Finished watching Baccano! , first time viewing and went into it without knowing anything about story/characters.
It was a great series and while I don't have the anime-viewing repetoire most people in this topic probably have, it's between it & Paranoia Agent as my favourite 1-cour anime of all time. But I think that's moreso because almost everything I've watched and/or loved runs 24 or more episodes so it's a pretty limited sample set to work with.
Which again is the big indictment here, I feel like they fleshed out such a world of possibilities and fun characters, the fact we didn't get more seasons (while I understand there's numerous light novels) is very disappointing. But all in all it was great and I'm actually looking forward to rewatching it, I can also understand how it won the first iteration of SMFAS.
In lieu of heaping more praise, there were just two main gripes I had with it (spoilers I guess).
(1) Episode 1. I was so confused and I guess that was by design, but as the series went on I got a bit annoyed that's how the show started since the first episode was the last time we see several characters chronologically (outside of the 3 unaired episodes) which kills a good deal of potential tension on the train, AND episode 1 also featured a scene that I remembered vividly and never comes into play in the actual series itself. Reading up on wikipedia later on I learned it included new characters from a storyline following the Flying Pussyfoot story, but yeah. Again, we didn't we get more animated Baccano, so sad!!!!
(2) What was my favourite moment in the anime up to that point & several episodes after was the first Rail Tracer reveal at the end of episode 5. After "Rail Tracer" is established by the story that cause Jacuzzi to freak out like a little child who was just told about the bogeyman, it was just so ridiculous - but then we get the payoff, the incredible moment where it's revealed the monster IS real, the lights cut out in the hallway, the violin background music is perfection and this ethereal red creature just casually reaches in, envelops the bad guy and pops out. The camera's left hanging on the open doorway, I was half-expecting a jump scare to happen...
Now at that point the show had already established immortality, and absorbing people through your hand, and transferring memories through touch, and artificial human beings, so there were lots of out-there elements being presented. But the joking "there is a monster that gets people on trains" actually showing up and being real, it just raised so many questions and opened up so many possibilities. I loved that scene so much.
...so was a little disappointing when it was actually just revealed to be a guy covered in blood and not the monster originally portrayed. Still worked out great in the end but ruined how great that episode 5 ending was! And actually my new favourite moment might be when he saves Isaac and Miria in episode 12 by handing the rope to Donny - "those two are splendid customers", lol
But yeah, highly recommend Baccano! if someone's like me and hasn't watched this, uh, 15 year old series...
(Edit: forgot to mention, greatest OP of all time, or at least greatest OP song, damn.)
Next on my "to watch" list are a two-fer:
-Puella Magi Madoka Magica -A Place Further than the Universe