Baccano!

During the early 1930s in Chicago, the transcontinental train, Flying Pussyfoot, is starting its legendary journey that will leave a trail of blood all over the country. At the same time in New York, the ambitious scientist Szilard and his unwilling aide Ennis are looking for missing bottles of the immortality elixir. In addition, a war between the mafia groups is getting worse. On board the Advena Avis, in 1711, alchemists are about to learn the price of immortality.

Based on the award-winning light novels of the same name, Baccano! follows several events that initially seem unrelated, both in time and place, but are part of a much bigger story—one of alchemy, survival, and immortality. Merging these events together are the kindhearted would-be thieves, Isaac and Miria, connecting various people, all of them with their own hidden ambitions and agendas, and creating lifelong bonds and consequences for everyone involved.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Dian, Isaac Main

Onosaka, Masaya Japanese

Stanfield, Claire Main

Morita, Masakazu Japanese

Harvent, Miria Main

Aoki, Sayaka Japanese

Russo, Ladd Main

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Prochainezo, Firo Main

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Splot, Jacuzzi Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Laforet, Chane Main

Hirohashi, Ryou Japanese

Gandor, Luck Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Ennis Main

Kobayashi, Sanae Japanese

Meyer, Czesław Main

Kanda, Akemi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Harp, Clarine Producer

Yokoyama, Shuko Producer

Satou, Yumi Producer

Reviews

Jun 11, 2024

Latooq

Recommended

The only new thing I can say about Baccano is that it still holds up in 2024. If I go any deeper than that, my review will be no different from others. People who like this show praise the storytelling: carnage between 2 mafia clans involving some mythical creature occurs on the train, and the rest of the story explains the context behind the train accident. Even though the storytelling is chaotic, everything eventually clicks into place. Aside from the story, there is good animation, amazing music, and great voice acting. Combining all of that together creates the esthetic of 1930s America.

But everyone likes different ... things in different shows and if figuring out how unrelated story pieces are coming together does not interest you, the rest of the story may be disappointing. The character writing heavily relies on stereotypes. Most of them are functional and with the exception of one none of them gets any character development. Even though they talk to each other a lot, there was no moment when a guy drops a single line of dialog which would add an extra level of depth to them. Their dialog is no more than babble, which is used to avoid awkward pauses. Another thing is supernatural stuff and how insignificant it is. Its only purpose is to make a generic story about gangsters more original.

I also think Baccano has some flaws in the way it executes its things. For starters, some characters don't affect the story at all; Czeslaw, for example, has no bearing on the story whatsoever, nevertheless, he hogs a lot of screen time, which could've been given to more interesting characters. And there are quite a few characters like him, whose existence does nothing but overcomplicates the story. The ending and the opening are just shit. I don't even want to call them such, there are more like character rosters. The songs aren't that bad, but the visuals simply ruin them for me.

Overall, I think Baccano is pretty good, especially if you want something different, but it's not perfect and there are other media that execute the same things better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 20, 2023

szrmx

Mixed Feelings

Baccano is a work created in an unconventional way, i.e. it does not have a rigid time frame and is not limited to the real world, because we are dealing here with the theme of immortality, which in turn gives the creators a lot of room to show off when it comes to the possibilities of creating a storyline. In the first episode I really wanted to stop the screening because I didn't understand what was going on, the way of showing the action is very chaotic and gives us more questions and embarrassment than answers, which will be bothersome for the first few episodes, ... then the creators show the same scenes a few times so we'll get it What is it about.

Story:
The plot is about a group of different freaks whose destinies come together in a strange train, where various intrigues take place, such as kidnappings, murders, immortal children, torture, sadists, freaks, thieves, politicians, mafia, idiots, killers and stuff like that. Due to such diversity, it was not easy to maintain coherence and sense, especially if we add to it the way of presenting the action described in the introduction, but you can say that theoretically everything adds up to some strange twisted whole. The screening is quite ok, due to the mass of characters we like more or less, I liked "Rail Tracer" the most and "Jacuzi" the least, the speed of the action throughout the series remains at a stable, non-tiring level.

Characters:
There are many characters and everyone should like something, but I wouldn't count on their overwhelming depth, because they are typical one-dimensional characters, a psychopath behaves like a psychopath, an idiot, and so with everyone. on the plus side, there is their number, on the minus side, their development, moreover, the number of episodes effectively limits the possibility of their development, it is worth mentioning that the baccano manga was created in the years 2003-2016 and has 22 volumes, so there is no doubt that the story is for 10 seasons and not one, but for reasons unknown to me, the continuation did not appear, which is a pity because throughout the series I had the impression that the prologue was presented to me much longer and more interesting intrigue, as if the animated series was to be created for a very long time.

Enjoyment:
I had fun throughout the series quite ok, thanks to the fast pace of the action, the episodes were not boring, however, I was waiting for a very interesting finale, but I was disappointed because there was no special climax or it was not very expressive, the plot is engaging, the characters are less.

Overall:
I recommend the series to fans of action, brutality, mafia, and twisted intrigues, but I do not think that the series deserves the average rating of MAL users, because there is nothing amazing here, knocking you off your feet, once again I will emphasize that the series would be much better to watch knowing that we will be able to see much more, but we were given the introduction of the manga, so to speak, which begins a great adventure and shows us many possibilities for the development of the story and we get such a foretaste, the annoying fact is that the viewers are shown threads that may be interesting, but which I will never know unless I reach for the manga... well, that's what makes me treat the series as a manga advertisement, which is a pity because the potential is there.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 15, 2024

PrivateJoe

Not Recommended

I don't understand why others consider Baccano an underappreciated anime. Its non-linear storytelling is hard to follow. Having just finished the series, I find it difficult to remember much. I'm left scratching my head, wondering, 'Who are these characters, and what is happening?'

Moreover, the characters themselves are forgettable. I can't recall any of their names, and there are simply too many to keep track of. Nearly all of them are violent and goofy, which I found to be quite annoying, contrary to my expectations.

Perhaps my disappointment stems from expecting a serious tone, only to find a cartoonishly goofy show with fantasy superpowers. I believe it ... should be listed under comedy and fantasy genres, which would better reflect its nature.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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