BACCANO!

The very first thing I noticed about Baccano! was that it was full of black comedy, a quality that is hard to find in your average shonen anime. The word "Baccano" means "Ruckus" in Italian, and the name is apt. With its classy film noir styles and a captivating plot, Baccano takes you to many impossible worlds tied with crazy coincidences and mishaps.

Bacaano! is a 16 episode anime series based on various time periods, most of it being the early 1930's and the 18th century and is written around at least twenty main characters. It starts off with two information brokers discussing about different strange incidents that have been taking place recently and seem to have connections with one another. This discussion introduces us to a variety of mysterious characters; some belonging to mafia families, some to a group of alchemists and so on. The series does not follow a straight timeline, or focus on a specific group of people; hence some viewers may find inconsistencies in the story. However, this is one of the greatest differences between Baccano! and most other anime and is the reason behind it being so unique in style. 

In 1931, Isaac and Miria, a pair of foolish thieves board a transcontinental train called Flying Pussyfoot that is to travel from San Francisco to New York, alongside a group of bootleggers led by a boy named Jacuzzi Splot, a little boy called Czeslaw Meyer, an information broker Rachel and some other important characters. The train is later met with many tragedies as soon as a group called the Lemures hijacks the train, while another group led by a sociopath called Ladd Russo slaughters many of the passengers inside. Through these incidents, a story begins to unravel that dates back to the year of 1711, when a tragedy occurred in the lives of a group of immortality-seeking alchemists aboard the ship Advenna Avis. Members of mafia families like the Gandors, the Martillos, and the Genoards also play major roles in the overall plot of the series. 

Baccano! needs to be watched with maximum concentration, or else it is easy to get confused with the storyline as the flow goes on. It is a coherent mixture of drama, action, fantasy, comedy, romance and many other genres and is classy in style. If you are into mafia families, Italians, alchemists, immortality, people in hats and guns, and a bit of chaos every now and then, do not forget to try Baccano! 

The writer, aged 16, is a grade 10 student at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College.