EspanolBot Reviews!: Baccano!
Okey, basically the series is based on the premise that in the ealy 1700s a group of alchemists created an potion that stops aging and cures all wounds and diseases. However, only one of the alchemists had the entire formula in his head, and since he didn't want to share it for the harm it might cause, no one was able to make any more of it.
The plot then skips forward to three, interweaving storylines based between 1930 and 1932, which revolves around what happens to the people who manage to get their hands on the only two newly created bottles of formula in existance.
One plot revolves around one of the original alchemists trying to get back the bottles of "Cure-All" after the courier is mugged by a street gang, who use their accidentally accured immortality to pick a fight with the local Mafia group.
The second plot revolves around a train that is travelling from either San Francisco or Chicago ( I can't remember which, I think it's the latter), only for it to end up being the scene of a fight between a cult that worships one of the original alchemists and is holding a senator's wife and daughter hostage to get him released; a bunch of gangster's who chose the train to rob at random; and a group of "delinquents" who are on the train so they could steal the passenger's luggage.
And the last plot is basically a girl trying to find her missing brother, who was one of the muggers from the first plotline, who has been missing for the past year or so. And while she's looking for him some other gangsters are looking for him as well, and she gets kidnapped as a result.
I guess that it's become a thing on my livejournal that I don't really give reviews of things that I don't like, and really that's going tobe a trend I'm continuing with this one.
This series manages to combine three of my interests, retro-looking stories, alchemists and Pulp styled characters.
With a cast of characters including a teenage gang leader who bursts into tears at the slightest provocation, his eyepatch-wearing bomb-crazed girlfriend, a near superhuman assassin who a God Complex, two fantastically awesome but scatterbrained robbers, some gangsters, a homunculus, some assholish muggers, various alchemists, a group of terrorists, and a group of white-suited homocidial lunatics, there is rarely a dull moment in this 16 episode long drama.
For me the two stand-out characters were those of Isaac and Miria, a pair who put the Loveable in Loveable Rogues. Imagine, if you can, Bonnie and Clyde minus the murders and mixed with large amounts of Harley Quinn, Shortpacked's Robin DeSanto, and Scary Go Round's Shelley Winters.
Here are a pair who commit crimes so bizarre and... well... stupid, that the police don't attempt to arrest them out of embarassment.
And yet despite being openly larcenous, they're the light of the show. Always happy, kind and seeing the best in people. Here is a pair that attempt to steal MUSEUMS while disguised as mummies, only to resort to stealing one of the doors when it turns out to be too heavy.
They're FANTASTIC.
The show's action skips along like the train that causes so much trouble for some of the characters, and despite the many, MANY different plotlines and characters the stories never become confusing... at least I thought that they didn't anyways.
The animation is awesome, the funny moments are hilarious, the gruesome moments are extremely gruesome, and although some arguements could be made about historical accuracy, some of the characters don't exactly dress like they're in the 1930s, despite all the actual costume being in place, it doesn't really matter because the show is FUN.
I had to watch the majority of the show in subtitled format, though I shall definately attempt to get the episodes on DVD, if only to have them in a permanent form I can keep.
I highly reccomend this show, if you can go watch it. Go!
Here's a picture of Loveable Rogues(tm) Isaac and Miria in the midst of one of their crimes.
And finally, here's the show's awesome opening sequence,
Click to view