It’s 1934, Prohibition is a thing of the past, and no one is exactly sure why Issac Dian has just been sent to Alcatraz. Most people aren’t sure why Firo Prochainezo has also been sent to Alcatraz but Firo knows; he’s being used as a pawn in a long-standing struggle between two fellow immortals, the amoral Huey Laforet and the proto-FBI agent Victor Talbot. Huey has something nasty planned, something perhaps similar to the Mist Wall incident with the shadowy organization Nebula not too long ago, and it might be in New York or it might be in new land for Baccano!, Chicago. Victor needs answers and, after a good deal of threatening, Firo finds himself inside the fortress and realizing that Huey might not be a prisoner but precisely where he wants to be.
Meanwhile, Issac is out early but he doesn’t have enough money to make it all the way home! That’s fine as far as Miria is concerned — she’ll just meet him halfway in Chicago and Jacuzzi Splot’s gang, who have been looking out for her, come along to see their old turf (and because they too have gotten a tip-off from old friends that something is up in Chicago). Huey’s network of spies, experimental persons, and homunculi are setting up for a grand event but some of them are having second thoughts what they’re doing and their place in the world. And when you get a group of immortals, explosive fanatics, and martial artists together in one place you’re sure to have a ruckus on your hands!
As Ryohgo Narita mentions in one of the afterwords, volumes 8, 9, and 10 of the Baccano! light novel series function more like two part 1s and one part 2 rather than a part 1, 2, and 3 and this nearly 1,000 pages of shifting points of view, crazy events, and unexpected connections make this possibly the best arc yet that Baccano! has to offer.
These books also came out in Japan right when the anime adaptation was announced, another thing Narita mentions in one of his afterwords, and that got me thinking about what a good adaptation that was and how the following volumes might prove even trickier to adapt. Director Takahiro Omori had a clever idea by mixing up the events of four-ish volumes at once, something that in and of itself is very Baccano!, but there aren’t any obvious, good ways to combine the next few volumes into one season. Volume 5 is in some ways short enough that it could easily be used to fill in gaps in the runtime, much like volume 4 was pared down to fit into the original anime, but I’d argue it doesn’t have enough material if paired with volumes 6 and 7 to fill out a full 13 episodes. Meanwhile, these three volumes would take nearly an entire cour to adapt on their own since there are so many characters and so many mini-plots flying around.
Yet, even for a story like this one which delights in presenting an unorthodox arrangement of events, your really need volumes 6 and 7 to be adapted at the very least concurrently if not first because so many new characters from Huey’s faction first appear in volumes 6 and 7 and Huey’s group as a whole are the main focus of volume 9 and 10’s antics in Chicago. I believe that volume 11 is, like volume 5, more of a standalone volume so perhaps if that was tossed into the mix it would work, but it would also possibly spoil a very surprisingly, and yet off-hand, reveal in volume 10 involving Nebula.
So what I’m saying is, you should DEFINTELY be reading these light novels if you ever wanted more of that sweet, Baccano! brand of action.
But! I’m getting too far ahead of myself here. Let’s jump back into the past and talk about how these books have almost too many point of view characters and yet very few of them are reoccurring, main character-ish ones. Very little of the core New York City cast is present in these volumes, as Firo becomes less important as these three volumes go on and, as per usual, we never get into Issac and Miria’s heads when they’re the center of attention (although there are a few, rare, hints about the lives the two of them left behind before turning into this memorable duo). A large part of both volumes 9 and 10 focuses on some of the members of Huey’s group: some of them are preparing for Huey’s grand experiment, some of them are feuding with the Russo family (aka Ladd’s relatives, although he’s also stuck in Alcatraz and exhibiting an unnervingly calm demeanor), and some of them are also getting tangled up with Nebula as if there weren’t already enough players in this game. As a part of this, we learn how many of the characters ended up in Huey’s faction and I felt like the homunculi characters felt lot like a re-hash of the same ideas used back in volume 5, 2001 Children of the Bottle. It’s just about the only part of these volumes which feels repetitive, that and I maintain that Huey’s minion Christopher still feels too similar to Claire but I was glad that Christopher seems to have cooled off a bit and isn’t nearly as maddening to read as he was back in volumes 6 and 7.
Diehard fans might miss seeing their faves, but honestly I enjoyed these new characters and new locale much more than I thought. That said, the 1930s cast is getting a bit too large for my liking so I’m glad that the upcoming three volumes are set in different time periods, volume 11 in 1705 (alchemist backstory!) and volumes 12 and 13 in 2002 (Firo and Ennis have a honeymoon! I heard rumors that Claire steals a cruise ship as a gift for Chane!). This is easily my favorite light novel series right now and, while the prose immediately conveys its non-English-language origin, it also has the “smoothest,” most natural sounding in English translation of any of the series I’m currently reading. Every time a new volume comes out I remain deeply thankful that Yen Press picked up this monster of a series and for just how nicely it’s turned out.