Baccano! is a short thirteen-episode series based on a long-running novel series, so... Well, given the amount of material being condensed into the anime, it could turn out very awesome, or very sucktastic. I watched the first three episodes tonight. Due to the non-linear, disjointed style of the narrative, Baccano! really is a series that has to be consumed in chunks of two or three episodes at a time, rather than spaced out with just one episode per week. Or else it's just impossible to keep track of all the characters and plots going on. I mean, this opening credit sequence doesn't even begin to list all of the main characters:



Anyway, impressions. The good:
1. Killer premise. Highlander in Prohibition-era United States.
2. Killer soundtrack.
3. A huge cast of characters that range from fascinating to at least mildly interesting.
4. Holy shit Hellsing-like moments of OMG WTF ultra-violence.
5. Funny bits that are actually funny.
6. Sponsor annoucements done in flawless English. I guess to enhance the illusion that this is a series set in an English-speaking country?

The bad:
1. Blackface.
2. Disjointed, non-linear, non-chronological narrative. It gets frustrating at times.
3. WTF Engrish names. Seriously. One of the main characters is named "Jacuzzi Splot." I kid you not.
4. The animation quality went to the toilet during episode 3. Firo's big fight scene, which should have been the highlight of the series so far, looked like absolute crap.
5. I love melodramatic over-the-top characters. Unfortunately, about five of the main characters in Baccano! fit that description, and they all sound the same when they talk. It's like the voice director was only capable of giving one direction, and that was, "Sound over-the-top and hammy!" It works when used sparingly in an anime, like with Itsuki performing his one-man version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It doesn't work when most of your main cast sounds like Itsuki performing his one-man version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead when delivering even the most innocuous lines of dialogue like "Cows are herbivores." (Yes, that's an actual line in the second episode, and yes, it was delivered in the most hammy, melodramatic way possible.)

Oh, and the first fifteen minutes of the first episode? The most boring fifteen minutes I've ever seen animated. (And I've seen the entirety of Winter Garden!) Seriously, it was so terrible that I almost gave up on the entire series. But after the commercial break in the middle of the episode, things suddenly start to get awesome, and so far they've stayed awesome throughout.

So if you give this series a try, you gotta plug through the first fifteen minutes of the first episode. It will be painful, but believe me, it gets better. It really does.