Category: Finished Series: Action

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.]]>