neko's thinkbox

Watched ep 2 a few days ago, but yeah this time my distraction wasn’t Pangya, but Poker. Oh well, one vice replaces the other huh. Either way, I must say this episode was a lot less random than the first one, which surprised me quite a bit. It was so different it nearly made me believe this was a different anime.

There are two points where both episodes are diametrically opposite. First is the storytelling: while the first episode is overflowing with massive randomness and juggling from one scene and era to another, the second is totally linear. Sure, it doesn’t mean that it clears up the story at all – it’s still far from that – but at least the hints are less cloudy now.

And second would be the emphasis on the comedy part of Baccano, covered by Miria and Isaac. They really are a funny pair (I’m hesitating if I should consider them a couple… I think not, they’re just too carefree). Isaac who always knows best, and Miria who is the most naive person on Earth who follows Isaac whatever he does or says. For example, he’s convinced that they will find a lot of gold in the cave so they will dig inside.

After five months only Miria asks why they wouldn’t get the gold dust from the river, and Isaac ingeniously replies that would be amateur-liike and that there was a… centipede with hundreds of legs in front of the cave, so there HAD to be some gold.
Another four months later, they even get post at the cave now. Ennis wrote them that she feels lonely since Isaac and Miria are away. Consequence: both will return to New York by train. How they will do that without money? Of course, when there’s no money, steal some from the bad bad mafia!

Isaac and Miria’s conversations and general behavior are often so childish (”They’re black! Ohh, they’re white!”), but their effectiveness in stealing sure isn’t that of a child. As far as I could notice, their cave was filled with furniture and other convenient stuff… and I bet they didn’t buy any of that. And whenever they steal. they still remain funny as heck. I laughed so hard when they knocked the 2 mafia guys out with their baseball bats while some old guy on the street was listening to a baseball match on the radio. They were even clothed like baseball players, which adds to the ludicrous aspect of this scene.

On board of the Flying Pussyfoot, they meet Nice and Jacuzzi (who would call their son Jacuzzi… I’d call him Whirlpool, even. man…), who are hiding the fact that they’re on some sort of secret mission on the train with some people disguised as the restaurant staff. I suspect they want to steal some important ‘thing’ that has been hidden somewhere in the train, presumably a bomb. Nice is a composed and sociable person, while Jacuzzi is a scaredy-cat who has no self-esteem at all. They both have some weird stains on their faces and arms… From what I can see in the opening (and in the end of the first episode), I suspect they live dangerously. Eeeeither way. Jacuzzi sure has a hard time socializing with Miria and Isaac… but I guess anyone would, in face of such carefree and random people.

After our pair scared the hell out of Jacuzzi with some kind of horror tale about a monster (Rail Tracer) who catches up to the rolling train and makes all the people disappear, he runs off to the train conductor who seems to know more about that story to ask if they are all in danger… Which turns out to be reality, actually. A group of people on board, inclusive one of the conductors, belong to the Lemures, living ghosts or something like that, and they want to ’sacrifice’ the passengers to free their leader, Huey Laforet, from arrest.

Hmm. And I said I wouldn’t do summaries anymore… Well, it’s heavily scattered and condensed though. After all, I didn’t introduce Czeslaw, nor the Beriams, nor Ladd or Lua. But there isn’t much to say about those as well. Maybe, the Senator’s involvement in transporting the presumed ‘bomb’ on board of the Flying Pussyfoot, that he’d even go as far as to sacrifice her wife and daughter, Ladd’s mischievous presence, or Czeslaw’s mysterious presence on the train. As for what those Lemures really are… need to wait for the next eps to know some more about that.

All I know is that we can now link many parts of the first episode to the eventual outcome of this one. Czeslaw will earn himself a prestigious headshot at some point of the journey (and eventually revive, of course), Ladd will remain wounded somewhere along the rails with Lua as well as a lot of corpses dumped off the train, and Isaac, Miria, Nice, Jacuzzi and the whole crew, and Czeslaw will reach their destination, New York, where Maiza, Ennis and Firo are waiting for them.

Please do not draw a loli doujin starring these two. Please.

Well, episode 3 won’t take me as long as the first one, I hope. Also, I have yet to check Kiss Dum, they say in #ab that’s it’s severely underblogged. Chansu!

By the way, I just listened to the full opening song of Baccano! Paradise Lunch – Guns & Roses confirms that it is a really pleasant and catchy tune. I think I’ll loop that one quite a few times tonight ^^
(secret reference: T-13 hours…)