aloe, dream

Gearing up for my marathon batch, I started into the backlog with a Baccano! mini-marathon this weekend. Talk about bat-shit crazy stuff. Baccano! fits the bill.

Firstly, Baccano! was a great pickup for the Summer, I actually keyed in when I saw that Ayu was doing subs, just never felt like digging in. I wasn’t saving it for any special occasion, but since the last episode was subbed, I wanted to get in on this mayhem! (Glorious Mayheim is Irrisistable!) I really suggest all serious anime watchers give Baccano! the time.

So, Baccano! was a massive character jambalaya. The premise is a single event, a train ride from California to NYC, but the magnificent interactive level of the entire story reveals it’s web as if it were the underside of an iceberg. This level of complexity does hinder the series in the first couple episodes, because it was easy for me to say “WTF”, and I did, but for two reason: 1) the character count 2) time jumping. Yes, 1932, 1930, 1931, the storytelling isn’t subtle about time, and anything more specific than the year is void. Kinda cool though.

She’s kawaii, he’s spacy; they are only in the first 6 minutes

Flustered by thoughts of Firo ^^

Firo says wha?

Mafia, immortals, “The Untouchables”, whaa? The first episode was a hijacked-introduction by this crazy existential guy and his apprentice. They bounce small details off each other. Plenty of freaky foreshadowing, but things start happening soon after their scene.

Firo and Mr. Luck in the bookstore

Thou soul shall find itself alone, ‘mid dark thoughts of the grey tombstone…

A strangely noticeable feeling I had was during the first bookstore scene; there is this scene where two of the characters are meeting each other, anyway the setting was the key here. Immediately I felt this familiar form of atmosphere in the setting, and when one character pulled out a book, I flipped because it was the same author I was thinking of. I won’t give any more details on that, but if Baccano! was stating a reference, I love it.

Great duo…

…ridiculous robbers

100 gun technique… ROFL

Small info, my stuff is actually coming from [handwritten] notes I made while viewing. Unfortunately, I did not write much after the first episode, unless it was about Isaac and Miria! Well who are they? Only the most fantastic love-duo of 2007! I LOVE THEM!!! They are the only ones I was truly attached to, them and FiroXEnnis. These two are fun-loving are party animals, possibly even matching Beach House style. Other characters are just as good, but… they aren’t LOVE. Singularly, Isaac and Miria may have been interesting, but having them apart would be as cruel as pancakes without pure maple syrup.

Ladd’s a psycho

Vino’s a psycho

Exceptionally psychotic. That’s how I would classify a few of the key players in Baccano! I don’t do polls, but someone should throw up a poll for “Craziest MoFo From Baccano!” I’d like to see the results, because nobody is normal, except may be the Beriam girls. Hands down, Vino or Ladd wins this award. Vino is a sincerely bent muscle of justice, and Ladd well, no need to go past his relationship with Lua for that one. I won’t dive into all the characters, but they piece the story together marvelously. That train ride has to be one of the most violent, action-packed, coincidental extravaganzas I’ve ever seen in anime. It’s plain unbelievable.

Information molds the story

The last topic of interest here is the storytelling of Baccano! I considered it jumpy, but it has some benefits. While the story time travels, many details and back stories begin to come together. At first, everything rushes by, but the tale slows for moments, and the intense details about every character lingers in the experience. The story develops deeply, and it emerges, but simultaneously, the experience becomes captivating. Truthfully, the story has flaws (too much coincidence), but the telling is undeniably invigorating.

Anime may give much more shape to things we would otherwise imagine in novels or art. Baccano! stimulated my imagination. As the story continued, many assumptions became figments, but for those moments when one event was taking place, my mind tried to conclude which other events were or were not happening elsewhere. Perhaps it was the cliffhangers lurking in episodes more than between episodes; I cannot be sure. It was a good experience, a different flavor, and even though I’m not a fan of violent violence, Baccano! was a great series with fresh approach. In the end, it reflects nicely on 2007.

Ryan A

Oh yeah, the OP is a like from a 1980s TV show, lol. And, speaking of Beach House, how random is this? I wish someone would make an AMV to Beach House’s Tokyo Witch, featuring Yuuko via xxxHolic.