91 Days is a summer anime that aired on 9 July 2016. The anime recently ended on 1 October 2016. It was produced by Shochiku and Mainichi Broadcasting systems. The studio in charge of the animation is non-other than Shuka. For the summer 2016 anime, I consider 91 Days as one of the best anime that came out this season. I have certain love towards anime that has the mafia, mobster or gangster theme to it. For example, I also loved Gangsta, an anime that has a somewhat similar feel to 91 Days (unfortunately the studio Manglobe is now bankrupt). Although I pretty much have 91 Days on the top of my list for summer 2016, there were some notable flaws that made the anime’s overall enjoyment slightly lowered. Anyways, on to the plot summary!
P.S. This post will contain minor spoilers
Summary
During Prohibition, the law held no power and the mafia ruled the town.
The story takes place in Lawless, a town thriving on black market sales of illicitly brewed liquor. Avilio returns to Lawless after some time away, following the murder of his family in a mafia dispute there.
One day, Avilio receives a letter from a mysterious sender, prompting him to return to Lawless for revenge. He then infiltrates the Vanetti family, the ones responsible for his family’s murder, and sets about befriending the don’s son, Nero, to set his vengeance in motion.
Killing brings more killing, and revenge spawns more revenge. How will the 91-day story of these men guided by a tragic fate end?
(Source: Crunchyroll)
Taken from https://myanimelist.net/anime/32998/91_Days
Storyline (8.5/10)
The story for 91 Days is pretty dark because it depicts the operations conducted by the mafia to silence the police, to gain more influence in the city and to maitain the political relationships between other mafia groups. For example, in the anime, the Vanettis and the Orcas have to maintain a good relationship because of the stronger mafia group known as the Galassia. In fact, in episode 2 , the Vanettis arranged a political marrige between the daughter of Don Venneti (the leader of the Vanettis), Fio Vanetti and the nephew of Don Galassia, Ronald Galassia with the hope of improving the relationship between the two mafia groups. But this doesn’t neccessarily mean they get along with each other, this is clearly seen between the Vannetis and the Orcos. Both of them are in the same city meaning they both compete in business and influence. Both groups will use everything and anything to make the other suffer loss and to come out as the victor of the war between the two factions. I have always been a fan of these kinds of stories involving the mafia and I think that 91 Days was able to give a very good depiction of how violent and cruel the mafia can be and at the same time showing us how complicated the operations of the mafia can really be. And you know what’s the best part, this isn’t even the main story of 91 Days, believe it or not everything that I wrote were only fillers within the anime that made the main story progressed smoothly and personally I think it made the overall story for 91 Days more interesting.
The main story of 91 Days follows the revenge of Angelo Lagusa. I can only say that his revenge was played out so well, I can only label him as an absoulute genius. He was willing to join and work for the same people that murdered his entire family for the sake of his revenge. Not only was he able to to gain the trust of Nero Vanetti (first son of Don Vanetti) and his group, but was able to handle almost all the situations where his cover was almost blown, with a calm unwavering attitude, which I think is a rare attribute found in main characters these days. Another thing that stood out to me was the very sad story of friendship between Angelo and his childhood friend Corteo. I know it was just a side story but it was still a damn sad one! (sniff)
With a very solid and interesting main story of Angelo’s Revenge and complimented by the activities of the mafia, 91 Days was able to deliver a very good and facinating story that engrossed me to the point that I was at the edge of my seat from start to end. The pacing for the anime was also pretty consistent, until they had to screw up episode 12! What were they thinking! I wanted to see Angelo completing his revenge but no, they had to skip the good part to some kind of stupid road montage! If it wasn’t for this one idiotic flaw, I would’ve given 91 Days’ story a 9/10 or even 9.5/10. Well whatever, moving on to the characters.
Characters (8/10)
Basically there were only three characters that stood out the most to me; Angelo Lagusa, Nero Vanetti and Fango Orco, but I will have to give credit to all the side characters for having relevant appearences and somewhat tolerable personalities.
Angelo Lagusa
A man fueled by his unwavering thirst for vengeance againts the people who murdered his family when he was a child. This is basically Angelo’s backstory, it is somewhat cliche’, but the emphasis on him being nothing but an empty shell for seven years before he was given the chance to carry out his revenge was very depressing to watch. In fact, in episode 12, after completing his revenge he reverted to the empty shell he was before, he didn’t have a purpose or a reason to live. Yes I’m completely aware that this setting or situation has been repeatedly used in multiple stories of similar nature, but for some reason I think that 91 Days was able to deliver this cliche’ situation into a somewhat unique one. From my personal experience, usually the main character would learn that revenge is pointless somewhere in the middle to the near end of a story, but not Angelo’s case, from start to the end, revenge was the only thing he thought off. In addition to his cunning, cold and very calm attitude when faced with a dire situation, I consider Angelo as a very interesting character and like c’mon he’s a freaking badass, all of the people he killed, he did it with style.
Nero Vanetti
Nero Vanetti, the supposedly antagonist of the 91 Days and one of Angelo’s targets. Nero is depicted as a rebelious character that doesn’t like to follow orders. For example, he was opposed to the idea of being mere puppets to the Galassias to the extent where he would fight with his own brother. Other than that, he also has a loyal crew that support him during hardships. The reason why I thought Nero was interesting was because, most of the mafia operations were directed by Nero. Because of this, Nero showed that he has the qualities and the experience to combat any situation with simplicity (he really makes it look easy).
Fango Orca
The craziest character in 91 Days hands down. Although he is shown to have a few screws loose, he is not an idiot. In fact, he is one of the most intelligent characters in the anime. In addition to that, he is also the most violent character in the anime and masochist at that. I don’t really know why but for some god forsaken reason I really like his character. He reminds me of one of my favourite character, the Accelerator from To aru majitsu no index. His psychotic dialogs and actions really are amusing and his overall character design screams out “antagonist”. The way he died was both anti-climatic and unexpected at the same time. Before I talk about the art of 91 Days, anyone want lasagna?
Art (8/10)
In my opinion, the art for 91 Days really complimented the serious atmosphere within the anime. Not to mention, the art is very similar to Baccano (another anime that you should watch by the way).
Soundtrack or OST (7.5/10)
At first, I really enjoyed the opening for 91 Days but after episode 4 or 5 it started to get boring… Until I watched a video on youtube that basically analysed the entire opening for 91 Days. It was awesome! The meaning and hidden messages within the opening really made me think,
“Damn! This is a pretty good opening”,
I highly recommend you to watch the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPcr4LkQCLc) if you want a comprehenssive analysis of 91 Days’ opening.
Overall Enjoyment (9/10)
In conclusion, 91 Days was a very enjoyable anime and personally was my favorite for summer 2016. The people who I recommend this anime to are, people who likes the mafia theme, can handle very heavy stories and is bothered by violence.
That is all and have a nice day!
Straygod Reviews 