Baccano! (2007 Anime)

Baccano! (バッカーノ!, Italian for ruckus) is an anime by studio Brain's Base adapted from Ryohgo Narita's light novel series of the same name.

Funimation announced on July 21, 2008 that it had acquired a license to dub and later stream the anime; this license expired on February 8, 2016. Baccano! was also dubbed in French by Miroslav PILON and distributed by Black Box. In all, the series' home video releases had distribution licenses across five countries.

The first thirteen episodes technically adapt the first four light novels of the series, and the three DVD specials are linked to the first Baccano! gaiden novel. Altogether, the sixteen episodes adapt less than a fifth of the ongoing story.

Background
Initial talk of adapting Baccano! into an anime began in 2005, when Aniplex producer Shuko Yokoyama met with Baccano! editor Atsushi Wada and expressed a passionate interest in turning the light novels into an anime.

Aniplex held a focus panel for the already announced anime adaptation at the Tokyo Anime Fair (TAF) on March 23, 2007. Though a broadcast network had yet to be determined, the broadcast was expected to air that July. The panel members were: Baccano! author Ryohgo Narita; confirmed director Takahiro Omori; Suzuki, one of Narita's Dengeki Bunko editors; and Aniplex Chairman Masuo Ueda.

Production
Screenwriter Noboru Takagi credits Takahiro Omori with the decision to simultaneously adapt four novels and has alleged that Omori had been inspired by the 2003 film 21 Grams, whose editors recomposed its original linear narrative during the editing stage. Meanwhile, Takagi's primary writing influence was Intolerance, a 1916 silent film that concurrently depicts four parallel stories from four different periods that interweave in its finale.

Rather than attempting to write a confused scenario from the beginning, Takagi decided to write the script directly and make adjustments along the way. It consequently took over a year for his script to be firmly developed, as he had to constantly revise previous episodes throughout the writing process. Although a small studio like Brain's Base had little to no experience with such an unorthodox approach, Omori retrospectively believes that a larger studio might have refused to cooperate altogether.

Location and Art
Omori had started work on the anime adaptation by 2005. For the sake of accuracy and atmosphere, he later took five days off between recording sessions of Hell Girl ' s second season in November 2006 to location scout in New York alongside Yokoyama, Brain's Base producer Yumi Sato, Art Director Akira Ito, and a Japanese guide. Many of the locations in the anime are based on places the team visited; the Coraggioso, for instance, is inspired by the historic Chumley's speakeasy.

Ito, whom Sato had recommended for the art director position, read the original novel prior to location scouting. During scouting, he took over a thousand reference photographs alongside Omori, who collected pamphlets and bought old photo collections. Next, Ito drew five image boards using high contrast and paid attention to color use, since New York's color schemes differed to those of Japan. He and Omori determined that the anime should utilize various colors rather than embrace the monotones of the era.

After the image boards, Ito created over one hundred-and-sixty art settings from Coraggioso and Alveare to the Flying Pussyfoot ' s first- and second-class cabins, conductors' room, and dining room. Omori requested multiple redoes of the train settings, so Ito collected references pertaining to train cabins and western-style furniture materials. Ito has remarked that he had a surfeit of creative ideas for the organizations' offices, such as the Gandors' office harboring a hidden escape route and bottles of alcohol hidden behind a frame.

Ito also worked on the anime's art boards, claiming for himself the shots that he wanted to personally draw. As he was especially keen to draw establishing shots, his workload was significant. He used weather to visually differentiate 1930 from 1932: 1930's weather is always sunny, whereas 1932's weather is overcast and drizzling.

The Korean background art company "Studio Orange" worked on Baccano! ' s general background art during the period where the anime industry was transitioning from hand-drawn to digital art. With Ito still drawing by hand and the Korean staff already painting digitally, he specifically requested that they recreate the hand-drawn texture of the artboards with their digital paintbrushes; for scenes he felt warranted it, he had them draw in the traditional way. Ito personally adjusted the staff's art as needed, paying special attention to color usage. Through the above methods, Ito was able to recreate the organic, rough textures that Omori desired for the show. For the interior of the Flying Pussyfoot, however, its textures were hand-drawn, scanned, and digitally pasted onto its walls, paintings, and vases.

For the 1930s colors, Ito referenced The Sting and Once Upon a Time in America when coloring the organizations' offices and drew inspiration from the The Godfather for the red-walled hideout of Szilard Quates' coterie. The only color Ito vowed not to use was blue, which he had relied on in previous works. By reserving blue for the 2001 scene, in which it dominates, he rendered 2001's atmosphere distinct from that of the 1930s and 1711.

Ito worked exclusively on Baccano! throughout all eighteen months of productions. He credits this 'total immersion into a single project' as enabling him to "come out of his own shell."

Casting
Aniplex & Brain's Base: According to Yokoyama, Baccano! 's lack of a singular main character meant that the casting process was an even one that had no particular consideration for a leading role. Half of the cast had been decided by the time of Baccano! 's first audio play (originally broadcast in 2005; released in disc format 2006), and the only two roles that were auditioned were Ennis and Miria Harvent. For the rest of the cast, the staff seemed to have particular actors in mind: Ladd Russo's voice actor Keiji Fujiwara was suggested because he dubbed the character Sawyer on Lost, an American television drama that Baccano! 's staff was "hooked on."

Funimation: Funimation's casting process for Baccano! remains one of the studio's longest to date, with an estimated one hundred and thirty-five voice actors auditioning for the eighteen main roles over the course of six days. The challenge of casting Baccano! was not only that it had numerous characters, but that those characters had to possess a variety of period and non-American accents. Moreover, some of these characters were older adult men. At the time, the anime voice acting industry had a paucity of older men and accents both.

ADR director Tyler Walker tackled the challenge by asking voice actors to directly recommend their colleagues for roles; R Bruce Elliott, who would later voice Szilard Quates, recommended several of his fellow theater actors. Walker also made a point to consider newcomers, as he believed the anime was a welcome opportunity to discover fresh talent. Among these newcomers were Joel McDonald and Bryan Massey, who found their breakout roles in Jacuzzi Splot and Ladd Russo.

Staff
For full staff, see Anime News Network.

Brain's Base

 * Director: Takahiro Omori
 * Series Composition/Screenplay: Noboru Takagi
 * Character Design: Takahiro Kishida
 * Music: Makoto Yoshimori
 * Art Director: Akira Ito
 * Colorist: Ritsuko Utagawa
 * Cinematographer: Yoshihiro Sekiya
 * Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami
 * CG producer: Norikazu Kambayashi
 * Editor: Kazuhiko Seki

Funimation

 * Producers: Carly Hunter; Justin Cook
 * ADR Director: Tyler Walker
 * ADR Engineer: Kory Charlot
 * Translation: Steven J. Simmons
 * Script:
 * Eric Vale (E01)
 * Leah Clark (E02–E03)
 * Chuck Huber (E04–E16)

Music
''Main Article: Baccano! Original Soundtrack - Spiral Melodies''
 * Opening: "Gun's & Roses" by Paradise Lunch
 * Ending: "Calling" by Oda Kaori

List of Episodes & OVAs

 * 1) The Vice President Doesn't Say Anything about the Possibility of Him Being the Main Character
 * 2) Setting the Old Woman's Qualms Aside, the Flying Pussyfoot Departs
 * 3) Randy and Pecho Are Busy Getting Ready for the Party
 * 4) Ladd Russo Enjoys Talking A Lot and Slaughtering A Lot
 * 5) Jacuzzi Splot Cries, Gets Scared and Musters Reckless Valor
 * 6) The Rail Tracer Covertly, Repeatedly Slaughters Inside the Coaches
 * 7) Everything Starts Aboard the Advenna Avis
 * 8) Isaac and Miria Unintentionally Spread Happiness Around Them
 * 9) Claire Stanfield Faithfully Carries Out the Mission
 * 10) Czeslaw Meyer is Forced to Rework His Tremble-Before-the-Specter-of-Immortals Strategy
 * 11) Chane Laforet Remains Silent in the Face of Two Mysterious People
 * 12) Firo and the Three Gandor Brothers Are Felled by Assassins' Bullets
 * 13) Both the Immortals and Those Who Aren't Sing the Praises of Life Equally
 * 14) Graham Specter's Love and Peace (OVA)
 * 15) The Delinquents That Arrive at the High-Class Neighborhood Are the Same as Always (OVA)
 * 16) Carol Realizes That the Story Cannot Have an Ending (OVA)

Gallery

 * Height and Model Sheets