Wow! What a pleasant surprise! Just finished this series, over the course of a few months, and while Baccano! isn’t one of my favourite anime by a long shot, it’s something I’m really really impressed with.
This is a show with a huge cast of characters, but each and every one of them are individual and important. In fact, this show is built upon these characters, and gives as much time to their idiosyncrasies as to the plot. The show doesn’t take itself seriously at all and everyone’s just kinda whacked, but that’s the beauty of this sort of show on anime – it works. Over-the-top psychos, more than a couple screws loose clowns, nasty mafia guys, superhuman deadly assassins, heroes with a heart of gold, and pure evil baddies, all done to glorious fun.
Baccano! is three stories all cut up and mashed together in a non-linear jumble. It takes more than half of this 13 episode series before you even get a vague clue of what is going on, and then finally it all wraps up in the last episode in a grand finale that is both what we have come to expect in natural conclusion, yet with still a surprise or two thrown in! Brilliant writing and setup! You could have told these stories separately and straightforwardly and they would still been quite good, but thanks to this mishmash gimmick, suddenly the series becomes in itself a fun show that also makes you think.
Of course, there are many ways in which this storytelling style could have failed. Luckily it’s based on a series of light novels and each story was firmly established. Of course, how the writers chose to cut it up was also crucial, because you have to give just enough to keep the audience watching and curious, yet be careful not to give it away before the end. The care with which this was done shows that the writers have not compromised for the lowest common denominator, ie they assume the viewer is pretty darn sophisticated, intelligent and patient. That’s good.
Of course, it’s not some kind of intellectual exercise. What was great about Baccano!, other than the well-handled execution of the story, was how each character was treated exactly how we, the audience, wanted it. Have you seen a show and gone, man I can’t believe the writers did that to a character, what a waste. Sometimes likable side characters are sacrificed as plot points, or kick-ass dudes get taken down in some utterly pitiful manner, or the punk kid is suddenly all powerful… Those shows can be frustrating no matter how good a story otherwise. Well, luckily, or perhaps miraculously, in Baccano!, each got what he or she deserved and more, either good or bad. That shows remarkable consistency in writing and interpreting the characters. You don’t jerk the viewer around.
Anyway, very good show and a stellar example of what creative talent can come up with even in this age of formulaic plotlines. The only problem is you have to go back and watch at least the first episode to get the whole story! In fact, I imagine a full rewatch would be very enjoyable indeed.
BTW, my favourite characters were Firo and Chane. What were yours?
Okay, it was a tossup between MacF 11 and Kara no Kyoukai. Didn’t know anything about Kara no Kyoukai except it was Type-Moon and hence very hype and probably undeliverable (I got burned by Fate/Stay Night anime), but it was Kajiura Yuki’s latest work and so I bit.
I’ll say off the bat that, still knowing nothing about the series other than what little backstory is miserly scattered to us in this first of seven episodes, I think I like it. It reminds me of Miyu; the obvious reasons are the supernatural horror flavour and the setup that we, the audience, are given little introduction to the situation and background, thus creating a mystery that is to be revealed in the following parts.
I like these types of mysteries because I like fantasy, dream-like worlds that are not our reality. The first key to making this succeed is to insert plenty of atmosphere and little details that keep you grounded even when you don’t know what the “real reasons” are. The other key is having at least one well-developed, sympathetic character so you, the viewer, can concentrate on their reactions and personality as the focal point, thus allowing you to view a world that may not make sense to you, via a character who is part of that world.
I think the Miyu OVAs are an excellent example of this. (Forgive the Miyu focus, I just watched ep 1 again the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it has stood the test of years and years and more than a bit of my own idolatry.) Anyway, Kara no Kyoukai isn’t quite as mysterious and otherworldly, lacks properly developed characters for us to sympathize with, and in the end wasn’t a terribly imaginative story, but it had enough to hook me.
First of all the animation and art is gorgeous. It is sophisticated spending and beautifully detailed in cases; for instance, my favourite parts are how Shiki’s shadow is blurred on the edges when she entered the building, and how when she walks inside they show her as a shadow and then as a brightly lit figure as she passes from window to window. Granted well-animated and directed action is always a joy, but nowadays I find myself being delighted by all these tiny little bits of care that the director lavishes on the show. In something which relies on atmosphere, all the more so.
Next, I am always partial to kick-ass female main characters. Shiki is kick-ass. She’s also pretty damn cold and empty and unfortunately seems to have a weakness for the nominal male romantic interest, but if she continues to kick ass I will continue to watch. Okay, so the puppeteer thing was like super piquing my interest as well. Human body augmentation, in all its various cybernetic and spiritual forms, is a fascination of mine.
Last, Kajiura is there. It may not be as overwhelming as say Yoko Kanno’s GitS soundtrack, but I like her stuff and it makes everything better. Hell, I ordered the limited box of this ep without even seeing the show, just to get the soundtrack. So there.
The bad part of Kara no Kyoukai was that too little was explained. Not enough background folks. Actually, rich background isn’t really needed. As I said before, what you do need is one character to ground you. We had something, with Shiki eating the ice cream, but we didn’t get inside her head at all so that may as well have been nothing.
Hopefully the next episode will give something, but actually I don’t want it to be Shiki. I like Shiki, and I like Shiki as the mystery, so I want Shiki to be revealed to me via someone else. This is what made Miyu good, and I think it would be a great way to handle this situation as well. Somehow I doubt it’s gonna be though, but hey one can hope.
Oh, and I was really surprised that it was Sakamoto Maaya who played Shiki. Wow… loks like she’s reviving her seiyuu career. This is another woman I highly respect for her abilities. Go Maaya!
We take a break from our regular anime programming to bring you a little bit of a real-life TV series called South of Nowhere.
South of Nowhere is a teen series that deals with the usual angsty teen issues. Y’know, pregnancy, drugs, abuse, homosexuality…
It’d be another over-the-top show that I ignore, if not for one thing. Spencer and Ashley. Spashley. Y’know, the two girls who fall in love and out of love and then back in love…
I have to say right now that I hate soaps and dramas. That’s why I don’t usually watch ero-ge anime either; I just hate seeing people fall in love and then suffer by making stupid decisions and being selfish and oblivious and scared and… very human, in many ways. So I’m a romantic fool, so sue me.
But Spencer and Ashley are good, because halfway through the first season you realize both are broken in their own ways, and you can’t help but hope that they can mend each other, even just a little.
Oh, and Ashley (Mandy Musgrave) is like super uber hot. But that’s like, y’know, just a really small reason why.
Seriously though, SoN has been a really really important show, and not just for teens coming to grips with their own sexuality and battling fears of rejection from their own families and community. SoN, together with its fanbase and creator and the two actresses who continue to support it, is a symbol of how America (and hence a large portion of the world) is slowly coming to accept the idea of freedom to choose who you love. God, I almost want to cry. Watching SoN, I do wish I had some show like this in my teen years, or even some girl like Ashley. Ashley, who was messed up and confused and outrageous and outspoken, but also someone who wasn’t afraid to like girls that way.
But, although I would have liked to find Spashley sooner, it’s never too late. I’m glad I found them, and I hope that we will remember what they stood for.
PS, Mandy Musgrave and Gabrielle Christian interview on AfterEllen.com. Ashley and Spencer are cute, but their actresses are way way cooler. Makes me so glad to be alive in this day and age.
Wow, this episode gave me a lot to think about. Once again the series does the action/nonaction flip, and yes the art and animation are subpar, but I ended the episode liking and being interested in our main characters a lot more. I felt as if a whole lot more happened in this episode than the last three put together. BTW, all I know about Macross Zero I read in Wiki, so I just took those parts at face value.
First let’s get through the bad parts, of which there were quite a few. Case in point, the fight scene with the monster; I can see what they were trying to achieve with speed lines and angles and stuff, but this was just horribly executed. Note to ye ol’ studio: don’t do action scenes unless they are CG. Next, the monster itself was a really awful cartoony design. I also felt that the setup was very hard to swallow because it takes almost a year to make a movie even if you rush it, and of course that’s not the sense of time you get here.
On the other hand, personally those weren’t fatal problems. The art and animation I can forgive because a badly done action sequence doesn’t detract from all the character exposition that was brought in in this episode. The unrealistic nature of this plotline I just have to waive as a necessary evil.
So taking into account all that, well, I think I really liked this episode. Why? Because the characters are no longer 2-dimensional (it would be cruel to call them 1-dimensional as we did get some back story).
Alto isn’t a total ass or a whipping boy or the butt of jokes… He’s a decent guy who helps Ranka out, with some prodding and a bit of wriggling to save his pride (but, landing himself in even hotter water!).
Ranka’s been rather pathetic as of late, but here she gets a chance to show us that charisma and good nature that made us cheer for her in the first couple eps of the series. Spunky, bright, really cute when embarrassed, and a great singer when no one is looking, this is the heroine we want.
And Sheryl, finally Sheryl gets a chance to shine again. I’ve hated her childish-mixed-with-diva antics in the last few episodes and I was losing a large part of my interest in this show. Luckily we are treated to a fascinatingly complex character in these 24 minutes. Well, other people my see different, but that’s what she was to me. Her teasing of Alto is of course her natural way of showing interest and having fun, but her kiss with Alto reveals that 1) she actually does like Alto a lot, and 2) she is willing to sacrifice herself to push Ranka along.
I love the tug-of-war of desires in Sheryl that we are suddenly shown. Of the three, Sheryl is the one who probably thinks the deepest and widest, and hence is the most conflicted. That kiss was definitely no whimsical snatch of fun – that was absolute calculation to jerk Alto’s strings and also drive Ranka into a more aggressive stance concerning her career. Unfortunately, it had the unwanted, unexpected result of affecting Sheryl herself. Until now Alto’s been a game, a good fun game, easy to tease and get a rise out. This kiss changed that, and Sheryl can’t deceive herself anymore. The question is whether or not she can cope with managing her personal feelings for Alto while trying to keep Ranka’s interests in priority.
I’m not going to speculate on the Vajra or on the mysterious informant or on Brera. All that is just plot details and will be revealed in due time. So no wasting my brain CPU cycles on it ^^ Although I would take a guess and say that Brera is a survivor of a Vajra attack who’s been cyborg’d up. And Mao is now Doctor Mao who’s someone important. And Sheryl’s earrings are some kinda amplifier so she’s related?! Uh… wait, on second thought, scratch speculation :P
I will give kudos though to the creative episode formats. I like how they incorporate the ED here and there, and this time’s was also a very nice. It’s gimmicky but it shows that the studio and creators care about the show and want to do something special to make it memorable.
Okay okay, I know, I keep putting off my comments on Mnemosyne ep 5. I started it, but I couldn’t get far because now Apos stirs such feelings of hate that I have to take a break. God he’s like the ultimate Rape The Dog villain.
Um, so to provide much needed break, I went and finished off the last two eps of Lucky Star. Which, overall, was a series that to my surprise grew on me despite its KyoAni and otaku roots. I’m not a raving fan, I didn’t marathon it, I’m not obsessed with any characters, I don’t think it’s like a super anime… but I really really enjoyed it like you would a nice cup of milk tea. You drink one cup at a time, and not every day, but when you drink it it mellows you out and leaves you with a smile.
My favourite part of Lucky Star is the dialog and writing. I love how they talk about all these really mundane everyday things which, really, I know for sure that I think and wonder about every now and then. Like seriously, the choice of eating a cream cone bun from the top or bottom really is significant to me, disproportionately so. I mean, I consider many different things when making that decision! Such as if you eat from the big end, you save yourself the trouble of having the filling plop out as you go along, but if you eat from the small end, your final bite has the highest filling to bun ratio… and so on. So, Lucky Star is like the ultimate mirror to my non-work-related brain.
The antics between the girls are also admittedly fun. All the otaku stereotypes are here, but it doesn’t feel exploitative or “made up” at all. I don’t know why, but when you put all these stereotypical character types together in this show, it’s totally natural! And funny. In a non-slapstick way. Which is the way I like my comedy. Non-slapstick that is :P
When watching this I wondered if non-anime fans would find it as amusing as I did. I really should run a test with some friends of mine… But the only problem is that the first 4 eps are really not that good (you know I never noticed the change in directors, but I just thought ep 5 and onwards a lot more fun) so it’s kinda hard to conduct the experiment. Ah well.
I guess I should watch Haruhi. So I know what 50% of the world is talking about. Like how I should watch End of Evangelion, or something.
Or, I think I will go watch Wolf’s Rain first. Must support Bones!
Image from anime.com. It was too cute! I had to use it! ToT
Man I have soooo been waiting for this. I watched this in real-time. It felt like a bizarre acid trip at times, and the Black Rose arc was pretty messed up, but it was not until those fateful episode near the end that I truly understood the mad, twisted genius of Ikuhara.
Utena was a good show. I started watching because it was Sailor Moon’s Ikuhara and it sounded a bit interesting. I finished this series with a profound respect for his creativity and excellent storytelling. A world utterly divorced from reality where characters act because of their extreme, but definitely real, emotions. I’m a sucker for that kind of story, and I think Utena was the one to show me the enormous potential of the genre.
To be honest, I don’t consider this a yuri or shoujoai anime, even though it does contain elements of such. It’s a fairytale, a dark, grim, confusing, hilarious, tragic, touching, stomach-churning, wondrous, sad and hopeful fairytale.
As I was waiting for episode 5, to kill time I broke out the Vol1 DVD and watched the first episode. The Japanese release actually contains English subs, which although not unheard of is a bit of a surprise still. Anyway, I’m glad I rewatched it because I had forgotten a lot of things between Ep 1 and Ep 4 ^^;;
like this
Because of the way this series progresses through time, the sub characters change appearance, and the relationships are different too. Some like Maeno and the assassin are obvious, but then I guess I hadn’t been paying much attention to the others as I had not realized who the old policeman geezer was in ep 4… Doh, it was the young totally shy guy whom Rin was twirling around her little finger. Another interesting tidbit I forgot was how Rin was totally hitting on Mimi after her “bad day at work” :P Kinda weird to see the tables turned, and makes you wonder what Rin is about, aside from her strong sense of justice, habit of picking up stray boys and having one-night stands with policemen, and talking in loving tones on the phone to a mysterious man.
The art in this episode is, of course, stellar. I wish the rest of the series could be like this, but although it is an OVA it seems to be done TV series style, ie where production teams alternate between the “real” studio and the “farm-out” studio. Too bad, since that’s the one place this series could shine. It’s not like I can advocate its intelligent plot or deep philosophical themes…
Rin’s expression when her butt sets off the laser is hilarious. And seriously, although I’m not a seiyuu fan much, Noto Mamiko is really quite dang awesome.
Unfortunately after watching this I felt rather sad because Rin was so kickass here what with the ninja chains and stuff, and as the series goes on she just becomes not-so-kickass cannon-fodder, or jet-engine fodder as the case may be. This episode also had some sophistication that was missing in the later episodes, like the attention to detail with Rin’s glasses. Ah well, time to move on to Ep 5!
This was an excellent episode. Is it just me or have the last few eps been coming as bad-good pairs? For every episode with good art and writing, you have a farmed-out-to-foreign-substudio one. Watching this show on a weekly basis with other stuff in between (and being only casually into the show itself in the first place) probably lessens the dichotomy, but I can see this being really annoying if one were to marathon it. I think I can just wait for the US release for this series… not worth plonking down for the R2s. Unless it comes with a massive poster of Sheryl.
I liked this episode being it focused on a sub-character, namely Michel (Mikhail? what’s the real pronunciation? I guess it’s Michel to his “close friends”, and Mikhail to, um, his other friends, like Alto). Michel’s secret is a little undramatic compared to all the other stuff that’s been happening in this show; his sister was a sniper, and she killed herself after a fatal friendly fire incident. Michel’s been living in that shadow since, and I guess we can attribute some of his suave playboy persona to this personal demon.
We also find out a bit more about his relationship with Kulan. To be honest, I really like these two together, and that has nothing to do with Kulan’s loli form. Kulan’s a childhood friend and they have a long history. It shows up in their interactions which aren’t flirtatious but definitely far more familiar than friendship. That’s a real nice change compared to the Sheryl/Ranka/Alto new love triangle dynamic, or the highschool friends dynamic. And heck, Kulan’s interesting because she’s awesome in Zentradi form, and actually passably tolerable in Micron form :P
The best, but slightly weird part, is Michel talking to Kulan in his VF – that thing just moved so much like a human it was bizarre. Even held its head when Kulan (completely justifiably) slapped him. And you control those things with pedals and joysticks, ya know…
On a non-Michel note, Grace is moving up my books too. Anyone with cybernetic implants who can hack into military systems without batting an eye, and is voiced by cool-voice Inoue Kikuko rocks! Heheh.
So, what I want to know, and the episode hasn’t answered, is:-
1) Is Michel Zentradi? He’s got the ears for it, but he was Micron-sized when playing with Kulan. This doesn’t discount the possibility that he is a permanently Micronized Zentradi.
2) Where does the “Michel” pronunciation come from, since “Mi-ha-el” is the official?
3) Why on earth does Kulan still have her hair band on in the Micron chamber?! Geh -_-
I think where this episode succeeded was that it had a good amount of action thrown in with character development. I guess this one was meant to deal with “people’s reasons for fighting”, and offers Michel as the central character while touching upon Alto and Sheryl, emphasizing that everyone “has their own circumstances”. Ideally I would prefer this sort of thing to be covered slowly across a few episodes instead of crammed into one, but Macross F is a highly episodic format so I guess they are constrained to going through their checklist of plot points one at a time.
