Baccano!

Baccano! is a 2007 Japanese television anime adapted from Ryohgo Narita’s light-novel series, whose illustrations are by Katsumi Enami. Produced by Brain’s Base and directed by Takahiro Omori, the 13-episode broadcast ran on WOWOW from November 8, 2007, to February 28, 2008. Its title is the Italian word for “ruckus,” an apt description of a story deliberately assembled out of overlapping crimes, conspiracies, and improbable survivors. Rather than following one hero in chronological order, the anime jumps among 1711, 1930, 1931, and 1932, gradually revealing how apparently separate characters and incidents connect. The central supernatural premise begins aboard the Advena Avis in 1711. Alchemists seeking the demon whom they call Ronnie Schiatto receive an elixir of immortality. The gift prevents aging and ordinary death, but immortals can be destroyed when another immortal places a hand on their head and “devours” them, absorbing their knowledge. Maiza Avaro, Firo Prochainezo, Szilard Quates, and the childlike Czeslaw Meyer are among the figures shaped by this bargain. Szilard’s pursuit of the elixir’s formula drives violence across later decades, while Maiza’s guilt and secrecy make him a crucial link between the eras. Much of Baccano!’s most celebrated material takes place in 1931 on the transcontinental train Flying Pussyfoot. The train carries gangsters, thieves, immortals, and two violent groups: the white-clad Lemures and Ladd Russo’s black-clad gang. Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent, cheerful thieves whose mistakes often produce accidental good, board the train as well. Jacuzzi Splot, Nice Holystone, and their friends become entangled in the bloodshed, while the scarred conductor known as the Rail Tracer is eventually identified as Claire Stanfield. Claire’s connection to Chane Laforet gives the train plot an unexpected romantic thread amid its killings and reversals. In 1930 New York, the dispute over missing bottles of the immortality elixir intersects with the Gandor and Martillo crime families. Firo is a young Camorrista in the Martillo organization and falls for Ennis, an artificial homunculus created by Szilard. Meanwhile, Eve Genoard searches for her missing brother Dallas, who has been made immortal and sunk into the Hudson River by the Gandors. The anime’s fragmented narration eventually lets scenes reframe earlier scenes, often with humor supplied by Isaac and Miria. Three original video animation episodes, released in 2008, continue beyond the television ending. Baccano! also uses a score by Makoto Yoshimori and an opening, “Gun’s & Roses,” performed by Paradise Lunch for the series’ televised episodes.