neko’s thinkbox

It’s so hard on you when you forget to bring a souvenir…

Hahaha oh wow. This episode sure exceeded my expectations: after such a serious episode that was ep 7, I thought it would continue in the same way but no. Episode 8 was mainly focused on Isaac and Miria… Their names say it all, since we know them for seven episodes already: they’re hilarious!

(oops, forgot the more tag XD)

The beginning of the episode was already too much for me. A meeting takes place in the New Jersey Police Department with two FBI agents, who are showing pictures that have been taken of the robbers who have stricken over 110 times, and who have never been caught until now, even if all they stole was candy, and other random stuff like… museum doors? But this time, they apparently have been robbing the Genoards’! Guess who it is? I’ll let you figure it out in the pictures below XD

One more for…

…the family album!

The Flying Pussyfoot. On their way to the back of the train, Isaac suddenly remembers that they have forgotten to bring along a souvenir for Ennis. And their world crumbles down…
Back to where Jacuzzi and the rest saw Rail Tracer out of the window. Jacuzzi decides to climb up the roof to search for it. Jacuzzi sure is heated up, for being such a crybaby.

1932, Eve Genoard is kept hostage in the mansion of the Runorata family. Gustavo Baggetta, presumably the head of that organization, tells her why they kidnapped her and what kind of business they have with her brother Dallas. She does not believe those lies and prays to God.

1930. In her room, Eve is crying over her brother whom she hasn’t seen for so long.
“Hey, Miria.” – “What is it, Isaac?” – “She’s crying.” – “She’s crying indeed!”
Oh lawds… they’re such dorks, it almost made me scream out of laughter. Their hilarious slapstick is nonsense, but even nonsense can be awesome sometimes. I just can’t stop laughing at this duo.
So why are they there, anyway? Of course, they were planning to rob the Genoard’s mansion! Dressed as Indians, they were just sitting on the balcony… literally waiting for Eve to discover them. There really is nothing better than those two jokers to cheer up poor Eve’s mood.

She tells them that her brother Dallas has gone astray because they were too wealthy, so… guess what our two heroes are going to do? Of course, they run into the mansion and start stealing away, to relieve the Genoards from their problem! Eventually, they assure her that she definitely will become happy and disappear with huge bags of stolen stuff, leaving Eve behind with a smile…

She’s laughing about us??

“Okay then, we steal her stuff!”

Upon hearing from Nice that their friends disappeared from the dining car, Jacuzzi decides to split up to find Rail Tracer faster, and kisses Nice before leaving with Donny. Our crybaby suddenly becomes spirited! Good thing Isaac and Miria didn’t see that, I can imagine they would celebrate a marriage if they did XD

Would you expect them to be any more serious, after seeing the corpses of the two conductors in a lake of blood? WRONG! In their frenzy, they go even as far as to imagine Jacuzzi being swallowed whole by Rail Tracer… depicted as a huge snake in their thoughts… orz

Even better, they still are crying over him even when Jacuzzi and Donny are running towards them. Donny trips, and pushes Jacuzzi forward – Jacuzzi, falling, clings on Miria’s dress and almost rips it off her body! Almost… T_T I have to comment on this immediately! Yes, Miria has always been a real cutie, despite being such a silly dork. Aww, I wanted to see moar… Jacuzzi, you weakling! You saw them didn’t you! You could even have grabbed them! Forget Nice! Don’t make me search for doujins, RAWR!! *cough* orz… this is so out of context, I better continue with the story =_=

Awww…

This is a dangerous scene.

The four of them retreat to a room to discuss about the recent happenings, and a few seconds later, it’s Rail Tracer who enters the conductor’s room through the window… Anyway, Isaac and Miria segue into a comparison between the events on the Flying Pussyfoot and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I don’t know what that is, and their analogy was too random and elusive to even take it seriously anyway.
Roughly said, they try to convince Jacuzzi that even if he did bad things in the past, he could be considered a nice person if the people around him think so… So far so good, but they chose once again a bad metaphor: their cliché “waves” are more than embarrassing x_x Then again, we’re talking about Isaac and Miria. No surprise at all.
In the end, they leave Jacuzzi and Donny to search Rail Tracer, and to ask him to leave the train, even if Isaac’s needs to make use of his “hundred guns” (while he probably never used one in his entire life). And then comes the cheesiest sentence I ever heard, “There’s a gun in everyone’s heart.” …facepalm x100.

And we’re not yet done with our whimsical duo! Ennis rescued them from Dallas Genoard’s gang in episode 6, remember? Well, Ennis, who wants to hide her real intentions, tells Isaac and Miria that she will hand the bad guys over to the police – our notorious kleptomaniacs back off, obviously, and tell her they will go on a journey to atone for their sins. Ennis is envious of their strength because she cannot face her evil past (she ‘ate’ several people, like in episode 7), and becomes melancholic. Isaac tells her exactly the same thing he told Jacuzzi, that bad people can also be good people. As they leave, Ennis gets in the car and cries.

Eve Genoard wakes up in her bed, and Dallas Genoard enters her room. For a moment, he seems to have come to reason, and acts like a responsible older brother. But his intentions were only of selfish nature: he only returned home to get some money. As soon as he notices that many goods have been stolen though (hahaaaa), he insults his little sister for believing in God.

The Runorata’s mansion. It’s dark outside, and everyone seems asleep. Eve takes the chance and escapes out of the unlocked room. She leaves the door open, and… the mafia guy who keeps eating his pieces of sugar all day long closes it without chasing after her.

Kyaa!

Oh, it’s just you! Have some more!

I expected something like a continuation of the previous episode, like, a chronology, less chaotic time/scene changes, or at least precise answers to some of the questions that episode 7 has risen. On the contrary, this episode has once again thrown quite a few new pieces to the “puzzle”, as I like to describe the world of Baccano.

One thing which immediately jumped to the eye was the dominant presence of Isaac and Miria in almost every scene, which raised one question: “Why?”
Sure, they are funny and all, and perhaps they probably lit up everyone’s lives with cheerful laughter, but is that all? Why, out of all those people, are Isaac and Miria the two who have been in all of the places? They bumped into Firo in front of the hat store, they met Ennis, they met Dallas Genoard (even though they most probably didn’t recognize him on the photo), Eve Genoard, Jacuzzi, Nice…

Are they some kind of link that binds the several universes of Baccano? The Immortals, the mafia, the outcasts, everyone – it is as if Isaac and Miria were at the center of it all. I am positive that their role isn’t only that of the two kleptomaniac jokers. However, I don’t know how to elaborate neither to explain it, because I still don’t have enough elements or hints to back up my theory. However… there is one picture that suggests exactly this:

Jacuzzi sure has surprised me there. The more he cries, the more desperate he becomes – and proportionally violent? A snip like him, handling machine guns? I suspected in episode 5 that he had some kind of special ability that could influence others to do what he wants, but I misinterpreted that. He said: “I don’t want to kill you!”, and his friends killed the mafia guys, but actually he felt so bad for those people that he felt responsible himself for the killings. Isn’t he nice? And wow, kissing Nice like that… I always thought she was his sister or so but I think I can throw that idea away now.

Well, one important question remains: why do they let Eve run like that? I mean, that one guy eats his candy all day long, but he must have noticed Eve’s leave in some way or another, no? He closed the door she left open, and yet why doesn’t he sound the alarm, or warn the others? Could it be that he opposed Eve’s kidnapping from the very beginning? He never seemed so convinced nor motivated either, so… there’s lots of room for speculation. We might have to wait for the next episode to get an answer to that… if ever.

I just noticed I never watch the preview of the next episodes - but I think there is no need to anyway, because I have the next episodes already lying on my hard disk, waiting to be watched. And I have raws up to episode 12, because Ayu is a bit slow on this… no concurrence? Either way… if I do one episode a day, I would be right on time to finish off with ep 13 on the 2nd of November. So yeah, ganbarimasu!

About the timeline… Well, I haven’t updated it yet though. Sorry, there was Spider-man 2 on tv, and right now is Resident Evil… I got distracted a lot ^^;;; But I will update it tomorrow as soon as possible! To compensate for this, here, have a free loli.

And a nice loli for the road. Veeery yes. Eve’s the best.

As promised, here’s the timeline for the events up to Episode 8. (1.61 MB .jpg) Once again, sorry for the delay ^^ As always, any kind of feedback on it, corrections, suggestions, anything is welcome.