“I can't believe this is my eighth studio album and I know I keep telling you that it is my most personal record yet, but its true and I'm really proud of that”
This quote from The Legendary Miss Britney Spears would most likely haunt her for the rest of the career, especially because it came in the eve of the release of her infamous 2013 album Britney Jean, whose title anticipated a rare introspective look into a star with over a decade on the spotlight (most of the times for the wrong reasons)… also, it came right after her previous album, 2011’s Femme Fatale, became her first full-length effort without any songwriting input from the Princess of Pop, although a Japanese bonus track features a co-writing credit from her. Of course Britney Jean deserves most of the criticism it receives and yet, it also deserves way more than just being outright ignored even by most of Britney’s diehard fans: Britney Jean is more than just Work Bitch and 13 b-sides, is more than Brit’s most dated-on-arrival release… Britney Jean is a case study of what was pop in its time, what changed and why it stopped being as popular as it once was….
POP BEFORE BRITNEY JEAN
https://preview.redd.it/p5ecdbd9ce221.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=d0662fd24b364cf6cf25b1961e9d15f98d9d39b6 Early 00s pop music was being left aside by the general public during the heydays of gangsta rap, Timbaland/Pharrell-infused R&B and rock/nu-metal… at least until around the period between 2007 and 2009, the start of the Golden Era for popheads: The anthemic choruses, the prominent synths, the light and care-free nature of the lyrics, everything was there to pump you up and make you dance… however everything would change in 2013, when streaming was finally introduced to the Billboard formula. After the satirical K-pop track Gangnam Style by Psy took the world by storm, it was noticed how in the United States the song was blocked from the top spot by the inconsequential One More Night by Maroon 5, even if Stylehad the lead in sales for most of the 12 weeks it stayed at the Top 10 (as you might have guessed, radio had something to do with that), pushing Billboard to update their methodology and add streaming to the mix. The first song that benefited from the change in the tracking methodology would prophetize what would come next for the charts in general: Harlem Shake, a nearly-instrumental meme song debuted at the top spot and stayed there for 6 weeks total. Another novelty song, Ylvis’ The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?) would visit the Top 10 later in the year based on virality alone. Although rap, indie music and more traditional pop music found their way during this year, the presence of outliers like Lorde’s Royals, genre-defying tracks like Avicii’s Wake Me Up! (a country/folk tinted EDM anthem) and Florida Georgia Lane’s Cruise (considered the grandfather of the bro-country genre, made popular on pop radio thanks to a tackled-on rap feature by Nelly), and the aforementioned viral hits not only showed that general audiences were craving something new, but their success would pave the way for a big change in pop music.
BRITNEY BEFORE BRITNEY JEAN
"Sometimes you don't need to use words to go through what you need to go through, sometimes it's an emotion you need to feel when you dance, that you need to touch. And the only thing that can touch it is when you move a certain way." Britney Spears on the For The Record documentary, one of the rare glimpses she gave us on her life before Britney Jean
Britney, of course, was partially a pioneer and a tail-rider of the maximalistic electro sound of the era, as proven by the influence and cult following of what most people consider her magnum opus, or at least her more direct and honest album, 2007’s Blackout, which is ironic considering that Britney only has two writing credits in the whole project and how even The Unstoppable Danja called it ‘impersonal’. After Blackout, Britney would continue to ride the same sonic palette with her follow-up, 2008’s Circus and then move onto Femme Fatale, which, in spite of its “forward-thinking” nature (as described by the label-appointed producer and current persona non grata Dr. Luke) and slick production, it was heavily criticized for its anonymity and lack of input of the singer in the record, which led to Britney to defend herself stating, rightfully, that she had nothing to prove.
THE MAKING OF A PERSONAL ALBUM
https://preview.redd.it/tzfh8fqsce221.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e7bf1a1a7f9469be632470e1d6bb53397ff2f62 The mastermind behind Britney Jean was none other than hitmaker will.i.am, whose involvement on the record came as a surprise to no one given how they have collaborated twice at that point and get along really well (you can read more about it in this post I made a couple of months ago), however, the Black Eyed Peas frontman doesn’t deserves all of the credit for the record as Britney herself decided that she would be more involved and had a pivotal role into the making of this record. Although the early stages of the album pointed towards a more hip-hop release, will.i.am’s involvement and her chemistry with Britney put her forward into the recording and making of the album. Realizing that she wanted a more straightforward release that wasn’t as bouncy and genre-hopping as her predecessors, Britney searched with will.i.am a series of collaborators that could help her bring her ideas to life, as she didn’t wanted to sing impersonal songs that her team just happened to receive; this, unfortunately, ruled out the involvement of the Saint Patron of pop production Max Martin, although it relegated Dr. Luke to a sole bonus track so that’s a win in my book. Britney Jean is her only release in which she’s credited as a co-writer in each track, including bonus tracks… her closest before that was In The Zone in which 9 of the 14 (including bonus) tracks sported a Britney co-write.
THE PERKS OF BEING A PERSONAL ALBUM
I have been through a lot in the past few years and it has really inspired me to dig deeper and write songs that I think everyone can relate to […] I want to show you the different sides of Britney Spears. I am a performer. I am a Mom. I am funny. I am your friend! I am Britney Jean. Britney Jean Spears
Britney has never been the kind of performer that would pour her soul into her lyrics, and even have occasionally distanced her private life from her lyrics (she famously rejected the Timberlake-bashing Sweet Dreams My LA Ex, later given to ex-S Club 7 member Rachel Stevens as her debut single), although in the few glimpses we have gotten from her real persona (the stunning Everytime and the dubious My Baby for example) have always leaved her fans with the idea of her getting more involved with the subject matter of the tracks… I mean, the exploration of fame in tracks like Circus and Piece of Me are great, but what about explorations of who is Britney? Britney Jean is her first album released in her 30s, and after finally deciding to get this involved in the songwriting department 15 years into her singing career was no fluke: chalk it up to coincidence, to the fact that it was long due given her background (Britney had lived A LOT of unwanted stuff during her career, married twice, had two kids, survived the most public mental breakdown unimaginable and more while being one of the most successful female performers currently working… also, that year she had ended her engagement with her manager Jason Trawick) or to misogyny (if you wanna go there) but female singers seems to go personal and/or mature in their 30s, with some popular examples including Madonna’s Like A Prayer (described by her as being "about my mother, my father, and bonds with my family"), Mariah Carey’s post-divorce genre-bender Butterfly (if her birth year is believed to be 1969), Beyoncé’s whole post-Matthew Knowles era (4 was released three months before she turned 30), Nicki Minaj’s back-to-my-roots release The Pinkprint and Katy Perry’s purposeful woke pop release Witness (Katy, I love you but 💀) among others. Another thing to consider is that doing “personal” songs have always being interpreted as tracks with stripped-away or piano-driven arrangement, something that Britney, who had sung about being on the club or having sex (or even both on the same track) so many times it kinda become her trademark, is not something she’s might get allowed to do, especially when the current-at-the-time pop scene and Britney’s then-current sound were a far cry from the kind of sound these “confessional” tell-all songs normally have.
#BritneyPleaseSavePopMusic
(this was a real hashtag that was worldwide trending topic on Twitter in September 2013) With the anticipation of what a Britney-fied personal record would sound like, anticipation was in an all-time high among fans… so it was natural that her most introspective record would be anchored with an EDM song called Work Bitch. In Britney’s defense, will.i.am pointed out almost immediately how the braggadocio track didn’t represented the album but it was rather about Britney Spears herself. Promoted with what was heavily rumored to be a 6.5-million-dollars budgeted video which was supposedly heavily sanitized from its originally sexed-up original version (more on that later), the video itself represented most of the promotion the whole album received, as the album’s second and final single (Perfume) was left to rot in negligence after the album’s release. Outside of a couple of TV appearances (not performances, just interviews), including one to promote her then-upcoming “2-year” Las Vegas residency Britney Spears: Piece of Me, and an E! documentary about the making-of the album and said residency, no actual promotion took place for Britney Jean, which led to the inevitable.
BRITNEY UNLEASHES HER MOST “PERSONAL” ALBUM
https://i.redd.it/1no6q6iqce221.gif Britney Jean was unleashed to the world on December 3rd of 2013, one day after the Princess’ birthday, and was a big commercial disappointment, debuting at number 4 on Billboard with sales of 107,000 copies (a little bit more than a third of the sales of Femme Fatale), even lower than those of her debut album …Baby One More Time; 3 years after its release, BJhad sold less in the United States than FF in its opening week, although it was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA… this February. Internationally, the release didn’t fare any better and debuted at record-low positions for her releases in most international markets, including missing the Top 30 in the UK. As most of you already know, reviews we’re nasty all around, the worst of Britney’s career. Because of the somewhat mean content of some of those reviews, I would instead resume what are the biggest perks critics had with the release:
The album’s production (carried mostly by will.i.am protégé Anthony Preston, who hasn’t done anything ever since) was considered monotone, repetitive, dated, backward-thinking, overproduced and by-the-numbers. The album, full, on EDM beats and synthesizers, doesn’t really have that much of a breathing spot as there’s not that much of musical variety.
Lyrically, the album was considered a disappointment considered its nature as a “personal album”, with the lyricism being considered somewhat superficial given the self-titled naming and Britney’s hype surrounding the content itself.
Vocally, Britney Jean was ripped apart by critics and even some listeners. When the opening track’s autotune-less “warm up” vocal sessions leaked in 2014, critics complained about Britney’s (lack of) vocal talent and added fuel to the debate about wherever she’s actually talented at all, accusations that the song producer William Orbit dismissed.
SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE, MISS BRITNEY SPEARS
After one of the songs leaked ahead of the album’s release, there were accusations that backing vocalist Myah Marie (who had appeared on Brit’s previous two albums) was the lead singer not only on said leaked track but also in a large portion of the album (this is what she sounds like), accusations that Marie herself denied as well as Britney’s reps. Her representatives claimed that Marie wasn’t involved in neither Perfume nor Passenger, the tracks that were the source of most of the controversy, and ultimately she wasn’t credited in none of those songs, although she’s credited as a (not background) vocalist in several of the other tracks of the album (mostly the Preston-produced songs as Work Bitch, Tik Tik Boom, Til It's Gone, Chillin' With You and Now That I Found You), including Alien (in which she’s not credited), who had a vocal steam leak in 2014 which showcases how uncanny is Myah’s impression of Britney is. A credited background singer is Sia in her co-composed single Perfume, which was the source of a weird misstep when Britney was caught lip-syncing to a version of the song with Sia’s vocals forefront in the mix. A lot has been said about how Britney’s signature singing ‘baby’ voice is not her real one, how do they compare and how much damage has done to Brit’s current vocal chops, and even though she can still sing wherever she wants to, it’s quite obvious that she’s not that comfortable with it and, as such, she prefers to enhance her voice with the use of technology and some studio trickery… also, she might have gotten used to it considering how effortless and vivid were her earlier performances… here’sI’m A Slave 4 U at the 2001 VMAs just because how iconic it is.
BRITNEY JEAN… BY BRITNEY JEAN SPEARS
"People can take everything away from you, but they can never take away your truth. The question is: Can you handle mine?" Britney Spears in a song that’s not from this album and not originally from her
Described by critics as “a concept album about the loneliness of pop life”, Britney Jean actually open with quite a promise with Alien, a mid-tempo, melancholic, airy, ethereal dance pop opener that works as a more teenage-sounding version of Ray of Light, which is not surprising considering the involvement of said album’s mastermind (the aforementioned William Orbit) and that sonically picks-up where FF closer Criminal left off, but lyrically is quite different, as it portrays Britney having an intimate and personal realization that she, after years of tumultuous and erratic events, has lost grip of who she was and how she felt like an extraterrestrial in her own world; however she realizes that she’s not longer alone as she looks at the glow in the stars as a light to guide her home away from her insecurities of the past, and to feel safe and finally finding comfort in her true skin, as the chorus repeats the catchphrase ‘not alone’ “until it is pitchshifted up like a departing space ship” Originally intended to include Gaga in the song (and also supposed to be released as a single, which unfortunately didn’t happened), Alien was considered the conceptual and musical highlight of the project by critics, and is easily the most personal, vulnerable and my personal highlight of the project… which made everything that came afterward a hard pill to swallow. Before that, I can’t help to mention THE GLITCH (2:14 in the song), which was apparently, as everything wrong with music of the period, will.i.am’s fault. https://preview.redd.it/sqy5pdvjce221.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc818c3624856731e041c2380840004b0c8edea6 Work Bitch (alternatively known in censored form as Work Work, or in the explicit version as Bitch Bitch) is a hard hitting EDM smasher and heavy mood-whiplash, which was definitely not co-written by Sebastian Ingrosso, in which Britney gently asks us (over a basic club beat which grows more overloaded as the song moves forward) is we want a hot body, an European luxury car (either a Bugatti, a Maserati or a Lambo skirrt skirrt skirrt) or to sip martinis while partying in a big mansion in France, only to disappoint us by calling us bitches and telling us to better work as if we were supermodels and she was RuPaul. WB is, if you wanna practice some mental gymnastics, more ‘personal’ than its given credit for, as Britney details how much benefits she gets from hustling all these years, and inviting us to dance with that smashing wall-of-sound-laden beat that drowns most of the track. Way more forward-thinking and exciting that everything that comes after it, WB has become somewhat of a new classic for the Princess of Pop, and is pretty much deserved of said designation. Perfume, co-written by Sia, is another album highlight (actually Britney’s favorite from the album) and one of the finest ballads of Brit’s late-catalogue. Written about her ex-fiancé Jason Trawick, the song deals with Britney’s insecurity about a current relationship, with Britney singing with some of her strongest vocals in years about how she believes that her partner is cheating on her and how she puts on her perfume in order to mark her territory. Released with a tie-in with her perfume Fantasy, the song kinda flopped worldwide and halted all of the promotion of the album, however it still remains (alongside the rawer Dreaming Mix, included as a bonus track) as one of the most interesting songs in 2010s Britney catalogue. The music video, directed by known troll and middling talented videomaker Joseph Khan, has an unreleased director’s cut in which the straightforward concept of a cheating partner is changed to that of Britney playing the Angelina Jolie role in a gone-wrong version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith sans the boyfriend who is also an assassin. It Should Be Easy finds Britney’s voice drown in both the auto-tune setting used by Kanye for the Runaway coda and the vocals of guest-star will.i.am in the chorus, all while produceco-writer David Guetta rehashes Swedish House Mafia (which originally broke up the same year in which BJ was released). The song, about Britney imagining a bright-normal-future with a man who had stolen her heart, stating that love “shouldn't be complicated”. Although I like this song, and her team obviously likes it to as it commissioned remixes to be serviced to clubs, it signals when things start to go somewhat downhill. Tik Tik Boom, the T.I.-assisted fifth track, was always dubbed as a potential third single (remixes were commissioned but nothing official ever came up), and it’s not hard to see why: as one of her rare collaborations with a rapper, the static-y, dance-floor ready production presents Britney teasing a male partner with a night of… well… tik tik boom… that means sex, doing so while serving some circa-2001 sexy vocals as T.I. raps about treating her like an animal up to the point that PETA (which hates Britney) should be called in response. It’s fast, it’s straightforward and yet, it’s kinda forgettable and also very disappointing coming from or Princess Urbanney. Guetta comes back with Body Ache, another outdated EDM bop in which Brit (accompanied by vocoder and several dozens of vocal distortion treatments) sings about the kind of ‘I wanna dance so hard it gonna turn you on’ anthem which Miss Spears can do on her sleep, with a backtrack that sounds straight out of the EDM will.i.am was doing with the Peas during the Beginning/E.N.D. era. Also it ends in a somewhat anticlimactic way. Personal Britney makes a return with this track that wouldn’t be too out of place in FF: The Guetta co-written Til It’s Gone, in which Brit realizes that, after losing the love of her life (Trawick), her life would never be the same, or how “you never know what you got 'til it's gone”. Coming some two years to late sonically, in terms of lyrics the track it’s another story, as some interesting imagery pops here and there and it’s nice to leave the dance floor behind, especially when talking about a woman who (at least in the previous albums) rarely shut up about them. Katy Perry arrives on the record but not as a feature, but as a writer, in the Diplo-produced, Sia-co-written and Prism outtake Passenger, in which some interesting EDM beats moves out of the way after the opening (they come back, don’t worry) to reveal a refreshing and very welcome electropop rock song with some great Britney vocals about letting someone to guide her after she’s willing to let herself be his ‘passenger’. Great lyrics, daring production, good vocal performance… it’s not hard to see why critics loved this track so much, and it’s a shame it gets buried among so much underwhelming stuff. https://preview.redd.it/hkdoktqmce221.jpg?width=970&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b349cd2e99a44dc732760b6f131be7dc3be1da38 Chillin’ with You, the album’s most infamous moment, finds Britney dueting with her sister, ex-Nickelodeon star and attempted country singer Zoey Meredith Brooks, about hanging out together and drinking wine (Brit likes red, Chase Matthews' ex likes white wine) while, as the southern white suburban moms they are, they feel they have nothing else to worry about. Although the lyrics are… well… cute, and the subject matter is decidedly novel by Britney’s standards, the mixture of country and EDM doesn’t mash as well as the producers might had expected… also, the fact that their vocals were so obviously recorded in different sessions (as showed by the kind of chemistry you only see in cheesy 70s movies starring John Travolta and Lily Tomlin) makes the whole ordeal so surreal. The album closer in the standard edition is Don’t Cry, a FUCK YOU MR. TRAWICK song in which Britney reassures his man that it’s not worthy to cry as their relationship was always directed to end no matter what they do, and how she’s gonna go to not see him all tear eyed. The bouncy but subdued dubstep back track by pop goblin and producer will.i.am enhances what is arguably Britney’s best vocals in the whole album and some really nice lyrics which still doesn’t work as an album closer. Sia comes back in the first bonus track of the deluxe edition, Brightest Morning Star, and she brings with her current pop Pariah (that would be Dr. Luke, but he’s only in this track) to the mix, on a track about God (or maybe about her kids, according to Dr. Puke), or at least one that implies to be one; in Sia’s words: ‘Britney was extremely sweet. She came in with the title ‘Brightest Morning Star’ and told me that’s how Jesus found his way. She wanted to write a kind of gospel song that wasn’t ramming it down your throat’. Despite the good intentions, BGS is no Jesus Walks and it gets short in the musical department, with a surprisingly weak instrumental which doesn’t do any good service to the song. Britney continues her religious quest with Hold on Tight, a mid-tempo ballad that in which Miss Spears details how God comes into her dreams (or it might be an Incubus?) showing her the path to righteousness, even when the road is not as friendly with her, and… to be honest, this is my least favorite song on the album, it’s just so forgettable even if it’s quite refreshing in the context of BJ. To end the evening, Britney continues her unintentional audition to become a gospel singer with Now That I Found You, a shameless EDM track (with early-10s euphoric drop and everything) about how incomplete she was until she found Him (to be honest, this could also be another love song, but after two bonus tracks about God it’s easy to see where she was pointing towards with the vague lyrics) and how everything is better now. Unlike the forgettable predecessors, NTIFY is fun (dated? Sure… but also fun), it’s bright, it’s colorful, it’s happy, and one of my favorite songs on the record… even if co-writer Guetta basically ripped off his own hit Without You from 3 years before.
u/radiofan15’s UNWANTED OPINION ABOUT BRITNEY JEAN
Britney Jean is not an autobiography, it’s not a tell-all gossip-venting machine, it’s a clean, overproduced product of misdirection and lack of focus… and yet it’s actually fascinating in several ways: it’s arguably the greatest resume you would find of how pop music sounded in between 2008 and 2013, it’s a great bridge between the impersonal heavily-polished Femme Fatale and the serviceable and engaging Glory, which saw Britney leading the way on how everything would sound from the start. It’s quite ironic how the album’s naming (taking a cue from Janet Jackson’s Damita Jo, her actual middle name) plays against it, as self-titled releases (unless they are debut albums) are associated with being in control of your output or reinventions (pop examples includes Paramore as their first release as a trio, Beyoncé to fit the minimalistic sounds and Janet Jackson’s janet. to showcase independence from the Jackson family) and unless you’re Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel or Weezer, the idea of having a second eponymous release usually means that audiences should expect to experience the performer in a never-seen before way. 2001’s Britney was the album that give a meaning to the phrase “I’m not that innocent” spurred in her previous effort, with lyrics talking about womanhood and sexuality being complemented with R&B vibes and rock/hip-hop elements. Britney Jean, when compared to Femme Fatale, is way behind the difference between Britney and Oops!... I Did It Again, which in retrospective is even worse as the relative freshness and reinvention of Glory leaves the ‘openness’ and ‘variety’ of BJ in shambles. One of the album’s biggest mistakes is in its sequencing: the first three tracks are the obvious highlights, the next three are basically DOA EDM songs, the next four are the most “adventurous” musically speaking and the bonus tracks are all about God. Taking out some of the ‘pure club’ anthems could theoretically create an album more deserving of its ‘personal’ label, going full Spinal Tap and amp up the production values to do something crazier might have given us something that was at least digestible in a single listening. The album, as it is, is not perfect, but it’s far from the dumpster fire more people called it, including some of the most interesting Britney songwriting in years (or even her career) and some tracks that are already started to show signs of cult classic. The only positive thing most people seems to agree with is how short it is: with the alternative mix of Perfume included, BJ is ‘only’ 50 minutes long (the standard edition is just 36 minutes long), which is something most performers (even today) seems to struggle with. Also, she didn’t came to play games with the art cover and aesthetics this era, the album cover and the booklet is her most gorgeous to date, with the former having her most flattering front picture of any of her albums and the neon typography creating a very pleasing contrast with her elegant black-and-white imagery (in the deluxe edition) or the elegantly, milky pastel coloring of the standard edition.
THERE CAN BE 100 LISTENERS IN THE ROOM AND 99 LEAVE BUT ONE... - BRITNEY JEAN THE DAY IT DEBUTED
https://preview.redd.it/hpjl86hfce221.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a01c8129a31203474b2bafbc17ea994d5f83e132 Britney and her team gave up quite easily on Britney Jean and, honestly, they shouldn’t be blamed: the offer to have a Vegas Residency with a salary of $15 million dollars per year seems like the kind of offer a pop star and mother of two with enough money already for several timelines would accept, with the album itself being more of an afterthought. Britney was originally slated to remain on the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino for two years but ultimately extended her run for another two years, before finally touring overseas (without an album attached to the performances) during 2017 and 2018. Because of the lack of promotion, Britney Jean underperformed when compared to Miss Spears’ previous releases, with estimated worldwide sales (as of April 2018) being close to 1.3 million copies, less than a third of Femme Fatale’s sales. Truth be told, BJ flopped hard… HOWEVER, not everything would have turned out that terrible (not even in a million years it would have sold as much a FF but at least the downfall could have been smaller) with some actual promotion and interest from Brit herself.
SOME REACHING… I MEAN… THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BRITNEY JEAN
BJ is, in my opinion, a compilation of the era, the resume of “in the previous episode of” that you get on serialized TV shows, a farewell to the bombastic era of synth-heavy EDM club anthems with gratuitous drops and interchangeable lyrics. During the genre’s opus, some performers tried to bend this sound (and their equivalents) to their benefit, either mixing it with their style or playing with the boundaries of the sound: it could be a Taylor Swift doing a We Are Never Getting Back Together to get a broad crossover hit, a Lady Gaga mixing multiple genres to create a sonically complex pastiche called Born This Way, or even straight-up jumping almost seamlessly from rap/R&B to club bangers like Nicki Minaj did in Roman Reloaded. Britney in Britney Jean did almost the opposite of that. Britney Jean is, in some ways, a time capsule of the era in its rawest and purest form (some might differ and replace those buzzwords with generic and bland), with the average user being able to trace mostly any track to a style, influence, sub-genre or even performer. Listening to BJ is like watching a 70s movie in VHS in an old, square TV, basically an unintentional period piece that reflects the volatile, bombastic and extravagant style of those golden years of 2008-2013, which, within the mindset of Britney Jean sounds kinda tired and bland, surprising no one when that branch of pop went back into obscurity and irrelevance almost as fast as grunge music did when Kurt Cobain died. Britney Jean came up in a time of transition of popular music, with streaming showing the kind of power it had on the charts and more subdued, minimalistic music taking the world by storm. Popular music, as you might already noticed, evolved into a slower, more melodic, calculated, numb, almost anticlimatic entity which was more fitting with our current social and political climate. To paraphrase Todd in the Shadows: 2013 had a hit literally called Happy and 2018 had both a hit called SAD! and another called Happier with a video about a dog that dies. In terms of Britneyology (both the study of Britney Spears and the religion dedicated to her persona), BJ is also a glimpse into Britney the full-fledged artist. Britney has never been the kind of performer that gets heavily involved into her music, with Britney’s role being generally limited to the choice of songs, sequencing, development of sounds and themes with her assigned team of writers and producers, and performing of course; sometimes Britney gets involved into the heavier portions of her music (the classic Everytime is a great example of it) but most of the time she remains quite anonymous, with her voice and choice being overwritten by the men on charge, something that became quite apparent during and after the Dark Ages (2004-2008) with the cancelling of the legendary Original Doll, her lack of songwriting credits in both Blackout and Circus, and her much-criticized anonymity in Femme Fatale. BJ was Britney deciding who does want to work with, what does she wants to sing and even how to equilibrate her musical and visual persona. Britney has always being in control of how is she portrayed on official media, most famously rejecting an animated concept for the video of …Baby One More Time in favor of a Lolita-inspired take on catholic school girls, and then the slow process from jailbait to grownup woman. During the post-production of the Work Bitch video, she clashed with director Ben Mor over the kind of content the video should show, as she was a mother in her 30s now instead of an unreachable male gaze fantasy. With BJ, the Legendary Miss Britney Spears showed us how much she has changed since that controversial 2003/2004 period (the last time she was that involved with an album) in which she received the Kiss of Death from Madonna, suffered her infamous accident and, of course, married twice in a calendar year. This new Britney was a much-different person, and her voice deserved to be heard, and even if the results weren’t the greatest, it was a step into the right director for Britney to get what she always wanted: being a full-fledged artist capable of taking her own decisions and learning from her mistakes.
POP AFTER BRITNEY JEAN
https://preview.redd.it/382f3hucce221.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=b270179e2de3c085b7dd38ea838588f2f45d9e4b Coincidentally in 2014 most of the ambassadors of the dominant pop sound of the early 10s were either taking a musical break, flopping or changing lanes, so that year paved the way for the transition of what do we define as popular music, with the winners of the evolution race being trap (Fetty Wap’s Trap Queen), meme music from awful people (Bobby Shmurda’s Hot Nathans) or untalented losers (T-Wayne’s Nasty Freestyle, Silentó’s Watch Me), trop pop (OMI’s Cheerleader, Justin Bieber’s entire Purpose era) or whatever outlier track dared to pass through those filters. What happened afterwards is a horror story most of popheads tells in fire camps a la Are You Afraid of the Dark?
BRITNEY AFTER BRITNEY JEAN
Glory , the follow-up Britney Jean, received very positives reviews and was considered a strong return-to-form for Britney, and even if it wasn’t as successful as her label might have wanted, the truth is that, at the end of the day, whatever Britney decides to do next (and considering the direction she seems to be taking) it can be as underwhelming as Britney Jean. https://preview.redd.it/t7rph8g4ce221.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=0b8d0a459f5caed0d41c087c7658cce2e79f2210
Baccano!: A Guide to the Differences Between the Anime and the Adapted Source Material [Spoilers] (crosspost from /r/Baccano)
Well friends, it’s the first day of Baccanovember over on Tumblr. It’s also the 10 year anniversary of the 2007 Baccano! adaptation, the original 13 episode airing of which came to an end back in the beginning of November 2007. To celebrate, I’ve decided to write up a guide detailing the differences between the 2007 anime adaptation and the source material it adapted. I’ve been writing about this in various comments over the years, and figured this was a good opportunity to consolidate the information. While this post was originally shared on /Baccano, I thought I should also share it here on /anime since I figured you guys might also find it useful. It's meant for those who are not deeply involved with Baccano! beyond the anime but are curious to learn more. TL;DR: The anime is an excellently directed show that deserves to be commended, and the plot changes do not negate its quality. However, it is worth knowing what it changes from the novel and how deep those changes run, which I aim to showcase below. Both the anime and the novels, along with the other media adaptations (manga, NDS game, drama CDs) are a rewarding experience and I cannot recommend them enough.
OUTLINE OF GUIDE
Intro to Material: what the anime adapts + database links
Spoiler-free Zone: List of characters missing from or reduced to cameos in the anime + basic statement on differences
Spoiler Zone: In-depth overview of main plot/timeline differences
Discussion of where you can read episode-by-episode differences which have more detailed comparisons
AUTHOR BACKGROUND
If you’re asking yourself, “Why trust Rev?” I am the admin of the Baccano! Wiki and a mod of /Baccano, and have been engaging with both the anime and the source material or years. That doesn't mean I don't make mistakes, so I apologize for any misinformation in the post. Please let me know if you spot any so I can correct them!
Introduction to Material
Links:ANN | MAL | AniP | Kitsu | AniDB The original thirteen episode run of the 2007 anime adaptation adapted the first four novels of the Baccano! light novel series, which as of November 1, 2017 is twenty-two light novels long. The 23rd novel has been delayed due to health reasons on Narita's part. In other words, the anime adapts less than a fifth of the series at its current length. If you want to get into the novels, you should start with volume one (The Rolling Bootlegs) and progress in publishing order. As this guide will demonstrate, the changes made in the anime are too significant for you to be able to jump in at volume five without major comprehension snags. The three major timelines in the Baccano! anime are as follows: *CredittothefollowingthreephotoeditsgoestoJelloApocalypseandhisabridgedseries. November 1930 timeline | The Thousand-Year Drink | Adapted from Light Novel #1: Martillo Family associate Firo Prochainezo is set to be promoted to executive. Meanwhile, a certain elixir nears completion and a gang of hooligans and a nonsensical thief duo are swept into the mess. Original events take place over two days and one night, but the anime condenses them into one day and one night. As a result, several events are switched around/altered chronologically. Other events are also changed or cut out entirely. December 30-31, 1931 | Dangers on a Train | Adapted from LNs#2-3: Tells the story of a transcontinental luxury express hijacked by three independent factions simultaneously en route. And what's this about the Rail Tracer...? Most changes are directly related to the characters that are cut from the timeline in the anime. However, the anime also leaves out plenty of scenes for the sake of mystery. Dec 1931-Jan 1932 | Finding Dallas | Adapted from LN#4: Largely concerned with the Runorata-Gandor feud reaching a boiling point and the search for the missing Dallas Genoard. The most egregiously changed timeline in the anime, with it completely deviating from the fourth novel. For instance, Dallas is not the MacGuffin of the novel: a bag/case of a new potent drug prototype is. OVAS + Other: The anime also adapts certain scenes from the fifth novel 2001 The Children of Bottle, including the 1711 content and certain discussion dialogue for scenes in the OVAs that HIGHLY deviate from the original scenes. The main story of the OVAs is connected to the 14th novel, which was an expanded version of the gaiden novel that was released alongside the first drama CD in 2006 (before the anime aired). There are definitely differences between the OVAs and the 14th novel, and major differences between the OVAs and the 5th novel.
Characters cut out of the anime or reduced to cameos
1930
Unnamed Photographer (used as framing device of novel in 2002)
Henry (Daily Days info broker. Note that Nicholas Wayne in the anime is a composite character of LN characters Nicholas Wayne and Henry. All the sly and not-so-nice elements of anime-Nicholas are really from Henry)
Roy Maddock (Scottish drug addict who is embroiled with Eve and Runoratas)
Edith (Roy's girlfriend who is determined to save him from himself; waitress at the Gandors' jazz hall)
Characters characterized/motivated differently in the anime
Manfred Beriam (wants to become immortal in anime; hates immortals in novels)
Bartolo Runorata (lying about Dallas and trying to find him in anime; not trying to find him in novel or become immortal)
Eve Genoard (nicer in anime, less of LN-Eve's internal struggle)
Nicholas Wayne (see 1932 section)
Firo Prochainezo (sort of: he's nicer in the anime whereas he's more blunt, negative, and callous generally in the novels)
Luck Gandor (1932)
Spoiler-Zone: In-Depth Look
I may have been writing about this topic for some time, but I still had to pause and think about how to handle this section. How much detail should I go into? What changes should I include, and what should I leave out in lieu of the ep-by-ep discussion? Well, considering that this guide is first and foremost meant to be a broad overview of the differences rather than a nitty-gritty breakdown, I'm going to try and focus on on the main plot changes and the hugest consequential scene changes. Again, for nitty-gritty changes, stick around for the discussion of episode-by-episode changes in the next section. For now, the order of this section is as follows: 1711; 1930; 1931; 1931-1932; 2001; OVAs.
1711
Okay, most light novel fans will point out the accents in the dub as...suspect. First off, Victor is an Englishman who was exiled from England for his anti-slavery/racism rhetoric. He should thus have an English accent, not...whatever the dub gave him. Eric Vale gives Huey an overhanded French accent. Putting the questionability of his accent's authenticity aside, we don't actually know if Huey came from a French village. Plus, Huey studied in Italy for at least six years. Similarly, we don't know what geographical region Elmer comes from (he's described as looking 'northern European' at the very least), so him having an English accent is presumably ADR Director Tyler Walker making a judgement call on his name (probably did the same with Huey and Sylvie). Also, Elmer spent at least five years in Spain and then six more years in Italy in his youth. Putting accents aside, here are some major changes: Rules for Immortals: The rules for immortals are the same except for one crucial difference. In the anime, immortals can transfer information to other immortals by placing their right hand on the other's forehead. NOT THE CASE in the novels. In the novels, immortals can only transmit info to their linked homunculi via their left hand. As an example, in the anime, Maiza shares half of the knowledge of the Grand Panacea with Gretto by transferring it via his hand. Szilard witnesses this, and then deliberately devours Gretto to receive that information. In the novel Maiza simply tells Gretto half of the recipe before thinking better of it. Szilard learns half of the recipe through eavesdropping, just like that, and then tries to devour Maiza in his bed to get the full recipe...only to mistake a sleeping Gretto for Maiza and accidentally devour him instead. Another major point: Maiza talking about the man whom he, his father, and grandfather never saw age in the episode is a very weird scene because the man he is referencing is actually Dalton Strauss - a man whom Maiza studied alchemy under for four years (1707-1711) and shouldn't be referring to so distantly. In general, the scene is a huge question mark fo light novel fans.
Nov 1930
If you'll recall, the 1930 timeline condenses the events of two days and one night into one day and one night. This really messes with the chronology of events. The elixir's chain of custody is radically different, for one thing. Let's try and address this in an easy-to-digest manner. First, I want to bring up the E01 scene with Firo and the beggar. In the anime, it clearly takes place after Firo becomes immortal – but in the novels, it takes place BEFORE. Firo knocks out the beggar, Assistant Inspector Edward shows up and reveals he was basically using Firo as bait to nab the beggar, and Maiza shows up to take Firo hat-shopping. The thing is, the beggar is also crucially important to the 1930 timeline in one other aspect: the day before, he had murdered the blender who was responsible for perfecting Szilard's elixir (Barnes isn't actually making the elixirs in the novels). If he hadn't done that, then Szilard would have simply shown up the next day to devour the blender and harvest his knowledge of the recipe. The entire course of Baccano!'s history would have been altered. It's also worthy to note that the beggar became a mugger only after Dallas and his goons coincidentally beat him up earlier that month. If they hadn't done that, he might not have turned to murdering, and thus might not have killed the blender and changed the course of history. Anyway, the order of events is like this: Firo/Edward scenehat shoppingfireFiro rescuing Barnes. Now, in the LNs, Firo is actually carrying four bottles of alcohol with him for the party. While everyone else is down for the count, Firo sneaks a peek at Barnes' bottles and decides to switch out his liquor for Barnes. He replaces the elixir in Barnes' bottles with his regular alcohol and fills his bottles with the elixir...BAM and here we have the chain of custody completely different from the anime. LN chain: Elixir moves from BarnesFiroParty. Anime: BarnesDallasGandorsDallasI&MParty. So in the novels, the crate that constantly changes hands is carrying normal alcohol. This is connected to the altering of the chronology: Dallas and co. do kill Mike and the other Gandors during the Martillos' party...which Isaac and Miria depart from early, run into Dallas' group, and then rob the crate from them. The next day, they decide to drop off the liquor at the Alveare as a thank you gift to the Martillos for hosting them. THIS is when spying Ennis spots Maiza, and leaves to alert Szilard of Maiza's location. On the way back, they run into Edward at the Coraggioso and learn of the Gandor men's deaths. They assume that Dallas' group were Gandors and that they killed them, and they then realize that the stolen liquor might wrongly implicate the Martillos as the ones responsible for the crime. Horrified, they head back to the Alveare to warn the Martillos of what's going on (so right now the Gandor bros are heading to the Alveare to talk to the Martillos about their men's deaths, and Szilard is heading to the Alveare to devour Maiza). On the way to the Alveare, I&M come across Dallas' group carrying machine guns and talking about how they're going to get Ennis back. Miria thinks they must have broken out of jail (I&M never realize that Dallas' group was the one they stole the crate from; Dallas' group never realizes it either) for revenge, and she and Isaac run off to find and hotwire a car to take on the goons with. Of course, the car they find is Szilard's car. Thus, the confrontation between Szilard and Maiza happens the day after the party, during lunchtime. Firo is PRESENT for this, and Maiza orders him to flee and tell Molsa (who along with Yaguruma and Ronny is not present) what's going on. Szilard tries to gun down Firo, but Maiza dives in front of the gun and blocks all of the bullets with his body. Firo is immediately attacked by Ennis when he leaves (by the way, he wasn't looking for her to return her cufflink in the novels. She doesn't lose it. He followed her basically because he found her attractive). Bill, Donald, and Edward show up at the Alveare because of reports of gunshots, and Bill and Donald (who are part of the BOI's immortals department) confirm Szilard's death. Isaac and Miria think they're here to arrest the Martillos, and fire off guns and run away in order to lead the normal police officers away from the site. Like in the anime, they toss the Genoard fortune to passersby. Oh, and Maiza also asks Firo to devour him in the alleyway. To my eternal fury, that doesn't make it into the anime. That's the general breakdown of the major plot changes. There are various minor changes, and several LN scenes are either truncated (like Firo's induction ritual) or deleted entirely in the anime. All of the scenes with Edward are cut, of course (including the scene where he, Bill, and Donald confront Szilard's coterie of old men), and obviously the 2002 wraparound novel scenes are also cut.
Dec 30-31 1931
This is the timeline that's adapted the most faithfully by the anime, with most of the major changes falling into two categories: changes resulting from important major characters being cut from the anime; and general scenes that are deleted either for time's sake or for the sake of maintaining the established mystery. In this case, the main mystery is the identity of the Rail Tracer in the anime; since the anime doesn't reveal his identity until E09, it has to cut out a LOT of his PoV scenes in the novels as a result. (We spend a fair amount of time in Claire's perspective in the novels, learning that he's crawling under the cars to switch off the car's electricity so he can kill people in darkness; that he's constantly returning to the conductors' compartment to perform the necessary scheduled light signals [that's why he appears near the compartment more than once in the anime], his opinion of Rachel, etc.) Before we get to the main changes (i.e. from character cuts), it's worth noting that the anime's implication that Beriam knows about/is interested in Czes' explosives is not a novel thing. Also, Nice speaks super politely to everyone except Jacuzzi, and the train's engineers are a pair of elderly brothers who are hard of hearing. Hence why they don't catch on to all the gunfire and explosions for hours, and when they do Claire shows up and claims there's a horseback posse chasing them and they'd better not slow down no matter what. Let's review our cut characters: Jack is the third gang member accompanying Jacuzzi and Nice on the train alongside Nick and Donny; Doctor Fred is a ex-WWI military doctor and passenger on the train. He earns Ladd's favor and uses Ladd's compartment to treat the train's injured regardless of faction at Ladd's invitation; Mr. Turner is an ass of a First-Class passenger from Rachel's past; Chef Gregoire is the head chef of the kitchen and a former colleague of Claire's from his circus days... ...Upham is a timid Lemur whom the anime replaces with a mustached man; Nader Schasschule is another Lemur who doesn't make it onto the train thanks to him staging a failed coup against Goose Perkins the day before; ...and then the two surprise characters and . ...I'll get to the last two, trust me. Jack's biggest thing in the novels is that he is captured along with Nick by the Lemures, and when Ladd shows up and learns his name is Jack, assaults him solely to find out whether or not all Jacks are good boxers (yes, this was a pre-established point of interest for him). Once they're rescued Donny ends up dumping him in a random second class compartment...which turns out to be Ladd's compartment, which by this point Fred is now using at his invitation. Ladd had run into Fred earlier, see, and recognized that Fred had the eyes of a man who wants to die. Ladd isn't too good with men like Fred (though women of this vein are exactly Ladd's type), and he ended up telling Fred to use his compartment. I should note that Fred (introduced as the Grey Magician) is actually the novel's red herring for Maiza's old friend (i.e. Czes) like Rachel is the red herring for Claire. So Who and Lua show up in the compartment, and after some initial confusion Who assists Fred in treating Jack. Oh - Who is Ladd's childhood friend, and the White Suit who was captured along with Lua by the Lemures). Now, Claire actually happens upon the compartment (from where he is clinging to the outside window), and, when Lua notices him, is surprised that she isn't strongly reacting to him at all. When Lua realizes that Ladd is going up against the Red Shadow from outside the window, she inwardly freaks out because she realizes that Ladd cannot beat him (she has weirdly accurate intuition). Fred recognizes the new life in her eyes and encourages her to act on it - and thus is the reason for why she ends up climbing onto the roof of the train later. Moving on to Turner... Turner is the railroad executive responsible for a ten-year-old train accident for which he pushed the blame onto Rachel's father. He has no idea who Rachel is, but when she spots him on the train she is instantly full of hate. Now, Turner raises a scene in the dining car after the Ladd vs Lemures assault: he hurls racist and xenophobic epithets at Jon (Irish) and Fang (Half-Chinese) and is all around a humungous ass, until Isaac and Miria finally snap and rain hell and fury down upon him. Gregoire orders Jon and Fang to throw Turner out, and they do so with relish. Turner wanders the corridors with increasing fear until he runs into , who's calling himself 'Victor Talbot' (yes, that Victor) and stowed away in the compartment that would have been Jacques-Rosé's had he decided not to get on the train in time (Jacques-Rosé and Rosetta are two more characters worth knowing about. If you know about those two, you are really goddamn deep into Baccano! lore). , who spends a lot of the time on the train slinking around and looking for Czes, offers his protection services to Turner and leads him through the corridors. The two of them come across the corpse of the White Suit who preyed on Mary, and takes the corpse's rifle and hands it to Turner before abandoning him. Turner becomes increasingly paranoid, and when he comes across Rachel (who is resting due to her gunshot injury - which is in her thigh in the novels, not her ankle), prepares to shoot her for the sake of shooting anyone. She reveals her identity after a heated confrontation, and then shouts for the Rail Tracer (who has been eavesdropping) to kill her before Turner can. Claire instead dislocates Turner's shoulders, but doesn't kill him at Rachel's request. He ends up giving Rachel a bloody half-torn ticket, which is the reason why the police later don't arrest her on grounds of, you know, stowing away. He also says that if he hadn't met Chané he may have fallen a little bit in love with Rachel. Remember Upham? Upham is supposed to be the Lemur who runs away from Ladd after he ambushes the Lemures after his first fight with Chané. Upham ends up nabbed by Jacuzzi and Donny, who interrogate him for info on the Lemures before leaving him tied up in a freight hold. Upham is discovered and freed by , whom he then stabs out of fear and thus learns of . ( is on the train because he's heard that Szilard is back in New York and wants to find him). The two of them decide to check out the conductors' compartment, where they discover the corpses of the Lemur and Dune. shows up and stabs Upham, who stabs back. prepares to kill Upham (because Upham has witnessed true self), but steps in to take the blade instead. He tries to drag off the train, tries to drag him down with him, but Upham pulls up in the nick of time. Then Claire shows up and chastises Upham and for being in the conductors' compartment. He notices Upham's wound and is about to ask what happened when Chané's knife pierces through the wall and nicks his ear, and he climbs back up onto the roof...where of course he finds Chané and Ladd having their second confrontation. Ah! That reminds me - the anime implies that Huey and Chané have some sort of telepathic connection, which is 100% not the case no way no how in the novels. The birds that appear during the Huey<->Chané scenes are likely a reference to Hilton, a novel character. On the presence of and on the train...it was first hinted at in LN#12 (publ. 2007), revealed in the NDS game (2008), and then confirmed in LN#14. I don't know for sure if the gaiden novel included them or not. Bonus soundbite of laughing in the NDS game! (It's an external recording from a fan; I wanted to extract the audio directly from the rom, but unfortunately the software is not compatible with my OS and I can't get Wine to cooperate with me). Oh right...after Claire reunites with the Gandor bros, he and Berga end up brawling (which they tend to do) on the street. Keith watches on and, with the Runorata-Gandor feud in mind, thinks that this will be the last peaceful time they have for a while. Czes also reunites with Begg that day - now, do you remember that he came to New York to devour Maiza after receiving a letter from him? Well, he had also received a letter from Begg, too - Begg is working for the Runoratas, and he's the one who arranged to buy Czes' explosives off him. Czes had planned on devouring him as well upon arrival. Of course, Jacuzzi's gang stealing the explosives means that Czes is worried the Runoratas will come after him in retaliation - but Begg reveals that the money for the explosives came out of his own pocket and Czes has nothing to fear. Czes (who was looked after by Begg in the 1700s after he was orphaned) is naturally feeling pretty guilty for having planned to devour Begg at this familiar display of Begg's kindness towards him.
Dec 1931-Jan 1932
By far the most drastically changed plotline from the fourth novel to the point where it becomes a completely different plot. In the anime, Gustavo is trying to muscle in on Gandor and Martillo turf like he is in the novels - though what the anime leaves out is that he's specifically trying to muscle in on the Manhattan drug market. Relevant to this is that Keith abhors drugs and prohibits drug trade on Gandor turf. Now, anime-Bartolo lies to Gustavo that Dallas has blackmail material on Gustavo for the deaths of Raymond and Jeffrey Genoard, which prompts Gustavo's search for Dallas. This is obviously a lie on Bartolo's part since Dallas is at this point in time currently drowning in a riverbed - but in the novels, Bartolo doesn't lie in the first place since he has no interest in finding Dallas at all. He DOES NOT want to become immortal in the novels, just as Beriam actively hates immortals in the novels and is also not involved in the search for Dallas. The only person searching for news about Dallas is Eve, whom Elean actually tells the truth to about Dallas' fate rather than lying like he does in the anime. What the Runoratas are actually searching for in the novels is a case containing Begg's powerful new drug prototype, which was stolen in transit by a very high Roy Maddock. Roy, once he comes down from his high and realizes what he's done, is understandably terrified of Runorata retaliation. Edith, despite an earlier argument with Roy, essentially rolls up her sleeves and prepares to dig Roy out of the hole he's found himself in. Roy goes to the Daily Days for info, and Henry suggests that he use Eve as a shield against the Runoratas (in the anime, this becomes Nicholas suggesting that Gustavo use Eve as bait). Roy meets Eve at her place, the two of them go to Keith's house and meet his wife Kate, and then they are kidnapped by Claire in disguise and taken to the Daily Days. Whoops, nearly started summarizing the entire book. Er, basically everything comes to a head when Gustavo leads a raid of the Daily Days headquarters in order to kill the Gandor bros. DDays evacuated in advance. Claire brings Eve and Roy to the DDays because he's working on Gustavo's orders. It turns out that Keith and Bartolo made an agreement in which the DDays operation would lead to Gustavo's downfall, because Bartolo is sick of Gustavo's crap. Gustavo's hired assassins fight Claire, and Gustavo tries to kill Eve. Luck saves her and has a viciously brutal fight with Gustavo, in which he suffers plenty of injuries but also shoots Gustavo six times in the chest, etc. When Eve learns that Gustavo really was responsible for killing her father and brother, she raises a gun and tries to shoot him. No, seriously. Luck blocks the shot with his hand, and then stabs Gustavo in the throat with the jagged bone of his severed hand. Then he passes out. Gustavo survives, by the way. Begg comes across Roy, whose hypersensitivity to drugs fascinates him. He holds a gun to Edith's hand and asks Roy to inject himself with the new drug prototype (which will kill him) so Begg can observe how he reacts (and the happiness the drug will give him). Roy makes Begg promise to not kill Edith, and injects himself with the drug to fulfill the deal. Then he smashes a window and uses the glass to slit his wrist, so that Begg won't get what he wants. Begg, angry but also genuinely wanting to help Roy, tells Edith to get Roy to a hospital. He shoots himself in the head to give her the chance to escape during the regeneration process. As you can see, the anime is almost completely different plotwise. The most basic reason I can fathom is that the 4th novel introduces several new characters that aren't in the 1930 and 1931 timelines. Staff probably wanted the anime to feel more self-contained and tightly interwoven, and stuck to using characters whom the viewer already knew. Oh yeah, I'd like to also say that the bookshop scene in the anime with Firo and Luck is sort of a composite of two novel scenes: a scene in which Berga is gambling at the casino Firo manages and Firo complains about Berga potentially endangering Martillo turf considering that the Runoratas and Gandors are feuding; and the bookshop scene in which Luck is alone when the Runoratas kill him. He dies by having his throat slit rather than via a hit-and-run. Yep, Firo offers to help out in the Runorata-Gandor feud in the anime, whereas he actively does not do that in the novels. See this. Like I said, anime-Firo is nicer than LN-Firo. This also reminds me to talk about Eve's characterization changes. In later novels Eve seems to have softened into anime-Eve, but Eve in Vols 1 and 4 is...different. She honestly dislikes Dallas to some extent and recognizes that even if he's nice to her he's still kind of a terrible guy. She's also more conflicted about her faith than you might think, and angry at herself for having prayed all this time out of indecision and passiveness. Perceiving her own selfishness, indecisiveness, and passiveness is what spurs Eve to act instead of pray in 1932 and run away from home to deal with things. When she hears how Gustavo unrepentantly killed her father and brother (I believe she also learns that her family was actually involved in the drug business, which horrifies her), she is filled with absolute hate and unforgiveness that drives her to raise that gun and shoot. Luck obviously is not about to let her become a murderer, hence him blocking the bullet with his own gun. He later gives Eve a map to Dallas' location.
2001
The scene with Isaac and Miria...well, first of all - they're not stealing cell phones in the novel, (there's no guarantee they're back to thieving in 2001 anyway, considering that Isaac decides to give up his life of crime in 1934). They're also not wearing those groovy outfits, though through a series of misremembering about Japanese and Buddhist mythology they end up deciding to sew 108 bells onto their clothes (54 each) to symbolize their rebirth.
OVAs
Comparisons here are drawn from the fifth and fourteenth light novels, not the gaiden novel. In this case a lot of scenes are fabricated and downright opposite to what happens in the anime. Like Graham's and Ladd's first meeting. It is SO antipodal to the novel scene - see, in the anime, their first meeting is antagonistic whereas their novel meeting is nothing of the sort. Ladd comes across some men roughing up Graham and takes them all on in a fight. Graham is so dazzled by the logic that Ladd spouts that he then and there swears to follow Ladd. See? Not antagonistic in the slightest. I'm NOT happy with the anime changing that. Now, Sylvie is not present during the dominos party. She also does not reunite with Elmer in 1932: their reunion scene borrows dialogue from the fifth volume but is otherwise made up. They don't actually reunite until As for Huey and Elmer's reunion scene, some of its dialogue is borrowed from Huey internally monologuing in LN#6 (in which he asks an absent Elmer what he would think of Chané). However, Huey and Elmer actually still have yet to reunite as of 2002 - they haven't seen each other since 1711. Elmer and Ronny's conversation appears to be anime original, but it's delightful regardless. Oh, that reminds me - Gustav and Carol's rainbow conversation is supposed to actually take place in 1934. Firo also doesn't knock over the dominos in 1932. He does do that in 1933, but it's not accidental. There are various other differences in the OVAs, including how Rachel is supposed to actually be wearing a dress when she meets with Czes and dines with Claire (which she does in the Alveare), Jacuzzi doesn't actually recognize Claire as the Rail Tracer in the novels, it's a random delinquent whom Graham hits, not Nick... ...Actually, speaking of, the anime does explain why Jacuzzi's gang is now living in the Genoard manor on Millionaires' Row, but in a very rushed and offhand manner. So, Jon and Fang are informed by Gregoire that as a result of the gov't covering up the FPF incident they're all being fired. Since Gregoire recognizes their skill, he decides to use a connection of his to recommend them for jobs as private bartender and chef to Eve. He then gives them 100 servings of stew, which they take to the clinic where Jacuzzi is recovering... ...A clinic that happens to be operated by Fred. Raz Smith, Roy Maddock, and Jack are convalescing there alongside Jacuzzi at the same time, and Upham receives treatment for his wound there. Elmer also shows up after Upham leaves to ask about Szilard. (Jack's the white-haired guy who clambers onto Jacuzzi's bed in the anime). So Jacuzzi's gang pours into the clinic to eat the stew, and Nice and Nick drop their bowls in shock when Chané enters the room. They didn't know beforehand that the retrieval team pulled her out, unlike in the anime. Ah, right - Jon basically asked Eve if she wouldn't mind if some of his friends lived in the manor to help look after it as pseudo-housekeepers, and she agreed. Of course, he neglected to mention how many of them there were or that they were criminals. Nearly forgot! The reason for why Jacuzzi got a tattoo is also different. In the anime he gets it so that he'll stand out as much as Nice, facially speaking. In the novels, he recognizes that Nice is terrified that she'll never be able to recognize anyone again (her remaining eye was injured and has terrible vision) and thus gets the tattoo so that she'll always be able to recognize him no matter what. Both reasons are good, but I prefer the novel one.
Episode-by-Episode Differences: Where to Find Them
Two options, here. The first option I present to you is the Baccano! Wiki: after months of on and off work I have finally revamped all sixteen episode articles, which included rewriting all 16 full recaps, adding recap and preview summaries, and, most importantly, adding sections recounting the anime/source material differences in each episode. I'm not done with adding screenshots to the last four episodes but the recaps and differences sections are basically ready to go. You can access them here.) I should say that I didn't include every single minor detail, and that I am most definitely fallible and may have gotten information wrong or left information out. I can only apologize if I have, and if you notice, ask that you correct or add the info as needed. Speaking of getting information wrong, I also wrote episodic write-ups for the 2017 and 2016/anime Baccano! rewatches. My write-ups for the 2017 rewatch are a deliberate improvement upon the 2016 write-ups, in which I did more than once misremember information and leave out important other information. Please keep that in mind should you choose to read my 2016 write-ups. The differences noted in the write-ups are less thorough than the wiki versions. I know that this is insanely long and I apologize for that. I don't know if anyone will actually read this/read this all the way, but I hope that it can prove useful to at least one person. If you're interested in reading the source material or knowing more about the series, /Baccano now has a wiki with a FAQ, links to the official translations, a reading order (published not chronological for the love of God), and some resources. You might find it a good starting place. Whew. I was worried I wouldn't get this out in time, since last night I was performing in a Samhuinn celebration and didn't come back home from the second after party until ten AM thanks to a kind stranger who was out walking her dogs. Spent the last few hours doing a lot of writing, though the planning for this guide started a few weeks in advance. Once again, happy Baccanovember and happy 10 year anniversary of the anime adaptation! Here's a drawing Shinta Fujimoto (mangaka of the 2015 Baccano! manga adaptation) did of LN characters Gabriel and Juliano for Halloween yesterday.
Denver Nuggets: A check on the assets and what to do with them
Hey guys, I’m a Nuggets fan from China and below is my analysis on Nuggets operation. The article covers Mason Plumlee, Wilson Chandler, Darrell Arthur, Juan Hernangomez, and possible future for Nuggets. Mason Plumlee: good player, bad timing This is the next issue on the table, should Nuggets re-sign Mason Plumlee? Usually this should have been a no-brainer, but Nuggets just got caught in an unusual situation. Mason is good, and still improving. He is probably one of the top 5 long passers in the league, not quite creative, but reliable. That combined with his quality finishing makes him a top pick and roll partner in the league, as Lillard and McCollum would tell, and it's not his fault that Nuggets is in desperate short of threatening guards. Mason is not as effective delivering handoff, the play-type that Nuggets heavily relies on, since he lacks shooting range to pull the defender out, but he managed to keep the offense running when Jokic sits. He also worked on his criticized defense. According to nba.com he contested 435 shots within 6 feet from the rim in the last season and allowed a shooting percentage of 52.0%, a grade comparable to Hassan Whiteside or Robin Lopez. He still had trouble boxing out, but with these strengths he already deserves a starting position. I would say 13 to 15 million per year sounds about right. Plus, Nuggets might even get a discount considering all teams' tight budgets this season. However, the Nuggets already have a overlong list of expensive big reserves. If Plumlee stays, they will spend 35 million dollars on bench players sharing 3500 minutes, a disadvantageous situation as Harris and Jokic expecting big extensions. Let's take a look at how Nuggets got caught up in this Plulee issue. A brief review on the Nuggets Blazers deal The major thrusts for the Plumlee-Nurkic trade still stands. Nuggets solved their locker room problem, and Blazers heged a exploding payroll. For the on-court part, Nurkic was a unpolished, struggling young player in his third year, while Plumlee looked like a reliable forth grader. A late first round pick wound have been a fair compensation, but Plumlee was five years older than Nurkic and his rookie contract was counting down, so I would say Nuggets suffered a minor loss in the trade. But minor loss matters, and it can matter a lot when the team strives. Plumlee is not an ideal combo big to pair with Jokic for his price. He is most productive in a 1-5 pick and roll supported by 3 shooters, and yet diminished in any other task. Nuggets knew that, but now with Millsap on board (as well as Trey Lyles and Taylor Lydon acquired from a trade I don't understand), his lack of adaptiveness suddenly becomes a severe problem. Meanwhile, Nuggets still need to dump unworthy contracts and upgrade at wing and point guard to ensure long term competitiveness, which would have been easier if they found a better bargain and kept the 20th pick. Perhaps they could have taken a slower pace by simply sending Nukic away without extra bid and relying on their young talents for the playoff race. But on the positive side, Plumlee did improved the team. After Plumlee joined, Nuggets went 15-12 and only missed playoff by a unbelievable 3 pointer from the MVP. He helped Nuggets to achieve a outstanding +4.2 margin of victory in March and April, a typical level of a 50-winning team. It would only take 2 more losses for Nuggets to look uncompetitive and should that happen, would Millsap still choose here? Teams exceeding expectations catch free agencies attention. This summer Houston seduced Paul, and Miami at least got to meet Hayward, so maybe the 20th pick was Nuggets entrance fee for the big names' casino, and we won a bite on the apple. 2019 Summer: the real chance 2018-19 season is only 15 months from now. Nuggets already have 45 millions guaranteed for that year, including Millsap, Faried and Taylor Lydon. The best chance would be opting out on Jokic to make sure he signs our max, and Gary Harris is taking his 20 million. If we keep all rookie contract the number sums up to 105 million on 10 players. Wilson Chandler and Darrell Arthur will potentially take 20 extra millions if they choose to stay. Keeping Plumlee, and we're well over the expected tax line of 122 million. It won't help to give up on several below-expectation rookies. For such price, we better accomplish something. Bottom-line conference semi-finals. But the real problem is, Nuggets will pay high amount of tax for a roster not significantly better than today. Sure, the young players will improve, but Millsap, Faried and Chandler won't be as good. But the good news is that we are not locked up. So far the team will expect to have only Jokic, Harris and several rookies for 2019-20 season. Faried's contract will expire. So would Chandler and Arthur's, if any of them choose to stay. Millsap will hold some cap space, but Nuggets will have the crucial flexibility to make improvement. By that time, our young core of Jokic, Harris, Murray and Hernangomez will reach their prime, and hopefully have proven themselves in several competitive series. The 19-summer is the real chance for Nuggets. That leads to the conclusion on Plumlee. It's ok to keep him, and even a bit overprice is affordable, since tax in 2018-19 is unavoidable anyway. But his contract should in no circumstances extend into 19-20 season. I think a 2+1 deal of 36 million would be ideal. Will Chandler opt out next year? Wilson Chandler and Darrell Arthur both have player options on 18-summer, and their choice may wipe 20 million off club's salary book and inject significant flexibility. Given their age, money should be their top concern, so let's talk about how much they would worth. Wilson is distinctive in today's NBA. All small forwards playing over 2000 minutes last season can be divided into two groups: the franchise players, and the functional players like shooters or defense specialists. But Wilson is different. He was at most the fifth best player in the team, but his usage of 22.0% was way too high for a supporting role, and his average level efficiency is not quite convincing. There is simply not a big market for ball demanding small forwards. Wilson is very likely not part of Nuggets' long-term plan since he is not suited for Jokic. He is not efficient off the ball, making only 34% of his catch and shoot 3 attempts, the lowest among Nuggets' major rotation. More often he chose to waste the open look, dive into the crowded paint and end with a turnover. Neither could he support the team with brutal isolation when offense stuck, like Gallinari or Barton did. As for the defense he had good combination of size, strength and mobility, but his attention was always a problem. According to espn.com his defensive real plus minus ranked 62 among 69 players on the same position, and in 14-15 he was 43 in 55. For reference, PJ Tucker was offered 3/33 by Raptors this season, CJ Miles 3/25, Jared Dudley signed 3/30 last season, and these are all better players according to rpm, so a 3/25 million contract seems to be what he can get. I tend to believe he will stay for his 12 million in 18-19 season, in which case tax paying would be unavoidable. Darrell Arthur, the player I'm most concerned with Nuggets fans should pay more attention to Darrell because he is a player with many possibilities. Jokic is solid, so are Millsap and Harris. Murray, will full health, is going to improve anyway. But Darrell is unpredictable. Will he recover? Can he continue his amazing shooting? Will he replicate his defense performance in 15-16? We would be really lucky if it's yes to all three questions. The guy just earned himself a 23 million contract a year ago. In 15-16 when he was healthy, Darrell was a stretch four plus a defender. With his mobility, he contested 3.3 spot up plays per 36 minutes and allowed only 0.83 point per play, lower than 82.6% of all players. He also provided center-level rim protection, reducing opponent’s percentage down to 55.8%, ranking 13th of 169 6'10-or-less players that defended over 200 shots below the rim. Darrell didn't get a higher contract only because he is bad at rebounding, thus unable to switch to center. But what he could provide is still exciting. A rotation made of him, Plumlee and Faried is really luxury from both basketball and financial perspective. It's hard to say how much Arthur is worth since everything is up to his condition. I wish he could at least be ready to bear a task of 1000 minutes, even though that many contributions from him may not exactly be necessary. Hernangomez: How Millsap's deal might affect his path There's nothing to complain about landing Millsap with a max. Actually, Nuggets robbed him of 30 million dollars with the team option on the third year. But it is still necessary to see a few moves ahead. Undersized power forwards typically have short primes. Admittedly Millsap did a great job staying competitive in his early 30's, but is also implies an increased risk of unexpected cliff fall in the coming years, which is why the 2+1 deal is such a remarkable victory. To ensure that Jokic's prime will not be wasted, Nuggets still need a backup, and it seems their perfect choice, Juan Hernangomez, would be forced to play 3 after Millsap joins. Juan could develop into a decent stretch 4, if not a top one. His size and shooting could be lethal in pick and roll, with quality defense on isolation and above average rebounding as bonus. He is facing an identity choice: playing power forward would require him to gain some weight so he could hold his position better, while small forward is more about remaining swift and versatile, But now the Nuggets seem to feed him an answer. Among the 6 reserve bigs (if Plumlee returns) Juan has the greatest potential to switch down to 3 without being much of a burden. The dilemma is like a diminished version of Anthony Davis issue a few years ago: the better player is forced to adapt to a different role because it's the only viable solution. Vison for the Team The NBA is a league dominated by stars. If Nuggets want to be a regular playoff team and even more, the best hope is for Jokic to grow into an All-NBA player and truly build around him. We need to collect players synchronized with his growth, players that support him and complete him. We need a decent pick and roll guard to create mismatch post up opportunities for him, we need versatile forwards to release him from switches, and we need a bit playmaking and isolation from the wing. But there’s no hurry. This is Jokic’s team, and Nuggets shouldn’t go after any players that’s gonna challenge his authority. Don’t pay future first round picks to trade off expensive contracts. Don’t tighten cap room up in 19-summer, and don’t make any upgrade that contradicts current plan.
Baccano!: A Guide to the Differences Between the Anime and the Adapted Source Material [Spoilers]
Well friends, it’s the first day of Baccanovember over on Tumblr. It’s also the 10 year anniversary of the 2007 Baccano! adaptation, the original 13 episode airing of which came to an end back in the beginning of November 2007. To celebrate, I’ve decided to write up a guide detailing the differences between the 2007 anime adaptation and the source material it adapted. I’ve been writing about this in various comments over the years, and figured this was a good opportunity to consolidate the information. This guide has been crossposted to /anime and crossposted to /LightNovels. The guide is meant for those who are not deeply involved with Baccano! beyond the anime but are curious to learn more. TL;DR: The anime is an excellently directed show that deserves to be commended, and the plot changes do not negate its quality. However, it is worth knowing what it changes from the novel and how deep those changes run, which I aim to showcase below. Both the anime and the novels, along with the other media adaptations (manga, NDS game, drama CDs) are a rewarding experience and I cannot recommend them enough.
OUTLINE OF GUIDE
Intro to Material: what the anime adapts + database links
Spoiler-free Zone: List of characters missing from or reduced to cameos in the anime + basic statement on differences
Spoiler Zone: In-depth overview of main plot/timeline differences
Discussion of where you can read episode-by-episode differences which have more detailed comparisons
AUTHOR BACKGROUND
If you’re asking yourself, “Why trust Rev?” I am the admin of the Baccano! Wiki and a mod of /Baccano, and have been engaging with both the anime and the source material for years. That doesn't mean I don't make mistakes, so I apologize for any misinformation in the post. Please let me know if you spot any so I can correct them!
Introduction to Material
Links:ANN | MAL | AniP | Kitsu | AniDB The original thirteen episode run of the 2007 anime adaptation adapted the first four novels of the Baccano! light novel series, which as of November 1, 2017 is twenty-two light novels long. The 23rd novel has been delayed due to health reasons on Narita's part. In other words, the anime adapts less than a fifth of the series at its current length. The OVAs (episodes 14-16), meanwhile, are linked to the gaiden novel from 2006 (which eventually turned into the fourteenth LN) with echoes of #5 and #6 in certain scenes. If you want to get into the novels, you should start with volume one (The Rolling Bootlegs) and progress in publishing order. As this guide will demonstrate, the changes made in the anime are too significant for you to be able to jump in at volume five without major comprehension snags. The three major timelines in the Baccano! anime are as follows: *CredittothefollowingthreephotoeditsgoestoJelloApocalypseandhisabridgedseries. November 1930 timeline | The Thousand-Year Drink | Adapted from Light Novel #1: Martillo Family associate Firo Prochainezo is set to be promoted to executive. Meanwhile, a certain elixir nears completion and a gang of hooligans and a nonsensical thief duo are swept into the mess. Original events take place over two days and one night, but the anime condenses them into one day and one night. As a result, several events are switched around/altered chronologically. Other events are also changed or cut out entirely. December 30-31, 1931 | Dangers on a Train | Adapted from LNs#2-3: Tells the story of a transcontinental luxury express hijacked by three independent factions simultaneously en route. And what's this about the Rail Tracer...? Most changes are directly related to the characters that are cut from the timeline in the anime. However, the anime also leaves out plenty of scenes for the sake of mystery. Dec 1931-Jan 1932 | Finding Dallas | Adapted from LN#4: Largely concerned with the Runorata-Gandor feud reaching a boiling point and the search for the missing Dallas Genoard. The most egregiously changed timeline in the anime, with it completely deviating from the fourth novel. For instance, Dallas is not the MacGuffin of the novel: a bag/case of a new potent drug prototype is. OVAS + Other: The anime also adapts certain scenes from the fifth novel 2001 The Children of Bottle, including the 1711 content and certain discussion dialogue for scenes in the OVAs that HIGHLY deviate from the original scenes. The main story of the OVAs is connected to the 14th novel, which was an expanded version of the gaiden novel that was released alongside the first drama CD in 2006 (before the anime aired). There are definitely differences between the OVAs and the 14th novel, and major differences between the OVAs and the 5th novel.
Characters cut out of the anime or reduced to cameos
1930
Unnamed Photographer (used as framing device of novel in 2002)
Henry (Daily Days info broker. Note that Nicholas Wayne in the anime is a composite character of LN characters Nicholas Wayne and Henry. All the sly and not-so-nice elements of anime-Nicholas are really from Henry)
Roy Maddock (Scottish drug addict who is embroiled with Eve and Runoratas)
Edith (Roy's girlfriend who is determined to save him from himself; waitress at the Gandors' jazz hall)
Characters characterized/motivated differently in the anime
Manfred Beriam (wants to become immortal in anime; hates immortals in novels)
Bartolo Runorata (lying about Dallas and trying to find him in anime; not trying to find him in novel or become immortal)
Eve Genoard (nicer in anime, less of LN-Eve's internal struggle)
Nicholas Wayne (see 1932 section)
Firo Prochainezo (sort of: he's nicer in the anime whereas he's more blunt, negative, and callous generally in the novels)
Luck Gandor
Spoiler-Zone: In-Depth Look
I may have been writing about this topic for some time, but I still had to pause and think about how to handle this section. How much detail should I go into? What changes should I include, and what should I leave out in lieu of the ep-by-ep discussion? Well, considering that this guide is first and foremost meant to be a broad overview of the differences rather than a nitty-gritty breakdown, I'm going to try and focus on on the main plot changes and the hugest consequential scene changes. Again, for nitty-gritty changes, stick around for the discussion of episode-by-episode changes in the next section. For now, the order of this section is as follows: 1711; 1930; 1931; 1931-1932; 2001; OVAs.
1711
Okay, most light novel fans will point out the accents in the dub as...suspect. First off, Victor is an Englishman who was exiled from England for his anti-slavery/racism rhetoric. He should thus have an English accent, not...whatever the dub gave him. Eric Vale gives Huey an overhanded French accent. Putting the questionability of his accent's authenticity aside, we don't actually know if Huey came from a French village. Plus, Huey studied in Italy for at least six years. Similarly, we don't know what geographical region Elmer comes from (he's described as looking 'northern European' at the very least), so him having an English accent is presumably ADR Director Tyler Walker making a judgement call on his name (probably did the same with Huey and Sylvie). Also, Elmer spent at least five years in Spain and then six more years in Italy in his youth. Putting accents aside, here are some major changes: Rules for Immortals: The rules for immortals are the same except for one crucial difference. In the anime, immortals can transfer information to other immortals by placing their right hand on the other's forehead. NOT THE CASE in the novels. In the novels, immortals can only transmit info to their linked homunculi via their left hand. As an example, in the anime, Maiza shares half of the knowledge of the Grand Panacea with Gretto by transferring it via his hand. Szilard witnesses this, and then deliberately devours Gretto to receive that information. In the novel Maiza simply tells Gretto half of the recipe before thinking better of it. Szilard learns half of the recipe through eavesdropping, just like that, and then tries to devour Maiza in his bed to get the full recipe...only to mistake a sleeping Gretto for Maiza and accidentally devour him instead. Another major point: Maiza talking about the man whom he, his father, and grandfather never saw age in the episode is a very weird scene because the man he is referencing is actually Dalton Strauss - a man whom Maiza studied alchemy under for four years (1707-1711) and shouldn't be referring to so distantly. In general, the scene is a huge question mark for light novel fans.
Nov 1930
If you'll recall, the 1930 timeline condenses the events of two days and one night into one day and one night. This really messes with the chronology of events. The elixir's chain of custody is radically different, for one thing. Let's try and address this in an easy-to-digest manner. First, I want to bring up the E01 scene with Firo and the beggar. In the anime, it clearly takes place after Firo becomes immortal – but in the novels, it takes place BEFORE. Firo knocks out the beggar, Assistant Inspector Edward shows up and reveals he was basically using Firo as bait to nab the beggar, and Maiza shows up to take Firo hat-shopping. The thing is, the beggar is also crucially important to the 1930 timeline in one other aspect: the day before, he had murdered the blender who was responsible for perfecting Szilard's elixir (Barnes isn't actually making the elixirs in the novels). If he hadn't done that, then Szilard would have simply shown up the next day to devour the blender and harvest his knowledge of the recipe. The entire course of Baccano!'s history would have been altered. It's also worthy to note that the beggar became a mugger only after Dallas and his goons coincidentally beat him up earlier that month. If they hadn't done that, he might not have turned to murdering, and thus might not have killed the blender and changed the course of history. Anyway, the order of events is like this: Firo/Edward scenehat shoppingfireFiro rescuing Barnes. Now, in the LNs, Firo is actually carrying four bottles of alcohol with him for the party. While everyone else is down for the count, Firo sneaks a peek at Barnes' bottles and decides to switch out his liquor for Barnes. He replaces the elixir in Barnes' bottles with his regular alcohol and fills his bottles with the elixir...BAM and here we have the chain of custody completely different from the anime. LN chain: Elixir moves from BarnesFiroParty. Anime: BarnesDallasGandorsDallasI&MParty. So in the novels, the crate that constantly changes hands is carrying normal alcohol. This is connected to the altering of the chronology: Dallas and co. do kill Mike and the other Gandors during the Martillos' party...which Isaac and Miria depart from early, run into Dallas' group, and then rob the crate from them. The next day, they decide to drop off the liquor at the Alveare as a thank you gift to the Martillos for hosting them. THIS is when spying Ennis spots Maiza, and leaves to alert Szilard of Maiza's location. On the way back, they run into Edward at the Coraggioso and learn of the Gandor men's deaths. They assume that Dallas' group were Gandors and that they killed them, and they then realize that the stolen liquor might wrongly implicate the Martillos as the ones responsible for the crime. Horrified, they head back to the Alveare to warn the Martillos of what's going on (so right now the Gandor bros are heading to the Alveare to talk to the Martillos about their men's deaths, and Szilard is heading to the Alveare to devour Maiza). On the way to the Alveare, I&M come across Dallas' group carrying machine guns and talking about how they're going to get Ennis back. Miria thinks they must have broken out of jail (I&M never realize that Dallas' group was the one they stole the crate from; Dallas' group never realizes it either) for revenge, and she and Isaac run off to find and hotwire a car to take on the goons with. Of course, the car they find is Szilard's car. Thus, the confrontation between Szilard and Maiza happens the day after the party, during lunchtime. Firo is PRESENT for this, and Maiza orders him to flee and tell Molsa (who along with Yaguruma and Ronny is not present) what's going on. Szilard tries to gun down Firo, but Maiza dives in front of the gun and blocks all of the bullets with his body. Firo is immediately attacked by Ennis when he leaves (by the way, he wasn't looking for her to return her cufflink in the novels. She doesn't lose it. He followed her basically because he found her attractive). Bill, Donald, and Edward show up at the Alveare because of reports of gunshots, and Bill and Donald (who are part of the BOI's immortals department) confirm Szilard's death. Isaac and Miria think they're here to arrest the Martillos, and fire off guns and run away in order to lead the normal police officers away from the site. Like in the anime, they toss the Genoard fortune to passersby. Oh, and Maiza also asks Firo to devour him in the alleyway. To my eternal fury, that doesn't make it into the anime. That's the general breakdown of the major plot changes. There are various minor changes, and several LN scenes are either truncated (like Firo's induction ritual) or deleted entirely in the anime. All of the scenes with Edward are cut, of course (including the scene where he, Bill, and Donald confront Szilard's coterie of old men), and obviously the 2002 wraparound novel scenes are also cut.
Dec 30-31 1931
This is the timeline that's adapted the most faithfully by the anime, with most of the major changes falling into two categories: changes resulting from important major characters being cut from the anime; and general scenes that are deleted either for time's sake or for the sake of maintaining the established mystery. In this case, the main mystery is the identity of the Rail Tracer in the anime; since the anime doesn't reveal his identity until E09, it has to cut out a LOT of his PoV scenes in the novels as a result. (We spend a fair amount of time in Claire's perspective in the novels, learning that he's crawling under the cars to switch off the car's electricity so he can kill people in darkness; that he's constantly returning to the conductors' compartment to perform the necessary scheduled light signals [that's why he appears near the compartment more than once in the anime], his opinion of Rachel, etc.) Before we get to the main changes (i.e. from character cuts), it's worth noting that the anime's implication that Beriam knows about/is interested in Czes' explosives is not a novel thing. Also, Nice speaks super politely to everyone except Jacuzzi, and the train's engineers are a pair of elderly brothers who are hard of hearing. Hence why they don't catch on to all the gunfire and explosions for hours, and when they do Claire shows up and claims there's a horseback posse chasing them and they'd better not slow down no matter what. Let's review our cut characters: Jack is the third gang member accompanying Jacuzzi and Nice on the train alongside Nick and Donny; Doctor Fred is a ex-WWI military doctor and passenger on the train. He earns Ladd's favor and uses Ladd's compartment to treat the train's injured regardless of faction at Ladd's invitation; Mr. Turner is an ass of a First-Class passenger from Rachel's past; Chef Gregoire is the head chef of the kitchen and a former colleague of Claire's from his circus days... ...Upham is a timid Lemur whom the anime replaces with a mustached man; Nader Schasschule is another Lemur who doesn't make it onto the train thanks to him staging a failed coup against Goose Perkins the day before; ...and then the two surprise characters and . ...I'll get to the last two, trust me. Jack's biggest thing in the novels is that he is captured along with Nick by the Lemures, and when Ladd shows up and learns his name is Jack, assaults him solely to find out whether or not all Jacks are good boxers (yes, this was a pre-established point of interest for him). Once they're rescued Donny ends up dumping him in a random second class compartment...which turns out to be Ladd's compartment, which by this point Fred is now using at his invitation. Ladd had run into Fred earlier, see, and recognized that Fred had the eyes of a man who wants to die. Ladd isn't too good with men like Fred (though women of this vein are exactly Ladd's type), and he ended up telling Fred to use his compartment. I should note that Fred (introduced as the Grey Magician) is actually the novel's red herring for Maiza's old friend (i.e. Czes) like Rachel is the red herring for Claire. So Who and Lua show up in the compartment, and after some initial confusion Who assists Fred in treating Jack. Oh - Who is Ladd's childhood friend, and the White Suit who was captured along with Lua by the Lemures). Now, Claire actually happens upon the compartment (from where he is clinging to the outside window), and, when Lua notices him, is surprised that she isn't strongly reacting to him at all. When Lua realizes that Ladd is going up against the Red Shadow from outside the window, she inwardly freaks out because she realizes that Ladd cannot beat him (she has weirdly accurate intuition). Fred recognizes the new life in her eyes and encourages her to act on it - and thus is the reason for why she ends up climbing onto the roof of the train later. Moving on to Turner... Turner is the railroad executive responsible for a ten-year-old train accident for which he pushed the blame onto Rachel's father. He has no idea who Rachel is, but when she spots him on the train she is instantly full of hate. Now, Turner raises a scene in the dining car after the Ladd vs Lemures assault: he hurls racist and xenophobic epithets at Jon (Irish) and Fang (Half-Chinese) and is all around a humungous ass, until Isaac and Miria finally snap and rain hell and fury down upon him. Gregoire orders Jon and Fang to throw Turner out, and they do so with relish. Turner wanders the corridors with increasing fear until he runs into , who's calling himself 'Victor Talbot' (yes, that Victor) and stowed away in the compartment that would have been Jacques-Rosé's had he decided not to get on the train in time (Jacques-Rosé and Rosetta are two more characters worth knowing about. If you know about those two, you are really goddamn deep into Baccano! lore). , who spends a lot of the time on the train slinking around and looking for Czes, offers his protection services to Turner and leads him through the corridors. The two of them come across the corpse of the White Suit who preyed on Mary, and takes the corpse's rifle and hands it to Turner before abandoning him. Turner becomes increasingly paranoid, and when he comes across Rachel (who is resting due to her gunshot injury - which is in her thigh in the novels, not her ankle), prepares to shoot her for the sake of shooting anyone. She reveals her identity after a heated confrontation, and then shouts for the Rail Tracer (who has been eavesdropping) to kill her before Turner can. Claire instead dislocates Turner's shoulders, but doesn't kill him at Rachel's request. He ends up giving Rachel a bloody half-torn ticket, which is the reason why the police later don't arrest her on grounds of, you know, stowing away. He also says that if he hadn't met Chané he may have fallen a little bit in love with Rachel. Remember Upham? Upham is supposed to be the Lemur who runs away from Ladd after he ambushes the Lemures after his first fight with Chané. Upham ends up nabbed by Jacuzzi and Donny, who interrogate him for info on the Lemures before leaving him tied up in a freight hold. Upham is discovered and freed by , whom he then stabs out of fear and thus learns of . ( is on the train because he's heard that Szilard is back in New York and wants to find him). The two of them decide to check out the conductors' compartment, where they discover the corpses of the Lemur and Dune. shows up and stabs Upham, who stabs back. prepares to kill Upham (because Upham has witnessed true self), but steps in to take the blade instead. He tries to drag off the train, tries to drag him down with him, but Upham pulls up in the nick of time. Then Claire shows up and chastises Upham and for being in the conductors' compartment. He notices Upham's wound and is about to ask what happened when Chané's knife pierces through the wall and nicks his ear, and he climbs back up onto the roof...where of course he finds Chané and Ladd having their second confrontation. Ah! That reminds me - the anime implies that Huey and Chané have some sort of telepathic connection, which is 100% not the case no way no how in the novels. The birds that appear during the Huey<->Chané scenes are likely a reference to Hilton, a novel character. On the presence of and on the train...it was first hinted at in LN#12 (publ. 2007), revealed in the NDS game (2008), and then confirmed in LN#14. I don't know for sure if the gaiden novel included them or not. Bonus soundbite of laughing in the NDS game! (It's an external recording from a fan; I wanted to extract the audio directly from the rom, but unfortunately the software is not compatible with my OS and I can't get Wine to cooperate with me). Oh right...after Claire reunites with the Gandor bros, he and Berga end up brawling (which they tend to do) on the street. Keith watches on and, with the Runorata-Gandor feud in mind, thinks that this will be the last peaceful time they have for a while. Czes also reunites with Begg that day - now, do you remember that he came to New York to devour Maiza after receiving a letter from him? Well, he had also received a letter from Begg, too - Begg is working for the Runoratas, and he's the one who arranged to buy Czes' explosives off him. Czes had planned on devouring him as well upon arrival. Of course, Jacuzzi's gang stealing the explosives means that Czes is worried the Runoratas will come after him in retaliation - but Begg reveals that the money for the explosives came out of his own pocket and Czes has nothing to fear. Czes (who was looked after by Begg in the 1700s after he was orphaned) is naturally feeling pretty guilty for having planned to devour Begg at this familiar display of Begg's kindness towards him.
Dec 1931-Jan 1932
By far the most drastically changed plotline from the fourth novel to the point where it becomes a completely different plot. In the anime, Gustavo is trying to muscle in on Gandor and Martillo turf like he is in the novels - though what the anime leaves out is that he's specifically trying to muscle in on the Manhattan drug market. Relevant to this is that Keith abhors drugs and prohibits drug trade on Gandor turf. Now, anime-Bartolo lies to Gustavo that Dallas has blackmail material on Gustavo for the deaths of Raymond and Jeffrey Genoard, which prompts Gustavo's search for Dallas. This is obviously a lie on Bartolo's part since Dallas is at this point in time currently drowning in a riverbed - but in the novels, Bartolo doesn't lie in the first place since he has no interest in finding Dallas at all. He DOES NOT want to become immortal in the novels, just as Beriam actively hates immortals in the novels and is also not involved in the search for Dallas. The only person searching for news about Dallas is Eve, whom Elean actually tells the truth to about Dallas' fate rather than lying like he does in the anime. What the Runoratas are actually searching for in the novels is a case containing Begg's powerful new drug prototype, which was stolen in transit by a very high Roy Maddock. Roy, once he comes down from his high and realizes what he's done, is understandably terrified of Runorata retaliation. Edith, despite an earlier argument with Roy, essentially rolls up her sleeves and prepares to dig Roy out of the hole he's found himself in. Roy goes to the Daily Days for info, and Henry suggests that he use Eve as a shield against the Runoratas (in the anime, this becomes Nicholas suggesting that Gustavo use Eve as bait). Roy meets Eve at her place, the two of them go to Keith's house and meet his wife Kate, and then they are kidnapped by Claire in disguise and taken to the Daily Days. Whoops, nearly started summarizing the entire book. Er, basically everything comes to a head when Gustavo leads a raid of the Daily Days headquarters in order to kill the Gandor bros. DDays evacuated in advance. Claire brings Eve and Roy to the DDays because he's working on Gustavo's orders. It turns out that Keith and Bartolo made an agreement in which the DDays operation would lead to Gustavo's downfall, because Bartolo is sick of Gustavo's crap. Gustavo's hired assassins fight Claire, and Gustavo tries to kill Eve. Luck saves her and has a viciously brutal fight with Gustavo, in which he suffers plenty of injuries but also shoots Gustavo six times in the chest, etc. When Eve learns that Gustavo really was responsible for killing her father and brother, she raises a gun and tries to shoot him. No, seriously. Luck blocks the shot with his hand, and then stabs Gustavo in the throat with the jagged bone of his severed hand. Then he passes out. Gustavo survives, by the way. Begg comes across Roy, whose hypersensitivity to drugs fascinates him. He holds a gun to Edith's hand and asks Roy to inject himself with the new drug prototype (which will kill him) so Begg can observe how he reacts (and the happiness the drug will give him). Roy makes Begg promise to not kill Edith, and injects himself with the drug to fulfill the deal. Then he smashes a window and uses the glass to slit his wrist, so that Begg won't get what he wants. Begg, angry but also genuinely wanting to help Roy, tells Edith to get Roy to a hospital. He shoots himself in the head to give her the chance to escape during the regeneration process. As you can see, the anime is almost completely different plotwise. The most basic reason I can fathom is that the 4th novel introduces several new characters that aren't in the 1930 and 1931 timelines. Staff probably wanted the anime to feel more self-contained and tightly interwoven, and stuck to using characters whom the viewer already knew. Oh yeah, I'd like to also say that the bookshop scene in the anime with Firo and Luck is sort of a composite of two novel scenes: a scene in which Berga is gambling at the casino Firo manages and Firo complains about Berga potentially endangering Martillo turf considering that the Runoratas and Gandors are feuding; and the bookshop scene in which Luck is alone when the Runoratas kill him. He dies by having his throat slit rather than via a hit-and-run. Yep, Firo offers to help out in the Runorata-Gandor feud in the anime, whereas he actively does not do that in the novels. See this. Like I said, anime-Firo is nicer than LN-Firo. This also reminds me to talk about Eve's characterization changes. In later novels Eve seems to have softened into anime-Eve, but Eve in Vols 1 and 4 is...different. She honestly dislikes Dallas to some extent and recognizes that even if he's nice to her he's still kind of a terrible guy. She's also more conflicted about her faith than you might think, and angry at herself for having prayed all this time out of indecision and passiveness. Perceiving her own selfishness, indecisiveness, and passiveness is what spurs Eve to act instead of pray in 1932 and run away from home to deal with things. When she hears how Gustavo unrepentantly killed her father and brother (I believe she also learns that her family was actually involved in the drug business, which horrifies her), she is filled with absolute hate and unforgiveness that drives her to raise that gun and shoot. Luck obviously is not about to let her become a murderer, hence him blocking the bullet with his own gun. He later gives Eve a map to Dallas' location.
2001
The scene with Isaac and Miria...well, first of all - they're not stealing cell phones in the novel, (there's no guarantee they're back to thieving in 2001 anyway, considering that Isaac decides to give up his life of crime in 1934). They're also not wearing those groovy outfits, though through a series of misremembering about Japanese and Buddhist mythology they end up deciding to sew 108 bells onto their clothes (54 each) to symbolize their rebirth.
OVAs
Comparisons here are drawn from the fifth and fourteenth light novels, not the gaiden novel. In this case a lot of scenes are fabricated and downright opposite to what happens in the anime. Like Graham's and Ladd's first meeting. It is SO antipodal to the novel scene - see, in the anime, their first meeting is antagonistic whereas their novel meeting is nothing of the sort. Ladd comes across some men roughing up Graham and takes them all on in a fight. Graham is so dazzled by the logic that Ladd spouts that he then and there swears to follow Ladd. See? Not antagonistic in the slightest. I'm NOT happy with the anime changing that. Now, Sylvie is not present during the dominos party. She also does not reunite with Elmer in 1932: their reunion scene borrows dialogue from the fifth volume but is otherwise made up. They don't actually reunite until As for Huey and Elmer's reunion scene, some of its dialogue is borrowed from Huey internally monologuing in LN#6 (in which he asks an absent Elmer what he would think of Chané). However, Huey and Elmer actually still have yet to reunite as of 2002 - they haven't seen each other since 1711. Elmer and Ronny's conversation appears to be anime original, but it's delightful regardless. Oh, that reminds me - Gustav and Carol's rainbow conversation is supposed to actually take place in 1934. Firo also doesn't knock over the dominos in 1932. He does do that in 1933, but it's not accidental. There are various other differences in the OVAs, including how Rachel is supposed to actually be wearing a dress when she meets with Czes and dines with Claire (which she does in the Alveare), Jacuzzi doesn't actually recognize Claire as the Rail Tracer in the novels, it's a random delinquent whom Graham hits, not Nick... ...Actually, speaking of, the anime does explain why Jacuzzi's gang is now living in the Genoard manor on Millionaires' Row, but in a very rushed and offhand manner. So, Jon and Fang are informed by Gregoire that as a result of the gov't covering up the FPF incident they're all being fired. Since Gregoire recognizes their skill, he decides to use a connection of his to recommend them for jobs as private bartender and chef to Eve. He then gives them 100 servings of stew, which they take to the clinic where Jacuzzi is recovering... ...A clinic that happens to be operated by Fred. Raz Smith, Roy Maddock, and Jack are convalescing there alongside Jacuzzi at the same time, and Upham receives treatment for his wound there. Elmer also shows up after Upham leaves to ask about Szilard. (Jack's the white-haired guy who clambers onto Jacuzzi's bed in the anime). So Jacuzzi's gang pours into the clinic to eat the stew, and Nice and Nick drop their bowls in shock when Chané enters the room. They didn't know beforehand that the retrieval team pulled her out, unlike in the anime. Ah, right - Jon basically asked Eve if she wouldn't mind if some of his friends lived in the manor to help look after it as pseudo-housekeepers, and she agreed. Of course, he neglected to mention how many of them there were or that they were criminals. Nearly forgot! The reason for why Jacuzzi got a tattoo is also different. In the anime he gets it so that he'll stand out as much as Nice, facially speaking. In the novels, he recognizes that Nice is terrified that she'll never be able to recognize anyone again (her remaining eye was injured and has terrible vision) and thus gets the tattoo so that she'll always be able to recognize him no matter what. Both reasons are good, but I prefer the novel one.
Episode-by-Episode Differences: Where to Find Them
Two options, here. The first option I present to you is the Baccano! Wiki: after months of on and off work I have finally revamped all sixteen episode articles, which included rewriting all 16 full recaps, adding recap and preview summaries, and, most importantly, adding sections recounting the anime/source material differences in each episode. I'm not done with adding screenshots to the last four episodes but the recaps and differences sections are basically ready to go. You can access them here.) I should say that I didn't include every single minor detail, and that I am most definitely fallible and may have gotten information wrong or left information out. I can only apologize if I have, and if you notice, ask that you correct or add the info as needed. Speaking of getting information wrong, I also wrote episodic write-ups for the 2017 and 2016/anime Baccano! rewatches. My write-ups for the 2017 rewatch are a deliberate improvement upon the 2016 write-ups, in which I did more than once misremember information and leave out important other information. Please keep that in mind should you choose to read my 2016 write-ups. The differences noted in the write-ups are less thorough than the wiki versions. I know that this is insanely long and I apologize for that. I don't know if anyone will actually read this/read this all the way, but I hope that it can prove useful to at least one person. If you're interested in reading the source material or knowing more about the series, /Baccano now has a wiki with a FAQ, links to the official translations, a reading order (published not chronological for the love of God), and some resources. You might find it a good starting place. Whew. I was worried I wouldn't get this out in time, since last night I was performing in a Samhuinn celebration and didn't come back home from the second after party until ten AM thanks to a kind stranger who was out walking her dogs. Spent the last few hours doing a lot of writing, though the planning for this guide started a few weeks in advance. Once again, happy Baccanovember and happy 10 year anniversary of the anime adaptation! Here's a drawing Shinta Fujimoto (mangaka of the 2015 Baccano! manga adaptation) did of LN characters Gabriel and Juliano for Halloween yesterday.
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