The Hour; Baccano!

[prodigy]

Stuff I've watched recently. Finished Baccano!, watched the first episode of The Hour on on-demand BBC America. I was tempted to Tumblr Save any mention of The Hour to avoid spoilers from now on, but relia rightly pointed out that I might have some problems if I literally censored the word "hour" from my dash.

The Hour: I'm doing this without spoilers so I can put Baccano! behind a spoiler cut. That being said, it's intriguing as hell and I don't know why they're marketing this like Mad Men when it looks much more like some hybrid of Twin Peaks, Veronica Mars, a Hitchcock film, and a noir homage to me -- we tuned in for Romola Garai, but are staying for the creepy and suspenseful cinematography and soundtrack designed successfully to keep a viewer on their toes and some intriguing characters. I guess people like comparing anything new to anything current and successful -- Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell got comparisons to practically every popular fantasy book on the market in hopes of snagging people. The Hour also sort of reminds me of Rubicon, set during the Cold War.

Baccano!: Holy shit. Okay, that was an addictive watching experience, and it didn't disappoint. I am not at all regretful about investing in the DVD now, because it has so much rewatch value now that I know what was going on that was so mysterious at the beginning, on several layers; wow, seriously, this series had so much that appealed to me. Non-linear storytelling and a plot that unfolded through timejumps and point-of-view shifts, a large ensemble cast, uncertainty as to good guys and bad guys, a limited-magic world, comic relief over a dark world and story, adventure, horror, a trapped-space suspense plot (the whole train plot), Prohibition, the Mafia and the Camorra, the myth of the Philosopher's Stone and the elixir of life, basically an animated version of a book series that I would devour? It's amazing, it came thoroughly recommended and I would thoroughly recommend it.

As to specifics... it would be really hard to comment thoroughly on Baccano!, I have too many thoughts. My favorite was Jacuzzi Splot, as I thought he was a really great character and probably the stand-out -- though I also had a soft spot for pathetic dipshit Dallas Genoard, MacGuffin that he was, and I developed a strange attachment to Vino, and an inexplicable attraction to Luck Gandor. Okay, an explicable attraction to Luck Gandor. I do love many of the character designs in Baccano!, though, including the Gandors, who look related but extremely different (sorry, Uhh Gandor and Uhh Gandor), down to Luck's pretty-but-slightly-hawkish features. But Jacuzzi, oh, man, Jacuzzi. I rarely ship the promoted-canon-het-couple but Jacuzzi/Nice was entirely adorable (and Nice was kind of Demoman), I became sold on the strange Skullcrusher Mountain appeal of Vino/Chane, and by the end I thought Ladd's attachment to Lua that he clearly kept trying to disclaim was sort of perversely sweet. The one I didn't really buy was Firo/Ennis, partly because Ennis was one of the weaker characterization points in my opinion (I'm not a fan of Rei Ayanamis, I find them a creepy trope gender-wise), and partly because Firo appeared to be about as into girls as my right foot, and I assure you that my left foot is the one with any heterosexual tendencies. Come on, that knife fight with Maiza. Come on. Speaking of Maiza, if I had to pick a single driving plot protagonist of Baccano! it would be Maiza Avaro; it's his actions that drive most of the plot, and he's definitely set primarily opposed to Szilard, who was the main antagonist by any definition. And wow, I forgot to mention Czes, poor Czes, Czes who I didn't expect to love as much as I did, Czes whose backstory made Baccano! even darker than it already was getting, and I loved it. And I have saved for the end the glorious Isaac and Miria, who can't actually be described, only experienced.

Yeah, I have too many thoughts about Baccano!. I haven't watched something so genuinely challenging in quite a while and I was really impressed with it and the nines to which it was taken in terms of detail, structure, and thought; it's really the kind of story I wish I'd written. I do think like many stories it paid a little more attention to its male characters and their development than its female ones, which I thought was a shame, but not so much as to wreck the whole thing for me. Also: the Rail Tracer. Also: stealing time itself.

Also the opening and musical themes, holy God. I could watch that opening over and over and over, and in fact we did. The music is perfect, too. I have so much respect for this production.

So, yeah, watch Baccano!.

Comments

[anekdot]

This is pretty much word for word all my thoughts about Baccano. FFFF. I think my initial experience was a little impeded by the fact that nextian and I watched the dub, so it was very... THE CAST OF FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST DO NEW YORK ACCENTS!!!! Which was amazing but distracting.

okay that and anytime anyone said "THE FLYING PUSSYFOOT!"

anyway basically now I say "THE RAIL TRAC-UH" whenever anywhere near a train.

[prodigy]

relia and I watched the dub too, actually, on a friend's recommendation, and I REALLY ENJOYED IT ACTUALLY. I think part of it was that the dub lines/regional accents were really charming, and part of it was that the subtitles on the DVD were so goddamned awful and badly translated for any sense of colloquialism or tone that the dub was the much better option. But yes, we also refer to Vino as "the Rail Tracuh" and in fact have decided that "the Rail Tracuh" is a separate character unto itself BECAUSE IT IS.

relia was also distracted by the Flying Pussyfoot for a while at the beginning, I kept glowering. Then at the end it infected me too. Stupid Flying Pussyfoot. By the way, I've observed that in media NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS ON A TRAIN. Seriously, if a TV show or movie bothers to note that the characters are on a train for any extended period of time SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN it ALWAYS HAPPENS. Trains are just SUCH A CLASSIC TRAPPED-SUSPENSE SETUP. In FMA it's always terrorists. In Baccano it's the Rail Tracuh. In other places it is assassins and murder mysteries and in conclusion, if you are on a train and suspect you are in a story, GET OFF THE TRAIN.