Random Month: Baccano Review

There could be connections to Toku, but I just want to review this. This is my favorite anime series! If you never heard of this you are not the only one. This show isn't popular, but it needs to be! It is perfect in every way possible, so yes this is getting an A+. I really recommend watching this. For me lately newer anime has been really hard getting interested with it and I have mentioned this before. I bring up it again because I didn't talk about closure. This is the main reason why the big four anime series bore me so much they take forever! The fillers are annoying and I did read the mangas a couple of times, but even they get stretched out too much. This also goes into why I love Toku shows they have closure, they end. Forty between fifty episodes is a really good run time in my opinion. Now being too short can be an issue too sadly because things could get rushed. Baccano has sixteen episodes so yes it's short. So why is this my favorite? Well this is mostly why I started Random Month, to talk about it.

To explain the plot of Baccano is going to be quite difficult and just summarizing the first episode won't be that much help either. The show consists of three stories and some aftermath near the end. The strange part is that all three stories are shown at different times. So you could be seeing a part in the near future and then cut back to the past.  It reminds me of Quentin Tarantino a little with how the story is told because it will jump around. So I will give a synopsis of the three stories. The first story is about a man named Szilard who is immortal, but wants to spread his fortune between his little cult. One of his followers soon perfects it, but some punks steal it. These punks are lead by Dallas Genoard a complete punk. Even after they get their asses handed to them by a young man named Firo who is soon going to be part of the Martillo family. There is also some bad grounds going on between Dallas and the Gandors. All this happens while the formula goes to many different locations and who could find it? Now onto 1931 on a train called the Flying Pussyfoot (giggle if you must). On the train two gangs over take it, a group in white and one in black. Also there are a couple of thieves on board. The group of thieves lead by Jacuzzi want to get things back to normal and fight off the two groups. The men in white are lead by Ladd Ruso who loves to kill! He is doing this is help is family, but he wants fun from this as well. Some more info the Ruso's and Jacuzzi's gang aren't friends at all. The men in black are a cult following Huey who is an immortal and will overtake the train for a certain family. That's not the only bloodshed around though as there is a monster on the train, the Rail Tracer! Now the third story is also in 1931, but it follows Eve Genoard. She is Dallas' younger sister and she is trying to find him since he vanished. There is also the Runorata family who want to find him as well and like Dallas they are enemies of the Gandor family. There is even a back story arc that goes in the 1700's as it explains how the immortals begun. The show transits between the three stories and in thirteen episodes everything is explained and gives another time for each character shown. How many characters are there, well there is no main character, but seventeen!

Pros- Now you maybe confused, but this show will perfectly tell it's story without major confusion. If you do get confused there could require another watch then. So with over seventeen characters and even more minor you think thirteen episodes can't possibly do three stories. Well no, the series gives everything great amount of screen time and gives them at least one huge moments. Heck the first two characters we see Issac and Mira are in all three parts! Going on with the characters there is no rotten apple at all. Each character is perfectly well done and we get many good things from them. We learn tons of things about the plot and the characters in the thirteen episodes we get. There are more yes, but it serves as after math which I will explain later. The animation for this series is another near perfect part of the show. It does get bloody and there are really intense moments. Along with the animation the blood really jumps out with a great shade of red. The overall detail is amazing itself. This show does sound dark and it is, but along with action and suspense there is romance and comedy. Again this series only has sixteen episodes total and it does so much more than what other series can take over thirty to do. Basically, watch this series!

The best comic relief characters ever!

Cons- There is only one thing I can say here. The last three episodes, the after math. It's not bad, but (Spoiler Alert!!) the series ends at the biggest cliffhanger possible. Yes the story does continue in other formats mostly the light novels. Sadly those aren't in America and I always see rumors of second season for Baccano, but it never comes. The series didn't get popular for some reason and this still boggles me. So yes the story will leave at a huge part, but remember it does continue.

Simply a complete psychopath, but the best!

Overall- There is so much I still haven't talked about. There are even characters I didn't mention. This could not be my best review, but if it perked your interests at all that is good enough. As I said you can find either the Japanese dub online (Funimation's channel) or the English dub on Netflix, either way both dubs are amazing. I actually prefer the Eng dub because the characters are American and the voices feel more right at home with them. Find this no matter what and make it popular by any means. This anime series needs to be more known of. Watch other reviews too if you want to. Anime for Dummies (Ton of Spoilers though), Anime Zone, and probably ton of other Yotubers out there. This is the closest anime series to being perfect if it just continued. If the series continues than the whole cliff ending wouldn't even be a problem anymore. So this gets an A+ for having great stories, perfect characters, and an amazing way to tell a story.