#inexqueuesable

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I am convinced that Fred Ward—well, especially if he'd been an Englishman—would have made a great Captain Haddock had a live-action Tintin movie or TV series ever been conceived.

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Roy Maddock: Iconic Theme-Setter

Shoutout to Roy Maddock and ''Baccano!'' Volume 4 for being the first explicit refutation of a "route to happiness" in a series preoccupied with the pursuit of happiness.

Volume 04 asks: Are drugs a viable means of happiness?

Ryohgo NaritaRoy Maddock answers: No!

It's pretty much ''the'' instance where Narita overtly condemns a happiness route. This is supported by Narita's anti-drug stance in other IPs like ''Durarara!!'', where Mizuki Akabayashi is explicitly anti-drug (this makes him a good Yakuza, whey-o). Okay, all right, so he almost certainly doesn't condone sadism-induced happiness, but never mind that.

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For those of you who are also slow on the uptake, Chapter(?) 3 of the Baccano! ~from the 1700s~ manga released on January 25. The best time for us to buy it was release day, but buying it is better late than never. As always, (the prospect of) new Baccano! media depends on consumer support.

Buy it despite DMM's "DMN" DRM, for we have no choice.

On the one hand, I hate DRM. On the other, if selling this manga via a DRM-strict retailer/platform succeeds in making people purchase it when they would have otherwise tried reading it for free, then. Fine. FiNe.

Remember to rate each installment. I think it's possible to do it without leaving a review: read the chapter in your browser, click the star on the end page, then click five stars on the review input form that pops up. It seems to save my five star rating even when I navigate away from the form. Leaving reviews themselves wouldn't hurt, unless...they're in English...probably. Do you think we could get away with leaving machine-translated ones? How many strangely-written reviews would it take to sound the 'overseas purchaser' alarm?

Edit: Or maybe not. The ratings I ‘gave’ aren’t reflecting on the listings for 2 and 3. Maybe a review is necessary after all.

Chapter 3 reactions under the cut.

Looks like this depicts parts of LN11 Interlude II and Chapter 4. I did have to manually transcribe some of the dialogue. This took way more time than I can afford.

The opening scene depicts the killing of the 28th victim/witness, an aristocrat named Lord/Sir Alonso. This must be the murder that Larolf reports to Esperanza in the latter half of LN11 Interlude III? Larolf describes the victim as a "boy" who witnessed the Mask Maker right before Niki did in the novel, but this Sir / Lord Alonso is certainly not a child. Hm...

I believe the bit of Niki we see in this chapter is her telling Esperanza the food is delicious from the beginning of Interlude III. However, the manga seems to be omitting the part where Larolf reports [Alonso's] murder? It shows Niki walking away with a maid, whereas Niki runs away when Larolf makes his report...and there's no moment where Esperanza is angered by the bruise on Niki's face per the LN.

Moreover, am I right that the manga also omits Monica and Elmer's encounter with the bald man and Maiza in Chapter 4? There's no marketplace with children singing the MM song, no bald man, no Maiza...

...but the previous chapters also omitted Elmer's first encounter with Maiza, didn't they? So the mangaka's been deliberately holding off on Maiza's introduction from the start. I guess the manga's going to move the bruise reaction, Larolf's report and the bald man/Maiza-Elmer-Monica encounter to another day? How will that account for Elmer's wound, though, since Elmer doesn't show up to class after being stabbed?

I probably need to reread manga chs. 1–2 and actually take note of what was and wasn't adapted. I should do that anyway, since that would be useful for the wiki.

Okay, some positives...

Larolf depicted! (I only know because he was depicted in Chapters 1–2, so this is a belated celebration of a Larolf Hancletia design. Ch.2 gave us Huey's mother, too.)

Warehouse depicted!

Patisserie lady depicted!

Hey, it's Elmer's room at Esperanza's place!

Elmer wounded! Bandages on Mask Maker's arm are neat.

Monica has a lot of fun expressions. Manga is leaning hard into the classic twitterpated teen girl archetype and her 'tells' (big eyes, blushing), and these do serve the purpose.

Denkurou and Zank (albeit seen, not heard)!

Elmer's back scars...

Some mild complaints:

Zank's body should be as dark-skinned as Zank's head. Did the mangaka forget to color the torso? If this is a lighting thing where Zank's head isn't in range of a light source, then Denkurou's body should reflect that too. It's such a weirdly stark difference in hue that it really looks like a coloring error.

Am I allowed to feel lukewarm about Elmer's design? Maybe the fact that I've never seen Elmer with flat (slicked?) hair is throwing me off (aka it's throwing me off a lot), but there's something about his head's shape as well. The big forehead?　The eyebrows floating halfway up the forehead? The flat hair is contibuting to the forehead's largeness.

To be totally fair, this is gawky teen!Elmer, not adult!Elmer, and Elmer on the LN11 cover does have a rounder face (than adult!Elmer) that I guess the manga is honoring.

And...

Elmer's back scars.

I am whelmed. I guess I've built up my mental image of the scars for so long that probably any illustration is doomed not to meet expectations. It might be unfair of me, but I can't help think that a mangaka could go all out on the scars, since they only have to be drawn for 1—3 panels—honestly, why not just devote a full page illustration to it or one panel that fills most of the page?

Ex: Contain Monica's horrified expression + Huey going ??? to one panel. Overlay that (opt. and the next panel) with a small panel of Huey's face to emphasize Huey actively following Monica's gaze. Thus, rather than showing a Huey!POV of Monica looking at Elmer, you could dedicate one big panel exclusively to Elmer's full back and arms. Go all out.

There, one and done.

Here's the LN description of Elmer's scars for comparison.

Elmer was stripped to the waist, squeezing his clothes out, and his back…

…was covered in scars.

And it wasn’t only his back; uncountable scars covered the parts of his arms that had been hidden by his sleeves.

Currently, not a single wound was bleeding, but if all those scars became wounds again, he couldn’t even imagine how much they would have bled—

That was how mutilated Elmer was.

He might have had even more scars than Huey’s mother had in his memories of her.

They weren’t just cuts. There were marks as if something had been used to gouge out divots of flesh, and an enormous burn that covered the top half of his back. Not only that, but the burns appeared to be covering countless more scars.

Where's the enormous burn? Those scars are pretty countable. I see plenty of unmamrred skin. Yep, I'm nitpicking now. Please give my apologies to the mangaka; my expectations were simply too high. Ultimately, I am grateful that Elmer's scars have finally been depicted in an official publication.

(Quick! Enami! Draw Elmer shirtless as a 20th anniversary treat!)

Defying Description

Esperanza

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Here are comments from Ryohgo Narita (original work author), Shinta Fujimoto (original work illustrator) and Manabu Ono (director / series composition) on the upcoming anime adaptation of Dead Mount Death Play, in that order, as shared on the official anime website (c.f. Staff section):

原作 成田良悟 アニメ！　アニメです！　この発表を行えた事を本当に嬉しく思います！ デビューして２０年という節目に、デッドマウント・デスプレイがアニメという新しい世界へと転生できたのは、 一重に読者の皆様から頂いた加護のおかげです！ この作品がどのような成長を見せるのか、どうか末永く見守って頂ければ幸いです……！！

原作 藤本新太 自分が関わった作品がアニメ化するのは初めてなので嬉しいです！ ここまで応援してくださった読者の皆様ありがとうございます！ 動いたら見栄えするだろうなと思うキャラ、声で聴いたら楽しいだろうなと思うセリフ、 一視聴者としても楽しみにしています。

監督・シリーズ構成 小野 学 先日人間ドックにて初めて胃カメラ検査を受けました。 鼻からカメラを入れられた時は「絶対に無理！」とモノローグで叫びましたが、 モニターで見る自分の食道や胃の内部映像は 「デッドマウント・デスプレイを作る上で大変参考になる！」と苦しみの中で思いました。 お祓いも受け、人間ドックの結果も良好だったので ショッキングな画作りもアクションもホラーも全力で頑張ります！

My dubious interpretations of the machine translations are under the cut (plus a bit of context and deprecating questions about word choice). I defer to Japanophones for better translations.

I am quite appreciative of Narita's explicit appreciation for this anime happening in the 20th anniversary of his debut. Meanwhile, I didn't appreciate enough until now that the DMDP anime will mark the first time something of Fujimoto's has been animated. That's even more reason to wish for the anime's success.

Context for Narita's comment: DMDP is a reverse isekai in which a protagonist reincarnates in someone's body in Shinjuku, Earth (another world). Narita is playfully invoking this premise.

Original Story Ryohgo Narita Anime!　It's an anime!　I am very happy to make this announcement! It's been 20 years since I made my debut, and the fact that Dead Mount Death Play has been reincarnated in the new world of anime is due in no small part to the blessings of our readers! I hope you will follow the growth of this work for many years to come.......!

Fujimoto context: Prior to DMDP, Fujimoto collaborated with Narita on a 2010s Baccano! manga. Prior to that, he wrote and published his original manga Red Raven, his most representative work.

Original story Shinta Fujimoto This is the first time a work I've been involved in has been adapted into an anime, so I'm very happy! Thank you to all the readers who've supported me this far! I am looking forward to seeing the characters in action and listening to the dialogues that I think will be fun to hear voiced. As a viewer, I am looking forward to seeing it.

Translation ??? on below: I cross-referenced several machine translation iterations, tweaked them w/the machines, and then took liberties in (re?)phrasing the whole bit about Ono screaming, seeeing the images, and thinking about DMDP for readability. I think the gist gets across, but I admit it doesn't quite reflect how Ono phrased it. JP doesn't have a strict sentence order, so... Eh, you get my gist.

Director/Series Composition Manabu Ono The other day I had a gastroscopy for the first time at a thorough physical examination. When the camera was inserted through my nose, I screamed, "Absolutely impossible!" in a monologue upon seeing the image of my esophagus and stomach on the monitor. "This will be a great reference for making Dead Mount Death Play!" I thought, in the midst of my suffering. I had undergone a purification and the results of my physical exam were good. I will do my best to create shocking drawings, action and horror!

Me again. W.C. for 画? Paintings? Pictures?

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Yo! Narita tweeted about Baccano again on April 5th pretty much confirming that the next novel has undergone a rewrite. He also talked about Vamp in the same tweet.

Anon's message arrived on April 8; I'm answering this on May 1.

Yeah; he talked about Etsusa Bridge, too. Vamp!, Etsusa Bridge... What a tease. Baccano! coming to a close could make room for Vamp! VI or EB 5656! II...after making room for Durarara!!SH, probably, though I'm thinking SHx5 stands a chance of being scheduled after 1935-E is out (F/sf Vol. 8 notwithstanding).

Speaking of, on April 5, Narita wrote the following reply (in English, not Japanese) to someone who begged in English "make drrr sh an anime before i die of colon cancer please :(":

I can't say it lightly, but I hope your body will improve. In addition to that, I also expect Durarara SH to become an anime.

Boy howdy, talk about bold statements. One could dedicate a whole post just to that one tweet.

By the way, DMDP now has its own Twitter account (Solitaire_TV). I'll assume this means it's not about to be cancelled anytime soon.

Anyway. here's the tweet that anon saw:

バッカーノは大幅な書き直しがありましたがまだ出る予定です！　本当に申し訳ないです……！！　ヴぁんぷは……私も無茶苦茶出したいです……！！（小声） And here's a tweaked autotranslation:

Baccano has undergone a substantial rewrite, but it's still scheduled to come out!　I'm so sorry ……!　Vamp is …… I want to get it out too …… absurdly!!!! (whispering)

(大幅: substantial, drastic, significant, major...)

I guess April 5 was "passion project yearning day" for Narita, since no immediate need to namedrop Vamp! exists (i.e. consumers have not been promised Vamp! VI anytime soon unlike 1935-E). I get it. I might guess further that writing Pandora Shark (new Naritaverse series) last year fanned the flames of his nostalgia.

Of course, as Narita writes in this other reply to a Vamp! fan, he's been wanting to publish more Vamp! for "an absurd number of years" (無茶苦茶何年)—as if we couldn't tell, heh. The man has never once stopped wanting to write Vamp!, hoo.

REMINDER TO BUY VAMP! C.F. TOU'S POST ON THE SUBJECT..

As for Etsusa Bridge, Narita was responding to a Japanese fan who said they are still waiting for an EB anime:

ありがとうございます！　私も希望を捨てず頑張りたいです……！（５６５６Ⅱの一部原稿を見ながら）

Auto-translation:

Thank you!　I want to do my best without giving up hope too……! (While looking at a partial draft of 5656II)

Did we know this partial draft exists? Maybe he already had a few of the 5656!! II ideas he mentions in 5656!! sketched out. I wonder when the draft was last edited.

Anyway, see you in a little over a week when Dengeki Bunko updates its New Releases list.

Scheduled when, Narita? Scheduled when?!

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Does anyone know if Luck was featured in some major article, video, tweet, or something at all mid-profile this last month?

I ask because I was checking stats on Baccano! Wiki just the other day and I noticed that it had a major spike in page views on December 11, going from 1,127 views on the 10th to 4,074 views on the 11th, and back down to 1,617 views on the 12th. Within the last 30 days, Luck's article has crowned the "top viewed" articles list with 4,452 views.

Needless to say, Luck's article typically does not dominate the "top viewed pages list." It sometimes is on that list, mind you, but it is never number 1, never far outpacing the other articles like this. (Seriously, Claire's article, which usually is in the top 3, 5, most viewed pages list, has 1,362 views within the last 30 days. Something is afoot). No articles typically breach 4,000 views within the last 30 days, for that matter! The highest individual article views on the "top viewed pages" list usually wind up around 2k views, maybe.

TL;DR, Luck's article has way more views within the past 30 days on Baccano! Wiki than is typical. Why?

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Shortly before Huey asks Elmer the most “cruel [and] absurd” of his two favors in 1711 Whitesmile—to "please stay just the way you are . . . . [because] I think I can rely on you to find my way back to who I was back then” (p. 228)—he remarks that he “no longer [has] any hatred for this world, nor any attachment to it” (158) post-Monica.

We might suppose that Huey might—could once again—fall in love with the world upon Monica’s return, no matter the world’s state. Despite this and Huey’s willingness to treat the world as an experiment, I wonder if his solicitation of a promise is much an instinctive attempt to preserve the world as much as it is an attempt to preserve Elmer.

Edit: Ignore the bulk of this post; in my haste to ponder the theoretical impact of Huey’s request on Elmer’s quest for universal happiness, I inadvertently overemphasized Huey’s impact by dint of underemphasizing Elmer’s tendency to be sidetracked—and I really shouldn’t have. See reblog.

Elmer’s goal in pursuing his own happiness, after all, has always been concomitant with pursuing global happiness. “What do you suppose I’d have to do to make everyone in the world happy?” he asks Esperanza, well before his arrival in Italy, His modus operandi—making individual people smile with his own power—is not the be-all and end-all. In other words, if he somehow verified his own happiness before making everyone happy, I think it likely he would continue pursuing that goal, whether despite or because of the inherent selfishness he, others, and the narration see in him.

Huey knows of Elmer’s global desires; his 1705 conversation with Elmer leaves him sick with the realization that Elmer will use any means to achieve his end; “he would make [others] his pawns and change their very fates.” (Oh, the irony.)

Now, Huey knows full well that he cannot preserve the world, nor does he want to. Time will change the world beyond his control, until it is unrecognizable to the world Monica once knew. Though this itself would not be an issue for Monica, Huey might care on some deeper level about the kind of world that ought (not) to greet her. He cannot abide decisions based on uncertainties; the more certain the outcome he works toward, the better. Anyone with reason understands that extraordinarily drastic change is required for a world such as ours to achieve global happiness; anyone who knows Elmer understands such change could be as terrible as it could be wonderful.

Again, whether and to what degree Huey is deliberately or incidentally pushing back Elmer’s ‘world domination via happiness’ plans is unclear and merely speculation. Nevertheless, when one conducts an experiment, one contends with both controls and variables. In removing Elmer from the global equation (while allowing the memory of him to influence his own experiment), Huey has one less variable to track.

What led me to think that Huey might have had the world on his mind? What of textual evidence or support? 

What strikes me—what directly influenced this train of thought / this post—is how Elmer seems to put his “global happiness” pursuit on hold post-elixir, though it remains a primary occupation of his mind three centuries on. As he famously says in 2001, “For the sake of a happy ending, I’d sell everyone in the world to the devil without a second thought.”

Yet Elmer has been more talk than action on this point for the last couple centuries. (That Narita has managed to convince us otherwise is to his credit). Elmer’s undertaking of alchemy in the 1700s is an example of a proactive if misguided step towards global happiness, but we haven’t seen Elmer take alternative macroscopic steps since. The absence of progress in his global quest is starkly puzzling in the presence of the progress made by Szilard and Huey, two men just as driven as Elmer. As far as we know, Elmer has mostly spent his time searching for Szilard while trying to make people smile along the way. 

(Notably, people like Niki, Mark, and Fil. And Huey. People not unlike him. I firmly believe this is rooted in his trauma and the series’ essential theme(s) of happiness—not just it is possible for immortals to be happy, but, I am of the opinion, is it possible for people like Elmer to be happy? This is something I will be discussing in one or two much longer posts. It is too off-topic here.)

Putting aside Elmer’s tendency to be sidetracked with aforementioned ‘smile projects’ like those above, the puzzle makes sense in the context of Huey’s promise. If Elmer puts so much significant stock in global happiness’ possible happy outcome for himself—i.e., he is optimistic that it may actually change him—then how can he continue to pursue meaningful actions toward that end without risking breaking his promise? For all that Elmer’s selfishness is underscored, and how self-centered he can be when finagling smiles in the short-term, is he not fairly willing to delay or stay his prospective long-term Happy Ending, time and time again, on behalf of another? 

Huey is making Elmer sacrifice his own theoretical happiness for what could be hundreds or thousands of years. Do not change. Remain just the way you are. Do. Not. Realize. Your. Happiness. Elmer agrees so readily, on the entire basis of a potential, not guaranteed, smile from Huey—as if he believes that seeing Huey’s smile will significantly bring himself closer to knowing happiness. What else can we conclude?

There are few other scenarios I can see that plausibly explain / justify Elmer’s conspicuous stagnancy in his global happiness pursuit when we are frequently warned he is a man to take seriously, a man proactive, a man who is not all talk. I say this despite my belief that Elmer’s repeated homing in on those who have been subjected to major trauma / abuse (Niki, Fil) to the point of despair / suicidal thoughts / etc. (Mark)—especially those who are children (all of the above at first meeting)¹—is more relevant to his desire for personal happiness than even Elmer realizes.

But that is another story. By which I mean at least one, possible two, lengthy write-ups on and related to the subject.

---

¹ Note: I would include Czes, except Elmer isn’t quite aware that Czes suffered at Fermet’s hands until Czes tells him as much in 2001...not to mention he has not seen Czes since the 18th century. How much of his zeroing in on Czes is due to instinct, or merely a natural consequence of Czes being the most unhappy of the immortals? Still, what Elmer decides to tell Czes specifically in this news’ wake (personal jealousy, capacity for change), seems crucial to me if Elmer at all, in that moment, regarded Czes as not unlike him. “If you want to melt again, just let yourself feel the warmth of your environment,” Elmer advises.

Alas, in Elmer’s case, there is nothing for him to melt back into; he has no reference point. He can mirror the warmth, but Czes can let it warm the embers of all that is good within him. Moreover, since when has Elmer last spent significant time in the warmth of human connection? Not since the Mask Maker trio, and even then, the three’s chance to intimately connect (the prospect of Monica sharing her past with them, Elmer his with her) was sabotaged with Monica’s death. Elmer keeps eluding the most ubiquitous and emphasized of Baccano!’s paths to happiness: bonds with other people.

Note 2: “...few other plausible scenarios...” I ought to acknowledge that Elmer shares Szilard & Huey’s drive but none of their power, resources, and money. You know, the sorts of assets required for such a lofty goal as his. The sort of assets he originally hoped to obtain via using Huey and Monica. Of course, should the Mask Maker trio once more reform (ha...), perhaps then Elmer might have more of an actual chance. “Building the world” might also be all the cheerier if he were doing it with his friends alongside him, though I’m not sure whether he’s really thought it through like that. 

Waiting on a powerful connection like Huey is probably the easiest and most appealing option from Elmer’s perspective, as opposed to the Szilard route (using alchemy/knowledge to accrue money, then power and influence), the Victor route (honest employment under the leash of the U.S. government), the Maiza and Begg routes (illegal work via gang connections), or the Nader route (worming one’s way into the ear of influential people via a silver tongue, which Elmer decidedly lacks).

(We have no idea if Elmer has considered at all whether he could use Lucrezia de Dormentaire. I mean, yeah, why would the House itself have any reason to hear Elmer out, and why would he expect them to? Except he would definitely have the gumption to say something like, “Hey, remember how I spied for your House and sent you some of the Grand Panacea? I want to call in a favor...” The question is whether he would think to do this. If he’s forgotten basic things like devouring, who knows how long it’s been since he last considered whether Lucrezia still lives?)

[agallimaufryofoddments]

Here’s the “Many Baccanovembers to come!” ‘end card’ I made for the /r/Baccano community survey Reddit post. Use at your pleasure.

[Image Description: a 1024x576 black ‘still’ with the aforementioned quote displayed in the off-right center of the screen. The still is mimicking the “Many birthdays to come!” ending card of Baccano! Episode 13.]