Baki, a great grappler needs to live up to his name being the son of the the greatest grapplers of all time: Hanma Yujiro. At the Shinshinkai Organization's private arena, anything goes and the odds are always stacked against you. Current champion of the urderground tournament he fight to defend his title against the worlds strongest and best martial artists, including "the beast" his own father Yujiro.

Baccano is Italian for noise, but Narita translates it as "stupid commotion." Each of the stories in the series involves several unrelated plots intersecting and crossing each other as events spiral farther and farther out of control. Immortal alchemists, mafia operated speakeasies, and many other elements of pulp fiction mashed together for a world straight out of the movies.

As to the plot, it consists of penniless teacher Ishida Toraji, who during dinner with an old friend makes a simple wager where he’ll get a year of free meals if he wins. All he has to do is have the school kendo club he manages beat his friend’s students in a friendly match. Unfortunately, he needs an all-girl team, and there’s presently only one female member. Thus he sets out to recruit four new girls and train them to be victorious. First on his list is the unwilling kendo prodigy Tamaki.