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.

Firefox has an extension that allows one to download and save embedded videos from sites like YouTube, iVideo, Google Video, etc. Google and ye shall find.

YouTube is a cesspool of awesomeness. I mean awesomeness in the same way that VanHelsing reeks of rank "awesomness." It's terribly addicting, from the truly good (Robot Chicken FFVII and Jedi Bush sketches FTW) to the truly bad (a million anime music videos that say "hey guyz this is mah first video i got my clips from inuyashachix672's amvs sry about the subtitles").

So just for kicks I was discreetely browsing YouTube today at work. All of my students were taking midterms all day, and I already used up my morning correcting essays and making ridiculously elaborate displays for the upcoming school festival, so there was no reason for me to even be at the school between 12 AM and 5 PM today and yet I was anyway. So I was browsing YouTube, searching for whatever struck my whim. Bad made-for-TV movies from the Sci-Fi Channel originally aired in 1985? Check. Commercials from the 1978 Star Wars Christmas special? Check. (Sadly, the special itself is not currently available.) Entire cartoon series that I remember from my childhood? CHECK. This was what the download extension was made for, baby! I'm going to be marathoning Care Bears and Cities of Gold one of these days. Oddly mezmerizing videos of puppies and kitten and baby bunnies doing incredibly cute things? Check. Oh yeah, and about a million music videos from the new Hellsing OAV set to the worst hard rock metal songs ever recorded? Check. Although this makes sense because the Hellsing OAV is basically Rob Zombie animated, so I guess it works.

Now, having actually watched some of those aforementioned AMVs (I know!), I would like to offer the following observations:

1. I am officially saddened that "arockalypse" and "the day of rockening" are now going to have to be added to the list of awesome English words and phrases that I swear I will never teach my kids, and
2. Okay. The Hellsing OAV actually made me like Luke Valentine. I didn't think that it was possible, but it happened.

In other news, my shiny Mahabharat DVDs survived the trans-Pacific journey and are not resting safely on my bookshelf. This also calls for a marathon. Perhaps I will have to alternate Mahabharat and Care Bears episodes as I go, because I can neither take in too much armageddon nor too much magical tummy beams of love in one sitting.

ALSO, why, oh cruel God, have you seen fit to allow me to exist for more than two decades in blissful ignorance of the existence of a Star Wars Christmas Album?! How can I go on with my life until I can hear songs like "What Can You Get A Wookiee For Christmas (When He Already Owns A Comb)?" And apparently this record was Jon BonJovi's professional debut?!

EDIT: ZOMG somebody posted Captain Eo on YouTube. Am I just hallucinating that it was originally shown in 3D at Disneyworld? I remember watching it when I was barely old enough to remember anything, and the flying meteor at the beginning really scared me. The evil queen did too. Now that I'm older and I can read the credits at the end, though... MY GOD. FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA AND GEORGE LUCAS. Wrote and directed a movie about Michael Jackson wearing a magical rainbow shirt.