If you're not here to read a full review ill start you off with the summary and my scoring. I'll go into more in depth scoring at the end of the review.

Review Summary: A compelling adventure that mixes its supernatural 1920's plot with one of the best ensembles of characters out there.

Final Score: 9/10

If you're trying to decide whether you want to watch Baccano or not.. Watch it. Its fantastic. Now if you want a longer explaination of why you should watch it then.

Baccano is an experience. Currently I have seen the whole anime + ovas and read the first volume of the light novel. The first thing you're gonna need to know about Baccano is that it doesn't tell its story linearly. It frequently jumps between its three main story arcs to keep you in the dark and build the mystery up. A lot of the time on your first watch you're going to be scratching your head and wondering what the heck is going on, And that's ok! Part of the charm of the anime adaptation of baccano is that experience of getting fed clue after clue of the timeline until everything eventually falls into place.

If you don't like the sound of frequent time jumps then you'd probably be best off with the light novels. The light novels tell the story in a mostly linear fashion. The light novel tells the story of the first arc marvelously, but since its not a big part of the overall story the anime puts it on the back burner compared to the meat of the story. The Flying Pussyfoot arc.

All giggles aside The Flying Pussyfoot arc is what makes baccano stand out as baccano. Set in the 1920's 3 separate gangs, as well as a bunch of other colorful characters, board a train going cross country. There's a marvelous scene where all three gangs attempt to stick up the same room of people at the same time and the civilians don't know which ones orders to follow. This arc takes up the largest part of the story and the anime adaptation does it almost perfectly.

Baccano stars a very large cast of character. It's written by the same author who wrote durarara so if you've seen that you know how hectic the amount of characters can get. While some characters get pushed to the wayside the vast majority of character are fun and interesting. Unlike durarara all the characters add something to the story and way unlike durarara most have satisfying arcs. The obvious stand outs in the cast are isaac and miria, the loveable airheaded couple that give the show its lighthearted feel and provide most of the comedic moments.

Finally we'll talk about villains. There's a lot of them to talk about too but two villains really stick out, Slizard quates and The RAIIIIL TRACEEEER. One being an immortal with the thirst for knowledge and the other being a urban legend that murders train passengers. Both make for amazing villains and while the animes adaptation of the first arc is weaker, they do a much better job of portraying Slizard as a villain than in the light novel.

All in all Baccano is a fantastic show that deserves all the praise it gets. The show is one of my favorites and I hope everyone who watches it can find the same enjoyment out of it as I did. All I wish is that it would get a second season already I mean come on the light novels have so much more material they could go into why would like make 2 seasons of durarara and not baccano do they have something against baccano I mean what could they.......

Final Scores:
Music: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Story: 9/10
Atmosphere: 9/10

Overall Score: 9/10