91 Days

As a child living in the town of Lawless, Angelo Lagusa has witnessed a tragedy: his parents and younger brother have been mercilessly slaughtered by the Vanetti mafia family. Losing everything he holds dear, he leaves both his name and hometown behind, adopting the new identity of Avilio Bruno.

Seven years later, Avilio finally has his chance for revenge when he receives a mysterious letter prompting him to return to Lawless. Obliging, he soon encounters the Vanetti don's son, Nero, and seeks to befriend him using the skills he has quietly honed for years.

Set during the Prohibition era, 91 Days tells the story of Avilio's dark, bloodstained path to vengeance, as he slowly ends each of the men involved in the killing of his family.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lagusa, Angelo Main

Kondo, Takashi Japanese

Vanetti, Nero Main

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Fango Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Corteo Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Clemente, Vanno Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Vanetti, Frate Supporting

Nishiyama, Koutarou Japanese

Vanetti, Fio Supporting

Toujou, Hisako Japanese

Serpente Supporting

Kase, Yasuyuki Japanese

Barbero Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Volpe Supporting

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Iizuka, Toshio Producer

Satou, Yumi Producer

Reviews

Sep 30, 2016

ZephSilver

Recommended

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."
This is the cornerstone expression that drives 91 Days. An expression that it lives and dies by, down to the very fabric of its being. One that we're quickly made aware of from the opening act that plants us into its world.

The arms of the clock tick in reverse, as we travel back to the days of the prohibition era. It's a cold night in April, and our young protagonist, Angelo Lagusa, enters frame. In the warm glow of his household, behind the thick wooden walls that push the harsh cold out, he's at ease with the comfort ... of his family filling in the spaces of his living quarters. Cushioned by a blanket of security, Angelo and his little brother, Luce, awaits their father's return, hiding away in anticipation for the moment he walks through the door. It's a brief hallmark moment, the siblings' father cheerfully calling out their names, waiting for a likely response to ring out from within the closet. But little does Angelo know, that everything he's known up to this point is about to come to an end with the sudden knock of a visitor at the door—dun! dun! dun!—... and so it begins.

Three burly figures draped in thick trench coats steps inside. And just like that, the warm radiance that once filled the house is immediately sucked out. In its place, the thick stench of malice creeps in, seeping through the floorboards, suffocating the very air around them. Something is about to happen, and every beating heart in that room could feel it coming. Angelo's father lounges forward, blade in hand and his little brother bolts out the 2'x8' coffin to come to his parents' aid before Angelo could even react. Stifled by the linen hanging behind him and the fear of what he's witnessing in front, our young protagonist is left frozen to look on, powerless to take action against the chaos looming right outside his hiding space. Peaking through the wooden panels of the cramped closet, he bares witness to a sight that will forever haunt him. Bullets leave their chamber, the thunderous clap marking their departure, as they tear through the flesh of what he once called family.

This is it. This is the event. This is the anger that fuels him. This is the removal of normalcy. This is the motivation that keeps him going. This is the beginning of something sinister. This is the landmark moment that will forever pave his path with blood stains of burgundy and the sulfuric stench of gunpowder. "Revenge is a dish best served cold" and Angelo is determined to deliver it, even at the cost of innocent bystanders that are oblivious to his vendetta. The cost of him ever living a normal life. And at the cost of what little shred of humanity was left during that cold winter night. When he goes through with this, there's no turning back. No one to turn to. No one to pray for his godforsaken soul. And so we depart with him, down the topsy-turvy course of trust and betrayal, with a hit list in hand and a determination that refuses to yield. He begins his journey; the first steps are taken, day one begins.

Bearing a similar tone and structure to projects done by movie heavyweights Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, 91 Days plays out like a love-child of these two worlds being brought together. This is immediately felt with the sultry musical backing, soft piano keys being carted off by bellowing brass instruments, stylistically cropped with titles cards and blood-curdling violin strings, as the camera slowly pans across the landscape. Traversing the fledgling stages of a city aiming to shoot their infrastructures towards the heavens, we're made aware of this place that's aptly named Lawless; a nesting ground for those trying to carve out a living for themselves, as well as the mafia families that make up the seedy underbelly of the booming alcohol smuggling trade. After laying low for seven years, Angelo makes his return to this city, reborn under the alias Avilio Bruno. Here he set the plans in motion for his revenge, enlisting the help of his childhood friend, Corteo, using his talents as a brewer to get closer to the crime syndicate that massacred his loved ones on that cold night in April.

And as his plans begin to unfold, everyone is slowly entangled within it. A sprawled-out web that's inhabited by family feuds over the dominion of the city and pretexts made at a moments notice to insight altercations. A breeding ground for mutual partnerships and calculated backstabbing, with Avilio fanning the flames whenever he sees fit. These warring family factions include the Vanettis, Orcos, and Galassias. All of which participate in this codependent dance of charades that are set to the music of a zero-sum game. With lots of twists and turns scattered along the way, every chapter adds a new piece to the playing field. This, combined with the brisk, yet methodical pacing, made 91 Days a title that constantly had you wanting to see what would happen next. There were no guarantees on who will live or die, only the falsehood of plot armor that's immediately revoked when two opposing parties meet.

This became one of the show's greatest strengths; suspense backed up by tangible results.

Revenge stories that slowly taper off as it pushes forward aren't uncommon. There have been many examples of this occurring across several storytelling mediums, with the usual morality message regarding the perpetual state of hate being the star attraction set on display. Thankfully, 91 Days isn't another statistic. It sets the stage early on and delivers on its promise from beginning to end. There aren't any trade-offs made to extend anyone's relevance, if they're ensnared in a situation that they can't walk away from unscathed, they receive their just desserts like everyone else. There are still explicit messages regarding the cost of revenge, as well as themes that come default with these scenarios, but the story doesn't bend at will to adhere to the warnings of it. Revenge isn't just worn as a shiny badge before flipping the script to see the apparent wrongs of the actions being taken, no, in 91 Days, revenge is carried out without compromise. And nowhere is that made more prominent than with the cutthroat mentality adopted by the main lead, Angelo "Avilio" Lagusa.

If Angelo were summed up with one word, it would be merciless. An empty shell that lives solely for his objective, Angelo knows nothing else, adjusting his life around the need to make his targets pay. He isn't just satisfied with merely killing them; he wants to crush everything that they stand for. Dismantling the very foundation of their family's name by orchestrating events that will see them tearing each other apart. He's determined to see his plans through to the end, becoming another cog in the machine without so much as flinching at the prospect if it benefits his cause. Step by step, he draws closer to his end goal, the phantom resemblance of a smile just below the surface as bodies begin to fall. It's an obsession that borders on madness.

And it's this same obsessive state that gives birth to paranoia among all camps of the conflict. Men hunched over in their local speakeasies, glancing over their shoulders in fear of other families taking them out. Restless faces marked off by bags under their eyes, dispatching hit men before someone else gets them first. And standing in the cross-hairs of this chaos is Nero Vanetti, a man deeply devoted to his Don and father, and the extended crime family, and unfortunately, another name on the checklist to be snuffed out. Where Angelo is driven to dismantle everything around him, Nero is committed to keeping it together, who, like Angelo, is obsessed with his cause, but instead of being duty-bound to some vendetta, he instead wants to maintain the integrity of his family's name. A task that proves nigh impossible with Angelo offering a handshake in comradeship, while the other hand carries a pistol erected in his direction. A give-and-take relationship where one man stumbles in the dark, oblivious to the other's malicious intent.

But not everything in 91 Days compliments this gripping narrative. For one, the art direction and presentation often fell short of expected standards. Instead of becoming an animated series that could go toe-to-toe with the giants it patterns itself after, it only manages to measure up by the skin of its teeth. By no means should anyone approach this work expecting something on Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, or Quentin Tarantino's level. When I said, "similar tone and structure" that was the extent to which I think this anime achieves when pulling from its influences. At best, it's a slightly better rendition of the 3rd movie in the Godfather franchise, which admittedly isn't much of an accomplishment, but still, I'll give it credit for where credit is due. Regarding general scriptwriting, cinematography, and fully developed personalities, 91 Days remains an imitation of these great creator's works, but still a gripping imitation nonetheless.

The lack of eye-grabbing textures, unique shot compositions, color saturation, or other presentation nitpicks could be ignored if you're invested in the story. Although, some aspects might stick out far too often to turn a blind eye to. Such is the case with characters like Fango, who might have been an honest attempt at creating a sadomasochistic individual, but ended up resembling an off-brand Joker villain instead. Where every character involved aimed for an early Film-noir performance set in the 1920s, Fango came flying in like a man transported straight from the 1970s; complete with the general attire and appearance to boot. And as detracting as his antics were at times when placed in a setting not meant for him, after a while, his role in the story meshed in more effectively. It May have been too late by then, but at least the effort was there to course-correct the problem. There are also a few character dynamics that could have benefited with a bit more time dedicated to it, like Angelo's connection to his childhood friend Corteo, which felt too much like an afterthought at times, only there to get his foot in the door and serve as a catalyst for certain events to happen. With a bit more meat to their relationship, pivotal narrative moments could have become emotionally gripping ones as well. There's an excellent storyboard there, just not enough attention-to-detail in-between plot points to make it moments with long shelf-lives in the collective conscious of the viewership.

And despite this list of shortcomings, 91 Days remains a welcomed addition to its niche genre appeal, because when everything is said and done, the self-respect in which it carried itself made it far easier to forgive where it may have stumbled. We've had a fair share of mobster-inspired works before this, from the more character-centric ones like Gungrave and Gangsta to the rule-of-cool beat-em-ups of Darker than Black and Baccano, but there's never been a more faithful rendition of the traditional mafioso story in anime up to this point. Where those titles are riddled with supernatural occurrences that are dipped in the flourishings of the mobster lifestyle, 91 Days trades this in for a more grounded approach, containing characters that draw closer to real-world personalities than the more zany ones found in some of its contemporaries.

It may not have the energy of Baccano, the fully developed characters of Gungrave, the well-choreographed fights of Darker than Black, or Gangsta's—... oh wait, Gangsta sucks. But what it does have is an appreciation for the classics that preceded it and the commitment needed to see its vision through.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 7, 2016

ItIsIDio

Mixed Feelings

91 Days is a good choice for you if you enjoy a revenge story where a character exploits other people's self interest and/or schemes them in order to achieve his revenge. 91 Days becomes a bad choice once you start expecting anything other than onedimensional characters, and also if you hate main characters that are displayed in a way that makes them feel flawless without giving them any personality traits, especially negative.

You see, what ruined this series for me was the characters. Most of the characters are presented as onedimensional, with each being from x side or the y side or the z side. If ... they're particularly important characters, they will have a trait or aspiration which will rule their personality without giving them any further complexity, like friendship, family, power, greedyness, psychopathy, etc. Each character will operate under one role and that role only and they won't have any sort of trait that would give them a more complex and more human personality. Thus they feel very onedimensional and they were hard to feel any attachment to, because you constantly knew which is their one and only priority. The two characters the series treats as the main characters are pretty much the only two people that feel like more or less people, because they do things that occasionally clash with their goals, but I didn't personally enjoy their portrayals.

One of said characters is the main character, Angelo, or Avilio as he's known by everyone other than a single person. Of the two I'll talk only about Avilio because the other character doesn't enough depth to live on its own. I didn't like Avilio's character. For the reason that he doesn't seem to have any flaws other than him being emotionally damaged and having no desire to live life outside of his revenge. But these are not used at all to impede his goal, so he's pretty much a Jesus character. Avilio manages to constantly scheme and use characters to his purpose, planning things just the right way through all adversity and always coming out unscathed 100% of the time pretty much because he's the main character who delivers his vengeance. There's not really any time where things seem to remotely go against him specifically. The group he is in may suffer. His "friends" might be in a disadvantageous situation. But as far as Avilio is concerned, he never seems to be at odds for the vast majority of the series, even in a situation where he's at a complete disadvantage. The one very good moment in the series, is when that actually finally happens, he finally is forced to do something he doesn't want to and has no other choice and can't create bullshit out of his ass. Which I can't talk about because it would be spoiled. Outside of that one moment he always seems to be the perfect man who's gonna reap vengeance and deliver his justice. Which isn't a good thing. The only thing flawed about him is his goal. Nothing else. As far as his actual personality goes, Avilio never displays enough emotions to engage his character from a viewer's perspective, merely showing short glimpses of very minor reactions that would build his character more as a person. Avilio is portrayed as a silent husk of a person, which makes him as engaging as a toenail, with the personality of the doorknob to boot.

I'm not gonna deny that the type of person Avilio is does deliver this series' point, but a good drama should have some way to make me care about its characters. And the main character is bland, and everyone else seemed even worse. For instance, in a setting where there's 3 big families from the mafia, other than power "levels", I can't tell you any thing that differentiates them from one or the other, except for their leading dons which are onedimensionally portrayed characters. And this is in a story where all of these families are relevant to the world and Avilio's goals, in a series where common traits might hint at things to exploit which would help Avilio. This is in a story where you should also empathize with another character that aspires to constantly help his family, with his family's only saving grace being... that they're related? I can't honestly find any side to root for, for neither a moral reason, or a reason based on ideals or anything of the sort. Everyone seems to be after the same thing, which is power and money. I'd classify henchmen that sacrifice for the family into the power category as well, because they might not be doing it to promote their own, they're doing it for the person who they're supporting. If the story is a drama, there's nothing that compels me to interact with the characters, because they feel too shallow.

The story is simply about revenge. But I can't be engaged in a story about revenge when I simply just don't care about the characters and simply see them as set pieces. Yes, there are one or two things that aren't purely minded towards that goal and it does present revenge in a negative light. The best moment of the series is when finally the main character has to do something he just simply would rather never do, which I've mentioned before. But otherwise, it's a story about a guy who lost his family killing those who wronged him. Which is a standard plotline. And any elements that could make it interesting, its setting, its characters, everything is not noteworthy.

However, despite everything I said, the story did have a theme that I felt it did get to go through. Due to its ending mostly and... that means I can only give you vague things to avoid spoilers and even then I can't guarantee there's nothing that is gonna give away how the series will end in this paragraph. So I advice you to just to skip this whole paragraph in order to avoid spoilers if you'd rather stay clean. The theme of the series is about living in the past. If you let your past define who you are today, once everything that kept you in the past is gone, you're a nobody. If that's what builds up your life, the only option left once all of that is gone is to move on. Power means nothing without the reason you've aspired to it. I know how vague all of this sounds, but I can't get into it any deeper. It's far bleaker and vague, however, this is the essence of it. Take it or leave it.

In terms of action, I wouldn't call this series an action series as much as I would call it revenge porn, with everyone falling in the front of the one and only God, Avilio. Most of the action is comprised of shootings but there's one or two more brutal moments, which I'll just leave unsaid since they bank on the shock factor to an extent.

In terms of artstyle, the series is mostly fine, but the overall color balance with cold colors and low saturation didn't really help make the world more vivid for me. I think the world is too bleak and makes the story too serious. Otherwise, I like the overall art, but for once I wish a series would be a little more colorful. In terms of sound, I found nothing noteworthy to be said, negative or positive.

91 Days was a dissapointing experience for me. Because, it had very little going on for itself and it failed to make me care about its world, its characters and its events. While I think it did succeed in its theme, there's a lot of moments that just didn't help and seemed to serve only simply as revengeporn. So ultimately, I think 91 Days can be a fun ride if you just wanna see how a character dismantles organizations in order to achieve the justice he thinks he deserves, and you just wanna see how he succesfully and consistently does it. Basically if you think the revenge porn aspect is the only thing that will carry you through. Because otherwise I can't really recommend it on any other factor, perhaps its theme, but I can't assure you that it will pay off for you. I think the series was ruined by character portrayal, and how nobody seemed to matter and have any value to the story. There were only a few people that really mattered and were focused on, and they aren't particularly engaging either, they're just there so that Avilio the doorknob wouldn't just boringly sit there and brood. The show lacked tension because the main character seemed to almost always achieve his goals, the show lacked engaging characters, because they were one dimensional, the show lacked drama, for the same aforementioned reason. It was lacking in a lot of ways, ways which make this anime hard to recommend. So if you think the said things would be roadblocks for you too, I suggest you avoid this. 91 Days is one of those series that I think are enjoyable only if they're exactly what you're looking for.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 29, 2019

KKoalan

Not Recommended

91 Days in my eyes is not as impressive as many claim it to be however this does not mean that those opinions are 'incorrect' or invalid.

I found this anime very interesting for an episode or two, the initial character development was intense and enthralling however once that effect had worn off, i was left bored. The story seems as though it could've been great but it just didn't keep my attention throughout. I enjoyed the art style and the main protagonist Avilio Bruno however it didn't make up for what I see as a lackluster way to portray it.

In my opinion the only ... interesting character was Bruno, many different sides of his life were shown before the events of the show, however as some other reviewers have stated, the side characters were very one dimensional and didn't seem to progress as much as I would've liked.

To conclude, I personally would not recommend this anime but if you like revenge and violence then it may be worth a try.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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