Get Backers - Ban Midou

 

Ban Midou

Voiced by: Nobutoshi Canna, Naomi Shindou (as child) (Japanese); Rich McDonald (ep 1-5) Jason Liebrecht (ep 6-49) (English)

Ban Midou as depicted in the anime.

Ban Midou (美堂蛮, Midō Ban) is one of the main protagonists in GetBackers. His name came from his mother's surname "Midou" and "Ban" from the Japanese word for Savage (野蛮, Yaban). The "ban" can mean "barbarian" or "uncouth/vulgar".^[1] This is the result of the first meeting between Paul and Ban. When Der Kaiser first introduced the infant Ban to Paul, Ban kicked Paul in the face while being held by him, causing Paul to insist that the ban in yaban suited the child perfectly.

Known variously as "The Man with the Evil Eye" (邪眼の男, Jagan no otoko) and "The Genius of Battles", he is the "B" in the GetBackers. He is 18 years old in the manga and 21 years old in the anime. He is one quarter German and is the grandchild of the "Last Witch of the 20th Century". Ban is a brother-like figure to Himiko Kudou after she came to terms with her brother's death, and, later revealed in volume 38 of the manga, is actually related to her by blood through the Witch Queen.

In the GetBackers duo, he is the one who thinks of the plans for their moves. Initially, Ginji Amano was seen to be a sidekick to him (in fact, when they first formed their partnership, Ban insisted that Ginji was only his sidekick), but as the story progressed, Ginji gradually held his own in their missions, and Ban acknowledged him as an equal.

Ban is very intelligent, having studied fighting techniques, science, history, music, art and magic from a very young age as a result of being hunted in Europe by shamans during his childhood. He often surprises everyone with his knowledge and abilities, such as being able to play the violin. He also bears a striking resemblance to his father. In fact, in the arcs where his hair is "down" ("Venus de Milo" and "Kiryuudo" arcs), he looks like Der Kaiser during his Getbackers days with Paul. Another trait which both father and son share is that while they may appear cold and ruthless on the surface, they are actually very warm and caring towards their friends.

Ban inherited his powers from his grandmother. Ban utilizes two main abilities. His primary technique is the Evil Eye (邪眼, Jagan), which allows him to force anyone he makes eye contact with watch a one-minute-long illusion. It should only be used three times per day and cannot be used on the same person again for the next 24 hours. Furthermore, while the illusion only lasts for one minute, should Ban will it, the one affected by the Jagan can be placed inside a time-warp zone via the illusion created by the technique, meaning that to them, one minute in real life could last up to several hours in the Jagan's influence. It is rare for Ban to use the Evil Eye to defeat his opponents, preferring to use it to aid in the retrieval process or to give clients happy/nightmarish dreams; however, he has been shown to use it in defeating Takuma Fudou's insight during the blank second.

If the user were to use the Jagan a fourth time within a 24-hour period, they would receive a penalty for using it. After the fourth use the user disappears both from the physical world and from the memories of all who know him. With this in mind, Ban requested one final duel with Akabane. After an intense struggle, the two manage to strike each other, causing Ban to collapse and Akabane to disappear. However, Akabane had not died, as assumed, but instead, implanted a surgical scalpel into Ban's chest as a "final favor", given to Ban for allowing Akabane to see his own limits. Akabane later explained that because having Ban disappear would be a pity, he attempted to fool the "Archive" by faking Ban's death and delaying Ban's disappearance from using his fourth Jagan just long enough for Ginji to reach Babylon City and resolve everything, thus saving Ban from disappearing.

His second ability is the Snakebite. Because he is a direct descendant of the Witch clan, and was born under the star of Asclepius, he possesses incredible superhuman strength, which gives him a gripping force of 200 kilograms in each hand. It is also shown that he is strong enough to break open the doors of an armored steel truck and punch hard enough to create large craters in the ground or break walls, occasionally even collapsing multistory buildings. Ban can augment the strength of his Snakebite by reciting a certain chant in order to draw power from Asclepius, with the resulting force being sufficient to devastate even the most formidable of opponents with just a single blow. The full extent of the Asclepius curse upon Ban is expressed through his entire right arm degenerating into a grotesque state not unlike a demon's limb, granting Ban even greater power but at the risk of losing himself to his savage instincts. Later Ban manages to transcend the Asclepius curse and draw out his full potential on his own, which is reflected by the manifestation of a single angel wing behind his right shoulder.

In the "Get Back the Lost Time" arc, his skills grow by leaps and bounds due to his learning abilities. Against Natsuhiko, he manages to execute a new move, "Snake Kill", using his left hand.

Anime News Network praised the style of the Jagan in the manga to be a "horrifying nightmare". The Tokyo Pop translation of the Ban Midou dialogues has been criticized for making him sound like a gangster.