Baccano!

Category: Action, Historical, Gore
Episodes: 13
Year: 2007


I should preface this review by admitting something. The first 6 times I tried to watch this anime, I put on episode 1 and watched it while doing something else. Whether it was playing a video game or talking to someone else, I couldn't get past the first episode. I had a feeling (rightfully so) that I was missing something, so I just kept going back to it. Finally, on try 7, I made it through.
For a normal anime, watching it in a general way will give you a general idea what's going on. Not the case in Baccano. The story is woven together very cleverly and it weaves itself between several stories, jumping forward and backwards in time. If you watch this Anime, pay attention to the year so you can orient yourself with what's going on.
The fundamental principle of this anime is the quest for immortality and then beyond that, the concept that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unless it doesn't. Overall, I'm glad that I went back and gave the first episode another gander or two and I would definitely recommend it to a Main stream viewer. Some of the voice acting is irritating and not the best that I've seen, but in general it's satisfactory.
I would also advise this as an anime to watch with a friend or in a group. There are a lot of subtleties in the story that, if you're watching it alone, you may miss out on. If you have someone there, you'll probably have a moment or two where you say, "hey, is that _______?"
For younger viewers, beware of gore. there is lots of it.


Animation: 8
Story: 9
Music: 8
Char. Models: 7
X Factor: 2

Score: 8.0