BACCANO!

DESCRIPTION

CAST

SPECIAL ActionBaccano! Specials
NOVEL ActionBaccano!
ANIME ActionDurarara!!
MANGA ActionBaccano!

REVIEWS

• 

  ReBuggy

  80/100
  "Baccano is Highlander meets The Godfather plus a battle royal on a train as directed by Quentin Tarantino"

  There are few things quite like Baccano. Or rather, Baccano is like many things combined together in a ridiculous gory romp.

  Baccano is perhaps best described as Highlander meets The Godfather plus a battle royal on a train as directed by Quentin Tarantino. The basic plot is such: there is a newspaper in New York compiling the events surrounding a group of immortals. After a brief meta discussion on stories and protagonists, the show simultaneously launches into three separate but connected stories in 1930, 1931, and 1932, starting near the end of each of the stories and then jumping around between them until the end.

  The 1930 story deals with Szilard Quates and his Old Men Club recreating the elixir of immortality, and said elixir consequently accidentally falling into the hands of seemingly every mafia member in New York. The 1931 story covers the debacle on the transcontinental express, the Flying Pussyfoot (go ahead, get your jokes out of the way), in which a cult, a mafia family, a gang of bootleggers, and a mysterious being known only as the Rail Tracer all collide on the same train. Also, there are immortals in the mix. The 1932 story follows Eve Genoard as she searches for her missing brother Dallas. This is generally considered the least interesting of the three stories, though admittedly the other two set the bar pretty high.

  Baccano's non-linear storytelling is a bit hard to wrap your mind around at first. Keeping track of three separate storylines, especially when those stories themselves are told in nonlinear fashion, is slightly taxing, and a rewatch almost becomes necessary if you want to understand everything that's going on. However, the story is still able to stay engaging and fun, and due to the nature of the series, the added chaos potentially even adds to the fun. Baccano is absolutely ridiculous and embraces its zaniness fully. It takes an almost childlike glee in excessive violence, and loves throwing multiple unallied factions into the fray to make everything just a little more complicated and unpredictable. The show spoils many things from the get-go, such as which characters survive and/or become immortal, but the ride to reaching that point is so hectic that it's like the show has handed you a puzzle that has an image of a bunch of men sitting around playing cards, but when you actually start working on the puzzle it turns out that you're actually trying to reassemble Dogs Playing Poker.

  This wildness ends up working to Baccano's advantage, as it keeps any character or story from being in the spotlight for too long and gives the sense of the stories being connected despite covering different events--which ties wonderfully into the metanarrative that the newspaper staff provides. There are no starting points to stories, there are no ending points, and there are no main characters. Everyone is the hero of their own stories, which are affected by events that happened before their births and can affect events after their deaths.

  On that note, perhaps the biggest appeal of Baccano is the characters. Almost every character is fun and entertaining. There's the book dumb, hotheaded young Firo Prochainezo, who becomes a rising star in the mafia. There's the psychopathic manchild Ladd Russo. There's Jacuzzi Splott, who is named Jacuzzi Splott. And, of course, the airheaded thieves Isaac and Miria, who manage to tie all the stories together but seem to be largely unaware of the greater plot going on around them. The result is that Baccano has the greatest ensemble cast I've ever seen. No one is truly a main character (Isaac and Miria probably get the most screentime but are certainly not the protagonists), and few characters really slip through the cracks. In fact, the episodes are divided more by character than they are by event, each episode announcing who it's choosing to focus on with titles like "Ladd Russo Enjoys Talking A Lot and Slaughtering A Lot" and "Isaac and Miria Unintentionally Spread Happiness Around Them."

  In addition, the English dub is worth mentioning. This is one of the more lauded dubs in the industry. So many of the actors are able to capture the energy of Baccano wonderfully (Jerry Jewell as Claire Stanfield is about the only performance of his I've seen that isn't completely dialed in), and the actual New York accents help add to the setting. I have not actually heard the original Japanese performance so I'm not sure how it compares, but it is certainly a dub worth your time.

  Overall, Baccano is just plain old stupid fun, and it knows exactly how to be plain old stupid fun on a fundamental level. The characters and situation lend themselves to its particular type of style perfectly, so it never feels like it's trying too hard to be entertaining. In addition, the metanarrative provides some nice commentary on the nature of storytelling and, with the inclusion of the OVAs, ultimately brings the story full circle.

  I would recommend Baccano for just about everyone, even those who wouldn't normally give a series in this genre a try. It's admittedly a bit confusing, but not to the point of being a turnoff. If you're against violent series or can't stand action in general, you might want to skip this one, but if you like action, non-linear narratives, battle royals, fun characters, 1930's American settings, or anything else I mentioned, this is one you won't want to miss. And if you're considering watching its cousin series Durarara, please, consider watching Baccano first. Five stars.

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• 

  KoZ2029

  80/100
  A wonderful piece of work with a mind-blowing plot.

  Anachronic storytelling. This narrative is a highly confusing, yet if you use it correctly, can be a highly successful way to tell a story.

  Baccano! is an anime that decided to use this narrative and does it right.

  An anime adaptation of the light novel of the same name by Ryogo Narita, who is the brains behind the famous Durarara!!, Baccano tells a complex story about alchemists, delinquents, survival, immortality and many more.

  An aspect of the show that I like the most is the plot. Baccano's plot is, suffice to say, is very hard to describe as it flip-flops between multiple time periods; the most prominent being 1930, 1931, and 1932. It tells several events relating to alchemists, immortality, a ride in the train, and the investigation of a certain missing person in a family. These events are unrelated to each other, and can be very confusing to viewers and make them wonder 'what the hell is going on?'

  Fortunately, this is where Baccano's greatest strength lies on. Despite the events being unrelated to each others at first glance, they always had an aspect that connects them with one another. By the time it ends, everything makes sense with very scarce amount of plot holes behind.

  Baccano carries over a large cast of characters, which makes you wonder if the staff can develop all of them in a short amount of time. But, the good news is... They succeeded on the most part. A majority of the characters has their own traits which make them distinguishable from the others and their own way of talking and acting, which prevents them from being cardboard cutouts. Due to their distinctive traits, it's pretty easy to pick up a favorite.

  Baccano however had one flaw in the character department; having a huge cast of characters in only 13 episodes, some characters got shafted to the background and don't get much characterization as the other characters, such as the Gandor brothers. This also applies to some other characters such as the Genoard siblings. Brushing that aside however, the rest of the distinctive cast makes up that flaw.

  The visuals are good. The colors used in the show fits to the vintage 1930s American style of the series. Though I felt that sometimes the art gets a bit... Sketchy, to say at least. The animation is top-notch-- as expected of Brain's Base. Movements are nicely animated and I can see that the characters move.

  As for the OST, I like the jazzy and classic tunes that the show used; it really gave vintage and classical feels. The voice work is pretty good; the seiyuus fit to each of their roles, and I enjoyed Isaac's seiyuu's performance in delivering a silly character the most, as well as the acting of Jacuzzi's VA; he delivers a nice portrayal of a 'crybaby' character.

  End of the note, despite the praise I give to this show, I must admit that this this show is not for everyone, due to the high amount of violence and the fact that its extraordinary way of storytelling can get very confusing to some viewers. However, if you either enjoy or don't mind anachronic storytelling on the other hand, then I highly recommend this show; it's worth the watch.

  SCORING LIST
  Overall: 8/10
  Story: 9/10 (Highly complex and scarce of plot holes)
  Art and Animation: 7.5/10 (Great animation, mostly good art and use of colors)
  Sound: 8/10 (The classical jazz OST suits to the show)
  Characters: 7/10 (Many are memorable and likable although some lack significant characterization)
  Enjoyment: 8/10 (I highly enjoyed this)

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• 

  Zefir

  90/100
  With its jazzy and cool atmosphere, dark setting and very entertaining plot it's really one of a kind.

  Welcome to Zefir's Abridged Reviews, episode 1 (and hopefully not the last): in which I talk about BACCANO!

  I will be short: Baccano! is awesome. Ok, that's _waaay_ too short.

  Based on a ononymous light novel, it's a very refreshing experience if you're looking for something quite different from the rest.

  A fair warning though: as far as I know during the production the novel was still running (and I remember I was preeetty miffed about this), so it doesn't cover all of the story. It's still very enjoyable, and while it was made with a second season in mind it doesn't really need one in order to feel complete. (While the same can't be said about other series, you know which ones. >->)

  With its jazzy and cool atmosphere, dark setting and very entertaining plot it's really one of a kind.
  Think alchemists, in a secret plot over the centuries with a focus on the Roaring Twenties. All of this with a very pulp noir feeling to it and memorabile characters.
  Don't get confused if you feel like you're missing something at first, as there are frequent skips in the anachonistic narration and continuous changes of POV, so you may be able to connect all the pieces only when you're nearing the end.
  One may says it's actually one of the strong points of this series.

  I wont spoil anymore, I don't want to ruin your fun if you haven't seen this yet.

  Also apparently the english dub is awesome (not that I would know, having seen it subbed but still).

  While I would give it an heartfelt tenouttaten, I recognize it has it's faults (unfortunately it is not as fresh in my mind as I woukd like, so I can't be very accurate, my apologies).

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