Get Backers anime characterization
I don't make fandom entries very often, do I? Usually I enjoy things not many others do, or the same things yet in a different way.
I've become a fan of an anime character named Takuma Fudou, from Get Backers. Yet, I think this may be an anomaly within the context of what the anime's writers set out to accomplish. He's a villain. Rather, he's supposed to be thought of as a villain. I know, I know, there are just as many fanboys and fangirls who like anime villains as there are fans of heroes, or hell, even secondary characters who get little screen time. There's just something odd about how they handled Fudou, and here are my thoughts...
Anime tends to give many villains a sympathetic angle, thus making it easier for fans to pick up on them. Still, there are those few villains who do horrible things and are given no justification or noble motivations, and are liked anyways. Fudou is a bit different.
Almost every single character in Get Backers is given plenty of exposition, even the oneshot characters in filler episodes. We get flashbacks, verbal recounts, you name it. With Fudou, we get almost zero exposition. On top of that, none of his past deeds that make him a bad guy are ever mentioned. He's introduced as one of the lead protagonist's old enemies, and we're more or less told "He's bad". The only bits of his past we're explicitly told are that Fudou fought this protagonist, Ban Midou, a long time ago, and that Ban somehow deprived him of his left arm, which he had replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic. Fudou hates Ban for this, and enjoys fighting him, so he shows up in the present(the series) to kill him for it. That's all. We're told he has a grudge against one guy, and that he's a bad person. Why is he a bad person? Did he rape a little girl, rob a bank, spray paint the walls of an orphanage? Don't ask the writers, they don't know.
Now, it's possible to provide something to make you believe in your heart that a villain is really evil without exposition. Namely, their present actions. What do we see Fudou do in the series? Welp, he has a psychotic obsession with killing Ban. Ok, desperately wanting to kill someone doesn't qualify him as a saint, but remember why he wants to kill Ban? The guy severed an arm of his! Perhaps it was self defense, but we are never even told why they fought in the first place! So, we see Fudou fight Ban twice in the series. Is Fudou cowardly, relying on henchmen to do his work, like many sniveling villains we're supposed to dislike? No, he has no henchmen. Takuma Fudou is a genius fighter, with many abilities common of some of the strongest characters in the anime - superhuman strength, superhuman speed, increased healing, and some things he has which no one else does, namely ridiculous endurance, unfathomable willpower, and an 'enlightenment' which allows him to see his opponents' moves 5 seconds before they perform them. Fudou really fucks Ban up in both fights, and he received quite a beating himself. In the first fight, Ban ends up smashing Fudou's cybernetic arm and then cracking or tearing most of his bones and internal organs. Yet Fudou's unreal willpower allows him to stand and keep fighting, and almost kill a severely wounded Ban. He would have killed him, but another strong character stepped in to prevent it, a guy who was mostly fresh and in better shape than either Ban or Fudou. And you know, Fudou almost beat him, too. But hey, willpower or not, it's difficult to win when you're half dead and have one working arm.
Now, in that first fight, Fudou was helping that story arc's main villain, only so he could have a chance at killing Ban. Yet this villain, Makubex, is later forgiven for his attempt at blowing up the city with an atomic bomb and becomes a protagonist, along with his cohorts. Fudou returns later - still presented to us as a bad person - with his organic left arm having been regenerated by that story arc's group of bad guys. In exchange, they want Fudou to make Ban get serious in battle just like Fudou did every other time he fought him, this time for their observation. He does, and there are some moments in the fight that I'd normally think would be used for an up and coming young hero. Mainly, Fudou blocks one of Ban's strongest attacks that presumably severed his left arm in the past...and he blocks it with his new left arm, successfully. I believe they specifically put that moment into the fight to show that Fudou had greatly improved since his original, pre-series encounter with Ban Midou. Fudou ends up being killed by Ban in the end, but Fudou really fucked Ban up before the conclusion. In fact, their fight was ended in the classic anime samurai finish, except they used fists rather than swords. I found myself...somewhat sad about Takuma Fudou's death, yet gratified he was granted such an epic fight before his end.
So, here is how I like Fudou. I don't see him as a paragon of virtue, but it's difficult for me to think of him as this really bad person either, due to the utter lack of substance within the series to back that up, other than being told "he's bad". The way I see him? Based on everything I was shown, I see him as a loose cannon who loved fighting with those who presented a challenge, a tough son of a bitch, a genius fighter who nearly beat the strongest protagonist in the series, a guy with a somewhat understandable grudge who wanted to torture and kill the man he begrudged, and a guy with a huge set of balls and incomprehensible willpower who got right into the thick of things and died fighting his favorite opponent. Now, I wouldn't look at a character like this as a role model(or even someone I'd like to befriend), but I've no problem rooting for someone like that to win in a fight. Heck, I actually favorited an AMV on youtube featuring Ban and Fudou's final battle, and I'm normally someone who doesn't go for AMVs(granted, it helped that this one didn't have Linkin Park songs featured on umpteen other AMVs).
Oh yeah, did I mentioned that he wears an eyepatch throughout the series, with no explanation as to what happened to said eye? Explanations aside, that means that despite his enlightenment ability, he had no depth perception. However, he still fought some of the strongest(two eyed) characters in the series on an equal level. I was impressed.
I've heard there is alot not featured in the anime that is revealed in the manga, and perhaps they show Fudou doing evil things there. But, they failed to do so for anime Fudou, and so my mindset is unchanged. The anime clearly wanted us to think of anime Fudou as a terrible person, there is even a website with a profile on him, which describes him(probably manga Fudou) as "The one who unites all of the sins of man". But the anime just failed in getting that characterization across, in my opinion. As a result, there is at least one person who has an 'unatural' fondness for the character stemming from unintended reasons. Anyway, I mainly made this entry to explain that I find the manner in which I became a fan of this guy to be odd, not just to go "I like this dude!". However, yes, I LIKE THIS DUDE. In the spirit of that, here's the 3 minute AMV if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_noLEPe0wXE
I've become a fan of an anime character named Takuma Fudou, from Get Backers. Yet, I think this may be an anomaly within the context of what the anime's writers set out to accomplish. He's a villain. Rather, he's supposed to be thought of as a villain. I know, I know, there are just as many fanboys and fangirls who like anime villains as there are fans of heroes, or hell, even secondary characters who get little screen time. There's just something odd about how they handled Fudou, and here are my thoughts...
Anime tends to give many villains a sympathetic angle, thus making it easier for fans to pick up on them. Still, there are those few villains who do horrible things and are given no justification or noble motivations, and are liked anyways. Fudou is a bit different.
Almost every single character in Get Backers is given plenty of exposition, even the oneshot characters in filler episodes. We get flashbacks, verbal recounts, you name it. With Fudou, we get almost zero exposition. On top of that, none of his past deeds that make him a bad guy are ever mentioned. He's introduced as one of the lead protagonist's old enemies, and we're more or less told "He's bad". The only bits of his past we're explicitly told are that Fudou fought this protagonist, Ban Midou, a long time ago, and that Ban somehow deprived him of his left arm, which he had replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic. Fudou hates Ban for this, and enjoys fighting him, so he shows up in the present(the series) to kill him for it. That's all. We're told he has a grudge against one guy, and that he's a bad person. Why is he a bad person? Did he rape a little girl, rob a bank, spray paint the walls of an orphanage? Don't ask the writers, they don't know.
Now, it's possible to provide something to make you believe in your heart that a villain is really evil without exposition. Namely, their present actions. What do we see Fudou do in the series? Welp, he has a psychotic obsession with killing Ban. Ok, desperately wanting to kill someone doesn't qualify him as a saint, but remember why he wants to kill Ban? The guy severed an arm of his! Perhaps it was self defense, but we are never even told why they fought in the first place! So, we see Fudou fight Ban twice in the series. Is Fudou cowardly, relying on henchmen to do his work, like many sniveling villains we're supposed to dislike? No, he has no henchmen. Takuma Fudou is a genius fighter, with many abilities common of some of the strongest characters in the anime - superhuman strength, superhuman speed, increased healing, and some things he has which no one else does, namely ridiculous endurance, unfathomable willpower, and an 'enlightenment' which allows him to see his opponents' moves 5 seconds before they perform them. Fudou really fucks Ban up in both fights, and he received quite a beating himself. In the first fight, Ban ends up smashing Fudou's cybernetic arm and then cracking or tearing most of his bones and internal organs. Yet Fudou's unreal willpower allows him to stand and keep fighting, and almost kill a severely wounded Ban. He would have killed him, but another strong character stepped in to prevent it, a guy who was mostly fresh and in better shape than either Ban or Fudou. And you know, Fudou almost beat him, too. But hey, willpower or not, it's difficult to win when you're half dead and have one working arm.
Now, in that first fight, Fudou was helping that story arc's main villain, only so he could have a chance at killing Ban. Yet this villain, Makubex, is later forgiven for his attempt at blowing up the city with an atomic bomb and becomes a protagonist, along with his cohorts. Fudou returns later - still presented to us as a bad person - with his organic left arm having been regenerated by that story arc's group of bad guys. In exchange, they want Fudou to make Ban get serious in battle just like Fudou did every other time he fought him, this time for their observation. He does, and there are some moments in the fight that I'd normally think would be used for an up and coming young hero. Mainly, Fudou blocks one of Ban's strongest attacks that presumably severed his left arm in the past...and he blocks it with his new left arm, successfully. I believe they specifically put that moment into the fight to show that Fudou had greatly improved since his original, pre-series encounter with Ban Midou. Fudou ends up being killed by Ban in the end, but Fudou really fucked Ban up before the conclusion. In fact, their fight was ended in the classic anime samurai finish, except they used fists rather than swords. I found myself...somewhat sad about Takuma Fudou's death, yet gratified he was granted such an epic fight before his end.
So, here is how I like Fudou. I don't see him as a paragon of virtue, but it's difficult for me to think of him as this really bad person either, due to the utter lack of substance within the series to back that up, other than being told "he's bad". The way I see him? Based on everything I was shown, I see him as a loose cannon who loved fighting with those who presented a challenge, a tough son of a bitch, a genius fighter who nearly beat the strongest protagonist in the series, a guy with a somewhat understandable grudge who wanted to torture and kill the man he begrudged, and a guy with a huge set of balls and incomprehensible willpower who got right into the thick of things and died fighting his favorite opponent. Now, I wouldn't look at a character like this as a role model(or even someone I'd like to befriend), but I've no problem rooting for someone like that to win in a fight. Heck, I actually favorited an AMV on youtube featuring Ban and Fudou's final battle, and I'm normally someone who doesn't go for AMVs(granted, it helped that this one didn't have Linkin Park songs featured on umpteen other AMVs).
Oh yeah, did I mentioned that he wears an eyepatch throughout the series, with no explanation as to what happened to said eye? Explanations aside, that means that despite his enlightenment ability, he had no depth perception. However, he still fought some of the strongest(two eyed) characters in the series on an equal level. I was impressed.
I've heard there is alot not featured in the anime that is revealed in the manga, and perhaps they show Fudou doing evil things there. But, they failed to do so for anime Fudou, and so my mindset is unchanged. The anime clearly wanted us to think of anime Fudou as a terrible person, there is even a website with a profile on him, which describes him(probably manga Fudou) as "The one who unites all of the sins of man". But the anime just failed in getting that characterization across, in my opinion. As a result, there is at least one person who has an 'unatural' fondness for the character stemming from unintended reasons. Anyway, I mainly made this entry to explain that I find the manner in which I became a fan of this guy to be odd, not just to go "I like this dude!". However, yes, I LIKE THIS DUDE. In the spirit of that, here's the 3 minute AMV if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_noLEPe0wXE