it is revealed in flashbacks that he and the Drei Ritter died years ago fighting the Voodoo King in the Beltline and their souls have resided there since, waiting for Ban’s arrival. After briefly reuniting with Yukihiko who was summoned there by Shimon and is now the sole surviving Miroku, they disappear. All of the Drei Ritter are loyal and obedient to Der Kaiser, protecting him with their lives and do not tolerate insolence or insults towards him and will offer to fight an opponent if they believe them to unworthy of him, quick to place themselves between him and potential threats. In this respect, they can be considered quick to anger and trigger-happy. The sister and brother also display this same behavior towards their father. Shimon receives most of the focus and dialogue, so not much is revealed about his eldest children.

Emishi
Emishi is a goofy, friendly jokester and wannabe comedian who mostly serves as comic relief, but this misleading façade hides a powerful fighter nearly equal in strength to the Four Kings of the VOLTS. Shido says he could be just as powerful if he did not give up so easily, but there are times when Emishi displays astounding resilience even in the face of overwhelming odds, such as in his fight with Saizou. However, he also displays a dark side during the I.L. arc, willing to kill his old friend Shido and a complete stranger just so they do not complete their job and foil MakubeX’s plan. While he can be a pervert, he also genuinely cares about women and does not appreciate mistreatment or abuse of them, avenging the wrongs done to the Loulan women when he encounters the Khan Brothers during the Lost Arms arc. He was also disgusted by Ban’s pervertedness in his “hideout” during the I.L. arc which fueled his anger at and desire to kill him, thinking he was completely unworthy of Ginji, Shido, and Kazuki. He has a strong admiration for Shido which began when he first met him and from then on tended to follow him around when they both became VOLTS members, though Shido was not as friendly to him back then. After reconciling, he occasionally helps Shido in his recovery service business and thus is a rival, though a mostly friendly one, to the GetBackers. He still harbors some resentment towards Ban but no longer desires to kill him. He quickly befriends Amon Natsuki, a fellow aspiring comedian, on a bus during the Eternal Bond arc and the two become close. He sticks with him even when he finds out hanging around him will shorten his lifespan and is absolutely devastated by his death. He did not even get to say goodbye. This prompts MakubeX to arrange a game of tag to cheer him up. Emishi becomes “it” and so is pursued by everyone else participating. He is found by Amon, recreated via a combination of Ban’s Evil Eye and Infinity Fortress’ virtual reality, with whom he gets to live his dream of doing stand-up comedy with for a minute before getting to say goodbye. At the end of series, Emishi starts a maid café comedy club with Amon in Infinity Fortress. He is one of the last descendants of the ancient Loulan Kingdom and the only one in the Loulan Village in Infinity Fortress who can fight, so they depend on him for survival which was a major factor in him working for MakubeX after Ginji and three of the Four Kings left; he felt MakubeX was the only one who could truly bring peace to the unstable hellhole even if that meant he ruled like a dictator. He also did not mind dying if it meant he could bring MakubeX’s plan to fruition, though Shido thought this was stupid and wasteful and saved him, taking him to Gen for treatment. As a Loulan, he has special fiery blood that makes regular blood transfusions impossible unless the donor is also a Loulan. Emishi briefly survives, sees his dead friends, and tries to wake them but then they all apparently disappear into light.

Lucifer
Another disciple of the Witch Queen like Maria who, like her, is a powerful witch. He later stole one of his teacher’s Divine Design decks, fled, became involved with the Brain Trust at Infinity Fortress, and created and distributed cheap copies of the cards for use by non-witches for which he is regarded as a traitor. Maria notes he could have succeeded her if he did not do this. Going by Lucifer and addressed by his underlings as “Lord Lucifer”, he created his own company, Tower Arts, which designs and sells cheap copies of the real Divine Design disguised as a children’s card game. He also started a cram school for prestigious students where he distributed it to them under the pretense of being a study tool. Sometime after this he convinced five of the students who attended the cram school to join his cause to create a better, new world using the cards as his Archangels. To ensure his underlings’ loyalty, he cursed them with a claw mark that would kill them if they were not in his lair by sunset, though he and Maria later reveal this was simply an illusion and they only would have died in upper reality. Maria notes he was always fond of children and could never harm them. His reason for merging the upper reality the cards draw their power from and lower reality, the everyday world, is to be reunited permanently with his daughter, Angela, who is still alive in upper reality but can only be visited for a short period of time. As to her cause of death, Lucifer only says she was sacrificed for the witches and Maria says she was lost in the witch-hunts. His and Angela’s characters notes, however, state his family was killed by Ban’s clan with Angela being hunted down in particular because she was the offspring of a witch and a nun. Afterwards, Lucifer led a “sad life where he only cared about planning his revenge”.

Archangels
The five missing kids GB, Himiko, Hevn, and Kazu were hired to recover in the DD arc. Their disappearance and parents’ desire to recover them sets off the plot of the arc. They are all from well-to-do families who were attending Lucifer’s cram school. At some point he convinced them all to join his cause so they could create a paradise and they moved into his lair, a church, causing their mothers to hire people to look for them. They all have a distrust of adults due to issues in the past with their parents and are loyal to Lucifer, ensured with a cursed claw mark that will kill them if they are not back in his lair by sunset, though this is later revealed to be an illusion. Each of them is named after an angel in real life Judeo-Christian angelology and they primarily fight with their corresponding guardian card which grants each of them a unique power, though Uriel and Raguel never display their powers and are only known through information provided by Maria. Sariel immune to evil eye reflect it has evil eye power himself angels chosen by DD Uriel can control te weather Rem visions souls can steal them and put into dolls guider of souls Raguel “seeks revenge against the world of light” Gabe water 131

Uriel
An Archangel who mostly stays within the church that serves as Lucifer’s headquarters, in particular he often plays the titular Divine Design on his friends and boss’ behalf, trying to direct the game to help them achieve their goals, playing against his fellow Archangels, in particular Remiel. He does leave their headquarters once with his friends to spy on how the GetBackers are doing in their quest to become Dominators and genuinely cares about his friends’ wellbeing, showing concern about the curse mark when Gabriel and Remiel have not returned. He is returned to his mother along with most of the rest of the kids at the end of the arc. Aside from briefly appearing at the Honky Tonk to presumably see Remiel at the end of the arc, he not seen or mentioned again aside from one panel as part of a collage of all the people the GetBackers have encountered on their journey, hanging out with the former Archangels Sariel, Gabriel, and Raguel, remaining friends with them even after the defeat of Lucifer. His backstory is only revealed in his character profile: he is the younger brother of a beautiful older sister who got all the attention and he ended up suffering because everyone was constantly comparing him to her. Toshiya Minami (南 敏也) vol 19 Uriel (ウリエル) Ryoukichi Takahashi

Raguel
An Archangel who eyes are always obscured by his baseball cap, he mostly sits in the background in the church and constantly criticizes the other Archangels’ decisions and picks on Gabriel for being “friends” with the GetBackers, questioning his loyalty, causing some tension among the Archangels. Though he goes with the others to spy on the GetBackers’ progress, he is the only one of the missing kids to never openly express affection or concern for the others. He is returned to his mother at the end of the arc and only briefly reappears twice after that, once in the Honky Tonky and once in a collage at the very end of the series, apparently still friends with Sariel, Gabriel, and Uriel. Like Uriel, his backstory is only revealed in his character profile. He was actually intended to be a girl who was raised as a boy, revealed after the hat came off. It also reveals Raguel was supposed to be the one who led Akabane and the Professor to Lucifer and was a member of the Brain Trust. Tomokazu Sugita Reiji Tsuzuki (都筑 怜児) Raguel (ラグエル) Remiel (レミエル) Lucifer roma Rushifaa

Witch Queen
is Ban’s grandmother, Der Kaiser’s mother, and the leader of the remaining witches as her title implies. She is German and the last pure-blooded witch. Ban inherited the Evil Eye from her though Der Kaiser did not. Like her son and grandson, she also possesses the curse of Ophiuchus/Asclepius and is otherwise a weak old woman without it. Neither her name nor her appearance are ever revealed; she only appears in flashbacks and her face is never shown. Said flashbacks are always brief and far apart, but what can be seen makes it clear she is an old woman wearing a blouse and long skirt with her hair in a bun. It is implied she is dead by the story’s start, but how long ago is never clarified. The Lost Time arc reveals it cost her her life to seal the door to Babylon City shut. Within the story, she is a very polarizing figure, either loved or hated by whoever is mentioning or remembering her with no apparent middle ground. Similarly, whether she displays positive or negative qualities or behavior is also dependent on which character’s point-of-view is she being seen from. She is never portrayed directly or objectively so her actual personality is unknown and her life before Ban was born is obscure. Towards the end of the manga, Ban mentions she is 150 years old as far as he knows and towards the beginning, it is hinted she survived the witch hunts that wiped out all the other pure-blooded witches and Evil Eye users so she told Ban to be careful mentioning his witch heritage as there were still people who wanted them dead. She is only mentioned by Ban or seen through his memories until Divine Design. The first hint of her existence comes at the beginning of the Phantom Sunflowers arc; when Clayman and Himiko trick Ban into thinking the Evil Eye is being used on him, he remembers a voice telling him about passing the power onto him. She makes her first appearance when Ban remembers her instructing him as a small boy about calling on his cursed arm in times of need. She would also talk about the stars and how they affect those born under them. At some point prior to Ban’s birth, she trained Maria Noches and Lucifer, who then betrayed her by stealing one of her Divine Design decks, becoming entangled with the Brain Trust in Infinity Fortress, and making cheap copies to distribute to non-witches. Maria eventually became known as her “right hand” and seems to function as her second-in-command with the Witch Queen entrusting her with certain duties and information, such as the origin of the Voodoo Children. The Witch Queen was present when Ban’s mother rejected him when he was eight and forced Maria to take care of him in her stead. Prior to this and after coming to Germany at three-years-old, she apparently raised Ban singlehandedly while they were both on the run from the shamans and taught him a lot about the occult and other subjects, though Ban generally has nothing good to say about her and does not remember his time with her fondly. Maria is the opposite and holds her mentor in very high regard, though in the Lost Time arc it is revealed she did not tell Maria everything. At the end of the Voodoo Child arc, Kagami reveals a grudge against her and a desire to break her spell. This is explained at the beginning of the next arc (Get Back the Lost Time) when the Voodoo King, leader of the shamans/Voodooists, of whom Kagami is one, wishes to break the seal she placed on the door between Babylon City and the rest of the Fortress and world, which prevents any movement between them. Towards the end of the arc, Kagami reveals he also wanted her to acknowledge his talents as a physicist and expresses a love-hate attraction to Himiko due to being a descendant of the Witch Queen. After Masaki’s defeat, Ban forces him to reveal everything he knows. He says Ban’s grandmother was a member of the Brain Trust who also headed a resistance group against them made up of other Trust members like himself. She was against their ultimate goal, believing it would render life empty, and thus sealed the door to Babylon City, preventing its inhabitants from accessing the world they created. Kagami tells Himiko the Witch Queen made her into a key for unlocking this door and Dr. Amano says she was the head of the Brain Trust’s occult department. Roughly the first quarter of the manga hinted at a darker and less benevolent character than the rest of the manga ended up portraying. Lucifer’s character notes in particular stated Ban’s clan killed his daughter, Angela, because she was the product of a union of a witch and a servant of god, a nun, whereas the manga is vaguer, stating Angela was sacrificed for the witches and that she was lost in the witch-hunts. Due to the sporadic nature of the Witch Queen’s appearances in the manga, especially early on, she only appears twice in the anime: as a voice in the Phantom Sunflowers arc and instructing Ban on using his cursed arm in the I.L. arc.

Mariudo
A clan of Japanese aboriginals who have the ability to talk to and control animals. They used to reside in Hell Valley in central Japan with the Kiriudo until Kabuto started the devastating war that has nearly wiped them out. It seems that the Shiki clan is the only surviving line but this is never explicitly stated. It is stated that neither they nor the Kiriudo can live in cities or adapt to technology otherwise it will rot them from the inside. Shido states that despite the Kiriudo’s efforts, the Mariudo cannot truly be wiped out; as long as nature exists, so will they. The two clans used to be one people under one god until they were given an object of great power known as the Chimera that divided them into insects and beasts. Whoever possessed the Chimera was leader of both clans. Once Kabuto was chosen as their new leader, he sought to rule the world as a king. Fearing his ambition, Mariudo elders stole his heart from his chest. It was then passed down and protected by the Shiki. Since then, the Kiriudo have been hunting them down to take it back and Kabuto has framed the war as really being started by the Mariudo.194

Shiki clan
四木族 are apparently the last of the Mariudo, though it is only heavily implied. They are the cream of the crop of the Mariudo and have special abilities. The clan has four branches named after the four seasons with each branch having a unique power. When the four Shiki branches are together, they are devastatingly powerful and for this reason are feared by the Kiriudo who have been systematically wiping them out to avoid a Shiki clan reunion, though they also desire it.199 Shido, Ryuho, and Amon easily wipe out the entire Kiriudo army in a few minutes. Ryuho, Kaoru, and Amon first appear in the Eternal Bond arc, having been sought out by Shido to help him rescue Madoka and end the war against the Kiriudo once and for all. The rest of the Shiki clan were apparently living in the wilderness and Ryuho and Kaoru return there after the war is over. It had been ten years since they had last gotten together. They appear later, even the supposedly deceased Amon, in the Lost Time arc, arriving at Infinity Fortress after having been called by Saizou for unexplained reasons. They encounter Emishi and Ren after the two fell through a hole, the floor having collapsed beneath them after Kazuki deflected one of Saizou’s attacks from hurting them. They continue onto the Beltline to help Shido, guided by Ren, and later join up with Uryu and Sakura after they save her, wanting to stop MakubeX’s dream from earlier from becoming reality. Soon after, they try to help Teshimine in his fight against the Voodoo King but the latter easily kills everyone except the former. After Ginji makes his wish, Amon, Ryuho, and Kaoru are shown having been revived along with the others killed by the Voodoo King. At the end of series, Amon starts a maid café comedy club with Emishi in Infinity Fortress. Ryuho and Kaoru’s whereabouts are not shown.

Amon Natsuki
夏木亜紋 Hiroyuki Yoshino The leader and sole surviving member of the Natsuki branch, Amon is the most feared of the remaining Shiki for his power is death; he is able to kill anyone simply by draining his or her lifeforce which also allows him to heal himself if he is hurt. This drain is automatic and cannot be shut off even if the Natsuki in question wants to do so. Just by being close enough to a Natsuki, a living thing’s lifeforce is continually drained and eventually dies if they stick around too long. For this reason, the Natsuki were themselves outcasts even among the other Shiki and Mariudo. Amon’s powers earned him the nickname the Grim Reaper and because of them, he tries to stay far away from other living creatures so he does not kill them which, combined with the rest of the Natsuki being wiped out, has made him lead a very lonely life. He is Shido’s childhood friend. They first met at a festival honoring their warriors but thought it was lame so they ditched it with Shido witnessing Amon’s power firsthand as he sucked the life from flowers surrounding him after he accidentally injured himself with Amon warning Shido away so he would not drain him.212 Though acknowledging his powers as a Natsuki, Amon is not happy about it as he longs for a more average life. His dream is to go to the big city and be a stand-up comedian to offset the death he brings and be far enough away from the audience so he will not drain them. Before Shido left for Infinity Fortress, thinking it would be safer for the rest of the Mariudo if the Chimera, which he possessed, was not nearby, the Kiriudo attacked many Mariudo villages looking for it. He found a critically wounded Amon, who confessed he had been shot after trying to help a Kiriudo girl whom he could not kill. Shido saved him by switching hearts, saying he had no use for it and Amon had a dream he wanted to fulfill.212 Thus Amon came into possession of the Chimera; the Kiriudo did not find out about the switch until late in the Eternal Bond arc, thinking Shido still had it. He is first mentioned by the other Shiki while they are waiting for him; Ryuho does not like the idea of teaming up with him but Shido says they need his strength. He is properly introduced as being another rider on the bus Emishi is taking to Hell Valley with whom he becomes fast friends with as they both share a penchant for jokes and pranks. They discover they are both on their way to help Shido and decide to team up, though Amon tries to warn him about his power. Along the way they run into one of the Kiriudo chiefs, Juurou Kamata, who reveals Amon’s power to Emishi, who chooses to stick with him even knowing hanging around him will shorten his lifespan. Together they defeat Kamata and his mantis warriors and continue on, eventually running into Shido’s group and then Ginj and Akabane on the island in the middle of Yomi Lake that houses the Kiriudo base. These combined groups eventually enter an arena where the Mariudo and Kiriudo used to spar together. A recently assembled Kiriudo army enters for one last all-out attack and a battle commences201 with Shido, Amon, and Ryuho engaging them while Kaoru heals any injuries they sustain. It is over in a matter of minutes and they meet a heartbroken Jorogumo on the other side of the gates with Kabuto then absorbing the fallen Kiriudo’s souls to fuel his resurrection.202 When Ginji suggests she join them and take them to Kabuto, Ryuho becomes visibly angry because she is the enemy, saying they cannot trust her. When Ginji asks why not, Amon points out her attribute is tactician and that it is her job to fool the enemy. Ginji explains he believes her because it takes more courage to make peace than to continue fighting. Amon says he trusts her because his new friendship with Emishi taught him how. The group follows her through the final gate and are faced with a staircase that may be real or may be an illusion that will trap them in a bottomless pit forever courtesy of Saicho. Ginji tests it and almost falls but is saved by Ban who encourages him to take the others and save Madoka while he takes revenge against Saicho for all the Kiriudo he sent to their deaths. They go on without him, descending the real staircase and arriving in Kabuto’s throne room where he greets them in Madoka’s body. Ginji tries to go to Madoka, but Kabuto simply immobilizes the whole group sans Shido with his immense power. Shido then seemingly betrays them and lets Kabuto take over Ginji’s body, who then lunges at Amon demanding he return his heart. He tries attacking him using the power of the Lightning Emperor but discovers he cannot. Shido’s trick enrages him and Shido then uses the last of his awakening power to give Ginji a power boost. Ryuho asks what is going on with Ginji to which Amon responds the huge wills of Kabuto and the Lightning Emperor are fighting inside his body. Kabuto is eventually expelled and the three Shiki then temporarily wonder where he went. However, this act costs Shido his life and Kabuto enters his corpse and again attacks the other Shiki, planning on killing them and taking the Chimera from Amon. After Kabuto’s defeat, Amon decides to give Shido the Chimera back which will revive him but cost him his life. This causes protests from the others but he insists as he is tired of crying for other people and transfers it. After Madoka and Shido return to her house, the latter tells the former about Amon and his sacrifice for which Madoka thanks him.212 He is later temporarily brought back to life via a combination of Ban’s Evil Eye and Infinity Fortress’ virtual reality with whom Emishi gets to live his dream of doing stand-up comedy with for a minute before getting to say goodbye as Amon disappears again. During the Lost Time arc, Amon shows up unexpectedly after Emishi and Ren fall through a hole in the floor in Lower Town, though whether this is one of MakubeX’s simulations or the Archive’s is never clarified. Kaoru and Ryuho also return and the five join together and ascend to the Beltline317 to find Shido with Amon, Ryuho, and Emishi fighting off monsters along the way. One gets past them and targets Ren but she is saved by the sudden appearance of Sakura and Uryu. The two groups join up to stop MakubeX’s dream from the I.L. arc from becoming reality.327 Soon after, Amon, Ryuho, Emishi, Sakura, and Uryu attempt to help Teshimine in his fight against the Voodoo King while Kaoru stays with Ren on the sidelines but the Voodoo King swiftly kills everyone except Teshimine.

Ryuho Agi
秋木劉邦 Tetsu Inada The leader of the Agi branch, his power, called sleep, is to put all living creatures, even insects, into a comatose near deathlike state where nothing can stir them except Shido’s awakening power. He is proud and outspoken which often leads to him verbally sparring with other members of the rescue group, especially with Juubei who deems him arrogant with whom he develops a bit of a rivalry during the arc. Ryuho especially enjoys bragging about his power. He gets along fine with the other remaining Shiki, though he is dislikes Amon because of his power. He first appears with Shido and Kaoru waiting for Amon in Hell Valley, though he is not happy about it as Amon brings too much death. He reappears with them when they encounter Kazuki, Juubei, Uryu, and Hevn after their fight with Kanade with Juubei demanding to know where they have been and what they have been doing. Ryuho responds putting all the insects in the forest to sleep so they will not eat the non-Kiriudo alive. After getting into an argument with Juubei, Shido then reveals what he knows about the war’s beginning, his plan to save Madoka, and how Amon is the key to the war’s end. Just before this group crosses Yomi Lake, which surrounds the island the Kiriudo’s base, Insect Palace, is on, they encounter Kanade, who has been chopped into four pieces but is still alive because he is nigh immortal. Ryuho notes he can only die if eaten alive by animals until there is nothing left and prepares to put him out of his misery but is stopped by Kaoru who heals him instead. He is not particularly thrilled by this but notes that the war will be over by the time Kanade can move around and thus poses no threat to them. He then releases his chakra, causing all life in the forest to awaken from its sleep, so Shido can then use his power to create a bridge out of fish for them to cross.199 Once on the other side, he puts all the animals back to sleep. As they get closer to Insect Palace, they meet up with Emishi and Amon and later Ginji and Akabane.200 These combined groups eventually enter an arena where the Mariudo and Kiriudo used to spar together. A recently assembled Kiriudo army enters for one last all-out attack and a battle commences 201 with Shido, Amon, and Ryuho engaging them while Kaoru heals any injuries they sustain. It is over in a matter of minutes and they meet a heartbroken Jorogumo on the other side of the gates with Kabuto then absorbing the fallen Kiriudo’s souls to fuel his resurrection.202 When Ginji suggests she join them and take them to Kabuto, Ryuho becomes visibly angry because she is the enemy, saying they cannot trust her. When Ginji asks why not, Amon points out her attribute is tactician and that it is her job to fool the enemy. Ginji explains he believes her because it takes more courage to make peace than to continue fighting. Ryuho ends up following her because he believes in his own strength, that he will survive even if it is a trap. The group follows her through the final gate and are faced with a staircase that may be real or may be an illusion that will trap them in a bottomless pit forever courtesy of Saicho. Ryuho angrily suggests she should go first. She takes one step before she is stopped by Ginji, who tests it instead and almost falls into a pit but is rescued by Ban.203 Ban encourages Ginji to take the others and save Madoka while he takes revenge against Saicho for all the Kiriudo he sent to their deaths. They go on without him, descending the real staircase and arriving in Kabuto’s throne room where he greets them in Madoka’s body.204 When Ginji tries to go to Madoka, Kabuto simply immobilizes the whole group sans Shido with his power205 and after gaining control of Ginji’s body, sweeps Ryuho and Kaoru away while he lunges at Amon. After Shido sacrifices his life to give Ginji a power boost needed to defeat Kabuto206, Ryuho asks what is going on with Ginji to which Amon responds the huge wills of Kabuto and the Lightning Emperor are fighting inside his body. Kabuto is eventually expelled and the three Shiki then temporarily wonder where he went, but this turn of events excites Ryuho and he congratulates Shido, only to be told by Ginji in Lightning Emperor mode that he is dead and that was his real plan all along. Ryuho is in shock and refuses to believe this and demands Kaoru heal him but she explains his soul is gone and thus he cannot be healed. He then tries to awaken Shido himself using his power but is suddenly attacked and tossed aside by Kabuto now possessing Shido’s corpse. While the Lightning Emperor ejects Kabuto from Shido’s body and frees all the Kiriudo souls, Ryuho cradles Kaoru.207 After Kabuto’s true form is revealed, Ryuho wants to kill him but is stopped by Ban. However, he has no issues with letting Amon give Shido his heart, the Chimera, thereby bringing him back to life at the expense of Amon losing his own.208 After the war’s conclusion and the non-Kiriudo getting ready to depart from Hell Valley, Hevn offers to get him and Kaoru jobs in the city but they refuse as humans altering the environment makes it impossible for them to live there plus it is natural for them to live in the forest. Upon hearing this, Onigumo offers them the option of moving back in with the Kiriudo and protecting the forest with them. They both refuse, not ready to live with the Kiriudo yet after they tried to genocide them, and leave.210 He reappears in the Lost Time arc and, after Kaoru notes Saizou is dead, tells Emishi if he sees him in hell to give him their regards.282 The three Shiki join together with Emishi and Ren and ascend to the Beltline317 with he, Amon, and Emishi fighting off monsters on their way to find Shido. One gets past them and targets Ren but she is saved by the sudden appearance of Sakura and Uryu. The two groups join up to stop MakubeX’s dream from the I.L. arc from becoming reality.327 Soon after, he, Amon, Emishi, Sakura, and Uryu attempt to help Teshimine in his fight against the Voodoo King while Kaoru stays with Ren on the sidelines but the Voodoo King swiftly kills everyone except Teshimine.

Kaoru Haruki
春木薫流 Rie Tanaka The leader of the Haruki clan, she is also the only girl among the Shiki assembled by Shido. Her power is to heal others, wounds and diseases, and she does not discriminate when using it, even healing Kiriudo chief Kanade, as long as the person still has tears left to shed for other people. Overall, she is mature and quiet and her calmness and conviction of her cause is a contrast to Ryuho's arrogance and standoffishness and Amon's goofiness and uncertainty. Unlike Ryuho, she does not fear or hate Amon for his powers; instead, she says death can be a rebirth. She initially appears as an unnamed mysterious figure who heals Ginji as he lays injured in Hell Valley’s forest after the helicopter he was in crashed. She introduces herself and then disappears, meeting up with Shido and Ryuho who are waiting for Amon and telling them she met him and how similar he is to them Mariudo with Shido commenting he has always been that way. They later meet up with Kazuki, Juubei, Uryu, and Hevn with Kaoru healing the first three as they had sustained heavy damage in a battle against Kanade. Afterwards, Shido reveals what he knows about the war’s beginning, his plan to save Madoka, and how Amon is the key to the war’s end. Just before this group crosses Yomi Lake, which surrounds the island the Kiriudo’s base, Insect Palace, is on, they encounter Kanade, who has been chopped into four pieces but is still alive because he is nigh immortal. Ryuho prepares to put him out of his misery but Kaoru stops him and heals Kanade instead because the Haruki teach to save everyone, even Kiriudo, as long as they still have tears left to shed for others. Leaving him behind to fully heal, Ryuho and Shido then use their powers so the group can cross over the lake to the Kiriudo base on the other side.199 Once on the other side, they advance towards Insect Palace, meeting up with Emishi and Amon and later Ginji and Akabane.200 These combined groups eventually enter an arena where the Mariudo and Kiriudo used to spar together. A recently assembled Kiriudo army enters for one last all-out attack and a battle commences201 with Shido, Amon, and Ryuho engaging them while Kaoru heals any injuries they sustain. It is over in a matter of minutes and they meet a heartbroken Jorogumo on the other side of the gates with Kabuto then absorbing the fallen Kiriudo’s souls to fuel his resurrection.202 Ginji suggests she join them and take them to Kabuto. After facing opposition from the other Shiki members, he explains he believes her because it takes more courage to make peace than to continue fighting. Kaoru says she believes in the teachings of the Haruki and draws her strength from that. The group follows her through the final gate and are faced with a staircase that may be real or may be an illusion that will trap them in a bottomless pit forever courtesy of Saicho. Ginji tests it and almost falls but is saved by Ban who encourages him to take the others and save Madoka while he takes revenge against Saicho for all the Kiriudo he sent to their deaths. They go on without him, descending the real staircase and arriving in Kabuto’s throne room where he greets them in Madoka’s body. Ginji tries to go to Madoka, but Kabuto simply immobilizes the whole group sans Shido with his power. It then seems they are betrayed by Shido who gives him Ginji in exchange for Madoka. While the Lightning Emperor ejects Kabuto from his body, Kaoru watches over Madoka’s unconscious body, determining she is still alive, just sleeping, and afterwards briefly wonders where Kabuto went. Ryuho demands she heal Shido but she cannot as he is dead and her power cannot revive the dead. After taking over Shido’s empty corpse, Kabuto sweeps the other Shiki away and slams Kaoru into the floor, planning on killing her first before taking his heart from Amon. While the Lightning Emperor ejects Kabuto from Shido’s body and frees all the Kiriudo souls, Ryuho cradles Kaoru. After Kabuto’s true form is revealed, she has no interest in killing him as she states it will not make a difference either way although earlier she had said he should accept death as he has no tears to shed for others. After his defeat, she heals Madoka. She tries to stop Amon sacrificing himself to bring Shido back to life, but he explains he is tired of crying for everyone else, basically saying he has no more tears left to shed for others. After the war’s conclusion and the non-Kiriudo getting ready to depart from Hell Valley, Hevn offers to get her and Ryuho jobs in the city but they refuse as humans altering the environment makes it impossible for them to live there plus it is natural for them to live in the forest. Upon hearing this, Onigumo offers them the option of moving back in with the Kiriudo and protecting the forest with them. They both refuse, not ready to live with the Kiriudo yet after they tried to genocide them, and leave. When she, Ryuho, and Amon appear later in the Lost Time arc, having been called by Saizou, she notes that his life force has vanished. She also restores Emishi’s missing arm, previously lost in his battle with Saizou, rebuilt from a living cell sample.282 The three Shiki join together with Emishi and Ren and ascend to the Beltline317 to help Shido where they eventually encounter Sakura and Uryu who save Ren from monsters and join up to stop MakubeX’s dream from the I.L. arc from becoming reality.327 Soon after, Amon, Ryuho, Emishi, Sakura, and Uryu attempt to help Teshimine in his fight against the Voodoo King while Kaoru stays with Ren on the sidelines but the Voodoo King swiftly kills everyone except Teshimine.329

=GetBackers organization= Four Kings Shinjuku Allies (Himiko, Akabane, Hevn, Paul, Natsumi, Madoka, Clayman, Maguruma, Maria Noches, Teshimine) IF Residents (Kakei siblings, Emishi, Gen & Ren, Uryuu, kaoru Ujiie, Jouya) Brain trust (Archive/Clock, Kagami, Dr. Amano, the Specialist) Other Villains (Fudou, Captain Blood, Hishiki) First Gen GB (Der Kaiser, Drei Ritter, Miroku Seven, Der henker) Divine Design (Lucifer, Sariel, Rena, Gabriel, Uriel, Raguel, Holy Guardian beasts) Voodoo kingdom (Voodoo King, Dark Fuuchouin, Saizou) Kiriudo (Kabuto, 7 chiefs, Ageha, Murasakimaru, Oni, Tobi & Kagegumo, Kirihito, Hakumon) -Hishiki -Takuma Fudou -Liu syndicate -Akutsu Major Supporting charas -Honky Tonk crew -Clients -IF residents maku, kakei, emishi, uryu Lower town upper eschelon Other charas -Mariudo -WQ -Second gen GB -No-Brakes -Clayman -Teshimine -Sarai
 * GB/MC
 * Antagonists

Akutsu-last sentence (breakdown) only in manga, Bisconti According to Maria, Uriel’s power is control over the weather. Sariel has his own version of the Evil Eye which also makes him immune to Ban’s. Maria says Remiel has visions and in her fight with Himiko, she displays the power to remove a person’s soul from their body, rendering it comatose, and can put said soul into a doll where it is still aware of its surroundings. Gabriel has control over water. Fudou-only slashes chest in manga. The details of how MakubeX and Fudou met and became allies is otherwise vague as are how Ban came to meet Fudou and what lead to him ripping his arm off. As to the former, Fudou simply says MakubeX needed him and so he works with him now, though Ban mocks him as MakubeX’s dog instead, angering him. Initially he is calm and collected, but over the course of the arc his negative qualities increasingly become apparent, especially his bloodlust and obsession with Ban. Nickname in Jpn Teshimine-revealed not dead after he appears after B and G save Maku from erasing his own data in archive where he is gleefully greeted by Ginji. Uryuu, Juubei, Kazu, Masaki, Teshu, Emishi, maku, Sakura & Jouya unbeknownst to them being watched by Kagami. Drei Ritter-meteorite, clan is “famous ancient martial arts masters”, Kazu “heard things about most clans w histories like that”, Shimon’s final words to Yuki, DK-rm Beltline, add macron, Uriel fix intralang link, Khan Xianbei clan rulers of the north durin the Chinese dynasties, kaito in manga kait in anime kudo mido fuuchouin Juubei, Maguruma Mr. No-Brake man 1 Mr. Unstoppable man 2 the man w no brakes anime, link not exist on en wp, Emishi nickname in man the bloody joker descendant of ancient rouran kindom, Time scent, “The Undead” chapter 5 vol 1 Vol. 1 (ch. 1-5): 1999. ISBN #. (In Jpn) and eng GB man volumes by Aoki, Yuya and Ayamine, Rando. Orig Jpn version published by Kodansha. EN trans pub by Tokyopop. GB anime tv series eps directed by Furuhashi, Kazuhiro and Motonaga, Keitaro. Or Jpn version produced by Studio Deen. EN adaptation by ADV. 1 “title here”. GB. Airdate. Tokyo Broadcastin System. Funi Channel.

=Notes= {reflist|group=note}

=References=

=Bibliography=


 * Frank, Roslyn M. (May 2004). "Hunting the European Sky Bears: German 'Straw-bears' and their Relatives as Transformers"/"Die Jagd auf die europäischen Himmelsbären Deutsche 'Strohbären' und ihre Verwandten als Verwandler". In Michael and Barbara Rappenglück (eds.). Symbole der Wandlung - Wandel der Symbole. Proceedings of the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Symbolforschung/Society for the Scientific Study of Symbols. Germany. pp. 141-166.


 * Grimm, Jacob (2004a) [1883]. Teutonic Mythology: Volume I. Translated by James Steven Stallybrass. Mineola: Dover.


 * Siporin, Steve (2022). The Befana Is Returning: The Story of a Tuscan Festival. Madison, United States of America: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-29933-730-8.
 * Smith, John B. (August 2004). "Perchta the Belly-Slitter and Her Kin: A View of Some Traditional Threatening Figures, Threats and Punishments". Folklore. 115 (2): 167–186.


 * Young, Sheila M. (2017). "The Evolution of the Contemporary Blackening". Folklore. 128 (3): 244-270. Doi needed.

=Links= 10 funniest anime husbandos 10 most layered chars in FMAB villains who weren’t pushovers 10 best anime husbands 10 strongest fmab chars best anime couples who never got together 10 most underrated shonen anime chars, ranked 10 most ruthless anime waifus 10 most handsome anime fathers kabbalah in anime 10 best tsundere anime waifus https://www.cbr.com/fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood-roy-mustang-maes-hughes-figure-release/ 5/22
 * https://www.cbr.com/ouran-high-school-host-club-tamaki-smart/
 * https://www.cbr.com/ouran-high-school-host-club-tamaki-suoh-trivia/

=Tips= ref name="name">content ref name="name" / (1964) [1859] John Smith (2009). Name of Book, Cambridge University Press, p. 99, cited in Paul Jones (2010). Name of Encyclopedia, Oxford University Press, p. 29. Smith (2009), p. 99, cited in Jones (2010), p. 29.

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