”Who will be the one to cut this tangled web of threads, in the end?”
Creative Staff:
Story: Ryohgo Narita
Art: Katsumi Enami
Translation: Taylor Engel
What They Say:
The year 1933.
Tim is a man who discarded his past, but– try as he might — he cannot forget his brother. Dallas is just a thug, but he has always wanted to protect his sister. The mysterious Vino is a feared killer, yet he loves his fincee. When members of Lamia arrive in New York to steal the incomplete immortality elixir from a growing corporation called Nebula, a series of events brings the various gangs and strange characters to the Nebula headquarters for a fierce battle. Will the sun peek out from behind the clouds once the bloody rain stops?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
What made Baccano!’s initial arc so iconic for the series was less the story at hand and more its execution itself. Author Narita seemed less concerned with forming an actual story with a beginning, middle and end, and more fascinated by what exactly his merry band of characters would do if pitted on the same train together. And this could be argued to be the ethos of the series in general– using the plot not as a means to construct a traditional story, but as a fish bowl to contain and observe its large cast of characters.
And while subsequent volumes have been hit or miss with exactly how much enjoyment one can get off that ethos alone, this current arc The Slash feels like the first true return to form for the series. A continuation of the spectacular setup that was volume 6, volume 7 picks up immediately following each individual’s leave from the battle at the Genoard household.
In addition to the initial players of Maria, Tick, Firo, Jacuzzi’s gang, and Lamia, Narita throws in a couple more characters to the mix as he is want to do. Of note is the introduction to not one but two additional enemy groups: Larvae and the Nebula Corporation. What I enjoyed about volume 6 was that Narita actually controlled himself for once and released a single volume without making any use of a quirky character that spoke in overly flowery dense dialogue (the closest being Maria, though she doesn’t come off nearly as eccentric as other cast members). So to introduce a new enemy group as led by one particularly verbose quirky new character was a bit off-putting; Christopher simply feels like a copy/paste of Vino and while I understand that that was probably intentional given that the two clash by the book’s climax, he never gives anything new to the table and feels more like grittiness for grittiness’ sake (so he’d probably go over well with the middleschool demographic).
Keeping track of additional enemies, the Nebula group acts more as a wildcard than the actual self-titled wildcards in the series. The corporation remains shrouded in mystery throughout the entirety of the book, to the point that once the story’s “twist” is revealed, it works to good effect, making you further question just what the organization aims for given their current known movements.
Probably coming dead last on the laundry list of villains this arc is the character of Dallas making his not-so-triumphant return to the series. For such a smarmy unlikeable character, Narita is able to write his character amazingly well. We’re able to get into Dallas’ head for once and follow his thought process of hatred to eventual violent outcries that you begin to really feel for him, even if his main role this time around is just as secondary as it’s always been. He doesn’t add much to the story on a technical level, but he as a character feels so oddly fleshed out. While other characters can be defined with a single quirk, Dallas feels like a real person reacting as naturally as any other hothead weak-minded thug can get.
Continuing with the more relatable (and thus default “main character”) focus ends up being the characters that are the most down to earth. In this case, that ends up being the odd couple of Maria and Tick, as well as Tom of the Lamia group. Following the previous volume’s twist of Tom secretly being Tick’s estranged brother Tock, we’re given this newfound drama between two seemingly unrelated characters that’s perfect for a Baccano! story. Being the one to take on a new identity in both name and appearance, Tom feels the most nuanced of this novel’s enemies simply for being able to speak in a language outside of violence or cold manipulation. His feelings towards his estranged brother are complicated, and begin to resurface upon seeing him after so many years. Meanwhile, Tick has accepted that he would never see his brother again and has given himself entirely to organized crime, tasked with babysitting Maria, who herself is going through some character growing pains after suffering at the hands of Tom’s fellow Lamia-mate Adele. For a series notorious for its “non-story” stories, this is the clearest character arc you could get from these characters. And while it’s bogged down by the unavoidable density of its cast (Firo actually felt like the weakest player in a story for once), the story between these core cast members still shines through.
In Summary:
Baccano! volume 7 is the most the series has felt like itself since its initial arc, in both good and bad. While the core characters have a fully realized arc, it’s bogged down by the multitude of other side stories vying for attention. In typical Baccano fashion, it’s less of a traditional story, and more of a practice on the oddities and coincidences that make up human life. It’s an okay story, but peak Baccano.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen On
Release Date: April 24, 2018
MSRP: $20.00
