Baccano! - Reviews

Oh the 1930's, a simpler time where travel was conducted via steam engine and a majority of the people around could be brutally murdered and then just pop back to life.

Story - 10/10

Though the story takes place over a two year period (or to some extent a 200 year period) things aren't as complicated as they may seem, despite the jumping around.  My thoughts are the best way to think about things are by breaking them down into where they occur, either in Chicago, on the train, or in Manhattan.

For the most part the story starts in Manhattan and that'd where a majority of the people currently reside. Home to the Gandor and Martillo crime families, the Daily Days Information Brokerage and brother and sister Dallas and Eve Genoard. In 1930 these elements all collide, along with Szilard Quates and his humanoid experiment Ennis, to produce the largest collection of Immortals since the original day aboard the Advenna Avis in 1711. While this time gives us some fun and detailed background on our train passengers, it mostly shows us how they all got to know each other and why half of the group is traveling back to New York on the Flying Pussyfoot.

The departure point for the train is Chicago, Illinois. It's now 1931 and characters Isaac and Miria have traveled the country in search of riches and ended up in the middle of the California gold rush. Unable to actually achieve that goal they decide to return to New York to visit their friends, but to do so they have to get some money the only way they've been successful at, robbing, particularly robbing from other criminals in order to restore balance to their karma. Those criminals are the Russo mafia family, who’s member Ladd, decides it'd be fun to hijack the most illustrious train and slaughter those on board for notoriety. Our final Chicago outfit are Jacuzzi Splot and his gang of bootleggers. Orphans and outcast. They've started to make a name for themselves, but due to some run in's with the Russo family, are now hit listed in Chicago.

As for the real meat and potatoes of the story, now that happens aboard the Flying Pussyfoot, where a half dozen stories collide. While some are aboard for travel, like Czes, Miria and Isaac, and some for business, Jacuzzi's gang is transporting some of Nice's new explosives, it would seem a majority are there for Mayhem.

Two competing factions, Ladd Russo's pure white dressed gang and the followers of Huey LaForet, another immortal, are both on the train with similar motivation, but different reasons. Ladd hopes to kill everyone and hijack the train in order to make headlines and Huey's Followers are there to, again, kill many many people, but mostly to kidnap the wife and child of a US Senator in order to gain Huey's release from jail. When they meet in the dining cart, all hell breaks loose.

While all this is happening one other man roams the train. Believed to be a myth, the rail tracer latches on to trains and murders the evil people who ride the rails, but who is he, if he's even real?

Animation - 9/10

The art of Baccano perfectly depicted the 1930's without ever being a caricature of the time, like so many period pieces do. The detail on the train, the city and the clothing were just spot on and helped really bring the story to life.

The character's were also very nicely drawn with their look being very original from what i've seen. Each looked different from the other and all different from other anime, something you don't always get when they just plop out the same character look for every other show. They also managed to produce a vibrant show while still using the muted color palette of the time.

One area that really popped for animation was the character movement. Often when theres quick movement or something complicated they add a blur or motion lines, Baccano's seemed much more like video, with fight scenes, deaths and explosions all being one hundred percent animated without cutting corners.

 Sound - 9/10

The soundtrack for Baccano pretty much blows away anything that isn't named FLCL. While there isn't one standout song like other series, the soundtrack as a whole and it's placement within the series in excellent.

Most of the songs fit the time period correctly, with tunes reminiscent of Gershwin's Jazz Standards and Guy Lomardo's big band hits. One song played throughout the series also sounds very much like the Shinra theme from Final Fantasy VII, which seems rather fitting to have such a great modern composer right alongside those of the early 20th century, all of which have influenced current musical styles greatly.

I also really enjoyed the range of voices and accents used in the English version of the show. They hit them all pretty spot on when it comes to accent and matching the voices with what the characters look like. Each was also very specific to this show, not like others where you may watch a new anime but still instantly think "oh there's Vash's voice" or "I don't remember Spike being a 10th century British King"

Finally the whole show is brought to life with the great foley use. The trains running overhead in Manhattan, tables shaking and china rattling in the train and the overall simplicity of an earlier time, all  helped create a world none of us truly know.

Again the only thing keeping the show from having a perfect score is the lack of a song you can really stick to the show, it has its open and closing, which are catchy, but give us at least one great lyrical song and no one would have anything bad to say about the audio.

Characters - 10/10

It's so rare that a show can have this many important characters and still get them all right. For thirteen episodes, just a bit more than six hours, they managed to introduce you to sixteen major characters and about twenty five minor characters, all whom you feel well contacted to and can understand exactly where they're coming from.

The creators found ways to toss in just tiny bits of information here and there to build quite impressive backstories for each character, only a few times did it seem as if they really tried to shoehorn an idea in where it seemed out of place.

It would take pages to really talk about every character, but first and foremost I'd say there are four main characters who the story revolves around most, Firo in New York City, Jacuzzi on the train, and Isaac and Miria as a pair tie the two worlds together. These four move the story forward and have the feel of a lead, but then again the whole story starts off with the question "Who is the main character of our story?"

The minor characters are also all, for the most part, very likable even when they are doing horrific things. They all have great stories and could all lead their own show. It's almost as if Baccano is The Avengers movie, where 20 great movie leads all joined together for a single film. 

Overall - 10/10

Everything came together in this show to make it one of the most enjoyable shows to watch. Story wise it managed to properly mix mystery, horror, comedy and period themes, without ever getting campy, a feat that I can't say many, if any, have really done. 

Writing this review after watching a second time, and over two years after the first, I actually enjoyed the show even more. While a spinoff or more episodes could be entertaining, I don't think they'd come close to the original 13 episodes and the creativity the writers used in having such a small space to work with (as a majority of the story is about that train ride.)

Complex, elaborate, and legit. Baccano throws you around and around and expects you to eventually follow. Expect lots of characters and lots of time changes. The animation looks good and the english voices are just about all fantastic. The characters are always consistant and react great when put near each other. The music is a lot of fun. Just about everything about this is great. It would easily thrive in just about any form of media.

 9.3/10

 "It's guns! I love guns! ...machine guns? That's even better! This could be fun! Sounds like death, and danger. Daaanger, daaaaanger...What's happening in the dining car? Is there blood? Who's killing who? Where did they get shot? I have to see! Things are really starting to get exciiiting! Yes! Yes yes yes! YES YES YES YES YES!"-Ladd Russo (I love this guy)

  Baccano- the Italian word for 'ruckus' (which describes this show perfectly). I first decided to watch this anime due to Durarara!! (which you should check out if you enjoyed Baccano! and vice versa). I didn't really prepare myself and dove right into it (I know, stupid me), which resulted in me almost dropping the show at the confusion of the first episode, but since all the comment say :"You'll regret it if you drop this here!", I decided to push on. And, thank goodness I did!

 The story is very complex, since there's more than one story and basically one story for each set of characters and lots of time skips. And since I'm not good with complicated summaries, LOOK IT UP ON MAL OR SOMETHING. Anyways, you will probably have a hard time understanding the first episode, like I did. They basically throw the characters and story at you. But, don't be upset. You'll get it sooner or later (or never.) (All I got from the first episode was that the girl's name is Carol).

 The animation is amazing. (From what I saw). The scenes flow nicely, and I'm definitly ok with the charater design. The lighting is dark and there isn't much vivid colours. And since I mark animation by the year it came aired, this gets 10/10. APPLAUD

 The OP, Guns and Roses, is jazzy and catchy, even though I tend not to like jazz, but whateves. I enjoyed this one. The ED, Calling, is definitly my fav EDs. Though it does not fit this violent mush of a anime at all, I'll overlook that. Now, this didn't get a 10 since I don't remember any BGMs (though that might be just me and my anime section in my brain). The voice acting in both sub and dub are very well done.

 There were way too many characters (as you can see in the character section) and since this anime is short, there is 0 charater development. "But how did this get a 7.6, then?" Not because I'm biased (ok, maybe a little), but because the characters are original and hilarious. My favourites being Ladd, Firo, and obviously Issac and Miria. So for originality (and actual backstory), this secton gets a 7.6.

 Other than the confusing beginning and the too violent scenes, I enjoyed this anime very much. It's really fun to watch and, with all the time skips, hard to understand. Which is a plus since I like thought-provoking anime.

You will definitly enjoy this anime if you understand it and don't mind too much gore. You'll definitely need to watch it more than once to understand it and you'll need patience to get through the first few episodes. I really need to rewatch this but it's Psycho Pass season for me sooo...

Baccano! isn't an anime for simple distraction. While casually watching it is entertaining enough, the plot is complicated enough and some characterization subtle enough it really rewards more detailed watching.

Or so I assume. As I don't really watch anything with too much detail, I had to be content with the raw entertainment value of the show. Fortunately I wasn't disappointed.

STORY

The story of Baccano! is quite good. There are several narrative threads that jump around from 1929 to 1930. Because the narrative is chopped up across those years, it can get confusing figuring out the actual chronological sequence of the story, but the anime is presented in such a way that the confusion isn't enough to lose comprehension. By the end of the series everything is quite clear.

That said, I don't feel that much is gained from the degree of jumping around present--while a certain amount of parallel storytelling certainly enhanced the overall effect, it reached a point where it felt really gimmicky. Or I could still just be bitter that I was halfway through the anime before I was able to assemble some mental model of how everything was assembled.

The major let down was the last four episodes. There's what I feel is a pretty solid conclusion in the 13 episode, and then 3 more episodes which really only drag on the series without adding anything. I couldn't see the point, and it was late to introduce a new narrative thread and try to maintain the overall arc of the series. Editors are important--there should have been one to remove episodes 14 through 16.

ANIMATION

The characters were well designed, but the show stealer is the settings, particularly parts of New York. Everything looked very realistic, and much of the animation was beautiful. Understand however that realism may not be a point in its favor given the gore in many scenes.

There is an exception: Jacuzzi Splott was not particularly well executed; it was a long while before I realized the scarring all over his face was meant to be a sword tattoo. I just thought he and Nice Hollystone had been screwed up in the same way. Which, honestly, would have made more sense than a sword tattoo on his face.

Tattoos hurt folks, don't follow that man's example.

SOUND

The music was awesome. But then, I like jazz. If you don't like jazz, the music will not be awesome. But then you must be a philistine, so who cares?

CHARACTERS

Remember when I said the characterizations were subtle? I lied.

The characters in Baccano! are all interesting. But interesting is one of those words that doesn't mean good.

Most of the characters are well put together, with at least enough backstory to flesh them out. With a cast the size of this anime's, you're going to have some two dimensional characters though, and it does fall heavily on some archetypes without really fleshing them out.

And then there's Isaac and Miria. Personally, I found them to be hysterical, but there's a strong case to be made for them to be incredibly irritating. That pair--and a few other characters--didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the cast. Again, editors are important.

OVERALL

I liked this anime. It was enjoyable. I didn't love it, but I certainly would recommend it.

Just please don't tell me about all the plot points I missed.

 

Baccano is an anime that appeals the those who like gangster styled stories but at the same time accept supernatural elements in said story. The story isn't told in a linear fashion which might come off as a gimmick but it remains quite easy to follow what is going on as it is told. Though I myself sometimes felt frustrated by being taken away from a particularly intense and interesting segment I won't hold it against the anime much.

Baccano's supernatural elements are among the main driving forces behind the story as such they are inseparable in my modest opinion. However while it takes main stage in terms of driving force the gangster esthetic has a good amount of presence and it really is part of what defines a lot of characters backstories and personalities I feel. The 

Animation
The character designs all seems to fit with the esthetic of the series and for the most part are varied enough to tell most characters apart quite easily. While others are harder to distinguish in between at least at first it quickly becomes easy to tell even the characters that like quite alike apart. At the same time the animation does it's job and while not all animation is consistently vivid I never felt I was being distracted by animation budget managing decisions throughout the entire series or at least not memorably. While the animation is not immediately impressive by current day and age it get's the job done and while it doesn't amaze it doesn't seem to dissapoint either. Overall the animation was consistent and always felt like it was good enough to get the story accross as it transpired. 

Sound
While some characters voices might take some getting used to they do all fit in with the characters at the same time the atmosphere the music establishes in conjunction with the animation feels fitting to the story as it plays out. While the choices for music feel quite obvious in some scenes and doesn't surprise it doesn't distract either. The opening wasn't quite my cup of tea but I could see some people liking it quite well. I would speak about the ending theme but honestly, I can barely recall it as is. 

Characters 
This anime has a ton of characters and certainly not all of them get very far in development but most of the important characters do get character establishment which is quite surprising with a character roster even when looking at the semi-important characters alone. That said you don't have extremely deep characters in this series. Some characters have more facets than others but it's quite obvious what most of them are about from the get-go. This gives the series quite an action movie feel but with more characters that actually get explored sufficiently to the point of being more than just another player on the field. 

Overall, This series is one that people would pique as one of anime's greatest or most memorable series. It's setting in America probably helped a lot with that however the series holds up as an enjoyable experience for people whole like gangster styled anime with supernatural powers thrown in. The anime doesn't do too much handholding to make the audience feel stupid but doesn't go out of it's way to be extremely confusing. It's a satisfying watch that might be a little higher difficulty than your average series without feeling like it's a challange to watch. The balance between difficulty to watch and accesability being so satisfying with this series is probably part of why it is as popular as it is. In the end for what the series is I enjoyed it quite a lot.

( This is a secret Santa (2017) review )