Baccano!, Vol. 20 (light novel) (Volume 20)

Baccano! Light Novel #20

by Ryohgo Narita, Katsumi Enami (Artist)

As the Flying Pussyfoot races toward New York City with a shocking incident on board, a brand-new ruckus plays out in the background. In a riverside forest at the break of dawn, a variety of individuals with vastly different agendas lie in wait for the train to cross a nearby bridge. The Lemures are on standby for a call from someone inside the Flying Pussyfoot; Jacuzzi’s friends try to pick up the cargo; an all-girl gang of bandits scheme to rob another train; a boy resolves to run away from home... At first glance, these events seem unconnected. However, as though beckoned by the train and forest, they will come together in a riot for the ages.          

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy

170 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2013

About the author

Ryohgo Narita (成田 良悟, Narita Ryōgo) is a Japanese light novelist. He won the Gold Prize in the 9th Dengeki Novel Prize for Baccano!, which was made into a TV anime in 2007.[1] His series Durarara!! was also made into a TV anime, which began airing January 2010


There are two traits found in most of Narita's works:
* Narita writes extremely fast, one volume a month if he wishes - with tons of spelling errors and missing words as a tradeoff. The editors like to leave them sometimes just for fun, though.
* His work titles often have an exclamation mark at the end (i.e. Baccano!, Vamp!, Durarara!!, etc.).

Kanji names: 成田 良悟 & 成田良悟.

Reviews

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ve heard about Sonia in the previous books, she’s Nader’s childhood friend that he wanted to protect. But in this flashback book, we get to know a bit more about her. She was raised in the woods by her parents. They taught her that you don’t need school, friends or romance in life. All you need is lots of guns. Naturally, she grew up to be quite a character. She’s now part of an all-female group that’s planning a train robbery. Unfortunately, they’re planning to rob the Flying Pussyfoot. And as we already know from books two and three in this series, that’s not a good idea.

Carzelio Runorata is a young boy who’s destined to be the head of his family one day. But he feels like a bird in a cage. One day he notices an opportunity and bursts out of his cage, running away from the mafia family that has protected and sheltered him from the day he was born. He climbs into the back of a truck, lets himself get driven to freedom and falls asleep.

The all-female group find a sleeping boy in the back of their truck. As soon as they realize the kid could be worth something, they demand a ransom. But they don’t know what kind of trouble they now find themselves in. As the powerful Runorata family is coming at them with everything they’ve got.


A quick little detour from the climax of the 1930's arc. Pretty much one big flashback to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s before we enter the final stage. It’s more lighthearted and fun than the previous ones. Though the side story of the abandoned circus bear manages to pull some heartstrings in the middle of quite an exciting and fast-paced story.

[Scott Mattson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a side story set in the early part of the Baccano saga, during the flying pussyfoot incident. Since it's a side story, main characters from the series are not involved directly. Makes sense sicne most of the main characters would have been on the flying pussyfoot. There are a group of Orphans trying to get explosives from the train. A group of girl bugulars who want to rob the train. Then there is a group of other thiefs also trying to get the explosives. Then a son of a mafia boss runs away, and mixes everything up.
Lots of interesting characters and dialouge. The story is actually easier to follow along with compared to other Baccano novels.

[Kayleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant