Baccano!

Recently I finished watching Baccano!, and I have to say that it became one of my top 5. It has an intriguing story, and while at first it seems chaotic and you don’t quite understand what is happening, slowly everything makes sense and at the end you feel like you unraveled a mystery. There are so many things that intrigued me and kept me going. The plot has a good way to unfold itself, and I will get now into details.
Baccano! is a good title for this anime cause it means ,,stupid commotion” or ,,ruckus” in Italian. Each of the stories in the series involves several unrelated plots intersecting and crossing each other as events spiral further and further out of control. It starts with 2 people deciding who the central character is, where the true beginning is and where the true ending is. They come to a conclusion that there isn’t a central character and that all are central characters, there is no beginning and there is no end. It’s about people interacting with each other, it’s about life and future. And at first you don’t understand what they mean, but as you watch every episode you come to understand everything. Most of the story takes place in New York and on the intercontinental train ,,Pussyfoot” in the American Prohibition era (that’s 1930, 1931 and 1932). There are other time periods and locations, but I will not reveal them. They story often changes it’s timeline from 1931 to 1932 to 1930 and it gets confusing, but when you get used to it you feel like you’ve accomplished something, and the story only deepens you further into all of these events. Besides the intriguing plot there are also some nice action sequences that offer good entertainment. And they also did a good job getting the feel of early ’30 and the mafia life, cause most of the cast belongs to a mafia family. So every element is accurately done. There is also a bit of comedy, but it’s more like the situation they find themselves in that is comical.
But the biggest attraction is the large and truly diverse character cast. It’s overwhelming at first, and it’s hard to memorize their difficult names, but you get used to them pretty quick. And since practically everyone is a member of a mafia family you might think that it isn’t diverse, but trust me their personalities are truly unique. You have crybabies that grow balls when the going gets tough, you’ve got gangsters with noble souls that fight with true skill and style, you’ve got morons, you’ve got psychos and sadists etc. The psychos are truly well defined. They talk nonsense a lot like in FLCL but the difference is that in FLCL many people think that it’s natural, here only the psycho think it’s natural. Also I like how they act. There is one in particular that reminds me of the Joker. He has a maniacal glee, always knows what he’s doing, takes pleasure in killing and chaos, etc. He is everything the Joker is (except for the clown part). I think the cast here is one of the best I’ve seen in an anime.
The graphics are standard, but character models are well defined and distinct, just like their personalities. I can’t say much of the original voice cast cause I’ve seen the English dub, but they still did a good job (the dub I mean). And the music is memorable. It goes well with the 1930 setting and is fun to listen.
Overall, this is a ,,must see”. No matter what you like and expect, this is one you truly don’t want to miss, so put it on your list, move it up to number one, sit back and enjoy.