Product Details

• Actors: Masaya Onosaka, Jerry Jewell, Masakazu Morita, Bryan Massey, J. Michael Tatum
• Directors: Takahiro Ômori
• Writers: Noboru Takagi, Ryohgo Narita
• Format: NTSC, Color, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Japanese, English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Funimation Prod
• DVD Release Date: January 27, 2009
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001K98M6E
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,816 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Baccano: Volume One" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The outré action-comedy Baccano! (2007) is set in New York City in the closing days of Prohibition, the era of speakeasies and gangland wars. Director Takahiro Omori presents several different storylines in brief fragments, with the action shifting from place to place and year to year in no discernible order. An alchemist creates the "grand panacea" that ensures eternal life: if someone who's taken it is hurt, the wound heals itself in reverse motion. That's why a knife-wielding assassin and a hail of machinegun fire can't hurt young capo Firo Prochainezo. While rival gang members try to off each other (with varying degrees of success) Isaac and Miria pursue a campy crime spree that provides comic relief of sorts. Meanwhile, Carol and the Vice President seem to be choosing the stories and characters. Baccano! is not for the squeamish: much of the violence is graphic and performed with sadistic glee. The melange of fake Brooklyn accents the voice actors affect is equally painful. Presumably the various plots eventually intersect and sort themselves out, but there's little reason to wait around for the resolution. (Rated TV MA: graphic violence, cruelty to animals, ethnic stereotypes, alcohol use) --Charles Solomon

(1. The Vice President Doesn't Say Anything about the Possibility of Him Being the Main Character, 2. Setting the Old Woman's Qualms Aside, the Flying Pussycat Departs, 3. Randy and Pecho Are Busy Getting Ready for the Party, 4. Ladd Russo Enjoys Talking a Lot and Slaughtering a Lot)

Product Description

Don’t let nobody tell you there’s no future in a life of crime, because some rackets can last forever. But we’ll get around to all that immortality jazz later. A mafia turf war is raging on the mean streets of the Big Apple, a place where regular joes bounce between backdoor booze joints and the breadline. But this caper ain’t about a simple gangland brawl. It’s about hoods who can’t seem to die proper after catching a bullet or five between the eyes. Sadistic hit-men and the dames they love, mad bombers going boom, monsters going bump and soul sucking alchemists bootlegging an elixir of eternal life.

Just remember, Baccano! ain’t about beginnings and ends. It’s about the twists and turns, bub. Paths don’t cross in this story – They collide. Every Dick and Jane plays the lead and it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Godfather meets FullMetal Alchemist meets Pink Panther, January 30, 2009

By 

J. C. Kinder (Cambridge MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Baccano: Volume One (DVD)

Think the review title sounds nuts? Think the product description sounds nuts? It is. The show is sixteen shades of crazy. It's tragic and hilarious and full of action. There are even some beautiful, lasting romances. By crazy people. Very, very crazy people. Most of whom have knives, guns, explosives or some combination of all of the above.

Baccano is a collage of sorts, jumping backwards and forwards in time, skipping between characters and locations. Mostly it's set in the gang wars of the 1930's. The main set piece is a train robbery, one that lasts for the entire series. The problem is that, while one group of people wants to rob the train, another group wants to take a small group of passengers hostage, a third group of people want to kill half the passengers and ransom the other half, there is a genuine article monster on board, or three or more depending on how you define 'monster'...

Short version? It's fun. It's really fun. The animation is good, the music is good, the voice acting is good (in Japanese anyway, have not heard the dub) the action is intense and the characters are very memorable. Rail Tracer and Ladd. I am just saying. Watch the show. You'll find out.

I recommend this to anyone who can stand a bit of gore, non-linear time lines and really sadistic things happening to something that looks like a child.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Anime, March 4, 2009

By 

Raven (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Baccano: Volume One (DVD)

Baccano! comes across as a complex and suspenseful story, which does not unfold in a linear way; the story is told by shifting back and forth across its timeline, giving you the thrill of putting the pieces together as you watch and learn more, so that's a big plus if you like this format.
Do you like 1930s gangsters? Do you like mistery? Are you interested in supernatural phenomena and the occult? Do you enjoy a dark and bloody storyline, with appropriate characters to go with it? If you like all of these, you just hit the jackpot. You'll even get some comedy and humor thrown in there.
Baccano! is one of those superb animes that don't come along very often, and it is surely destined to become a success -judging from the first volume.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Anime's I've ever seen., October 1, 2010

By 

Z. Simon "HarlotBug3" (Poway, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Baccano: Volume One (DVD)

In 15 years I haven't watched as much as most self-Identified Otaku, but I've certainly watched enough to say that this is everything and nothing to expect from Anime. It is as confusing as it is blunt, as east meets west as it is post national, as human as it is cartoonish.