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Given that the _Baccano!_ novels are still publishing (21 so far), it's pretty
clear that the anime (16 episodes total, with 13 episode main series and 3
OVAs) didn't adapt all of them. However, there doesn't seem to be much
information available as to which novels were adapted. My standard sources for
checking how far an anime got all don't seem to have information on Baccano,
probably because of the complicated formatting.

**Which novels were adapted by the anime?** I'm aware that the formatting of
both the anime and the novels may make this confusing, so feel free to list
some as partially adapted if there are significant parts of the story which
were not covered by the anime.


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2013-12-28T09:57:53.410
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baccano
Which Baccano novels were adapted by the anime?


Book 1: **Rolling Bootlegs (1930)** \- Reasonably faithful but was condensed
(also, instead of starting in 2002 with the story being told to a tourist in
the Alvaere, it starts in 1935 with Gustav and Carol looking over their
information of the events of 1930-1932. And the events happen differently in
the novels though the end result is the same, though it does change Firo's
character interpretation. In the novels, he's actually a HUGE dick, almost as
bad as Dallas, the only people he shows any respect to are his Martillo
superiors, his childhood friends, and Ennis and later Czes. Whereas in the
anime he's got more of a shonen hero vibe going on). It also left out the fact
that the mugger in the first episode was probably the most important character
of the 1930 plotline (and his encounter with Firo was moved to 1932, where as
in the novel it happens right at the beginning of the 1930 story, just before
Firo goes to buy his hat with Maiza). Also Firo's saving of Ennis was MUCH
more involved and took approximately 3 hours. He had to make a small sample of
the imperfect elixir using Szilard's memories and then use it to reset her
default state using his own cells to replace the genetic information Szilard
had withdrawn (she is biologically his daughter following her revival).

Book 2: **Grand Punk Railroad (1931) - Local Edition** \- Was mostly faithful
but condensed (and left out a somewhat important insight into Ladd's true
character). It also cut out Jacuzzi vs the Rail Tracer. It does however make
one change, by merging Chane with some aspects of her sister, namely the
implied telepathy and conspicuous use of birds in said scenes. Chane herself
is a completely normal human, while her sister possesses the above mentioned
traits as a result of being used in an experiment using information Huey stole
from Szilard's research into creating a true homunculus, as opposed to
failures like Ennis.

Book 3: **Grand Punk Railroad (1931) - Express Edition** \- Was reasonably
faithful in what was shown but left out about 2/3 of the book, including
Rachel's encounter with the corrupt train executive and her final encounter
with the Rail Tracer, 97% of Claire's side of the story (the parts it does
show are from other people's perspectives and as a result you learn nothing
about Claire's personality which makes seeing his true self in the OVAs much
more jarring), Lua's story, and Fred the Doctor. Since Jacuzzi never fought
the Rail Tracer in the anime, his side of the event showing what happened in
the aftermath was also left out.

The out-of-place scene in the first episode (with the blonde girl with the
spear) is during the climax of book 6, **The Slash - Cloudy to Rainy (1933)**.

The 1932 plotline was VERY loosely based on the events of book 4, **Drugs and
Dominoes (1932)** , but has no resemblance to the source material after about
episode 2. Eve searching for her brother was a minor plot point that only
served to get her to New York and was resolved immediately on their first
visit to the Daily Days. It's pretty much all filler after that, with only the
beginning and very end showing any actual resemblance to anything from the
book. (It also completely contradicts the source material in several places
and merges several characters.)

The OVAs cover about 1/3 of Book 14, **Another Punk Railroad (1930-1934)** ,
which is mostly a background book to fill in some of the gaps left in the
previous books (it is extremely faithful aside from the parts involving Elmer
which were actually based on events from book 5. Also Rachel's backstory was
supposed to be told in book 3 from her to the rail tracer during their last
encounter on the train. And the domino scene is from book 4.). (The train ride
Gustav St. Germain asks Carol to remember in the very first episode of the
series also happens in book 14). The stinger of the OVAs is the beginning of
Book 6, The Slash - Cloudy to Rainy.

The stinger for episode 13 is actually the beginning of Book 5, **Children of
the Bottle (2001)**. Most of the content from episode 7 is taken from a
flashback arc in Book 5. Rolling Bootleg only gave a VERY abridged version of
what happened on the ship and did so immediately at the beginning of the
story.

There're also little bits of information taken from books 1-14 that are too
numerous or minor to be worth mentioning.

* * *

Worth noting, anyone interested in the Novels, DO NOT SKIP ANY OF THEM, even
if you've seen the anime. It barely scratches the surface of what the novels
actually covered (the anime tried to give each character some screen time, but
ended up only really covering about 3-4 with anything resembling depth
(Rachel, Jacuzzi, Chane, Czes (sort of...it left out some pretty important
stuff though)). The Gandors and Lua especially got shafted despite being named
in the opening, despite actually having some very interesting
background/stories/character development), in addition to the main plots and
answers nearly all the common questions that come up after watching the anime.
Also as mentioned, while the end result is usually the same, how they got
there is sometimes dramatically different (and IMO, is FAR better done then
the anime's attempts at condensing it to fit in 13 episodes. If they'd had 26,
it might've worked out better, or just dropped 1932 entirely to free up more
time.


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