91 Days Anime Review

91 Days is a by-the-numbers mafia-themed revenge story — that’s pretty much it. It’s well structured, well executed and carries itself without much of a hassle from beginning to end, despite its boring cast. It’s just that it’s not very interesting.

Episode 1 Review

Taking place during the Prohibition Era in the US (1920-1933), it quickly sets the kind of story it is. A pretty boy with a somber air living in a spartan room receives a letter about “the Vanettis” from an unknown source and that makes him the happiest he’s been in a long time. With that alone the audience understands that this guy has a huge chip on his shoulder and the contents in the letter are oh so closely related to his issues. You also get that this story will be about said issues, and that subtlety is not the name of the game. This last detail will be prevalent during the whole show.

We’re then transported to the past to a scene between the somber pretty boy during his childhood, his best friend and his little brother. Their types are set as efficiently as before: Angelo Lagusa (the pretty boy) trusts his friend Corteo completely and has enough brains and bravery to survive what’s coming to him; Corteo is somewhat of a coward with book smarts; and the brother is not important because he gets killed along with his parents pretty quickly by the mafia, after the head of the hitmen group expounds about why he’s doing it. Angelo, who manages to escape, vows for revenge. This is a rather common, easy to follow, and easy to digest origin story without a lot of frills or twists to it; simply put it is executed well enough to not feel as generic as it is.

Back to the present day, Angelo goes back to the town of Lawless to find Corteo, who’s making high quality moonshine with the intention of making enough money to pay for his own schooling. Angelo, who now goes by the name of Avilio Bruno, convinces him to sell it to the Vanetti family to get close to them. The duo goes to a church made into a bar to try to make a sell, get in the process of negotiation with a couple of booze thieves, then get interrupted by the prime example of no-subtlety of the entire show. A guy named Fango (who’s almost as picturesque as an obnoxious drunk clown with a gun that’s parodying a cowboy) from the Orco family shows up looking for one Nero Vanetti. In case the viewer’s missed it, the show plays with the “names with meaning” trope.

A shootout ensues and the duo and his thieving friends manage to escape. This ends up being a serendipitous meeting, as the two thieves happen to be Vanno Clemente and Nero Vanetti, the firstborn of the Vanetti family’s head.

In hindsight, a lot happens in one episode, yet during its runtime it doesn’t really feel like there’s an overwhelming amount of information to process. Although that’s a point in its favor, it makes one wonder why that is. It’s true, the direction and the placement of the scenes were executed without apparent problems, yet everything felt dull. From the main character and his presentation, to his convenient meeting with Nero and his buddy, it gives the impression that these are all play pieces we’ve seen used better somewhere before. Regardless, it’s a strong enough start.

Episodes 2-3 Review

This is when we start learning about the finer details of the mafia families in Lawless: There are three families, the Vanettis, the Orcos an the Galassias; with this last one being more of an outsider but with a lot of pull. There’s been friction between the Orcos and Vanettis, with some of them wanting to go to war with each other to establish who’s in charge; others wanting to take advantage of a concerted marriage between the daughter of the Vanettis with one of the Galassias’ big shots to settle things amicably.

Angelo seizes the chance by offering to kill Fango to be in the good graces of Nero, but botches it. Instead Vanno, who was aiding him, takes one of Fango’s minions to execute him in revenge for killing one of his men earlier in the episode. This is good storytelling, because it showcases Angelo’s resourcefulness.

The opportunistic kill backfires, though, because Nero and his buddies now suspect him. After a tussle between Fango and Nero for the corpse of Fango’s minion, Angelo manages to convince Nero that he’s on his side, but Frate, Nero’s younger brother, advices him to get out of the city because his presence would get in the way of the peaceful solution the Galassias want. Angelo, the ever-devising guy, offers to be his escort.

This was a well done pair of episodes that begins Angelo’s rise within the Vanettis ranks, and to make the audience know that the main character’s deviousness doesn’t always play in his favor, making him potentially a more interesting character than the likes of Griffith from Berserk, or Johann from Monster. Nero’s struggle is different from his counterpart, he tries to get back the power that his family lost to the Orcos, and do this behind the Galassias back, whom he sees as outsiders even if they have a better standing than them. His brother, on the other hand, seems eager to get their help in order to get peace back in the streets.

Episodes 4-6 Review

Now that Angelo and Nero are runaways, it’s the perfect chance for them to do a little bonding. While they’re camping out, they share a bit of their pasts with each other, with Angelo trying to dig for some information about the assassination of his family. This runs alongside an assassin being sent by the Orcos to keep things from slowing down too much. The most important part in this episode is the beginning of their bond that will continue to develop as the story goes on.

In the previous episode Angelo and Nero have gotten close, next on the menu is testing their friendship. Nero is told by Barbero, one of his close aides, that he can come back to town, but this turns out to be a front by his brother Frate (sponsored by the Galassias) to get rid of him and take his spot as the next don. Things get ugly and a friend of Nero gets shot, which forces them to attempt to make a truce with Fango and his crew, who’s now running from the Orcos.

Skipping details, it conveniently turns out that Nero has a brewery that’s been making Corteo’s high quality booze. This becomes a major plot point, because dangling the special moonshine factory to a bunch of booze smugglers is now their one and only weapon in their future negotiations. Nero and Angelo agree with Fango to hand him Orco, the factory, and join their new family.

There are a few twists and turns, but overall it’s pretty straight forward: Angelo and Nero disagree, Angelo goes on his own and the others think he’s betrayed them, Nero says “no! I trust him!”, then Angelo delivers and everyone lives happily ever after (for the time being). Except Orco, who’s made into lasagna and fed to his former underlings by chef Fango.

Episode 7-10 Review

By this point in the story it’s been established that Angelo and Nero have become close, with hints that perhaps they’re much closer than Angelo would’ve originally expected. Now that it has withstood the first trial, next would be to shake things up a bit, perhaps make Angelo hesitate about his revenge, or make him fall in love with someone from the enemy camp — anything that would get a visceral reaction out of any of them and make them waver.

This is probably the highest point in the show, having Nero and Frate confront each other to see who gets to be the next don. While Nero and his sister Fio wanted to see them reconcile, Fio’s husband and Angelo were pushing for a situation where the only solution was one of them dying.

After Nero’s success at inheriting the position, this somehow makes Angelo a much more important figure within his target’s close circle. But not everything works in his favor, after Corteo becomes a threat to the Vanettis, Angelo is forced to do something about his best friend, otherwise his position in the circle would be compromised.

With the story about to wrap up, it’s become a huge bummer that I can’t consider any of the characters memorable or interesting, because the roles they play actually are kind of engaging. Although Angelo is the main character, without Nero he’s pretty much nothing, which goes along with him stating earlier that his raison d’être is, and has been for many years, revenge and nothing more. Nero, on the other hand, is somewhat gullible yet ruthless, and will go to any lengths deemed necessary to make the family as a whole stronger, even if that means killing his own brother.

This brings me back to two of my favorite anime: Berserk 1997 and Gungrave. The relationship between Guts and Griffith, Brandon and Harry, the rise and fall of their friendships and the subsequent quest for revenge was a huge part of what made these so great. It’s true, Nero’s and Angelo’s “friendship” isn’t like these other guys’, but on the other hand these four had more interesting backgrounds before the beginning of the story and they got developed further as it went along. The pair in this show feels like they’re static for most of it, and the nature of their relationship isn’t as gripping in comparison. They always feel dull and somewhat one dimensional, which makes for a terrible presentation in a story that revolves on the actions and consequences of these characters.

Episode 11-12 Review

Remember I mentioned earlier this anime likes its names with meaning? In this last stretch, Angelo executes a plan to take advantage of a big social event held where the Vanettis and the Galassias are supposed to cement their alliance. It’s then that he vows to take down not only those directly responsible for the murders that started it all, but set fire to everything and everyone in the Vanetti family except for Nero, who can do nothing but see it all burn down. Confused and enraged, Nero kidnaps Angelo and escapes from Lawless while the Galassias mow down the Vanettis in retaliation for the death of their don at the hands of a man of the Vanettis, Angelo.

It’s in this last stretch that the low key feeling that has permeated the entire series feels much more fitting than before. Now that everything has been lost, Angelo has nothing and nowhere to go to, and although Nero seeks an answer to why he’s been the only one left alive, he understands that nothing would come of having it.

The end is expected, appropriate, and well executed. Although left somewhat open to interpretation, the fact stays that whether A or B happened, it’s inconsequential; the purpose of the story was met and by then each character had decided their path in life.

This last detail might rub some people the wrong way, but I consider it par for the course. It’s implied that Angelo’s life after the incident consisted of “going with the flow,” never trying to change his position in life. After he achieved his goal he had literally lost his reason to live, meaning he’d go back to his previous state if given the chance. Nero ended in a similar situation, no matter what he did he’d have to get as far away from the Galassias influence if he wished to stay alive.

Although I just praised the ending, it also takes me to what perhaps is my biggest issue with this show, and it’s that there is never any mystery, it’s always clear what’s going to happen, even if when or how isn’t as clear. The audience is in the know all the time, making all of the story feel like a walk down memory lane, except you reminisce about other shows and movies that did it before and did it better.

Having the audience never really wonder or care about your story is perhaps worse than making it a saccharine moe trip fanservice filled show. Said a different way: “Wasted potential is worse than no potential.” 91 Days isn’t a bad show, but it’s not a good show either. It lies in that strange limbo that it’s above average, above mediocrity, and yet it can’t graze the status of “good.” It could have been better, it had the chance and at least some of the material to do it, but it wasn’t. A generic trashy moe anime at least has an obvious goal, you know what you’re getting into and don’t expect anything beyond what’s on the label, thus “no potential.”

91 Days was disappointing not so much for what it is, but for what it isn’t. One of its saving graces, though, is that it’s not tied to an existing IP, like Berserk 2016 or Mighty No.9 were, so it can exist as “that one show that’s kind of interesting” instead of “why are you not as good as your predecessor?!!” and become the victim of disappointment-fueled bad press. Some could say that this is an unfair way of seeing things, and they might be right; but I can’t help not being moved at all by anything that happened in this show.

As far as crime dramas go, if you’ve watched the Godfather 1 and 2, Gungrave, Goodfellas, and The Departed, the only reason I can think of that’d make me say “you should watch 91 Days” is if you had a gun to your head and were forced to pick between Keijo and this.

What Do You Think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.