I think I said this on Discord, but it bears repeating: I’m so glad Narita dropped his plan to have Cookie/Charkie the bear go wild every night and hunt mobsters. The sheer relief, I mean, can you imagine...
...Putting aside how the 1935 arc already has enough going on, let’s face facts: involving a bear in the story is, in itself, just a teensy bit silly. Just a tiny bit ridiculous, and in this case I think embracing the inherent silliness by making Cookie a sweetheart was the right call.
A bear in New York is already a problem, as is said bear being a mafia housepet on the loose in New York. Making Cookie have wild nighttime hunts would have come off as “trying too hard,” “excessive,” etc., I think partly because it implies just having a bear isn’t good enough (i.e. already ‘a lot’). “A bear on it’s own? Boring. Bear preying on the mob at night? now we’re talking!”
Nah, forget that! It’s a bear! It causes a ruckus just by existing, as Narita himself proves. Cookie running around NY w/o killing anyone still leads to multiple calls to the police; him falling asleep at the clinic is enough to draw a crowd of rubberneckers and the response of law enforcement. And isn’t that in the spirit of Baccano!--individuals causing a ruckus just by being themselves?
--Wouldn’t Cookie wilding out at night also serve to undermine the circus incident in 1920? For context: Cookie was a danger when the circus first acquired him; he grew more and more ferocious by the day and eventually tried to attack his trainers. The circus would’ve likely put him down had it not been for Claire ‘taming’ him.
Now of course Cookie is a wild animal and not truly tamable, but this is fiction (and this is Baccano!) we’re talking about; we can afford to be a little unrealistic. Having Cookie ‘go feral’ at night would mean a better chance of people siding with the circus adults--and Narita wants us to like Cookie, yeah?
TL;DR: Cookie is dangerous by virtue of him being a bear (look how easily he swatted Ladd aside), you don’t ‘need’ to ‘make’ him a menace. Watching him romp around being friendly and excited is a lot more fun than watching him maul mobsters to death... The latter would surely lead to a serious bear hunt and involve a high risk of Cookie being shot dead. Looks like everyone dodged a bullet, eh?
