I wasn’t really sure how to really approach this review, tbh cause this is the first time where I didn’t really enjoy something that I was given by my contractor. There was Yuru Yuri, which, while not the most exciting, still was somewhat fun for me cause it was CGDCT. But Baccano I just never understood right from the first episode up until the last. I was told that it would all make sense by the end, but it didn’t really make much sense to me. And honestly, if it wasn’t a contract and I hadn’t been told by people that it all makes sense by the end, I don’t think I would have watched more than 2 or 3 episodes of this show and would have just dropped it. It’s just not a show for me.
The only bits that were enjoyable were the bits with Isaac and Miria I love them and how braindead they are, lol. But the way Baccano’s story is told is just so convoluted and disjointed that it gave me no satisfaction and no real intrigue to find out more. I hate being too negative about a piece of media, but the thing with Baccano is that it just kinda bored me as well. There was actually a point in episode 3 or 4 where I just fell asleep for a moment and had to rewatch to see what I missed, lol.

Now, this isn’t to say that everything about the show is bad. There are hints of brilliance in the show like I mentioned, Isaac and Miria’s characters are brilliant, and I love those two goofballs. And most of all, the action scenes in the show are really well done. I also like the art style it goes for. The whole style kinda reminded me of the ship arc in Gosick, only way less interesting and not as fun as Gosick. I will also give it credit for having a great soundtrack. Jazz is so much fun. The OP was one thing I listened to a little bit every time before skipping, and in general, the jazzy soundtrack is really well done.

But that’s about where the praise ends for me. The story just feels all over the place and a disjointed mess. Most of the characters I never really connected with, and so I never really cared about any of them except for Isaac and Miria. And with a show like this that doesn’t really have a main character, instead it’s kind of like an anthology in a way you really need to care about all the characters, which I just wasn’t able to, unfortunately. It feels like, to me, that the writers sacrificed too much in order to have multiple plots tied up into a single big overarching plot, and the unorthodox approach to storytelling comes off as a cheap gimmick that’s cool for the first 5 minutes but then gets extremely boring.

Overall, I can’t deny that Baccano has a very unique approach to storytelling, and it has some glimpses of brilliance with very well-done action sequences and solid animation, plus the catchy jazz soundtrack, but I just don’t think it’s my cup of tea. Most of the characters aren’t really that enjoyable or ones that I’d rewatch the anime for just to see their shenanigans again. The way the story is told is just awful, imo, and while the action scenes are good, they’re not what I look for in my anime, and they aren’t impressive enough for me to disregard the prior two problems I have.
I feel like I’m going in circles for a while now, so I’ll stop here and just say this in the end, Baccano is a decent watch, but it was just not made for me, and that’s fine. We all have our preferences. This was just not my cup of tea, sadly.
I had first decided to give it a 6, but after writing my review and going through it, I really don’t think the good things outweigh the bad enough for me to even call it decent or enjoyable enough to give a 6. So I went with a 5, which is just meh for me.