Category: Baccano!

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.]]>

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.]]>

This episode sort-of ruined the sense of time I had with this series, when suddenly the hunt for Dallas Genoard was moved back to 1931, and Maiza appeared to already be immortal before he could have had any chance to meet Barnes. The previous episodes have done well to answer the necessary questions, only for this episode to ask a whole bunch of new ones. Maiza-san, for example, also shoots into the ceiling after being stabbed by Firo, as a means of welcome to his new family-member, he shoots in the air and suddenly hits Isaac. What the heck was that guy doing there?! I’m also rather confused about the 1931-business. In the past episodes, we saw Eve visit the information-office in 1932. In this episode, we see the Runorata-family enter the information-office yet again, but in 1931. Miraculously, though Eve had already visited by then. Jacuzzi also gets new development, but his past is still full of question-marks. First of all Nick was captured by the guys in black suits, who had no way of knowing what he did in the dining room. We also see a scene of what happened earlier that year, when Jacuzzi was hunted down by bounty-hunters/mafia-guys, and then suddenly saved by Nice and their other companion. Where all of them came from is still unknown. Jacuzzi also talks about how he doesn’t want to kill. Did he mean his comrades, or did his comrades prevent him from using some awful power to slaughter his assailants? Also, the red-eyed figure we see outside the train. We get some heavy hints that it’s the green-capped woman, but we never see it confirmed. In this episode, we see it use its foggy hand to kill two guys in black suits. Then Szilard, who raised the biggest question of this episode: he sucked up Barnes with his hand! I admit that I missed some of his explanations, though I doubt that he fully explained what happened there. Afterwards, Quates sends Ennis out to look for Firo, who seemed to be searching for her. Meanwhile on the train, the guys in black suits return, and they take Nathalie Williams with them. Her daughter, Merry, is safe, hiding with Czeslaw. Isaac and Miria are active again, as they set out to rescue Jacuzzi and Nice (that could be interesting). I also wonder: why did the second conductor at the back of the train die? I mean, I know he killed the younger one, but why were his head and arm ripped off afterwards? In fact, why did he feel the need to kill in the first place? I like what this series is doing, though. It first starts with an unexplainable mess, and it goes on, things get clearer and clearer. And just when you think you know what’s going on, they throw in a heap of more mysteries to confuse you. It’s a nice tactic, but I hope that everything will come together in the end.]]>

I’m getting more and more surprised at the lack of attention Baccano has been getting. I’ve only seen one blogger who also picked it up beyond the first episode. I mean, what’s not to like about this series? I really expected this to be one of the more popular series of the season, but yet again I was wrong. I guess that people really do like to watch Schooldays, Moetan and Zero no Tsukaima than this series. O_o Anyway, while watching this episode, I realized another thing why I love this series: it features so many different types of criminals. We have the demented Ladd and his companions, who are after the people with money on the Flying Pussyfoot. Chane and her companions belong to a sort-of cult, and are completely devoted to their master who is in jail. Then there are Firo, Maiza and the Gandor-family, who may look nice but definitely also have a history of shady business. The Runorata-family is the typical mafia-family, in the middle of vetes with many different parties. In the midst of all this seriousness, there are Isaac and Miria: two simple yet surprisingly brilliant train thieves. Jacuzzi and Nice also steal for “good” purposes, though they steal nonetheless. Czeslaw has also meanwhile showed that he’s more than just an innocent boy and Dallas and Eve could be victims, who happened to be member of the wrong family. I can hardly believe it, but this anime knows exactly what it’s doing with its huge cast of characters. Anyway, the character most featured in this episode was Ladd. He quickly ends the stick-up of the previous episode by killing some of the guys in black suits. It also seems that he’s a member of an important family. A family who worked under him became the victim of Isaac and Miria’s ‘little’ robbery. I also mistook Szilard Quates from another guy in the previous episode. We see the real guy make his entrance in this episode, and the guy from the previous episode seems to be working under him. This also busts my theory that every person in the OP is immortal and every person who isn’t in the op is mortal, since we saw the scientist revive in the previous episode. If I’m not mistaken, his name is Barnes. I’m not sure how you spell that, though. Anyway, it seems that Ennis works for Quates as well, and she’s been ordered to retrieve him. We saw Barnes flee afterwards, though, and I assume that he’s set his place on fire. It’s probably here where Firo helps Ennis to find Barnes, which explains how he turned immortal. But what about Luck, Czeslaw and Isaac? Also, the mysterious green-clothed girl intrigues me. She’s definitely in te train for a reason, but her mission is still one complete mystery. She’s one of the few people to survive the mess that happens on the Flying Pussyfoot unharmed, and this episode shows that she likes to act as careful as possible when she escapes through a train window when Ladd throws is tantrum. The episode also ends with quite an interesting cliff-hanger: a mysterious glowy-eyed figure appears out of the train. Is this the same shady figure we’ve seen in episode one? It’s also interesting how Chane has received even less development than her companions, even though she turns out to be their only survivor. It seems that she’ll be doing something interesting in the next episode, though. Another thing that I’m curious about: Firo, Maiza and the Gandor family. What is their role in this story? I mean, they’ve got nothing to do with what happens on the Flying Pussyfoot. They should be just friends of Isaac and Miria. If that’s the case, then why is so much development spent on them? They can’t just be getting their immortality without having to play any major role in the future…]]>

I’m surprised that I’m the only one who has said anything about the second episode of Baccano! This is a really fun show, especially once you realize that it keeps hopping from one time to the other without any warning whatsoever. This episode made even more sense than the previous one, despite the horribly complex first one. It’s strange, but this anime seems to know exactly what it’s doing. So many loose ends are already tied together, and we’re only at the third episode. This series is definitely one to look out for. This episode has three focuses: 1930, 1931 and 1932. 1930 tells how everything started. Szilard Quates isn’t a mafia-boss at all. He’s a scientist, who invented the immortality-drink. His work gets interrupted by an unpredicted fire and some street-thugs, though. He first gets saved by Firo, who just received a new hat from Maiza, after which he gets attacked again. Ennis sees him recover. The interesting thing is that Firo and Ennis weren’t any accomplices back then, and they didn’t even know each other. Same with Isaac and Miria. Something happened here, and it brought immortality to at least Isaac, Firo, Luck and Chezlaw, and it set the stages for the later parts of the anime. The most obvious questions are now: where did Chezlaw get in the picture, and does Ladd have immortality as well? 1931 tells about the happenings at the Flying Pussyfoot, and it’s basically a continuation of the previous episode. Ladd and Lua have quite an interesting and puzzling relationship. By now it’s clear that Ladd has some mental problems, and Lua seems to be hopelessly in love with him. The strange thing is that they keep talking about Lua’s death, and how the moment when Ladd would kill Lua should be something really special. Also, the reason why Ladd recognized Jacuzzi: he’s wanted. There seems to be a bounty of 5000 dollars on his head. Jacuzzi’s motives are still a puzzle to me, but I think he and Nice went on the Flying Pussyfoot to stop the Chane and her companions, as at the end of the episode, he runs into a few dead people. I suspect that these people were after this, or there must be some fifth party on that train I don’t know about. I need to rewatch the first episode for that. The obvious question is now: what the heck happened on this train, considering that even the locomotive had to be replaced? At the end of the episode, both Lad’s henchman and Chane’s companions try to seize control of the dining room, though what will happen next? 1932: the events in this year are all centred around Dallas Genoard. The events that happened in the first episode definitely didn’t happen chronologically, as there was an entire year between them. Apparently, Dallas made the Runorata-family very angry with his accusations, after they killed his brother and father. He afterwards disappeared for both them and his sister. In this episode, we see both of them enter an enterprise, trading information, and we see the black guy from the ED. He seems to have some connections with Dallas, but he unfortunately can’t help Eve. The biggest question about their story: how the heck are they related to the things that happened on the Flying Pussyfoot? So far, the only link between these stories that we’ve seen is that Eve’s brother Dallas is being searched by the Runorata-family, who is on wrong terms with the Gandor-family, who is acquainted with Isaac and Miria, who happened to be on the Flying Pussyfoot when all the events took place. Obviously, there has to be a more obvious link. Still, I really recommend this series, and it really is among the highlights of the summer-season.]]>

Awesome. This episode was much better than the previous one, somehow. Probably because Isaac and Miria provided for a bit of nice comedy. The current episode is way more focused than the first one, and it basically tells the story of what happened on the Flying pussyfoot, as the previous episode suggested that a lot happened there. People were murdered and thrown off the train, ad lots of things were going on. First of all, Isaac and Miria, who were sortof central in this episode. You could probably classify them as “unlucky bystanders”, because they were just invited by Ennis after they hadn’t seen each other for more than a year. The two of them spent their time mining in an abandoned mine, somewhere in California. After they got Ennis’s letter, they rob a few banks, and they’re off to New York. Jacuzzi and Nice also had a lot of screen-time in this episode. They’re with two accomplices, and Jaccuzi needs to do something I haven’t exactly understood what, though. I like the relationship between Nice and Jacuzzi, by the way. I’m not sure how the two of them met each other, but she’s helping him getting a bit more social to others. Isaac and Miria are of course perfect for that. I wonder though, how the barman he was sitting next to knew who he was… We also meet the girl we saw Cheslaw with in the OP. Her name is Merry, and her mother is called Nathalie Williams. They bump into Jacuzzi at one point, and they looked really cute together. ^^; The question remains, though: why didn’t we see them exit the train together? But then again, that might have something to do with Cheslaw’s head being blown off. An interesting point is that we saw him enter the train with a man who refused to show his face. Could that be the same individual whose silhouette we saw in the previous episode? The thing is that lots of mafia-like thugs were on that train, and something went terribly wrong, as the first episode seemed to suggest. There are two main parties, one lead by Ladd, and one where Chane seems to be working for. Both parties have people working undercover as the train staff (one of them killed one of his colleagues at the end of the episode), and they’re both after something. What that something is, however, I couldn’t understand, due to my limited Japanese. Then there’s also the mysterious woman. In this episode, we see her enter the train. In the previous episode, we saw her exit the train. What she did in between remains a mystery. I really wonder what’s going to happen next in this series, as it’s shaping up to be quite an interesting mystery-series. We know that a lot is still going to happen. Isaac is going to get his ear stabbed, How did someone like him turn immortal? Was it because of something that happened on the Flying Pussyfoot? And there are still those matters with the Gandor family, and the other two mafia-families. Dallas Genoard seems to have been the one to cause troubles with one of these two, after they killed his older brother and father. And where does Firo fit in all of this? How is he related to the story, besides being an old friend of Luck? Still, I’m glad. The amount of questions I have after this episode is considerably smaller than the amount of questions I had after the first one. I have high hopes for this series now, as it seems quite plausible right now that every character is going to get enough development and background. The only things that annoy me about this series are the mafia-guys. Not because they’re bad, but because they’re so incredibly difficult to understand. But then again, that makes it even more fun to try and figure out what they’re up to. ^_^]]>

And finally Baccano! airs. The promo-art looked really cool, and I was intrigued by the premise. So, after having seen the first episode, what is my first reaction? HUGE cast of characters! Seriously, this anime has an amazingly big cast of main characters, and an even bigger cast of side-characters. The episode felt twice as long as usual, since there was so much going on with so many different parties. I’m definitely going to blog this, as it’ll be fun to try and get some sense out of it. Before I start, though, I must give a small warning: this isn’t for the weak-hearted or the young children and this anime isn’t afraid to show blood. So, let’s start with the main characters, in order of appearance on the OP (I am SO glad that it provides their names. It would have been an incredible hassle to try and figure them out for every single character, especially considering that this takes place in Europe, where the katakana would have made it even more difficult). Isaac Dian. In this episode, he gets a piece of his ear blown off by a gun, which magically heals afterwards. He seems like a jolly ignorant fellow, who, according to the OP, works as some kind of thief. Miria Harvent. She travels along with Isaac, and she seems just as energetic as he is. The two of them form a good team. Firo Prochainezo. In this episode, we see his fingers get cut off, which also magically heal back again. If I had to guess, then all of the characters we see introduced in the OP have become immortal somehow. Maiza Avaro. He meets with Firo at one point of the episode. I’m not sure about his role yet. Keith Gandor. He seems to be an important mafia-leader. Berga Gandor. I suspect he’s Keith’s brother, and they work together somehow. Luck Gandor. Another of their brothers. He works under Keith. We also see him meet up with Firo at one point. I wouldn’t have guessed the connection. The two of them seem to know Isaac and Miria somehow. Szilard Quates. An old guy, some kind of Mafia-boss? We didn’t see him yet, in any case. Ennis without a last name. I’m not sure who she is, but I could have sworn to see her among the crowd where Isaac and Miria were, and I think it was her who was sitting with Maiza and Firo, at the end of the episode. Lua Klein, she seems rather shy. We see her during a few scenes with her new husband. Ladd Russo: Lua’s husband. The guy’s got a rather high temper, and we see the two of them right next to a train with guns aimed at them and with Ladd missing an arm. Which will probably heal back together anyway. Chane Laforet. At one point in the episode, we see a bunch of crates float in a river. She is on one of them. At this point, we can only guess what happened to her. Nice Holystone. She seems to be with Jacuzzi. Jacuzzi Splot. A rather miserable guy, who seems quite crucial for the story. He seems to be hiding something, and he’s running away because of that. Eve Genoard. We only saw her during one scene, in which she seems to be waiting for an important person: her brother. Dallas Genoard. Eve’s brother. He seems to be on the run from Keith’s maffia-network, though. Both Eve and Dallas are the children of Geoffrey Genoard, who seems to be an important person, which is probably why he’s hunted. Czeslaw Meyer. A small kid with big plans. We see his head get blown off in this episode, which heals back on later without any trace. Maiza seems to know him So, believe it or not, but these are SEVENTEEN characters already. But does it end there?! No. The episode already starts with two whole new characters: Caroll and her boss(?). I believe that they’re the ones through which the story is being told. They seemed to be travelling at one point, at which they met the characters of this story. We also have numerous people, working under Keith and Luck, of all possible ranks, from hitmen to executives to people who use scissors to get information from their targets. Sullivan. He seems to be a detective, after some recent homocides. I’m not sure which member of the gigantic cast is behind it. Then there’s this woman who cut off Isaac’s ear, surrounded by a rather strange crowd. I’m not sure, but two of them looked suspiciously much like other characters in this show. Coincidence? There also seem to be other Mafia after the Gandors. While it’s obvious that there are, I’d like to know why. Could this have to do something with Dallas? There also is a rather shady figure who refuses to show his face. All we know is that he’s searching for someone. Another shady figure seems to be on the same train that Jacuzzi was on. He or she wear a cap, and makes sure to leave it as soon as possible. She might have had to do something with Jacuzzi being in pain at the end of the episode. Then there’s another guy accompanying Jacuzzi and Nice at that point. And to make things even more complicated, the ED shows us even more characters THAN WE ALREADY HAVE. Seriously, if this story doesn’t get swallowed by its huge cast, we may be in for something very amazing. It’s now up to the following episodes to properly develop all of them, and I really hope that it does this well. :)]]>