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TAF 2007: Baccano! TV Anime Announcements

The 2007 Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) held a focus panel this weekend that focuses on Narita Ryogo's popular novel series Baccano!. No network has been announced for the series yet, but series staff are hoping that the show will start broadcasting in Japan this July.

Baccano! is a crime drama set in prohibition era New York City. Currently 9 volumes of the novel series have been released, selling 450,000 volumes. Mr. Narita was in attendance at the panel, as was anime director Omori Takahiro. Anime production for the series will be handled by Brains Base, who worked on the anime series Kamichu!

Aniplex first proposed making the series into an anime a few years ago. The process took quite a long time since other staff said the project was previously lacking focus. After seeing the initial scenes from the anime, Mr. Narita said that "I'm happy that the anime staff seems to have produced something more interesting than my original work", he said, laughing. "There's a lot of competition among manga and other media to create the best product out there. I hope I am able to write stories that are even more engaging in the future."

Source: Anime! Anime!