Entry tags:

anime, baccano

Brief Recommendation

Baccano!

Far and away one of the best shows of the previous season, this series has somehow seemed to slip below the radar of a majority of anime bloggers out there. They're missing out.

Baccano! is an adaptation from a series of light novels set primarily in prohibition-era America, involving a huge cast of characters in a convoluted chase after an alchemical serum which grants immortality to anyone who drinks it. The anime series features a number of overlapping plots, all intermixed and jumbled into an utterly anachronic order - to an extent that reminds me of nothing so much as Catch-22. It's a wonderfully entertaining mix of gangster-movie action, dappy Engrish naming and ludicrous comic relief. It's also quite staggeringly, blood-splatteringly violent - the first episode features a kid getting his head blown off with a shotgun, and later episodes make Tarantino look tame...

Definitely recommended viewing - don't let the somewhat slow and pretentious first episode put you off. I can pretty much guarantee you'll be a signed-up member of the Isaac and Miria fan club by half-way through (although it's safe to say that there are psychotics enough to suit every taste). Ayu are currently providing the fansubs; here's hoping it gets a western DVD release later on.

Oh, and the opening theme frankly rocks. Or possibly jives.