And finally Baccano! airs. The promo-art looked really cool, and I was intrigued by the premise. So, after having seen the first episode, what is my first reaction?

HUGE cast of characters!

Seriously, this anime has an amazingly big cast of main characters, and an even bigger cast of side-characters. The episode felt twice as long as usual, since there was so much going on with so many different parties. I’m definitely going to blog this, as it’ll be fun to try and get some sense out of it. Before I start, though, I must give a small warning: this isn’t for the weak-hearted or the young children and this anime isn’t afraid to show blood.

So, let’s start with the main characters, in order of appearance on the OP (I am SO glad that it provides their names. It would have been an incredible hassle to try and figure them out for every single character, especially considering that this takes place in Europe, where the katakana would have made it even more difficult).

Isaac Dian. In this episode, he gets a piece of his ear blown off by a gun, which magically heals afterwards. He seems like a jolly ignorant fellow, who, according to the OP, works as some kind of thief.

Miria Harvent. She travels along with Isaac, and she seems just as energetic as he is. The two of them form a good team.

Firo Prochainezo. In this episode, we see his fingers get cut off, which also magically heal back again. If I had to guess, then all of the characters we see introduced in the OP have become immortal somehow.

Maiza Avaro. He meets with Firo at one point of the episode. I’m not sure about his role yet.

Keith Gandor. He seems to be an important mafia-leader.

Berga Gandor. I suspect he’s Keith’s brother, and they work together somehow.

Luck Gandor. Another of their brothers. He works under Keith. We also see him meet up with Firo at one point. I wouldn’t have guessed the connection. The two of them seem to know Isaac and Miria somehow.

Szilard Quates. An old guy, some kind of Mafia-boss? We didn’t see him yet, in any case.

Ennis without a last name. I’m not sure who she is, but I could have sworn to see her among the crowd where Isaac and Miria were, and I think it was her who was sitting with Maiza and Firo, at the end of the episode.

Lua Klein, she seems rather shy. We see her during a few scenes with her new husband.

Ladd Russo: Lua’s husband. The guy’s got a rather high temper, and we see the two of them right next to a train with guns aimed at them and with Ladd missing an arm. Which will probably heal back together anyway.

Chane Laforet. At one point in the episode, we see a bunch of crates float in a river. She is on one of them. At this point, we can only guess what happened to her.

Nice Holystone. She seems to be with Jacuzzi.

Jacuzzi Splot. A rather miserable guy, who seems quite crucial for the story. He seems to be hiding something, and he’s running away because of that.

Eve Genoard. We only saw her during one scene, in which she seems to be waiting for an important person: her brother.

Dallas Genoard. Eve’s brother. He seems to be on the run from Keith’s maffia-network, though. Both Eve and Dallas are the children of Geoffrey Genoard, who seems to be an important person, which is probably why he’s hunted.

Czeslaw Meyer. A small kid with big plans. We see his head get blown off in this episode, which heals back on later without any trace. Maiza seems to know him

So, believe it or not, but these are SEVENTEEN characters already. But does it end there?! No. The episode already starts with two whole new characters:

Caroll and her boss(?). I believe that they’re the ones through which the story is being told. They seemed to be travelling at one point, at which they met the characters of this story.

We also have numerous people, working under Keith and Luck, of all possible ranks, from hitmen to executives to people who use scissors to get information from their targets.

Sullivan. He seems to be a detective, after some recent homocides. I’m not sure which member of the gigantic cast is behind it.

Then there’s this woman who cut off Isaac’s ear, surrounded by a rather strange crowd. I’m not sure, but two of them looked suspiciously much like other characters in this show. Coincidence?

There also seem to be other Mafia after the Gandors. While it’s obvious that there are, I’d like to know why. Could this have to do something with Dallas?

There also is a rather shady figure who refuses to show his face. All we know is that he’s searching for someone.

Another shady figure seems to be on the same train that Jacuzzi was on. He or she wear a cap, and makes sure to leave it as soon as possible. She might have had to do something with Jacuzzi being in pain at the end of the episode.

Then there’s another guy accompanying Jacuzzi and Nice at that point.

And to make things even more complicated, the ED shows us even more characters THAN WE ALREADY HAVE. Seriously, if this story doesn’t get swallowed by its huge cast, we may be in for something very amazing. It’s now up to the following episodes to properly develop all of them, and I really hope that it does this well. :)

An excellent aftermath to the already excellent previous episode. Not only does Sora get captured and put in jail, Ginjiro’s identity also gets revealed. Nearly every scene in this episode was memorable somehow, and I’m looking forward to seeing this anime go towards its finish.

It seems like Seikichi and the Townsfolk do see Sora as a monster, even after they saw her transform. It’s only after she’s captured that their minds get back on earth again, because they direct all their energy at getting angry at Ginjiro for working for Torii. Ginjiro himself also wasn’t too happy with this, as his entire plan to keep secrets to everyone failed miserably.

Thanks to Akai, Seikichi has now officially become a fugitive. He managed to escape after all this in quite an amusing way, but Akai is now actively looking for the guy. I loved how later, Ginjiro managed to bring him back to earth. Another interesting thing is that he’s beginning to get friendly with Blue-monster-from-the-sky (she still hasn’t chosen herself a name?!). This episode also showed that the third blue monster from the sky does indeed have a mind of its own, and it’s actually searching for Seikichi’s rockets as well. Whether or not it also has a human form isn’t certain yet.

Oh, and Anui confirms that she is, in fact, a dog, when she manages to find Seikichi, based on his scent alone.