Baccano!
Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you a new anime review. You wanna know what I love, when anime does something out of the ordinary. I know anime in of itself does a lot of weird and strange stories and what have you. But it often gets stuck in that stigma of just weird stuff for the sake of weird stuff. The out of ordinary that I'm talking about is when a anime decides to center it's story around a completely different culture, more importantly when they try to portray the western culture. Now there are some anime that do in fact do this with such titles like, Big O and Cowboy Bebop. We also have another anime to add to that list and it's the topic of today's review. I present to today my review of, Baccano. How does Japan portray New York in the 1930's? Well let's find out.
Story:
The story here is what I like the most when it comes to story telling, a very non-linear way. The story starts off pretty much when everything has already happened. Everything is done say for a few unfinished plot lines. Now you may think well doesn't that spoil the whole story? That is where you're wrong because now you're intrigued. You wanna know just how everything went down and who did what and who killed who. But it doesn't stop there because when more characters are introduced then we end up seeing more of their back story, in which the show stops it's already ongoing plot to tell what this character did that lead them to this point in then main story. Then you have all these other stories from different points in time being told. So you'll be watching what's going on in the main plot then jump a year later to see what's happening to a character that lived through the events of the main plot, because they have another story going right afterwards. So in short the story is all over the place, but in a good way. You'll be pulled into the story and you're gonna wanna know what the hell is going on. It's such a insisting way of telling the story which in of it's self is very good. But for the sake of not giving away any spoilers I wont go into detail. Just know that if you're lost the first couple of episodes, it's okay you're not alone.
Animation:
On the technical side of thing this show has a very cool look to it. The art style is very simple as well as the character designs but it matches the feeling that the show portrays. It's a very almost film noir in it's atmosphere and the art style helps it in that aspect. We also have the background and locations that the are in the anime and I'd be lying if I didn't say that they gave them a pretty damn distinct look to it. The show feels like it's the 1930's with just about the way the buildings look to the outfits that the characters wear. The animation is also top notch when it does an action sequence, in fact the show shines when they do a fight scene because they get to show you just how much effort and fluent movement they put into each fight. The animation here is pretty badass and just helps this show to hit that high quality level in anime.
Music:
Music here is also just really damn good. All the tracks sound like, once again like they're from the 1930's. More importantly the music is very much jazz oriented. You have saxophones, bass guitars, violins, drums, and just about everything else that comes with jazz. It does the job perfectly to draw you in and get you immersed into the era of the show. But when the show has to get dark and play some low sounding and eerie music you bet that it produces haunting tunes to match the given situation. The music was portrayed perfectly and I loved it.
Characters:
Now this is the best part of the show. The whole cast of characters is too large for me to properly talk about so I just have to discuss them generally. The characters all very from one another and have there personalities. Each characters feels like an actual person and they all feel very well round out. Now some characters do stand out from others and they are even more fun to watch. The show develops them very well and no one feels like a generic character archetype that often plagues anime. Also on a side note, the English dub is awesome. I usually don't talk much about dubs unless it's necessary and here I do feel as it can up your enjoyment of the show. All the actors do a great job at capturing the voices that you'll hear from that era and it's just sound perfect. So if you watch this show then please watch the English dub.
Nitpicks:
I do have some nitpicks but they're very small. The nitpick being that the story can be a bit confusing at times to follow. It jumps from place t place that you'll end up wondering which story is being told right now, that can end up hindering the enjoyment to some people. Also the ending may turn some off because it end on a very open note, leaving a possibility of a second season. That season hasn't happened and I don't think it ever will. But aside from those complaints the show is great.
Overall:
Well to sum up my review I'll say that Baccano was a lot of fun to watch. It has a very cool story, interesting and likable characters, and some really good music too. This show is so much fun to watch and I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a little something different then what they usually get from anime.
Arcane Reviews gives Baccano a 9 out of 10.
You can watch "Baccano!" on:
Funimation (Dub and Sub)
Story:
The story here is what I like the most when it comes to story telling, a very non-linear way. The story starts off pretty much when everything has already happened. Everything is done say for a few unfinished plot lines. Now you may think well doesn't that spoil the whole story? That is where you're wrong because now you're intrigued. You wanna know just how everything went down and who did what and who killed who. But it doesn't stop there because when more characters are introduced then we end up seeing more of their back story, in which the show stops it's already ongoing plot to tell what this character did that lead them to this point in then main story. Then you have all these other stories from different points in time being told. So you'll be watching what's going on in the main plot then jump a year later to see what's happening to a character that lived through the events of the main plot, because they have another story going right afterwards. So in short the story is all over the place, but in a good way. You'll be pulled into the story and you're gonna wanna know what the hell is going on. It's such a insisting way of telling the story which in of it's self is very good. But for the sake of not giving away any spoilers I wont go into detail. Just know that if you're lost the first couple of episodes, it's okay you're not alone.
Animation:
On the technical side of thing this show has a very cool look to it. The art style is very simple as well as the character designs but it matches the feeling that the show portrays. It's a very almost film noir in it's atmosphere and the art style helps it in that aspect. We also have the background and locations that the are in the anime and I'd be lying if I didn't say that they gave them a pretty damn distinct look to it. The show feels like it's the 1930's with just about the way the buildings look to the outfits that the characters wear. The animation is also top notch when it does an action sequence, in fact the show shines when they do a fight scene because they get to show you just how much effort and fluent movement they put into each fight. The animation here is pretty badass and just helps this show to hit that high quality level in anime.
Music:
Music here is also just really damn good. All the tracks sound like, once again like they're from the 1930's. More importantly the music is very much jazz oriented. You have saxophones, bass guitars, violins, drums, and just about everything else that comes with jazz. It does the job perfectly to draw you in and get you immersed into the era of the show. But when the show has to get dark and play some low sounding and eerie music you bet that it produces haunting tunes to match the given situation. The music was portrayed perfectly and I loved it.
Characters:
Now this is the best part of the show. The whole cast of characters is too large for me to properly talk about so I just have to discuss them generally. The characters all very from one another and have there personalities. Each characters feels like an actual person and they all feel very well round out. Now some characters do stand out from others and they are even more fun to watch. The show develops them very well and no one feels like a generic character archetype that often plagues anime. Also on a side note, the English dub is awesome. I usually don't talk much about dubs unless it's necessary and here I do feel as it can up your enjoyment of the show. All the actors do a great job at capturing the voices that you'll hear from that era and it's just sound perfect. So if you watch this show then please watch the English dub.
Nitpicks:
I do have some nitpicks but they're very small. The nitpick being that the story can be a bit confusing at times to follow. It jumps from place t place that you'll end up wondering which story is being told right now, that can end up hindering the enjoyment to some people. Also the ending may turn some off because it end on a very open note, leaving a possibility of a second season. That season hasn't happened and I don't think it ever will. But aside from those complaints the show is great.
Overall:
Well to sum up my review I'll say that Baccano was a lot of fun to watch. It has a very cool story, interesting and likable characters, and some really good music too. This show is so much fun to watch and I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a little something different then what they usually get from anime.
Arcane Reviews gives Baccano a 9 out of 10.
You can watch "Baccano!" on:
Funimation (Dub and Sub)
Share the site with friends please
ReplyDelete