The series, told from multiple points of view, is mostly set within a fictional United States across time most notably the Prohibition era.

The novels were adapted into a sixteen episode anime television series directed by Takahiro Omori and produced by Brain's Base and Aniplex.

The elixir continually moves around the city because of Dallas, with the three mafiosi Gandor brothers, the two idiotic thieves Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent, and Maiza's protege Firo Prochainezo and their Camorra family, the Martillo, all passing it around.

In an attempt to resolve the situation, Luck Gandor asks his adoptive brother Claire Stanfield, an assassin and train conductor, to travel to New York.

A serial stowaway and newspaper field agent named Rachel flees Claire and ends up helping in the rescue of the hostages.

The last remaining members of the Lemure are eventually defeated by Jacuzzi's gang, while sadistic murderer Ladd Russo is incarcerated and loses his arm to Claire.

The duo boards the same train and meets Jacuzzi, and unwittingly sway immortal Czeslaw Meyer from enacting malevolent acts via bombs to be used in the New York Drug War.

The train arrives in New Year 1932 with the survivors going their separate ways: Jacuzzi and Nice escape custody and go into hiding after their base of operations in Chicago was taken over by the Russo family; information gatherer Rachel returns to the Daily Days mostly unscathed; Isaac and Miria introduce Czes to the Martillo family and is subsequently adopted by Firo and Ennis, who later marry, as the latter's brother; and Claire begins his mission to exterminate the enemies of his adoptive brothers, with his intentions to find Chane and marry her after the job is done.

Representatives (Ronnie Schiatto, Ennis, Maria Barcelito and Tick Jefferson) from both groups converge on Eve's home, where his gang is staying along with Isaac and Miria.

However it devolves into an incident at the mansion, forcing both parties to temporarily retreat and attract the attention of Claire after hearing Chane was injured in the battle.

Their conflict reaches a prominent building in New York called Mist Wall, the largest branch office of the military equipment researcher and developer Nebula, is bombed according to Huey's plan but mitigated by the intervention of various parties involved.

The next year in 1934 at Alcatraz Island, Ladd Russo befriends Firo, who was framed by fellow Immortal Victor Talbot for the Mist Wall public bombing and Isaac, who was finally caught for his thefts, leaving Miria morose from his arrest.

All three men meet Huey Laforet in separate occasions, who was charged with treason and conspiracy years ago with affiliation to the Lemures among other terrorist acts.

In 1935, One particular immortal named Melvi targets Firo in by manipulating the entire cast to partake in a high stakes casino royale party in a newly established building called Ra's Lance run by various Mafia families, however many other characters have various agendas that threatens his plan.

He intends to endanger Ennis in order to extract the memories of Szilard Quaites by eating Firo, unaware that his bodyguard is Claire Stanfield, resulting in his defeat.

They uncover an age old conspiracy detailing the origins of water homunculi from the 1930s (Sham and Leeza Laforet, sister of Chane) and also putting a stop the experiments on the people that had been ongoing in the town as they remained unaware of Szilard Quaite's demise for almost the remaining century, his descendant Bild Quaites later encounters the immortals and reveals the horrific secrets of the village.

Phil and Felt Nebil, homunculi resulting from Szilard's experiments are subsequently freed from the village and allowed to wander the earth, ending up in New York after the ordeal.

[2] Narita did not begin work on a second novel during the six months after the publication of The Rolling Bootlegs because his chief editor asked him to write nothing until after he graduated from university.

Narita noted that all of the Lemure and Russo, with the exception of a character named Neider, were originally planned to die, but Claire's presence in the novel left that concept "in ruins".

[4] While creating the anime series, art director Akira Ito and other staff members scouted Manhattan and surrounding neighborhoods to accurately portray the area.

They visited the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Chinatown, Little Italy, Grand Central Terminal and various locations in Brooklyn and along the East River, many of which provide the backdrop for the events in Baccano!.

[5][6] Tyler Walker, the ADR director of the English dub of the series, held auditions for six days, during which about 140 people came for the eighteen main roles.

It follows Firo and Luck as they chase two men to a small village in Mexico and attempt to retrieve money stolen from the Martillo and Gandor families.

[20] A 16-episode anime series directed by Takahiro Omori and produced by Brain's Base, Aniplex and Movic was adapted from the light novels.

[21][22][23] The episodes describe the events spanning from 1930 to 1932 in a non-linear fashion, including the recreation of the immortality elixir, the hijacking of the Flying Pussyfoot, Eve's hunt for her brother and the gang war between the Gandor and the Runorata.

The first thirteen episodes aired in Japan from July 26, 2007, to November 1, 2007 on WOWOW, a Japanese pay-per-view station, and the final three were released direct-to-DVD.

[39][40] On January 25, 2016, it was announced that Funimation's DVD home distribution and streaming rights for the anime would expire on February 8, 2016, and the series will be transferred to Aniplex of America.

[60] Based on the two Grand Punk Railroad light novels, the game recounts the events aboard the Flying Pussyfoot train from multiple perspectives.

[63] The book not only featured illustrations drawn by Enami, but also included a story titled Boy Czeslaw, Fellows of the Forest (of Buildings) (チェスワフぼうやと、(ビルの)森の仲間達, Chesuwafu Bōya to, (Biru no) Mori no Nakamatachi).

"[71] Bryce Coulter of Mania Entertainment gave the complete series a 'B' rating, stating that it is "a drastic and welcome departure from your typical anime formula and that's what makes it so intriguing," and concluding that it has a "little bit of comedy, drama, action, and romance all swirled up into one giant ruckus of fun!