Baccano!｜Anime

2023.06.16

“Baccano!” is a Japanese light novel and anime work by Ryogo Narita. It is illustrated by Katsumi Enami.
It was published in 2003 and has been produced as a drama CD, comic, TV anime, and game.

Synopsis

The title “Baccano!” is an Italian word meaning “fooling around. It is a thrilling yet lively ensemble drama with numerous characters, and there is no fixed protagonist throughout the series. It is a tale of immortals and mortals over a drink of immortality created by alchemists.

Each story is told in a single year: the first in 1930, the second in 1931. However, the stories are not necessarily told in a single volume, as some stories are in two or more volumes, and some stories are told simultaneously. The first story is set in Prohibition-era America, while the sequels include a contemporary story set in the 2000s and a past story set in the 1700s.

The year is 1711, on the Atlantic Ocean.
Alchemists who have left their homeland for a new land have obtained something from the devil.
It was the “wine of immortality.
The drink was a strange bonus: those who drank it and became immortal could “feed” on each other with their right hands.

New York in the 1930s.
The various people living in the underworld: Firo, a boy of the Martillo family, and Mizer, a top executive; Isaac and Milia, a couple of ditzy thieves; the three Gandor brothers of the Mafia; Dallas, a delinquent, and his sister Eve; and Cerrado, an alchemist over 200 years old, and his assistant Ennis, all of whom have their own agendas, but they are not in harmony with each other. They had their own agendas and continued to live their lives unrelated to each other.
But when Cerrado revives the immortal brew, their fates become intricately intertwined.

The first stop on their journey to New York City is the Flying Pussyfoot, a transcontinental train from Chicago.
The train is filled with a group of delinquents led by Goose and Charne of the revolutionary terrorist group “Lemlace,” Jacuzzi and Neese, murderer Rudd and his fiancée Roure, Senator Mrs. Berriam and her daughter Mary, an immortal boy, a mysterious conductor, an informer, etc., who happen to be on board.
But it is not only “humans” on this train!
A legendary rail-tracer (a ghost who traces the shadows of the tracks, disappearing passengers one after the other from the back of the train) also appears!

Baccano! | Recommendations

“Baccano!” is a very intricate ensemble drama if you give it a try without any prior knowledge or trailers. And with a total of more than 20 protagonists, the personalities of the main characters are disparate and fascinating. Gangsters, immortals and the bizarre all take part in the rampage. However, it is a masterpiece of animation that was not scattered at all.

The structure of the story, where the timeline in the beginning is disjointed and you don’t really know what’s going on, but everything is connected, is an amazingly awesome impression.
The drawback is that you have to have a firm grasp of the characters and the year in which the story is taking place in order to enjoy it, but as you watch, the connections between the characters and scenes become clear one after another, and they are recovered as foreshadowing.

The opening is also very stylish and well received, and the music is also very stylish, making this a masterpiece filled with the best of ensemble dramas.