Dude, where's my last Baccano! episode?
23 November 2007
ARGH! Even the Italian fansubbers are done subbing Baccano!…!!! So, where the hell is the English fansub? Why does Ayu take three million and two years to sub an episode!? Just one last episode, one, one, one…one….
Before this post deteriorates even further into an incoherent rant, let’s actually talk about Baccano! It’s easier said than done. Curiously enough, I’ve been faithfully following this series since it first aired and managed only to blog about it once. With the advent of WordPress 2.3 and tags, I think I’ve managed to sneak in a couple mentions of Baccano! here and there, but have yet to actually address anything truly relevant to the show. And, so, with one last episode left to go and that nasty cliffhanger from episode twelve taunting me, I’m going to attempt the almost impossible.
The cast is huge. It’s huge, it’s bigger than Sailor Moon. I mean, with Sailor Moon you can at least categorize the Sailor Scouts. They’ve all got that nice sailor outfit with the matching colors and planets and transformation scenes. Even when they start adding outer planets, it’s not that hard. Uranus and Neptune go together, Pluto (which isn’t even a planet anymore) and Saturn go together. You get the Sailor Stars, but there’s only three. And, there’s a million villains, but they all die anyways. And yes, the cats and Chibi moon. Packaged and done.
So, what about Baccano!? Not only does it completely disregard the laws of time and space (it does time skips at least three times an episode), it manages to fully develop every single character that ever appears, ever. You’ve got the White Suits, the Black Suits, the Gandors, Jacuzzi and his gang, Isaac and Miria, Firo and Ennis, creepy old men, Dallas and Eve, the creepy little kid Czeslaw, Claire (who is a man), Chane, Ladd Russo and Lau and…I’m running out of fingers. Oh! Yes! The information shop guys, the president, that little girl, Nick, Rachael, the guy with the glasses and all those Chinese people running around Chinatown. And I still think I’m missing a few.
In the very beginning, the first few episodes, everything just felt so chaotic. You’re watching it with your jaw half open, wondering exactly how in the name of God will this end? It was either the most brilliant plot line ever devised and set into motion, or it was the most delicious catastrophe every concocted. Just watching it, just the way it felt, it couldn’t have been bad. If it turned out to be a train wreck, it’d be the most amazing train wreck, ever. And, it didn’t really make any sense.
I don’t usually do images, but since there’s so much text, here’s a pictorial distraction. It also organizes all the characters very nicely, mhm.
With one episode left, I’m fully confident that, indeed, Baccano! was the most amazing train wreck, ever. I don’t know where to start! Isaac and Miria, Isaac and Miria, they’re so silly, so out of their minds, so zany and insane, it’s wonderful. You know that they’ll save any overly dramatic scene with their presence. They’re a big part of reason why Baccano! manages to shine so brightly. Sometimes I’m not really sure if the hilarity and ignorance are just covers for their true intentions, that they actually do what they do out of the pure goodness of their hearts. Or, it really just luck and craziness that brings all of these people together, haphazard happenings dictated by some strange force.
Every single character in Baccano! manages to be in the spotlight. All of the characters, with their terribly fantastic English names, are so outrageous they’re almost competing to outdo each other. Case and point, Ladd Russo and Vino. Ladd Russo, short and simple, is just crazy and crazy is an understatement. He’s fickle, he’s fiendish, he’s a killer without judgment or morals. He is the embodiment of a homicidal maniac. For God’s sake, his display of love is vowing to be the killer of his wife. You can’t get any crazier than that. Surprisingly enough, he gets tricked by Vino and plunges off the train to save his wife, so he can kill her later. And, they’re flying through the air, they’re just looking at each other and you can actually feel some sort of twisted compassion from Ladd Russo, the only thing on my mind was, Christ, that man is weird.
Then, you have Vino, who is the ‘Young Conductor’. I always wondered why he didn’t have a fancy name like everyone else did, until he was revealed to be the show’s greatest secret. Claire, for a while, I really thought they were talking about a man, well, Claire’s crazy, too. Think Ladd Russo with morals, a conscience and some sick acrobatic skills. I’ll just put it out there, I like Claire. He’s one helluva an anti-hero. He kills people not because he likes it, but he kills them out of his personal moral code of sorts. Like Dexter, from the new Showtime series. Serial killers with a vendetta. He genuinely cared for the old Conductor and went bananas when he found out the White Suits murdered him. And, he has the most amazing shade of red hair. And, I’m hoping he gets married with Chane. And, I’m just hoping he lives. Claire looks to be the only mortal of the group, but he’s holding up pretty well.
Another one, for your distraction. I just can’t get enough of the art.
In short, Baccano! is like some crazy pulp fiction story, with all the action (Isaac and Miria, with Czeslaw swing on a rope knocking over that crazy guy with a flamethrower trying to kill Jacuzzi. Nice getting off on explosives.), the laugh out loud English names (Jacuzzi Splott? Need I say more?), the blood and gore (see Vino and Russo’s respective killing sprees), the comic relief (a.k.a. the best part of the story. Most recently, the car scene from episode eleven), the plot twists (immortality! Alchemists! Ennis is a homuculus! Rail tracer is a hot guy with a woman’s name!), the randomness (Isaac and Miria, ’nuff said), the cute, righteous ‘protagonist’ (Firo is cute, but in this vast ocean of characters he’s hardly a protagonist, but he sure looks the part) and everything else….tossed into one gigantic blender set on high and served with a luscious dose of all the jazz and flare of 1930’s New York. And you know what? It’s still got one episode left! One episode I have not seen and am dying to see.
Baccano! is like the summer blockbuster no one went to see, which is a real shame. It was one of those things I really didn’t expect, I mean, the promo art made it look good, but not this good. I was worried, honestly, that it’d collapse under it’s own weight, it’s own self consciousness. But it didn’t, it stood steady, with enough bravado, enough of a devil may care attitude, carrying the huge cast of characters, the intricate plot, moving onwards without loosing sight of it’s goals. You know what? The whole thing was just fun, pure, unadulterated fun. It’s like the Ocean’s Eleven of the summer. Flashy, big and, hopefully, will go out with a bang. Granted, Ocean’s Eleven and Baccano! have very little in common…you get the point.
Next week on “Dude, where’s my episode?”, the mysterious disappearance and reappearance and subsequent disappearance of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei! When will ‘sayonara’ finally be forever? Will the second season appear at all? Find out next time on “Dude, where’s my episode?”!
Yes, Baccano is excellent. Its low popularity however is due to the fault of the subbers. People who would rather sub Gundam 00 4 times than good shows.
However, I finished it long ago. English subs are just not worth the wait.
baccano 13 is out! still on a break from anime tho… i’ll get back in when oh edo rocket and romeo and juliet are complete.
@TJ HAN – I don’t speak Japanese, I’m forced to wait. Blagh.
@Kauldron – So, you’re taking a break! That’s where you went, you dropped off the face of the earth for a while. I just torrented Baccano! and you made this comment. XD
I’m waiting for RxJ as well, I’m in it for Tybalt, pure and simple. lol