Baccano!

Original title: Bakkãno!

Genre: Adventure; comedy, fantasy.
Author: Ryohgo Narita
Director: Takahiro Omori
Studio: Brain’s Base; Aniplex.
Original run: From July 26, 2007 to November 1, 2007.
Lenght: 16 episodes.



"The Vice-director doesn't talk about the possibility of him being the lead character."


One of the main attractive points of Baccano it’s the constant change of date… the story actually starts in 1711, aboard the ship Advenna Avis, but besides this particular year, you’ll watch several times the appearances of years like 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1933 (specially these ones but notice that you’ll have to pay attention to even more than those). This is the first factor to make Baccano a kind of complex anime. You see, the story by itself it’s not that hard to follow, but the huge mass of characters, as the massive ground for their interconnection and the hypersonic rewinds and forwards will actually turn such a short and simple plot in an completely advanced test to your own abilities to catch and arrange all the information.

Another thing that it’s obviously the trump card of Baccano it’s that you’ll sooner realize that it’s all true what it’s said in the first episode… there is not such thing as a protagonist in the story! In fact, I would say that if has to be one, it is definitely (and in an abstract view), not one individual but the net established around all of them... and notice that this simple factor can cause difficulties to your perception of the series.

Plot

A group of alchemists at the 18th century, and their collective demands to get the eternal life, will lead to the summoning of a demon. He will grant them their wish, within some rules. Some of these new immortals will endure and you’ll find them at the American soil amidst the Great Depression, which it’s a profit context to the use of several bunches of gangsters that, alongside with the first ones that I referred, will spice the tale, specially yielding the flow of action and blood. Even so, if there is a reason to pick the main scenario protagonist, then, for sure, the transcontinental train “Flying Pussyfoot” would win all the bets.

What’s the great goal of the script? I guess you can’t say at all, that Baccano has a common approach… even this straight aspect isn’t obvious, and that maybe can explain why the “first” ending of this anime will so suddenly smash you with a sort of cold breeze – I just only can figure that it doesn’t have to end, in fact, even the beginning of the plot is unconventional. Although, the main target is not that hard to understand… without any central character, with a total chronological mess and without any defined ending, it’s fair to say that this anime seeks to describe a lot of personalities, performing their connections and how they work with each other, how they go on with their lives, influencing the others and at the end, after they arrive and attach, they’ll eventually depart too. And that’s it…

Did I wrote “first ending”? Yeap… thirteen episodes aired on TV, and the final one was clearly to be set as the final episode of the series. And it’s true that, for better or for worse, the plot ended there and it would be a bit unnecessary to arrange more characters and prolonging it… but the truth it’s that the 14th;15th and the 16th episode, in spite of didn’t aired on TV, they were unleashed in DVD, making Baccano even more uncanny.

High Point:

• The originality of this anime, not because of the script by itself but because of the peculiar approach.
  

Down point:

• Another ending that decreases the overall quality of the story.

Story: Effective, well maneuvered - 8.5;
Characters:

• Voice performances (just a few, yet, still above middling - 7.5)
• Personality's construction (so many characters, played in such a short anime, and still, even if the great majority of them are far from being memorable, it’s also true that you’ll recognize them even if in the middle of the crowd - 8)
  

Animation:

• Design (not a masterpiece but you definitely can’t say that is unpleasant - 7)
• Dynamic (worry not, it doesn’t lag - 6)

Sound:

• Soundtrack (a bit recurring but well contextualized - 7)
• Effects (Just average - 6.5)
  
  Overall: It may not set foot as one of the greatest series that you’ll watch, but it’s still a tasty anime - 7 cookies.