Baccano is one of the most refreshing Anime I have watched in a long time. The entire style just separates itself from traditional anime; from the art, narrative structure, setting, and really the feel of Baccano just do not feel like traditional Japanese anime. And because I watched it in the Dub this foreign sensation just hits so much harder.

The baccano dub is by far the best dub I have experienced. But to be honest I only experienced a handful of dubs like Violet Evergarden, Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, Trigun, FLCL... yea I only seen a handful of animes in dub so passing judgement as the greatest anime dub may be naive. With that said I still think the dub is a-mazing, those English accents really sound like old school 90's English accents. I compared the Japanese and English Dub a handful of times and I must say I am impressed that the English Dub really matched the energy of the Japanese. Most English dub from anime I have watched have really low energy voice actors especially from characters that aren't the main cast. For example in Violet Evergarden, the English VO for most of the main cast are pretty good but there is a huge discrepancy of quality when it comes to the supporting cast which is pretty jarring. Baccano really have an amazing team of English VOs and they are all really good. I never for a second felt a drop in quality for any of the characters.

The style of Baccano's narrative structure is something I believe is pretty rare in not only Anime but Asian storytelling. A choppy and messy arrangement of the plot structure is something I experience more in western media, Christopher Nolan being the most prominent Auteur in that regard. Odd taxi is an anime that comes to mind that have a similar non-linear story telling approach. Again maybe I am naive and there is actually plenty of Anime that have this non-linear way of story telling. (Please recommend them to me! Because I love it!)

The music choice too is really immersive for the 90's mobster era setting. I love the Jazz inspired sound track that not only play in normal scenes but also in sound effects to emphasize tense moments such as fights or ... violent moments that is really reminiscent of cowboy bebop in some ways.

The cast of characters are so varied and entertaining which really spice up the mood every once in a while which makes it really refreshing. At one moment we see a psychopath, the next we see a comic relief bonnie and clyde couple, the next some typical cool mobster guy, and so on... To be honest there is so many things going on in a really chaotic way and I cannot really follow most of the characters but I can say at least they act really consistently in accordance to their personality which is nice.

With all the praise Baccano is actually really boring for the first 3-4 episodes. I think its at about episode 5 where I got interested because the same scene was repeated but this time with a different perspective and ok... this is intriguing. Then I am forced to pay attention because the story was presented in 3 separate timelines and ok... this is fascinating as I feel the nerve receptors in my brain click as I am gradually making sense of the chaos in a really challenging yet interesting way.

Overall I had a fun time, it was boring at first but it definitely gets better. I like how refreshing the experience was, the narrative style and superb dub makes me feel like I am actually watching a western animation inspired by anime.