Baccano makes an interesting experience for me in 2020.  While I was certainly a fan of the series I’ve never re-watched it, and 13 years is a long time.  I wouldn’t care to guess how many anime I’ve watched since – comfortably north of 500 to be certain – and the inevitable result is that the details of this one are pretty fuzzy for me by now.  As confusing as the plot to this series is, that makes it almost akin to watching it for the first time in some respects.  I remember the basic premise but what really stands out in my memory are the characters and the overall atmosphere.

Take this episode for example.  Just in the first five minutes it did three timeskips – and not sequentially, either.  It hopped back and forth between 1932, 1930, and 1931.  And in the process it focused on several characters we’d never met before, with no explanation as to who they were.  The missing Camorra second son Dallas, of the Genoard family, is at the center of much of this – his younger sister Eve is looking for him, which takes her to the offices of the “Daily Days”.  It looks like a newspaper but in reality it’s an information brokerage – and Eve is not the only one who comes a-calling for information where Dallas is concerned.

Then we have Barnes, the weird old man murdering mice in a cellar.  This is the first direct evidence of the immortality MacGuffin, though Firo and Maiza’s survival in the premiere strongly suggested something of the sort.  Because of a fire accidentally started by Randy and Pezzo, two buffoons we likewise meet for the first time, a complex chain reaction begins.  While it appears that the location of the fire is completely coincidental, its impacts reverberate through the narrative as Barnes is forced to flee with a few bottles of what looks to be immortality juice that he’s just perfected.  After a chance encounter with Dallas (pre-disappearance), he’s rescued by Firo – who appears to be a capo with an altruistic streak as well as being main character-poi.

As for events on the Flying Pussyfoot, Huey Laforet’s gang are about to put their plan into action – whatever it is.  It seems to be completely independent of whatever Ladd Russo is up to – which likewise seems to be completely independent of Nice and Jacuzzi’s gang.  Coincidence is like a cast member in Baccano, but you’re never quite sure if it’s telling the truth.  Is all this chaos really random, or is there some reason – or fate – that’s brought it all to bear in the dining car of the Flying Pussyfoot at the same time?

Even re-watching this show, it’s still the atmospherics – and the set pieces – that stand out most for me.  The way Firo deals with Dallas’ gang without ever letting his new hat touch the ground is almost balletic in its grace, and Issac and Miria have an exquisite sense of timing – their random appearances in the narrative always seem to come just at the right moment for peak absurdity and needed comic relief.  For now, Baccano is a series that’s holding its cards very close to the vest, but the ride is so much fun that you don’t really mind.