Baccano! Review

All Aboard the Flying Pussyfoot

Baccano! (バッカーノ！) has been called one of the best anime out there by quite a few “top anime” lists. But, it’s not actually that good. And, we can see that simply by looking at its ranking on MyAnimeList. It’s ranked at #203. That means there are hundreds of better anime.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my time watching Baccano! But, I don’t think it’s as good as many people seem to believe it is. I rated it over 2 points lower than its average rating. And in this review, I’ll be explaining why.

But, before we get into the issues I had with the series, we need to cover the basics. What is Baccano! about? It’s about a lot of things. It’s a supernatural, action, comedy, mystery series if that gives you any indication. There are a lot of moving parts in this anime.

It’s hard to put the plot of this series into words. It’s about a bunch of people on a transcontinental train called the Flying Pussyfoot. There are gang members, mafioso, thieves, murderers, families of government officials, and more. And, they all clash aboard the train.

I’m not sure if that really counts as a “plot.” But, that’s what’s happening for most of the series. That’s not the only plot, though. There’s also another plot that has to do with the quest for immortality. There are immortals, people who want to become immortal, and people who want to kill immortals.

Like I said, this series is about a lot of things. And, while it’s not that difficult to follow (after Episode 1), it’s very difficult to explain. Speaking of Episode 1, I did not follow it at all. But, don’t let that dissuade you from watching. It gets easier to follow.

Thieves, Mafioso, Murderers, and Immortals

There are way too many characters in Baccano! I’m still not sure what the point of some of them was. Like, there’s some woman who works for a newspaper and dresses like she’s an assassin. She got a whole episode and I don’t know what she did.

But, even if we just look at the “important” characters, there are still too many. There are like three different mafia organizations, a gang, thieves, a murderer, and a different group of murderers. There are also all the various immortals and the people connected to them.

And, it’s not only that you have to remember all these characters. You have to remember how they’re connected and what their goals are. And some important characters, like Huey, don’t even appear in the series. You just have to keep track of how everyone’s connected to him.

To make things even more confusing, the series also isn’t linear. The stuff on the train is. But, the rest of the series jumps around to different years and follows different people. At times, it was hard to follow when all of these events were happening in relation to each other.

So, how could the series have been better? The simple fix would be to remove a bunch of the characters. Or, at least, we can reduce the number of characters we follow. There aren’t that many who are vital to the story. We can follow Isaac and Miria, one of the immortals, and maybe Jacuzzi’s gang.

That alone would make the series make way more sense. Why were we following Ladd Russo’s crew? Why was Firo Prochainezo important? Chane Laforet who? And, as I’ll get to in the next section, who cares about where Dallas Genoard is? It doesn’t matter.

Where is Dallas Genoard?

There’s one big question that gets asked over and over again throughout Baccano! “Where is Dallas Genoard?” It’s asked so many times and by so many different people that you’d think the answer matters. You’d think Dallas Genoard is going to be the key that ties everything together.

He’s not. He’s literally not important to the story at all.

Where was Dallas Genoard? He was in a barrel full of cement at the bottom of a river. So, dead? No. He’s not dead because he drank some of the liquid that turns people immortal. He’s immortal, drowning “to death” over and over again.

Why’s he there? He did something to one of the mafia organizations. I don’t remember if he attacked them or stole from them or what. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that he’s at the bottom of a river.

Okay, but it’s a big deal that he’s immortal, right? Nope. He’s not one of the original immortals who’ve been alive for hundreds of years. He’s one of the recent immortals, of which there are many. By the end of the series, almost all of the main characters are immortal.

As I said, there’s literally nothing special about him. He has no real effect on the plot. A lot of people want to know where he is, and that’s why he’s “important.” That’s it. And, while Dallas’s story is the biggest example, his isn’t the only one with a boring conclusion.

Ladd Russo was one of the more exciting characters because he’s a wild card. Well, he jumps off the train and we never hear of him again. Did he die? It wasn’t said or implied. And, that kind of sums up the whole series. The ending didn’t feel like it resolved anything.

Final Thoughts

I gave Baccano! a 6/10 in the end. The first episode was bad because it was needlessly confusing. It didn’t even serve as a good hook for the series. The majority of the rest of the series was good, though. And then, the ending kind of ruined most of the interesting parts.

At its best, I’d give it a 7. But, as a whole, I don’t think I can rate it that high. It sets up too much and doesn’t follow through. And it tries to be deep at times when it discusses the meaning of life and immortality. But, it’s really not that deep.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.