Plot: In the midst of the prohibition era, the mafia reigns supreme. Testa Lagusa is wrapped up with a powerful mafia family, the Vanettis, and he and his family get mowed down as a result – all except his son, Angelo, who is able to escape the massacre. Angelo dedicates the rest of his life and being to getting revenge on the Vanettis, particularly the group of people who came to his house that fateful night. To do that, he has to gain their trust and destroy them from the inside.
Breakdown: When I watched the first episode of 91 Days for Episode One-Derland, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I’m happy to say that I retained that enjoyment and then some for the rest of the ride. I had been looking for a show similar to Baccano! and this series definitely filled that void.
While revenge plots are a bit stale, and mafia stories are always slightly predictable on top of that, 91 Days delivers with a great main character, Angelo Lagusa, living under the alias of Avilio Bruno. While his overall personality is fairly monotone and stone-faced, he is an ingenious manipulator, able to achieve his ends and combat every variable that pops up.
Sometimes, this is to a slightly unreasonable degree, but it’s not that noticeable.
One problem I did have with Avilio is that, despite revenge and hate being his drive, he’s so monotone and even kinda emotionless most of the time that it’s hard to get behind his cause. He talks about his little brother every now and then and he definitely shows that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get his revenge, but most of the time he’s very even-tempered and we never see him struggling too much with these moral quandaries until one very big dilemma near the end.
Nero Vanetti, who is basically our deuteragonist and one of the men Avilio wishes to kill, is more compelling in that regard. He’s not as clever as Avilio. In fact, as his right-hand man, Avilio kinda provides him with the better plans. However, he has more personality and emotion behind his work.
One of the biggest question marks in this series is wondering if Avilio will truly kill Nero as he seems to develop a good friendship with him legitimately. Even Corteo, his childhood friend that he draws into this whole scheme, points out that it seems like he’s not taking his revenge opportunities when he can.
It adds a lot of tension to the series, especially considering Nero’s pretty likable.
Despite the story having several moments of predictability just because mafia series/movies kinda follow the same path, there were numerous shocking moments in this series that caught me off guard. The final stretch of the series is insane, yet it ends on a surprisingly quiet episode with an ending that can be construed as optimistic, which is surprising for a show with this setup.
Some characters don’t quite click with me, but they do a very good job at making characters that are intimidating, interesting and even fun. For example, Fango, despite being a friggin’ lunatic, was a blast to watch just because of how unhinged yet smart he…usually was. When he became a Don himself, his first act as Don was massively messed up yet insanely entertaining.
The very end is ambiguous, but somehow equally satisfying. Many people were complaining that we don’t learn what happens after the final scene at the beach, but I think it’s better off being ambiguous. Both possible ends are very suitable, if you ask me, and I feel I’d be more disappointed if they decided to reveal what happened.
I was also wondering where our title comes into play, and I was flabbergasted when I realized that it was referring to the amount of time between when Avilio started joining forces with Nero and the end of the series. All of that happened in three months?! What!?
As for the special episode, it is a collection of three stories – a flashback story about Nero, his little brother, Frate, and his friend, Vanno, skipping out on Sunday mass to go to the circus; a story about how Ganzo and Vincent Vinetti (the Don of the Vanetti family) meet and befriend Testa Lagusa; and a short story taking place during Nero and Avilio’s trip where Nero catches a cold and Avilio tends to him, even making him an eggnog he muttered about in his sleep.
These were nice little side-stories that really don’t provide a lot of substance to the main series, but they’re like fun deleted scenes that add a bit more to your experience overall.
Art and Animation: The backgrounds and landscapes are really nice. Not mind-blowing, but very nice. The character designs range from good to just alright. Many of them are kinda craggy, but Avilio, Nero and Corteo all have very memorable character designs. The direction and cinematography were also very well done.
The animation is pretty good. Not the most fluid in the world, but still pretty good.
Music: Really loved the OP. The ED not so much as it’s kinda like a woman vocalizing to well-done elevator music. The BGM was really good, though, and fitting for the genre.
Voice Acting: Japanese (Mostly) and English (Special and a few scenes from the series) – The Japanese voice acting was extremely well done. Avilio is indeed a bit too monotone, but that’s just the way his character is. Plus, his voice is deep and imposing enough to seem threatening and menacing without being too obvious. And when he needs to emote, he does so pretty well.
I decided to watch the special episode in the dub just to get a taste of what the dub was like, and it’s pretty….okay. A commenter said this series would probably be better in English because….Italian accents don’t work in Japanese? I don’t understand that. I mean, to a westerner’s ears we can tell Italian accents on English perfectly fine, but it’s not like Italian accents don’t exist when applied to other languages. We just wouldn’t really notice because we don’t speak that language.
That being said, the dub is perfectly fine. As expected, they do apply Italian and ‘gangster’ accents to the characters, which….kinda makes them sound strange to me. I know it’s appropriate for the era and theme, but it just doesn’t feel very natural for some reason. The older folks and Barbero were particularly good.
Bottom Line: If you love organized crime movies, revenge and conniving main characters who can manipulate those around him easily, this is a must-see. I binged through this no problem and I was excited for each new episode.
Additional Information and Notes: 91 Days was directed by Hiro Kaburagi and written by Taku Kishimoto, who was also the screenwriter for Erased, the 2019 reboot of Fruits Basket, and Ranking of Kings. It was produced by Shuka, and it is currently licensed by Crunchyroll.
Episodes: 12 and 1 OVA special
Year: 2016
Recommended Audience: There’s some sex talk and a couple of non-graphic sexual acts, some mild swearing, obviously a lot of violence and killing, though it’s really not terribly graphic. 14+
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