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on Baccano! & DRRR!!
Feb. 14th, 2011 03:06 amJust 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 ( the cut - DO NOT READ if you haven't seen the show; seriously, this one you don't want spoiled )
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 ( below this cut - and yeah, again DO NOT READ if you haven't seen; you don't want this one spoiled, either! )
...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 ( the cut - DO NOT READ if you haven't seen the show; seriously, this one you don't want spoiled )
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 ( below this cut - and yeah, again DO NOT READ if you haven't seen; you don't want this one spoiled, either! )
...Wait, I seem to have said a lot here after all. Heh. My point is - SQUEE~!
