Understatement of the year
Sometimes I take chances on overlooked anime and turn out really loving them, and sometimes I take chances on understood masterpieces and end up disliking them. Thankfully, the universal acclaim for Baccano! actually has a lot of foundation to it. Everything about this series became so fascinating towards the end that I honestly couldn’t take a break while watching it. How can anyone write a series that can hold my attention like that?!
What I learned from Baccano, Episodes 7-13
1. I want to see the world through the eyes of Isaac and Miria. These two… beautiful human beings live life in such a fantastic of wonder and optimism. I don’t know why, but Narita must have woke up one morning determined to create the two most likable characters in not only anime, but all of entertainment media. These two could make the tensest situations absolutely hysterical with their immense amount of good luck and charm, not to mention their complete lack of situational awareness. These two… they are just so perfect.
2. This show must have been frustrating to watch on a weekly basis. Because the series is told in such an abstract way, I bet I would have constantly have had to retrace my footsteps, so to speak, every week if I were watching this show when it was airing. However, when watching it in a marathon session, it makes the show so much more enjoyable than I think it would have been on a weekly basis.
3. Episode 7 was completely out of place, but it was incredibly necessary to the plot. I get that it explained why there were immortals in this universe, but the whole episode came out of nowhere, and the 1711 plotline isn’t really spliced in with the rest of the story, so it’s sold in a completely different way. I liked how it was explained, but it just felt so sudden.
4. Jacuzzi came through and became the hero, and that was awesome. I knew that this dude would grow the courage to defeat the bad guys… well, with a lot of help from his friends, but he did it nonetheless. Plus his reason for crying was kind of cool. He was such a good guy.
5. The story with Eve and Dallas seemed to be the most out of place aspect of the story. I say that because I’m still a little unclear on exactly why he became so important. I know he was sought out by the Gandors because he murdered a couple of them in cold blood, but the massive search for him by so many became a little too much. In the end, though, I’m happy that he finally got what was coming to him.
6. The Rail Chaser, or Vino, or whoever, didn’t appear to be a real bad guy… nor a real good guy… so his involvement was more mysterious to me. He just seemed to be killing for the sake of killing, but with some sense of justice, albeit a twisted one. He didn’t really interfere with any of the good intentioned people, and he even went out of his way to save Isaac, Miria, and Czeslaw. That was pretty noble. I guess he would have been more on the good side since he pretty much exclusively killed members of the white and black suits. Then that gets into the argument of “killing being right in any circumstance”, and that’s too philosophical for me to stomach.
7. If anything, Szilard was the antagonist. This guy was bad news. I knew that from the beginning. I knew he was going to be a thorn in the good guys’ sides. Turns out I was right, and it was so satisfying to see him finally lose everything at the hands of Firo.
8. I liked how Ennis basically grew a soul and turned on Szilard. It was basically said to us that she would turn out this way in the second episode, but there were times where I believed that she was going to make some stupid mistakes because of Szilard’s hold on her.
9. Even though it’s claimed that there are no true “main characters”, I’d say that Isaac and Miria came the closest to being the true “main characters”. I say that because they were pretty much the causes of a lot of the stuff that happened during the show. They basically made every main character immortal through a thoughtless act of kindness. Seeing that they were the cause of most characters’ immortality was just amazing. I can’t express how much I love those two.
10. Putting the pieces together at the very end of the series is fun, and it makes my head spin. Just like with Pulp Fiction, this show was fun to piece together, although this show had many, many more pieces to its puzzle. This form of storytelling is so hard to pull off, but it was done so here very well.
How did I never catch this?!
Well, well, well… Baccano!, a renowned classic in storytelling, turned out to be extremely enjoyable for me. What a surprise! I loved Baccano!. It’s regarded as a classic for a reason, and it’s totally apparent to me now. This is a show I can see myself returning to at anytime. Although I didn’t like it as much as I did Durarara!!, it’s still worthy of being called one of my “favorites”. Take that for whatever it’s worth.
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Ben
20 year old university student studying economics by day, snooty anime blogger by night! I have high standards for anime, but I also keep an open mind when it comes to shows outside my comfort area, which usually includes dialogue-heavy drama. Always happy to have a discussion.
Latest posts by Ben (see all)
- What Ben Learned From Watching Baccano, Part II (Episodes 7-13) - August 2, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 4 - July 30, 2014
- What Ben Learned From Watching Baccano, Part II - July 25, 2014
- Notes of Space Dandy Season 2 Episode 3 - July 23, 2014
- What Ben Learned From Watching Baccano, Part I - July 18, 2014
