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.
Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Ten People Who Inspire me the Most, but in No Particular Order, 'cause That'd be Too Hard, Part 1
I figured I might need some inspiration for this crazy didleedoo blogathon thing I'm doing, so why not make a list of the ten people who inspire me the most?
1. Alan Moore- I. Love. Alan. Moore. It's kind of a problem, really. But what can I say? The guy knows how to form a sentence AND he's the master of creating really friggin' cool ideas. Everyone knows Watchmen was amazing, because it took these two-dimensional Charlton comics characters and made them so human. It took the man twelve months to completely change our views on the caped crusaders.
But he's done so much more than that. Another great example of his work is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he took characters from all these different literary periods and smooshed them into one massive, eon-spanning universe. Honestly, reading that as a sophomore in high school completely changed my views on literature in general. I really got into that idea of the "Great Conversation," or that idea that the great works of literature are connected, and thus in a way they're almost communicating with each other.
And he's a good enough writer, even when he's not shifting your paradigm to a completely new level. Like in Top Ten, he told a Hill Street Blues-esque police procedural story WHERE EVERYONE HAD SUPER POWERS. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun, and showed that he's a good-enough writer that sometimes, he can just entertain.
2. Frank Sinatra- What can I say? In regards to my music tastes, a lot of the oldies really are goodies. Somehow, the guy managed to smoke, yet still be able to belt out of powerful song. Better yet, he pretty much sang from the 40's into the 90's, and for most of the time successfully. As opposed to many singers, he adapted to the times, and I can really respect that.
As if that wasn't enough, what really got him on the list was the fact that he was also an actor, who acted in quite a few films (around 50, according to Netflix). And he wasn't just some two-bit actor who got his foot in the door because of his singing. He was actually a really good actor. And it's kind of astonishing that someone can have such a big career in films, yet still be remembered mainly for his singing. And he was in my favorite film, Manchurian Candidate! Need I say more? Didn't think so.
3. Satoshi Kon- This one probably seems a little bit like out of left field, but I actually like anime quite a lot. I don't know why, but there seems to be something so surreal about the genre, that can't be found elsewhere. Every time I dip my toes into an anime (and I mean the 12-26 episode gems. I'm not talking about those ba-jillion episode anime, which might be good, but still can't beat things like Paranoia Agent, Cowboy Bebop, or Baccano!), I find this completely new experience that I wasn't quite expecting. And quite often, that experience changes my view of the world, ever so slightly.
As you might have surmised, Satoshi Kon is the master of this perspective-shifting. Director of the anime series Paranoia Agent, and films like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and such, anything he's done is such a trip. Yet at the same time, he's simply using the medium to tell a story he likes, in a way that's strangely personal to him. He takes the tools he has and does things completely unexpected with them, simply because that's who he is. And that's something I can respect.
4. Craig Ferguson-I love talking. It's really quite fun to do, when you get right down to it. The exchange of words and information from one person to another, sometimes meant to educate, sometimes meant to entertain, and quite often simply meant to pass time is an amazing thing to behold and even more fun to take part in.
And there's just something so beautiful about the way this old Scottish talk show host does it. Every time he comes on at, like, 12:30, he does so with a certain irreverent bombast. He basically looks and the world and says, "Aw, screw it. I'm not here to be nice and warm and fuzzy. I'm here to make some fun penis jokes, and keep you up for as long as possible." Yet for all he tries to convince us that he doesn't really care about people, he really does pay attention, and you can tell in his interviews that he's trying his best to keep all his guests comfortable.
Well, perhaps comfortable isn't the right word, given the fact that he's so prone to telling his guests he's going to start and awkward pause and he does just that. But I guess he always makes sure that his guests are having fun. He cares about people while making them laugh. In my day-to-day life, I think I've always striven to do that.
5. Ray Bradbury- Oh, Ray. I don't even know where to begin with you. You're probably most famous for warning people against the perils of television in your seminal work, Fahrenheit 451, yet one of my favorite things to do is watch vintage television (or Craig Ferguson), so how can I say you've inspired me? Well, suffice it to say it's a pretty complex relationship.
I started out reading Fahrenheit 451 in 7th grade. Didn't like it much. It was too depressing for me back then, with all its dystopian vibes and the belief that an individual couldn't change society until society was ready to change. But then I had to read it for school in my Sophomore year and it was another one of those books that completely changed the way I looked at things. Suddenly, I realized that maybe the Internet was shortening my attention span, just like Bradbury had warned television might. But that didn't really change things too much (as can be evinced by this little blog post right here). Instead, what really impacted me was the way he weaved sentences, and the way he created such depressingly relatable characters. He told some dang good stories and he told them well. And that was good enough for me.
NEXT: Part 2 of People Who Inspire me!
1. Alan Moore- I. Love. Alan. Moore. It's kind of a problem, really. But what can I say? The guy knows how to form a sentence AND he's the master of creating really friggin' cool ideas. Everyone knows Watchmen was amazing, because it took these two-dimensional Charlton comics characters and made them so human. It took the man twelve months to completely change our views on the caped crusaders.
But he's done so much more than that. Another great example of his work is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he took characters from all these different literary periods and smooshed them into one massive, eon-spanning universe. Honestly, reading that as a sophomore in high school completely changed my views on literature in general. I really got into that idea of the "Great Conversation," or that idea that the great works of literature are connected, and thus in a way they're almost communicating with each other.
And he's a good enough writer, even when he's not shifting your paradigm to a completely new level. Like in Top Ten, he told a Hill Street Blues-esque police procedural story WHERE EVERYONE HAD SUPER POWERS. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun, and showed that he's a good-enough writer that sometimes, he can just entertain.
2. Frank Sinatra- What can I say? In regards to my music tastes, a lot of the oldies really are goodies. Somehow, the guy managed to smoke, yet still be able to belt out of powerful song. Better yet, he pretty much sang from the 40's into the 90's, and for most of the time successfully. As opposed to many singers, he adapted to the times, and I can really respect that.
As if that wasn't enough, what really got him on the list was the fact that he was also an actor, who acted in quite a few films (around 50, according to Netflix). And he wasn't just some two-bit actor who got his foot in the door because of his singing. He was actually a really good actor. And it's kind of astonishing that someone can have such a big career in films, yet still be remembered mainly for his singing. And he was in my favorite film, Manchurian Candidate! Need I say more? Didn't think so.
3. Satoshi Kon- This one probably seems a little bit like out of left field, but I actually like anime quite a lot. I don't know why, but there seems to be something so surreal about the genre, that can't be found elsewhere. Every time I dip my toes into an anime (and I mean the 12-26 episode gems. I'm not talking about those ba-jillion episode anime, which might be good, but still can't beat things like Paranoia Agent, Cowboy Bebop, or Baccano!), I find this completely new experience that I wasn't quite expecting. And quite often, that experience changes my view of the world, ever so slightly.
As you might have surmised, Satoshi Kon is the master of this perspective-shifting. Director of the anime series Paranoia Agent, and films like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and such, anything he's done is such a trip. Yet at the same time, he's simply using the medium to tell a story he likes, in a way that's strangely personal to him. He takes the tools he has and does things completely unexpected with them, simply because that's who he is. And that's something I can respect.
4. Craig Ferguson-I love talking. It's really quite fun to do, when you get right down to it. The exchange of words and information from one person to another, sometimes meant to educate, sometimes meant to entertain, and quite often simply meant to pass time is an amazing thing to behold and even more fun to take part in.
And there's just something so beautiful about the way this old Scottish talk show host does it. Every time he comes on at, like, 12:30, he does so with a certain irreverent bombast. He basically looks and the world and says, "Aw, screw it. I'm not here to be nice and warm and fuzzy. I'm here to make some fun penis jokes, and keep you up for as long as possible." Yet for all he tries to convince us that he doesn't really care about people, he really does pay attention, and you can tell in his interviews that he's trying his best to keep all his guests comfortable.
Well, perhaps comfortable isn't the right word, given the fact that he's so prone to telling his guests he's going to start and awkward pause and he does just that. But I guess he always makes sure that his guests are having fun. He cares about people while making them laugh. In my day-to-day life, I think I've always striven to do that.
5. Ray Bradbury- Oh, Ray. I don't even know where to begin with you. You're probably most famous for warning people against the perils of television in your seminal work, Fahrenheit 451, yet one of my favorite things to do is watch vintage television (or Craig Ferguson), so how can I say you've inspired me? Well, suffice it to say it's a pretty complex relationship.
I started out reading Fahrenheit 451 in 7th grade. Didn't like it much. It was too depressing for me back then, with all its dystopian vibes and the belief that an individual couldn't change society until society was ready to change. But then I had to read it for school in my Sophomore year and it was another one of those books that completely changed the way I looked at things. Suddenly, I realized that maybe the Internet was shortening my attention span, just like Bradbury had warned television might. But that didn't really change things too much (as can be evinced by this little blog post right here). Instead, what really impacted me was the way he weaved sentences, and the way he created such depressingly relatable characters. He told some dang good stories and he told them well. And that was good enough for me.
NEXT: Part 2 of People Who Inspire me!
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