intro

it's all just a stupid commotion

Welcome to the world of Baccano! It's a place full of pulp fiction characters, all interacting with one another and causing one big bang after another! A place with mafia, drug dealers, alchemists, assassins, terrorists and even immortal beings.

And yes, the "!" at the end of "baccano" is part of the title. It's mandatory, I says.

For those of you new to the Baccano! fandom, or have little idea as to what it all is, Baccano! began as a light novel series, written by Ryohgo Narita and illustrated by Katsumi Enami. There are currently around 18 volumes of the novel, with a high possibility of more on the way. Each novel usually takes place in a specific year, and the time range has been between 1700's to 2002, with the bulk of the plot happening in the 1930's.

The series has also become an anime series and a manga series as well, and soon will also become a video game, on the Nintendo DS.

what the story is about

The chronological beginning of the story begins in 1705 with a group of alchemists aboard the Advena Avis. They summon a demon abord the ship, who gives all the crew an elixir that grants a never-aging immortal life. The alchemists learn from the demon that they can "eat" other immortal beings by placing their hand on their forehead, and that person will be sucked into their own body, along with all their knowledge. The knowledge to make the elixir was only given to one member of the ship, Maiza Avaro, who felt that it should be kept a secret and decided not to tell any of the other alchemists how to make it. One of the greedier alchemists, Szilard Quates, lets avarice get the better of him and begins "eating" many of his fellow crew, all in hopes of gaining the secret of how to make the elixir.

For their safety, all the crew aboard the ship split up all over the world once the ship docks. A few of the alchemists, such as Szilard and Huey Laforet, go about attempting to recreate the elixir of immortality with varying degrees of success. Most of the plot occurs in the 1930's era, where Szilard succeeds in creating the elixir, only to have it be stolen by some petty thieves, mistaking it for liqor and before he knows it, more and more people are becoming immortal and finding their own path intertwining with everyone else's.

footnote

The above is what Baccano! is about in a nutshell, but the truth is, the story is very complex, with novels focusing on specific events and there are very many subplots that go on, not to mention a hundred characters! The most well-known plotline is probably the Grand Punk Railroad incident, made famous by not only the novel, but the anime adaption which focused primarily on that incident, and the manga as well.

This site also primarily focuses on the Grand Punk Railroad incident, as that is what I am most familiar with in the Baccano! world (though I am reading the novel translation project at Guns & Roses at snail speed ...) but I will also try to talk as much as I can about Chane's role in the other novels.

• Timeline: Chane's Appearances
• Introduction: Grand Punk Railroad