It's Un-freakin'-believable!

  I feel like I’ve been a little negative lately. Spider-man and Batman both came out of my reviews and articles a little worse for wear. So maybe it’s time I moved on to talking about something I really loved in recent days. And that would be Baccano!

   Baccano! has been on my Netflix “to watch” list for some time now and last week I finally sat down to watch some. And boy was I pleasantly surprised. I had heard good things and expected something high quality. This wasn’t just good, it had shot straight to the top of my “Favourite Animes” list.

   So I feel a little background is in order. Baccano! Takes place in three different years, 1930, ’31 and ’32 respectively. Then it follows the lives of a huge number of characters from gangsters to robbers and bomb makers. It sounds confusing and it is a little at first. This is not one to watch when you’re tired. In fact I had to stop watching not because I was bored but because I wanted to watch when I felt a little more awake so I didn’t miss anything.

   Baccano! is a series that lends itself to watching in batches or one long marathon. The opening credits work in little snippets of past episodes as a reminder but it still helps if you don’t leave much of a gap between each episode. And trust me, as things start to come together, you won’t want to stop watching.

   A lot of the anime released over the last few years has suffered from several anime trappings. girly dudes, panty shots and a whole host of other things one would class as “fan service”. Baccano! on the other hand, is the least anime anime I’ve seen for a while. Like the classics such as Cowboy Bebop and Trigun it’s just there to tell a good story and to introduce you to some amazing characters.

   As mentioned the list of characters is long and the only downside to this is that as a 16 episode series you might not get to spend as much time with your favourites as you might like. I feel like I would have liked to see more of Firo, a charming gangster that kicks all kinds of ass. But with that one exception I feel that the show found a nice balance between the various people.

   Among the cast there were a few stand-out characters, which probably stood out for their pure insanity more than anything. Lad Russo and Vino are both men equally matched for their insanity and crazy qualities. Which is good, because for some reason these kinds of characters really appeal to me (which is rather worrying really).

   I don’t feel I can really talk about the plot too much without spoiling anything. What I can say is that there’s a lot happening on a train called “The Flying Pussyfoot” and there’s a plotline surrounding various immortals.

   The element of the immortals was really quite interesting. As opposed to other anime with supernatural elements where they are fleshed out to the extreme, the supernatural stuff here is actually rather understated. It created an interesting aspect to most of the plots without forcing itself to be the main focus every time.

   Since this is an anime I must give mention to the pretty nice looking animation but mostly to the voice acting. Seeing as this has an American setting it makes sense to watch the American dub, a dub that thankfully has some fantastic voice acting. My favourite example being Dallas shouting “It’s un freakin’ believable!” after a particularly successful gunfight. On rare occasions the accents might grate a little but this is a really minor issue.

   Baccano! is an anime that can at times be frightening. I don’t think anything had quite freaked me out as much as the infamous “Rail Tracer” a monster who only gets more terrifying the more you see its true nature. There are also the occasional sad moments but what Baccano! is best at, is being good sheer fun. I haven’t quite enjoyed an anime like this in a long time.

   And it’s not just the big gangster shoot-outs or fight scenes on top of a moving train. There’s fun to be had in the little moments, a slight movement or expression.

   Baccano! is a show I really can’t recommend enough. It’s one of those rare animes that will appeal to people who don’t typically watch them. There’s nothing worse than arguing “Well you’d get it if you watched anime, it’s just what happens.” And if you’ve already signed up for Netflix you have no excuse not to give it a go.