Baccano! – 06

If you were wondering what happened to my entries for Baccano! for the past two weeks, there was some kind of hiatus in the broadcast schedule. Luckily, it’s now back and totally made up for the two-week absence when this turns out to be quite possibly the best episode of Baccano! yet. I love how well-written the story for this series turns out to be; especially the middle of this episode is excellent, which brings us twist after twist after twist. We start the episode with the information-office. It seems that they received a threat from the Gustave-family, something about Eve. I didn’t quite understand that part, weren’t the Runorata-family the ones who were after the Genoards? We also “see” the director of the information-office for the first time. I put “see” between quotes, because we never realy see him. He’s always hidden behind a huge pile of books and paper. Afterwards, the blonde guy talks to some of his subordinates to keep an eye out for the Gustave and the Gandor-family in case they show signs of knowing where Dallas went. Next up, the Flying Pussyfoot. Nathalie Williams is in a room with the guys in black, as they get a transmission from the ones we saw getting captured at the end of the previous episode. We then switch to the mysterious green-clothed girl, who is still under the train, climbing. Then, my theory of her being the Rail Tracer gets blown to pieces as she encounters it, seeing it brutally kill one of the guys in black. It then comes towards her, whispers something in her ear and this causes her to scream and flee. The interesting thing is, though: the Rail Tracer let her live, which means that it’s on the Flying Pussyfoot with a mission. Back to 1930, Dallas tries to go to Luck to get some help in getting revenge on Firo, though Berga quickly takes care of him and his companions. The interesting thing is that they confiscate the two bottles that Dallas took from Barnes. This gives us more clues as to how Luck and Firo became immortals. But on the other hand, we haven’t seen any proof that Firo was friends with the Gandor-family up till now, have we? The next scene is on the Flying Pussyfoot again, where Chezlaw hides Merry in a broom-closet so that he can move a bit more freely. We then switch to Nice, Jacuzzi and their companion (I love this guy, by the way. He’s so large that he keeps struggling though the small corridors and doors of the train; quite hilarious) find the door where Nick disappeared in. They find him back, and he tells them about Ladd Russo, and it seems that Lua and the one who went with her were the ones who launched the surprise attack on Nick. When Nick is free, they notice another door, under which blood appears. But first we see how one of Ladd’s companions discovers Merry and gets stabbed by Chane! This can become very interesting. Remember how Chane only barely survived the trip, and Merry was nowhere to be seen amongst the survivors. Back to Jacuzzi, the bloody door opens and Ladd emerges from it. Jacuzzi indeed has a history with the Russo-family: the punks from the previous episode are from the Russo-family it seems. A conflict between the two parties is avoided when Jacuzzi mentions the murdered conductor. Apparently, he was one of Russo’s allies, not Chane’s. Because this is rather unexpected for Ladd, he decides to check it out. It seems that he’s becoming aware of the Rail Tracer as well, as inside the room he came from, there were some more of its victims. This can turn out interesting, and I’m beginning to think that that missing arm of his was caused by this being. No human could do that anyway. And I’m also pretty sure that the guy in the first episode, of whom we only saw a silhouette, is this same Rail Tracer. Apparently, he’s searching for someone. But what could it be, and what does it have to do with the mysterious girl, the conductor and the guys in black? Back to 1930: we now see Isaac and Miria, after they’ve just been hit by Ennis. They’re still angry at the driver who hit them, but they’ve unfortunately ran into Dallas, who has just been angered by one of his underlings when he started talking about Eve. It’s clear that the two of them are really close. We then switch to the New-York part of the 1931-story, where the guys from the Runorata-family kidnap Eve. Could this start the explanation of why she was watching the digging-machines fish up things in the harbour in 1932? In any case, her maid gets locked up and she’s in trouble now. Back to Jacuzzi and the others: they see inside the room where Ladd came from and witness the bloodbath. Nick then looks outside of the window and he spots Rail Tracer. Back to Ennis, it seems that she wasn’t searching for Firo like I first though, but Dallas. It’s obvious, since they’re the ones who took the bottles from Barnes. Coincidentally, when she finds him, Dallas was just busy beating Isaac and Miria. She saves the two of them, explaining their friendship. I’m expecting her to get even closer to them in the next few episodes. I now also finally know why the Gandor-family is so important in this story: they’ve basically got the bottles, and I don’t think that Szilard will be getting them back easily. We then switch to the information office, where the news has arrived that Eve has been captured. Out of all of the subplots, theirs is the hardest to understand at the moment, unfortunately. We end the episode with Szilard and Ennis, along with their allies as they inject some strange liquid into Dallas. This could explain his disappearance, though I doubt that the injection will just kill them. Did Quates just turn them into guinea-pigs for his experiments? So, obviously I liked this episode. This anime is almost one huge roller-coaster ride, and we’re only halfway through.]]>