Dec 3, 2015
To sum this up, a brilliant work of an anime. Baccano is the first anime that I have rewatched for good reason. In this story, or stories, the first episode makes absolutely no sense at all. I would personally say that did no enjoy the beginning of it, and it wasn't until episode 3 or 4 that I was invested in this anime. The beginning implies a lot of what happens through the series, but the lack of an established plot and the cut scenes makes it incredibly hard to understand. However, as the anime moved towards the plot further into the story, I was
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amazed at how well planned and thought out this was, and even more astounded when I rewatched it, noticing all the implications that I missed. Once I rewatched it, the whole series made very much sense to me, especially the first episode.
This anime is mainly about 3 or 4 different timelines which intertwine into one big story about the elixir of immortality. These different points in time and location, whether aboard the train, the flying pussyfoot, in the middle of the ocean, or in an underground basement with elders searching for the elixir or the story of a girl trying to find her brother, all intertwine and give an amazingly detailed story. Because of the span of this, the anime does not have a linear storytelling style. It is similar to a puzzle, where watching it is like solving a puzzle from the outside, and seeing more and more of the picture, but because of this, there is no real climax to the anime. Nothing builds up to an overall climax, but Baccano makes a good decision to end each episode on a cliffhanger, which is addictive to continue and the climaxes along the way are very enjoyable to watch.
With the sound, because I personally believe that this anime has one of the greatest soundtracks of all anime. The upbeat jazz in the background uses the same theme in different variations, letting this anime have over one hour of different soundtrack pieces played int the background. The opening of the anime, imho, is awesome, better than the one of Attack on Titan. It displays a lot of the anime and also makes implications on the story, but it was a shame that there were too many charaters to be introduced. I advise not skipping the introduction because the anime has more characters than episodes, and the opening does do a great job at introducing the major ones.
The characters, where some people would say are underdeveloped due to the lack of screen time for each individual character, was done very well. The anime is sort of crime based, leading to interesting characters in interesting settings between mafia and robberies and killing. Between the psychotic killers, the "innocent" kids, the worse robbers ever and the situations that arise from immortality, Baccano provides great drama between these interactions.
It is not in my favor to judge the anime on how good the art is, and art is not required to make an anime good. Based on the storyline, characters, and soundtrack, I conclude that i enjoyed this anime and would recommend it to anyone and everyone. However, it is unlike many other anime in every aspect, other than the fact that it is made in Japan. 10/10 I also recommend to watch the first episode of the series after you've finished it to understand what is happening.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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