Baccano!

I just have to say it: Baccano! is a flipping great series. I know they're not as popular as the long-running shonen series, but I absolutely love those 12-24 episode anime that show you a one-off perspective of the world. They just tend to be so damn exhilarating, with crazy-ass plot twists at every step in the game.

I definitely have to put Baccano! in that group of bizarre anime. It's a pretty complex show, but at its core it is the story of a group of people who got their hands on an immortality elixir. Of course, all sorts of craziness ensues. A lot of that craziness comes from the time hopping, which might happen 20 times in one episode. There's an episode that flashes back to 1711, one that flashes forward to the 21st century, and all sorts of craziness in-between. Even when it stays at the focal point of the story--from around 1930-1933--it manages to hop backwards and forwards. For instance, in the very first episode, we see the endings to three different stories that we'll only learn more about in later episodes.

And that's another thing that makes the series so crazy-awesome. It's already got that scatter-brained quality with the Kurt Vonnegut level of time hopping, but it also takes a soap operatic number of characters, puts them all into their various personal plot lines, and manages to make it all coalesce into one beautiful whole in the end.

Truth be told, I'm trying not to give too many specifics, because I don't want to ruin the show for anyone who hasn't seen it but wants to. But I think giving this little excerpt from the very beginning of the series shouldn't spoil too much. It features the Vice President of an information brokerage/newspaper publisher and a young girl who has a close, father-daughter relationship with him.

"Carol: Our job is not to think about things, but to report to others the outcome of what has already happened...
Vice President: It's true, our job is to convey the truth to others, but the moment that we obtain any information, be it truth or falsehood, we must not stop thinking. We must not stop at just determining whether the information is true or false. Such is the responsibility of those who deliver information to others.
Carol: But, what is there to think about? Just thinking about something doesn't change whether or not it's true, right?
Vice President: Yes, it does change."

To see an anime get that philosophical in the first episode was a great experience and one which showed me how much I would like this anime. However, it's not just philosophy. There are so many murdering psychopaths on this train that the heap-loads of action were destined to occur.

Of particular note is Ladd Russo, hitman for a Chicago mafia who expresses his passionate love for his fiancée, Lua Klein, by stating that he could only bear to kill her after he'd killed everyone else in the world. Let me point this out. His goal in life: to kill everyone in the world.

I would say the biggest hurdle in watching this series is the first episode: there are so many characters to keep track of and so many divergent plot lines which take a while to get connected. Therefore, the first episode seems like a muddle of confusion. But trust me, by the end all of that confusion is turned into sheer bliss at discovering so much about the myriad characters.

There's something (legally) intoxicating about the way that all these characters are running around so close to each other, bumping into each other's plot lines and causing all sorts of havoc, where only the viewer gets the holistic view of what's happening, so all the characters have to run around, without quite understanding the implications of their actions. This was particularly notable in the introductions between various characters. You might have been following these characters for five or six episodes, absorbing their escapades in bite-sized pieces, and then you get to see two of the characters bump together, and it's interesting to see the way they present themselves to each other. Apathy where there should be loathing, interest where there should be fear, etc. It's just a lot of fun to watch.

To top it all off, there's a good deal of mystery as well. And it's not just mystery in the "How is it all gonna end?" sort of way. But there's also the question of, "What is this massive monster going from car to car literally killing all the passengers?" That's a mildly interesting tertiary question. And there's the question of, "Why is it some people are getting killed, but they're not dying?" That's, y'know, kinda cool.

But yeah. I don't really know what else to say, except to try the first couple of episodes. Remember what I said about the first episode being tough to get through, and don't let that deter you. Because trust me, by the end, Baccano! had some of the best episodes I've ever seen in an anime.