Baccano!

Some shows just radiate this powerful air of being insanely cool, and Baccano, with its interweaving mafia storylines tied to urban legends, wacky thieves and the secret of immortality, is definitely one such series that I got this vibe from. It's all of course helped along by the groovy, jazzy soundtrack making even the most brutal of scenes have a more freewheeling, lighthearted vibe to it all without completely negating its more serious elements. It's a careful balancing act for sure, but one that is executed fantastically to set a consistently idiosyncratic and engaging tone that makes it far easier to connect with the sizeable cast of important characters. For me personally though, the element of the show that really stands out to me as something that makes it so engaging is the way its non-linear storytelling is utilised to strengthen the narrative and successfully craft multiple points of intrigue and mystery, almost always leaving the viewer hungry for more. While this narrative could theoretically have been told chronologically, I feel like it would have lost a lot of its appeal, especially with how the constant onslaught of small mysteries this sends forth ends up further tying into other parts of the timeline of the plot.

I love the way that this essentially begins at the intense, climactic moment where everything's all going nuts, completely forgoing starting off with a bunch of episodes to establish a lot of concept and move pieces into place for a grand encounter, and instead just throwing the audience into the deep end. It works especially well thanks to the way that usually the elements of piece moving are either made implicit through context clues that get presented, or properly contextualised through a flashback to another point in the story. This ends up making it easy to play on expectations, often using the chance of contextualising choices and events something that redefines the significance of whatever is going down, which is especially notable with the more thematic angle that episode 8 takes with what segments of the story are revealed. My only issue with this is that while this often leads to an absolutely hectic experience where it feels like all hell is breaking loose, with the climactic moments in the narrative usually lining up pretty cleanly, the inverse to this also becomes true. Usually when there's some sense of slower buildup, every focused part of the narrative requires the same treatment, which leads to a pretty inconsistent viewing experience where you'll get some episodes that are absolutely incredible mixed with others that feel like barely anything of note is happening. It's not really a dealbreaker by any means thankfully, and I still love this show however, especially when taking into account the wide array of loveable characters in their own respects, especially Isaac and Miria, who take the idea of being gleefully idiotic to a whole other level without ever being annoying. Really great stuff all around, with the minor pacing issues being pretty easily overlooked in the grand scheme of things.