In the third episode of Baccano!, everything gets EVEN MORE COMPLEX. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Baccano!
“Randy and Pecho Are Busy Getting Ready for the Party”
- Which should alternately be titled, “Randy and Pecho Have No Idea How They Actually Set This Whole Tale in Motion,” because oh my god.
- Again, I have to comment on the meta nature of this anime. There’s no main character on purpose, and this episode reveals that pretty much nothing could have happened if Pecho hadn’t set his hand on fire. I imagine we’re also never going to see these two characters again, meaning they’re inconsequential to the remainder of this story and also completely necessary.
- I’M SO FASCINATED BY THIS.
- Like the first episode, the third episode jumps around a lot – between different points of view and different periods of time – and yet, I was able to follow this a lot more closely than I thought I would.
- We open with Eve Genoard, who is still looking for his missing brother. FOR A YEAR. Oh my god, I’M ALREADY SAD. But this ties in with the continued mystery of Dallas’s whereabouts. We know his own family is looking for him, as well as other mafia heads. The two men in long coats here are the same investigators who arrived after the tragedy aboard the Flying Pussyfoot, no? Or did they just look similar? Regardless, they’re not investigators at all; they work for the Runorata family, who are desperate to find Dallas. (The more I think about it, the more certain I am that these are actually different characters. I’M TRYING. THERE ARE SO MANY CHARACTERS.) Anyway, while these two men are at the office of the Daily Days, which is MY FAVORITE. Oh my god, I love that they’re known as “brokers” of information, and that they all have guns at the ready whenever someone is threatened. BEAUTIFUL.
- Through this, it’s clear that Dallas has quite the reputation. The man was referred to as a “notorious juvenile.” But why? And where is he?
- I’m also trying to figure out all the mafia families. The Gandors, the Runoratas, the Genoards, the Martellos… I think that’s all of them? Oh god, I’m probably wrong.
- OKAY, SO BACK ON THE TRAIN. I don’t understand Ladd Russo. I kind of think that’s the point. He is unapologetically evil. He wants to kill the people onboard the Flying Pussyfoot for the sake of it. There’s no rhyme or reason or tragic backstory here, which makes him a whole lot scarier than I first thought. He wants to kill every living person ever, and that’s not even an exaggeration.
- So what’s Lua’s story? Why is she here? Why does she always look so uncomfortable?
- Why the hell is Jacuzzi wanted for a crime??? What did he do???
- Oh god, it’s becoming more and more obvious that this train is going to be host to the most chaotic and terrifying collision of people and plans and monsters ever, and I’m both excited and completely frightened to see how it will play out.
- Okay, I swear I’ll get the names right soon, but the older science guy (I SOUND SO RIDICULOUS I’M SORRY) is now identified as the source of the elixir/potion that makes people immortal. And just when I thought I had this figured out (particularly how Firo became immortal), the show just says NOPE NOT AT ALL and I’m still lost.
- We do get to see Maiza talking to Firo about Firo becoming one of the youngest capos in the Martello family, so now I understand what they have to do with each other.
- WHY ARE ISAAC AND MIRIA GOING INTO THE HAT SHOP? Probably to get Halloween costumes, let’s be real.
- Who is Ennis? Because Firo follows her, he runs into the older science guy and saves him from the Runorata men. I honestly thought that the man would give Firo some of the elixir, making him immortal, but Firo doesn’t get anything.
- CAN WE TALK ABOUT NICK BECAUSE HIS WHOLE BIT IN THIS EPISODE IS SO FUNNY TO ME. I loved that scene where he replayed Nice’s words to him and simply imagined what he wished she said. But just in terms of the story, it’s actually an important scene because it highlights how individual action can have a huge affect on others. If Nick hadn’t grossly misinterpreted Nice’s words, would he have arrived in the dining car with Ladd and the Lemures?
- Eve unfortunately finds out that even the Daily Days information brokers don’t have any idea where her brother is, which perplexes me. How is it possible that he just straight up disappeared? Where was he last seen? What happened to him?
- Was anyone else a little bothered by the strange animation for the two black characters in this episode? Like, I realize saying their faces were “cartoonish” is loaded enough as it is because this is an animated story, but when you have no lips on anyone in the whole thing, and then massively, overexaggerated lips on the sole black characters, it’s going to look suspiciously weird. Also, why was the man who worked at the Daily Days wearing that outfit??? I DON’T GET IT.
- And why was Ennis looking for the old man? Wait, I just went back and re-watched that scene and realized she called him Barnes. So he does have a name! I’m leaving OLDER SCIENCE GUY up in the previous parts, though. It’s too funny.
- Can we also take a moment to acknowledge that Isaac and Miria actually discuss who they should obey when the three groups all converge on the dining car? How are these two real??
- So here’s my final question: Is the Rail Tracer real at all? Jacuzzi unfortunately thinks so after he finds the gruesome remains of the young conductor and his companion. Did the other guy kill himself? I’m still of the opinion that there is no Rail Tracer; the Lemures are masking their own actions under the myth.
- Y’all, I realize I’m probably wrong, but I have so little to go on. DON’T JUDGE ME.
The video for Episode 3 can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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