Anime Baccano!

[Raiyuu]

[CENTER][IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Baccano.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
I've just watched episode one of [i]Baccano![/i] and I'm left feeling excited but at the same time completely confused. I haven't a clue what's going on. It starts off with a newspaper editor (I think...?) and his assistant discussing a tale. They argue over where the starting point should be, and from whose viewpoint it should be told, and each time a new suggestion is made the story starts there, only to get interrupted. After the break we lose the editor and assistant and get follow-ups on a few of the fragments we saw earlier, but nothing's in any discernible order and the action jumps around all over the place. What I can gather from episode one is:

[LIST=1]
[*]It's set in and around Prohibition-era Manhattan.
[*]Big Band jazz and swing are awesome.
[*]It has a massive cast (whose Romanised names are helpfully given in the OP sequence).
[*]Certain characters can't die (and I have no idea why).
[*]It's not afraid to be graphically brutal.
[*]Some of the voice acting is just a little bit too over-the-top goofy (I'm looking at you, Isaac/Onosaka Masaya - but then again, his voice grew on me in [i]Bleach...[/i] ho hum, we'll see).
[*]A lot of it seems to concern Mafia turf wars - there are either two or three Mob families. (I lost some details in all the chopping about.)
[*]I want to start giving people arbitrary points rewards when they explain things badly.
[*]Being generous to bums is bad.
[*]The whole not-being-able-to-die thing is an ability you can gain, not something you just have (and might be magic, but that might just be Isaac being superstitious).
[/LIST]
I'm interested to see whether the 'channel-hopping' narrative style is just something they're using to draw us in for the first episode - it certainly caught my attention - or whether we'll slow down and focus on different characters in different episodes, or what. I kind of hope it's the former. It's fun to jigsaw the story back together in your head. But then, the pace might be difficult to sustain for 13 episodes.

Links:
[URL="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7492"][u]Baccano at ANN[/u][/URL]
[URL="http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/baccano/"][u]Baccano at WOWOW[/u][/URL]
[URL="http://www.baccano.jp/"][u]Official JP site[/u][/URL]
[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccano"][u]Wiki article on the original light novel series[/u][/URL]

[Doublehex]

After reading the thread, I decided to watch it. I have to say that it looks very interesting. I'm 3/4 Italian, and as a result have always been fascinated with the mafia. Despite the fact I have yet to see the Godfather, I have every intent to watch every 'famous' mafia movie out there. The way Baccano handles the mafia genre is interesting in that it blends the typical mafia storyline - mafia families fighting with each other - along with the typical supernatural aura most anime series seem to have.

I was actually surprised how grotesque the show was, but I guess it was just to best depict the way of the mafia, and I think that was the best route. Mafia were brutal, and not depicting them as such would be an insult to history.

I am split on wherever I like the idea of the immortals or not. In real life settings like this, I would much more prefer normal individuals. But I rarely judge a book by its cover; I'll just wait and see how the show progresses.

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]This looks easily to be the most stylishly wild action series of the year, and within the first episode has proven itself to be a true pulp hit. Darker Than Black, eat your heart out XD Anywho, even though this show is jumpy as hell and more than a little confusing, I can't wait to see how it develops. Especially since episode one explained so very little, lol. Basically theres one good reason I'm gunna keep close tabs on this one - the rediculous over-the-top gore. Fingers get cut off, heads get blown off, people turned into 'beehives' others tortured with scissors and knives.... absolutely beautiful gore.

With all it's americanism and violence I can't help but feel like they were trying to channel Tarantino with this one, and while I doubt anyone can channel his awesomeness, I'm still interested in how this turns out. Also, I tend to enjoy any anime adapted from a novel >_> it's a really weird bias of mine.

I agree with Raiyuu about the weird voice actors. Every time the butler said 'CA-roulllleeeeeeee' I chuckled. That guy is downright creepy. I also want to implement said point system. It's true, these guys are the absolute worst at explaining things, which leads me to this week's Phrase of the Week...

"The vegetation at the foot of that rainbow might be burning." CLASSIC!!![/COLOR]

[Kanji]

Ah, this one caught my eye on ANN the other day. Just checked out the first episode after being reminded about it over here.

Even though you guys mentioned the gore, I really didn't expect all of that which the first episode threw at us. [spoiler]Seeing someone's head blown off completely[/spoiler] came as a surprise, and a few of the [spoiler]torture scenes[/spoiler] afterward assured that this series isn't afraid to go Tarantino (props to 2007DigitalBoy for the comparison). For whatever reason, I was fully expecting something more along the lines of manic slice-of-life episodes, given the nature of the description on ANN and the loungy feel of the opening.

I was completely off the mark, but that's okay, because this first episode rocked. I'm not sure if I've ever seen an anime that convulses back and forth between various scenarios like this, and perhaps more interesting is how well it maintained my interest throughout. I agree that the massive cast is a bit much to digest at this point, but I hope it gets a little easier in the future. However, if events are going to spiral out of control, I guess we shouldn't expect that much in the way of manageability. Interesting structure aside, the Manhattan-ish setting also piques my interest. I love the atmosphere of the series, and the music does an immense amount for this.

The ending theme didn't do much for me, but I absolutely loved the opening theme and the music within the episode. Recently I find that I have a soft spot for this loungy, jazzy stuff, and Baccano delivers. If nothing else, I'm going to continue watching the series for its excellent audio delivery.

"Stupid commotion" indeed. We may be in for a rollercoaster of an anime.

[Dagger]

Awesome show. Awesome (& helpful, haha) OP. The rather metafictional lead-in convinced me that I was in good storytelling hands with this series. After that I just sat back to enjoy the ride. Love those resurrection scenes.

You guys have covered most of the relevant first episode stuff better than I could, so I thought I'd touch more on the voice acting. Because I like the "weird" voices so far, it was disappointing to hear Takehito Koyasu basically going on autopilot as Luck. I mean, he's never a [i]bad[/i] casting choice, but this role isn't exactly a stretch for him...

Contrast that with Kappei Yamaguchi, who sounded amaaaazingly creepy as Chic (and he had very few lines to work with, too).

I like Hiroyuki Yoshino's easygoing and slightly uncultured Firo. His voice has a distinctive timbre to it, but if his other roles are anything to go by, he's still fairly versatile. Mitsuru Miyamoto also stands out as Maiza.

Looking forward to hearing more of the ladies.

~Dagger~

[Raiyuu]

So episode two isn't quite as frenetic as one - not a surprise. They were never going to keep that pace for the whole series. But it's nice to see it's still fragmented. Most of the episode is chronological, but jumps around the different passengers on the Flying Pussyfoot, so we're still only getting snapshots of the full picture. And if the preview's anything to go by, episode three won't pick up and resolve two's ending cliffhanger (though we know the situation ends up with [spoiler]Czeslaw getting splattered and then de-splattered in the luggage compartment[/spoiler]).

How is it possible that I become [b]less[/b] annoyed with Isaac's voice the more I hear it? It's not changing. I don't think it's even that I'm getting used to it. I think it just jarred last week, with only a couple of exclamations from him in the midst of a lot of slightly more serious acting, so I thought "Onosaka's just messing about". He and Miria should be irritating the pants off me, but, I don't know ... their voices complement each other, or something. It helps that the whole gold-mining sequence was hilarious. Best placement of a "[spoiler]five months later[/spoiler]" caption evaar. Plus comedic use of recycled footage - it works, so I can't even call them lazy!

NB: sorry DB. [spoiler]No gore[/spoiler] this week.

.:EDIT:.
Last week we had arbitrary points rewards, this week we have [spoiler]arbitrarily declaring yourselves the 'winner' of the conversation[/spoiler]. You could use this series as a social how-to guide.

[Dagger]

Great second episode. All of the comedy (well, mainly the personalities of Isaac, Miria & Jacuzzi) teeters on the edge of being [i]oh God kill it now[/i] annoying without tipping fully in that direction. Quite a feat. I like how the music changes the mood.

ETA: Interesting little tidbit about Ennis [spoiler]having been "made"...[/spoiler]

~Dagger~

[Raiyuu]

As Carole pointed out in episode one, Firo would definitely be the main character if not for the idiosyncratic narrative. (Speaking of Carole, episode three gives some indication of how she and Gustav might be relevant - he runs Daily Days, the information brokers.)

Ladd Russo is intriguing. He was annoyingly brash at first, but I'm finding myself morbidly curious about his messed-up relationship with Lua. I'm also interested to see whether or not he's an immortal. We saw him in episode one with [spoiler]all the flesh stripped off one arm, and while it didn't seem to be regenerating, he didn't seem overly bothered by it[/spoiler].

And then there's Dallas Genoard, who seems to be at the centre of several different plot threads. He's probably immortal - [spoiler]he took the old professor's elixir after all[/spoiler] - but by the time of the Flying Pussyfoot incident (side note - hilarious Mexican standoff in the dining car) he's conspicuous by his absence.

Did anyone else suspect that Randy and Pezzo were based vaguely on Laurel and Hardy?

[HopefulOTaKu]

so what do you guys think of this anime? I just watched ep 1 and i think that the voices are impeccable.
I was wondering though, who the voice actor of the blonde guy in the first ep was... I dont remember what his name was but he was a torturer and he had the blood-coverered scissors. I thought he sounded a lot like the work of Greg Ayres (the voice actor of Kaoru and Hikaru from Ouran), but i could easily be wrong

[FONT="Microsoft Sans Serif"][SIZE="1"]HopefulOTaKu, I have merged your thread with the official [I]Baccano![/I] thread that we already have. Please make use of the [URL="http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=38208"][U]Anime Central Thread Directory[/U][/URL] if you wish to start a topic about a specific series in the future. ~ [B]Sangome[/B][/SIZE][/FONT]