Baccano! (Japan, 2009)

A life of crime can last forever...

Don't let nobody tell you there's no future in a life of crime, because some rackets can last forever. But we'll get around to all that immortality jazz later. A mafia turf war is raging on the mean streets of the Big Apple, a place where regular joes bounce between backdoor booze joints and the breadline. But this caper ain't about a simple gangland brawl. It's about hoods who can't seem to die proper after catching a bullet or five between the eyes. Sadistic hit-men and the dames they love, mad bombers going boom, monsters going bump and soul sucking alchemists bootlegging an elixir of eternal life.

Baccano is a suburb supernatural noir mystery set in the 1930s New York on the backdrop of a mafia war.

Told through the recounts of a newspaper assistant, the anime series explores the emergence of a supernatural clan of mafia top dogs dealing the ultimate prohibition elixir - eternal life.

A compelling crime story full of mob hits and Tommy guns, Baccano combines the uncompromising violence of gangster and noir films with the brooding mood of a supernatural thriller.

Each episode centres around a different character, introducing how they came to be ravelled in the mystery, before weaving them into a increasingly complex narrative.

Volume one - which includes the first four episodes - really only serves as an introduction to what's to come. Like the first season of Heroes this is sure to really find its feet as the characters lives become more deeply entwined as the series progresses.

Compelling viewing.

Baccano! is available now through Madman Entertainment.