Anime Review: Baccano!

I had seen this and thought it looked interesting. I had no plans this past weekend, so took a shot at this little period piece. I have seen numerous mentions of "Pulp Fiction" type of storyline that this portrays.

What you have is the 1930's in America with all the Gangsters you can throw a Tommy Gun at. Some further background is that some of these people are immortals due to some crazy alchemy that they did back in 1711. There seems to be about 4 Gangster families (Gandar, Martillo, Genard & Runorata) that seem to be fighting or protecting one another.

It starts off with a little girl (Carol) and an old man (Gustav St-Germain) exchanging ideas like they are writing a story about all this. Gustav is the Vice Director of the Daily Days which seems to be an information brokerage company. You pretty much are thrown head first into the malay of bullets and blood right off the bat and also placed on a ride on the train named Flying Pussyfoot.

We are introduced to the characters in a variety of ways and at different times in the series. A great part of the beginning story takes place on the Flying Pussyfoot. You see several different fractions from Ladd Russo wanting to kill everyone to a group trying to get Sir Huey released and also a couple groups of thieves. Needless to say that confusion and massive brutality takes place on this trip.

There are several plot lines and multiple views from a variety of perspectives when these characters interact. You will need to keep your wits about you as you watch this.

My Comments:

Opening music grabbed me right away as it was an Upbeat Jazzy opening. My first thought was Cowboy Bebop. The song that finished off the Anime is your normal ending - calm soothing tune - BLAH!

This show jumps around like a crazed Mexican Jumping Bean that drank the water south of the border. I cannot keep up with it as it jumps from scene to scene, year to year and back again. What they did that was kind of interesting is show you a scene from the views of 2 different sets of characters. One time you see the incident from one groups view. Then after a few scene hops, you go back to the scene (da-je-vu), but this time they let you view it by the other set of characters. A lot of the scenes take place on a famous Train called "Flying Pussyfoot".

To me there were too many plots going on at the same time - whats up with the immortal gangsters, what is up with the Daily Days information company, who is actually trying to kill who and for what reason (besides the homicidal maniac Ladd Russo). Honestly, if they would of kept this more linear instead of the pops in and out, I would of enjoyed this Anime a lot more.

If you like Anime with no clear direction and plenty of violence, then this is for you. But it makes me wonder why it only lasted for 16 episodes - seems odd to me!

Overall Rating: D <>

Full Cast of Characters
Ladd Russo and the Crew
Out of their league (and minds) Isaac and Miria

Next series to be reviewed: Guin Saga