on Baccano! & DRRR!!
Feb. 14th, 2011 03:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotJust finished watching Durarara!! and quite enjoyed it! And we watched Baccano! before that and I quite loved that one, too. One of the nice things about not being into anime for a few years is when you come back to it, there's a lot of great series to watch!
I'll probably have a bit more to squee about both of these; for now I 'll just say that I highly recommend them both (especially to those on my flist who have seen a bit of anime and are looking for more to watch.) They're basically unrelated series but they kind of come as a set, both being based on light novel series by the same author, and with thematic elements in common - massive casts of fantastic and crazy (some inhuman, and some with superpowers, though not necessarily the same) characters whose lives intersect in intriguing and often unexpected ways. And they're both wildly fun and compelling entertainment.
Baccano! is the anime you would get if you crossed The Sting with Fullmetal Alchemist and then had it directed by the bastard lovechild of Quentin Tarantino & Guy Ritchie. There's 1930s gangsters (complete with some of the most ridiculous Engrish names you will ever see - there's a character named Jacuzzi Splot. And a train called the Flying Pussyfoot) and ultraviolence and immortality. And awesome. Lots & lots & lots of awesome. It's also notable for having one of the more chronologically complex narratives I've ever watched (the story unspools simultaneously along three different timelines, with flashbacks and changing POVs on all) - once you get into the rhythm of it it's not as hard to follow as it sounds, but the first four episodes are a lot of HUH WAIT WHO'S THAT AGAIN WHEN ARE WE NOW??
A few spoilery, squeeful, & entirely nonsensical comments below [DO NOT READ if you haven't seen the show; seriously, this one you don't want spoiled!]
1. I was totally not expecting the ~SUPER HAPPI ENDO~ and I totally love the series for giving it to me anyway.
2. I kind of madly adore the Rail Tracer even though he terrifies the hell out of me. But he's so co~ol~!
Also fucking psychotically sadistically crazy.
...but co~ol~! ("Ticket, please!")
3. Isaac & Miria are LOOOOL LOOOOVE. Most especially at the end. "Have you noticed, it's 70 years and we haven't aged!"
4. Piro's char design is so much like Gintama's Okita's that it distracted me.
5. If not nearly as much as Jacuzzi being voiced by Shinpachi. And then my newly beloved Sugita Tomokazu shows up in the OAV as crazy wrench-boy-whose-name-escapes-me.
(and who confuses me. See, I tend to like crazy, but it's on this wave pattern. So standard crazy - Maiza! - I love. But then a little too sadistically off-the-rails crazy - Ladd - I get freaked out and don't like. But then a little more psychopathically insane - the Rail Tracer - I'm back into love. And THEN we reach wrench-boy and that's so many iterations away from sane that I have no idea how I feel. But the dude can disassemble a car in mid-air and also he's played by Sugita, so...)
6. Needs more Gandor brothers. (Who I am almost positive were supposed to be Gondor, like Henry Gondor in The Sting, and honestly, I don't know if that movie was that big in Japan or what but I'd be surprised if the author never saw it.)
7. Very curious about the books and What Happens Next...
Durarara!! is somewhat less off-the-walls cracktastic than Baccano!, slower paced and with less clear direction in plot, but the chars are just as compelling and the animation is gorgeous. (I'm so curious to read the books it's based on because I am trying to figure out how it works in print; much of the series is so astonishingly visual...) DRRR is also easier to follow than Baccano is at first (it helps that the char designs are more distinctive; with Baccano we kept mixing up chars. Well, makes sense - in Baccano nearly all the chars are Caucasian, and so they all look somewhat alike; while as in DRRR they're nearly all Japanese, so...) It's set in modern-day Ikebukuro in Tokyo, and the chars are an eclectic mix of schoolkids and gang members and amnesiac motorcycle-riding headless horsewomen.
(Plus it's got Shizuo & Izaya, who are kind of Ikebukuro's Ban & Ginji. That is, if Ban & Ginji's IQs were switched and Ginji didn't have electric powers but was EVIL with a capital EEEEEEEE~~~ and Ban spent most of his time genuinely wanting to kill Ginji for Very Good Reasons (mostly that capital-E-Evil thing).
But they'd understand each other! ...Well, no, they wouldn't, and they'd probably all hate each other, but the point is that I want to see Shizu-chan and Ban-chan meet. ...and likely try to kill each other. But then they could all go and kill Izaya! And go out for Russian sushi afterwards :P)
(My biggest problem with DRRR!! is that there was Not Enough Heiwajima Shizuo.)
A few more spoilery comments - again, don't read if you haven't seen!
1. I LOVED the Ryuugamine-is-the-Dollars-leader reveal, did not see that one coming at all, not until he picked up the mouse and it flashes red and the bro and I went, "Wait, WHAT, is HE--?!?" I love reveals that change the whole game and totally make sense, and make everything that happened before them make more sense. Mmmmm so delicious.
2. I spent pretty much the entire last third of the anime SCREAMING AT THE SCREEN. This is actually a compliment, because the characters were acting sympathetic and true to their teenage selves but still. AHHHHH TALK TO EACH OTHER YOU CRAZY KIDS!!!! It felt like watching an imminent trainwreck - two locomotives on the same track, barreling toward each other and not enough time to hit the brakes (and meanwhile Izaya is standing by the switch that could save them both, grinning and pretending to pull it...)
3. So I loved the end - I'm beginning to suspect that this author has a thing for the unexpected ~SUPER HAPPI ENDO~ and so this time I saw it coming slightly more than with Baccano, but still wasn't sure. And then there was holding and apologies, AWWW, but then it seems bittersweet because Kida is gone, but then he logs onto the chat and AWWWWWWWW~~~~. (am kind of sad Kida has a girlfriend because SUCH an OT3...)
4. We just rewatched Ouran Host Club and it still took me a bit to call Kida's voice, because he was SO much like Tamaki that I thought I was just projecting one char on the other. But no, it was Miyano Mamoru for both, and I'm pretty impressed with him, because Tamaki and Kida are (superficially, anyway) very similar chars, and their voices are similar, and yet they sound like different people. How do seiyuu do that?
5. Celty and Shinra are rather totally...wrong and fucked up and dysfunctional in how he lied to her (repeatedly, for years) and how she's kind of trapped in that she'd have a hard time dating anyone else, plus she's a faceless body. Not to mention the whole they-met-when-he-was-4-years-old-and-he-helped-dissect-her thing...
...but they're kind of, um, hopelessly adorable anyway. And, well, it's not really Shinra's fault he's psycho, what with his dad. And he did tell her the truth in the end. (actually most of the relationships in the show follow a pattern of "everyone finally tells the truth and then they get together!" Which usually I would approve of, though in the case of crazy!boy and stalker!girl, uhhhhhhhh... *not enough sweatdrops in the ocean*) And Celty's strong enough to decide for herself who she loves. And, um, awww.
6. Dotachin-tachi are BATMAN! All of them together! Hee!
7. Shizuo is <3333333.
8. ...even if I can't decide whether I want to see him kill Izaya messily or sex him up. Relatedly, I can't decide whether I want to see Izaya redeemed in some way (he's got to have some kind of backstory, something to explain why he is who he is) or just want to see him literally crucified for all his crimes against humanity.
9. I do know I want to see the Trio of Power go after Izaya, since they know he's the string-puller, and ooooh it would be cool to see them take him down.
10. Simon, you rock so very hard.
11. The 2 OPs also rock very hard and I want to do them in karaoke ba~d (though I suspect they'll be tricky)
12. Isaac & Miria in the Dollars FTW!! (As Shinsengumi in the wrong city no less, bwahahahahah!)
13. I am probably forgetting some other character who rocks. Rest assured, they do rock. In this series it's kind of hard not to.
14. Want these novels so very badly. Need to know what happens! Why isn't my Japanese better, dangit?! ;___;
...Wait, I seem to have said a lot here after all. Heh. My point is - SQUEE~!
I'll probably have a bit more to squee about both of these; for now I 'll just say that I highly recommend them both (especially to those on my flist who have seen a bit of anime and are looking for more to watch.) They're basically unrelated series but they kind of come as a set, both being based on light novel series by the same author, and with thematic elements in common - massive casts of fantastic and crazy (some inhuman, and some with superpowers, though not necessarily the same) characters whose lives intersect in intriguing and often unexpected ways. And they're both wildly fun and compelling entertainment.
Baccano! is the anime you would get if you crossed The Sting with Fullmetal Alchemist and then had it directed by the bastard lovechild of Quentin Tarantino & Guy Ritchie. There's 1930s gangsters (complete with some of the most ridiculous Engrish names you will ever see - there's a character named Jacuzzi Splot. And a train called the Flying Pussyfoot) and ultraviolence and immortality. And awesome. Lots & lots & lots of awesome. It's also notable for having one of the more chronologically complex narratives I've ever watched (the story unspools simultaneously along three different timelines, with flashbacks and changing POVs on all) - once you get into the rhythm of it it's not as hard to follow as it sounds, but the first four episodes are a lot of HUH WAIT WHO'S THAT AGAIN WHEN ARE WE NOW??
A few spoilery, squeeful, & entirely nonsensical comments below [DO NOT READ if you haven't seen the show; seriously, this one you don't want spoiled!]
1. I was totally not expecting the ~SUPER HAPPI ENDO~ and I totally love the series for giving it to me anyway.
2. I kind of madly adore the Rail Tracer even though he terrifies the hell out of me. But he's so co~ol~!
Also fucking psychotically sadistically crazy.
...but co~ol~! ("Ticket, please!")
3. Isaac & Miria are LOOOOL LOOOOVE. Most especially at the end. "Have you noticed, it's 70 years and we haven't aged!"
4. Piro's char design is so much like Gintama's Okita's that it distracted me.
5. If not nearly as much as Jacuzzi being voiced by Shinpachi. And then my newly beloved Sugita Tomokazu shows up in the OAV as crazy wrench-boy-whose-name-escapes-me.
(and who confuses me. See, I tend to like crazy, but it's on this wave pattern. So standard crazy - Maiza! - I love. But then a little too sadistically off-the-rails crazy - Ladd - I get freaked out and don't like. But then a little more psychopathically insane - the Rail Tracer - I'm back into love. And THEN we reach wrench-boy and that's so many iterations away from sane that I have no idea how I feel. But the dude can disassemble a car in mid-air and also he's played by Sugita, so...)
6. Needs more Gandor brothers. (Who I am almost positive were supposed to be Gondor, like Henry Gondor in The Sting, and honestly, I don't know if that movie was that big in Japan or what but I'd be surprised if the author never saw it.)
7. Very curious about the books and What Happens Next...
Durarara!! is somewhat less off-the-walls cracktastic than Baccano!, slower paced and with less clear direction in plot, but the chars are just as compelling and the animation is gorgeous. (I'm so curious to read the books it's based on because I am trying to figure out how it works in print; much of the series is so astonishingly visual...) DRRR is also easier to follow than Baccano is at first (it helps that the char designs are more distinctive; with Baccano we kept mixing up chars. Well, makes sense - in Baccano nearly all the chars are Caucasian, and so they all look somewhat alike; while as in DRRR they're nearly all Japanese, so...) It's set in modern-day Ikebukuro in Tokyo, and the chars are an eclectic mix of schoolkids and gang members and amnesiac motorcycle-riding headless horsewomen.
(Plus it's got Shizuo & Izaya, who are kind of Ikebukuro's Ban & Ginji. That is, if Ban & Ginji's IQs were switched and Ginji didn't have electric powers but was EVIL with a capital EEEEEEEE~~~ and Ban spent most of his time genuinely wanting to kill Ginji for Very Good Reasons (mostly that capital-E-Evil thing).
But they'd understand each other! ...Well, no, they wouldn't, and they'd probably all hate each other, but the point is that I want to see Shizu-chan and Ban-chan meet. ...and likely try to kill each other. But then they could all go and kill Izaya! And go out for Russian sushi afterwards :P)
(My biggest problem with DRRR!! is that there was Not Enough Heiwajima Shizuo.)
A few more spoilery comments - again, don't read if you haven't seen!
1. I LOVED the Ryuugamine-is-the-Dollars-leader reveal, did not see that one coming at all, not until he picked up the mouse and it flashes red and the bro and I went, "Wait, WHAT, is HE--?!?" I love reveals that change the whole game and totally make sense, and make everything that happened before them make more sense. Mmmmm so delicious.
2. I spent pretty much the entire last third of the anime SCREAMING AT THE SCREEN. This is actually a compliment, because the characters were acting sympathetic and true to their teenage selves but still. AHHHHH TALK TO EACH OTHER YOU CRAZY KIDS!!!! It felt like watching an imminent trainwreck - two locomotives on the same track, barreling toward each other and not enough time to hit the brakes (and meanwhile Izaya is standing by the switch that could save them both, grinning and pretending to pull it...)
3. So I loved the end - I'm beginning to suspect that this author has a thing for the unexpected ~SUPER HAPPI ENDO~ and so this time I saw it coming slightly more than with Baccano, but still wasn't sure. And then there was holding and apologies, AWWW, but then it seems bittersweet because Kida is gone, but then he logs onto the chat and AWWWWWWWW~~~~. (am kind of sad Kida has a girlfriend because SUCH an OT3...)
4. We just rewatched Ouran Host Club and it still took me a bit to call Kida's voice, because he was SO much like Tamaki that I thought I was just projecting one char on the other. But no, it was Miyano Mamoru for both, and I'm pretty impressed with him, because Tamaki and Kida are (superficially, anyway) very similar chars, and their voices are similar, and yet they sound like different people. How do seiyuu do that?
5. Celty and Shinra are rather totally...wrong and fucked up and dysfunctional in how he lied to her (repeatedly, for years) and how she's kind of trapped in that she'd have a hard time dating anyone else, plus she's a faceless body. Not to mention the whole they-met-when-he-was-4-years-old-and-he-helped-dissect-her thing...
...but they're kind of, um, hopelessly adorable anyway. And, well, it's not really Shinra's fault he's psycho, what with his dad. And he did tell her the truth in the end. (actually most of the relationships in the show follow a pattern of "everyone finally tells the truth and then they get together!" Which usually I would approve of, though in the case of crazy!boy and stalker!girl, uhhhhhhhh... *not enough sweatdrops in the ocean*) And Celty's strong enough to decide for herself who she loves. And, um, awww.
6. Dotachin-tachi are BATMAN! All of them together! Hee!
7. Shizuo is <3333333.
8. ...even if I can't decide whether I want to see him kill Izaya messily or sex him up. Relatedly, I can't decide whether I want to see Izaya redeemed in some way (he's got to have some kind of backstory, something to explain why he is who he is) or just want to see him literally crucified for all his crimes against humanity.
9. I do know I want to see the Trio of Power go after Izaya, since they know he's the string-puller, and ooooh it would be cool to see them take him down.
10. Simon, you rock so very hard.
11. The 2 OPs also rock very hard and I want to do them in karaoke ba~d (though I suspect they'll be tricky)
12. Isaac & Miria in the Dollars FTW!! (As Shinsengumi in the wrong city no less, bwahahahahah!)
13. I am probably forgetting some other character who rocks. Rest assured, they do rock. In this series it's kind of hard not to.
14. Want these novels so very badly. Need to know what happens! Why isn't my Japanese better, dangit?! ;___;
...Wait, I seem to have said a lot here after all. Heh. My point is - SQUEE~!
