Baccano! – 07

As if the current amount of characters wasn’t enough, this episode introduces yet another shipload of them, literally. And seriously, with every episode, my respect for this series is growing. This was an entire episode, dedicated to 1711, the place where everything began. The crew on the ship was looking for eternal life, and they found it, connected to a guy who looks surprisingly like Rail Tracer. This guy offers the companionship the drink of immortality, and he explains the rules. If you want to die, just go to another immortal and let him or her suck you in, just like we saw Szilard do. You can also share information the same way. Then there’s one final rule, though I failed to pick that one up, unfortunately. In any case, most of these guys are unimportant to the story of Baccano, but there were a number of key-figures present, most importantly Szilard and Maiza. The way Szilard spoke over Maiza, I originally assumed that Maiza betrayed him, but it’s exactly the opposite: Szilard betrayed Maiza! Maiza was the original leader of the project, and he managed to convince everyone but Szilard in sealing away the information about immortality. Szilard, however, became obsessed with the power and tried to retaliate. Then there’s Maiza’s brother: Gret and his fiancé: Sylvie. Maiza has actually been the only one with the full knowledge of the immortality-drink, and he decides to seal it by placing half of it in Gret’s memory. Szilard, however, absorbs him, explaining how he was able to create the second immortality potion. He probably recruited Barnes for this by sharing his knowledge with him. The reason Barnes was immortal was probably because he drank the incomplete immortality-potion before (the one that just makes you able to regenerate, but doesn’t prevent you from aging). Oh, and Ennis is a homunculus, created by Szilard as well. This explains why she doesn’t have a last name. Sylvie was nearly sucked up by Szilard as well, though she got saved in the nick of time. I don’t think she plays any role in the rest of Baccano, though, and she seems to have become some sort of singer. There’s also a new guy named Herman, who seems to have stuck with Maiza, and they both became member of the same mafia-family. Maiza has changed a lot over the years, though: he’s much more friendly and relaxed now. Herman, however, was more relaxed back then than he is in 1930. Anotehr known face was our lovely Chezlaw, which explains why he became immortal and acquainted with Maiza. He was on the ship along with his father, though the two seem to have separated at one point. Still, I could have sworn that I’ve seen this father before, but I’m not sure where… Surprisingly enough, Huey Laforet is also on the ship. He was merely there because it sounded interesting, but it seems that he decided to create a cult after he left it. Then he somehow ended up in jail, and the rest is known: his allies tried to take over the flying pussyfoot. I originally thought that Chane was his sister, but right now “daughter” seems more likely. This means that Isaac, Luck and Firo are part of the so-called second generation of immortals. Probably because of the two bottles they obtained from Dallas. Still, the question remains: why aren’t there any traces of Szilard in 1931? He should have been with Ennis, but it seems that something must have happened to him, that united both Firo with Isaac and Mirio and with the Gandor-family (speaking of which, I’d love to see some more development from Luck) and with Ennis, while perhaps even sucking up Szilard. If I had to guess, then Maiza is probably planning something to take care of the guy in secret. This also confirms that neither Ladd nor Jacuzzi are immortal as well. Their story is just another one in the collection of stories for this anime, and they just seem to be mixed up with the other ones as soon as they choose the flying Pussyfoot as their target. Seriously, these writers of Baccano are absolutely brilliant for making all these different stories come together and back each other up.]]>