Baccano [Standard Edition] [Blu-ray]

Baccano! is one of the few anime out there which distinguishes itself for all the right reasons and continues to give every time watched. In every consideration it gets full marks, something very few television shows in general can say. Baccano! (the name is an Italian slang word meaning ruckus, chaos or noise) manages to weave several different themes together in perfect harmony. This show will make you laugh, make you cry, make you shiver, surprise you and that opening theme will make you dance. Comedy, romance, action adventure, murder mystery, horror and tragedy. Each theme plays out with just enough attention given to it to make it poignant without becoming overbearing or overplayed. Baccano! also has a shockingly large cast. The story line is set over the course of three years, 1930, 1931 and 1932 and focuses on around five stories, which intersect one another at various intervals, with their own clusters of characters. In total there are 21 major characters in the story and in a first, each character gets sufficient character development to stand out on their own. Also unlike most other anime, Baccano! eschews the typical angst filled teenager that populates most anime and instead goes for an older cast with only three characters under the age of eighteen. These characters vary differently in their personalities, agendas and motivations - from the eccentric duo of thieves, Isaac and Miria, to the psychotic Ladd Russo, to the enigmatic Chane, to the cool and sophisticated Luck. In terms of audio this show scores high once again. The music is pitch perfect for the period, all jazz and big band. The opening theme is a rollicking roller-coaster of brilliant music, featuring a terrific saxophone solo and from there on the music suits every scene. Every minute sounds like something out of a gangster flick and by the end of this series, your feet will be tapping. In terms of voice acting, this remains the only anime I've ever seen where the English dub is actually better than the Japanese dub. This is in part due to the fact that this anime is set in 1930's New York and the dub uses both period slang and the actors adopt local accents. While these accents are not entirely perfect, they suit the feel of the show perfectly. Indeed, each vocalist puts a huge amount of feeling into every scene and congratulations must be given to the director in this regard. In every aspect, Baccano sounds terrific. There is one flaw with this show however, that being that it is somewhat hard to follow. Since the story takes place over three years and with five interlinking plot lines all happening at once, it is very easy to get lost and confused. For this reason it is recommended to watch several episodes at a time. Otherwise it becomes difficult to remember which characters belong to which timeline and what their allegiances are. Also, the show can be pretty gory, enough to warrant its 18's rating. Baccano is one of, if not the, greatest anime ever created. With that in mind I would encourage every fan of anime to watch it at least once.

This series is simply great and has become a new favourite of mine! It ticks all the right boxes: it has a huge cast of eccentric, psychotic, interesting and likeable characters, a great story told in a nonlinear fashion, great voice acting in both Japanese and English (I watch my anime in Japanese), a great setting: New York during the 1930s Prohibition Era involving mafia gangs, thieves, assassins and other delinquents; a great, catchy jazz/blues soundtrack (listening to it right now, in fact), solid animation, action, comedy, bloody/gory violence, mystery, horror, a slight dash of romance... It's just such an entertaining show. The only gripes I have are: the series is too damn short, and the 3 DVD bonus episodes are weaker than the main series. But those are only minor issues. Either way, I'd strongly recommend this to anyone; especially if you're an anime fan or a newbie. I really hope a second series gets done.

Baccano! is a brilliant anime. The dub is brilliant, the animation superb and the music stylish. The year is 1931 and transcontinental train The Flying Pussyfoot has a motley crew of people onboard. The loveable thieves Isaac and Miria who are on their way to see their friend Ennis and give her a gift, except they have no gift. A mob dressed in black is planning a kidnapper. A gang dressed in white is also onboard under the leadership of the psgycotic Ladd Russo. A ragtag bunch of bootleggers are on board too, headed by crybaby Jacuzzi Splot and his eyepatch wearing bomb making girlfriend Nice Holystone. There is also Czeslaw Meyer, an immortal 8 year old boy, a newsreporter oh, and the Rail Tracer, a monster. The story then jumps around before and after the events on the train, mainly involving the location of a bootlegged elixir of immortality. Szilard, the oldest man on the planet wants it back, but who has it? Dallas Genoard, wannabe gangster who has dissapeared? The mob ran by the Gandorf brothers? Or plucky fancy dress wearing thieves Isaac and Miria, who are friends with the being that Szilard has artificially made, Ennis, who has taken the eye of newly initiated gangster Firo, who is friends with Maiza, who goes way back with Szilard and Czeslaw? Confused? You will be! The non linear nature of the story may put some people off but I love it. Due to the fragmented story telling each episode has many cliffhanger moments and you may have to wait a fair few episodes until the story returns to that point and you find out what happends next. Admittedly the last 3 episodes shouldnt have happened but it does feature Isaac and Miria teaching the mafia how to play domino toppling which is great fun. I have now watched the show twice through and it really is an excellent piece of work. Exceedingly violent but also funny and clever. It's wild, crazy, fun, outrageous, uncontrollable brilliance.

Almost any sane human being should be put off by the violence and gore of Baccano. We should all revile this monstrosity, this orgy, this festival of extreme viciousness. Unfortunately, it just happens to be one of the most entertaining animes ever filmed. Baccano is a blast, a riot, a delicious, evil minded, hilarious cavalcade of crooks, mobsters and immortals. While people always talk censoriously about the violence of works like Baccano and they should, what stands out for me about the series is the humour. Baccano is out rightly one of the funniest things I've watched in recent years. Whether it's the two cos-playing, breathtakingly stupid crooks Isaac and Miria, or that utter lunatic Ladd Russo, the messianic Claire Stanfield, or the hysterical Jacuzzi Splot (my favourite name for any character in recent years), someone, somewhere is having a ball, and hamming things up on screen for all and sundry. These wild characters are nicely played off a base story which really has little to nothing to do with them and the main protagonists of the central plot (to the extent Baccano can be said to have such a thing) are much tamer and self contained. The contrast between these elements only serves to heighten the manic enjoyment you get from watching the wild, insane antics as they unfold. Technically Baccano is extremely well made, with some lovely animations and a memorable score. The disjointed time sequencing in which the story is told is reminiscent of Pulp Fiction, particularly so as you realise the further and further you get into the events, that there is no real central tale being unfolded. The characters are the story, far more than the plot. You are being presented with a group of absolute lunatics and then left to get on and survive and enjoy their company. Which given you're watching them on your tv screen, rather than sharing a train ride with them, you can. The voice acting is stellar, there's simply not a single bad tone in the entire production, with Bryan Massey's dub of Ladd Russo being the absolute stand out performance. Anyone who likes anime should watch this. If, that is, you can get past the violence and gore. If you can, you'll laugh your self sick. If not, then I'll console you with this thought. Good as Baccano is, and it is brilliant, there is an emptiness at its centre which it never attempts to fill. It is a wonderful and entertaining gore-fest comedy, but for all the hilarious cod philosophy of its protagonists it never touches anything profound. So if you cant bare the gore, try Cowboy Bebop instead, which seldom attempts to say anything, yet ends up being far far deeper.

Baccano! is an anime I've always wanted to watch after seeing the YouTube channel Anime America list it as the anime with the most perfect ending, and after watching it, I can see why! Set during the Great Depression, a turf war is starting to brew in New York. But there's an even bigger mystery developing behind the scenes, one centuries in the making... The anime has so many characters in its roster, yet doesn't feel clunky as each one gets their moment to shine. All in all, this is a dazzling anime experience with the catchiest theme tune ever!

The disk plays well and the plot of the anime is all over the place and only makes sense at the end. Of you like trains and Tarantino films then you will love this mayhem filled anime! It has period accurate accents and clothing. It explores interesting characters and situations that they all find themselves in. So I have to recommend this and buy the Blu-ray and support this and recommend it to all amine fans in your life!

Ordered from First Media UK and got a resealed Blu-Ray that is wrinkled all over. The disc themselves look good with no scratches, just the Blu-ray cover itself that looks horrible. If you care about the conditions. Do not order from First Media UK

It's the classiest, most fun anime show I've watched in a while. Isaac and Miria are fun to watch and it's interesting to see how all these stories somehow connect to them, even if in the most feeble and long-winded ways. Everybody else in the cast is unique and makes watching the entire series in one sitting a very pleasurable experience. One problem I can really see is that despite there being plenty of novels left in this series, the studio hasn't come up with another season to compensate, which is a little disappointing, but doesn't detract from the splendor that is this series. Also, the intro song WILL be stuck in your head. Just FYI.