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Are you thinking of watching Megalo Box after seeing the high ratings and all the hype? Think again. This is not going to exceed or even reach any expectation. Unless you're an older anime viewer who's watched Cowboy Bebop and can be easily mind-tricked into believing this is an estimable production almost solely because of the not-so-subtle nod Megalo Box gives towards Cowboy Bebop.

So, I am an older anime viewer and I watched and loved Cowboy Bebop as a child. Also since I kickbox, Megalo box centering around boxing interested me as well--I thought I would be able to relate more and even get ... ideas for new combinations. When I saw the ratings and how highly everyone was praising it, I thought for sure this would be a decent watch. I'm about 5 episodes in (almost halfway) and nothing remotely interesting has happened and there is a high change I will not finish this anime.

Megalo Box is about an underdog that is seriously underprivileged in life... doesn't even have a name or citizenship apparently, but has the skills to fight boxers that use machinery to add to their strength while he opts to fight bare. So basically, it's like everyone you're fighting uses steroids, but you decide to not use steroids but somehow manage to be more resilient and stronger than others because of your.....technique. Ok. Fine. Maybe I would accept that if the fight scenes were better choreographed to at least give some credence for the necessary suspension of disbelief needed to buy into this plot point. Maybe even cool training scenes. But no, none of that. Nothing at all really. Just.....his perseverance and I guess also the weird kid who someone aids his boxing and makes him a stronger opponent, but not quite sure how. There's also his coach who also lives in the slums with him and continuously discourages him from doing better, but is simultaneously an amazing coach to give him the direction and teachings to help him be so good that he can best opponents without machinery.

There's just really nothing at all interesting about this show except for the superficial connection to Cowboy Bebop. I honestly believe this is the sole reason why people are hyping this show so much, because they want to believe it is similar to Bebop, when it is by far nothing like the revered cult classic. On Crunchyroll, the comments on the videos are always trying to draw far-fetched similarities between Cowboy Bebop & Megalo Box. But they are not entirely wrong--I noticed some analogous aspects as well such as the main character's design and personality. He really reminded me of Spike with the hair and cool attitude. Not only is the main character's design reminiscent of Spike, his trainer is eerily similar to Jet. And they even had a stupid blue butterfly fluttering around in the show similar to the images that would flash through Spike's mind in Bebop. Cowboy Bebop was one of the first anime I watched as a kid so it's near and dear to my heart. But that's what makes me even more annoyed about that show because it seems like a marketing ploy to get that exact kind of viewer to tune in.


All in all, this is highly disappointing and I don't even know if I will take the time to finish it. I would not recommend as it's incredibly boring and utterly lacking in uniqueness.

Overall Rating: somewhere between 7 and 7.5

Wow...I completed misread this anime. I watched the first 2 and a half episodes and I was so bored. I nearly dropped it, but I kept seeing it get high ratings and accolades so I decided to finish it. It's only 12 episodes so hey, no big deal. I'm glad I did because it was definitely worth my time.

I have a soft spot for any anime that has a Western setting or anything outside of Japan that involves lots of gun fights, booze, and characters with deplorable behavior. However, I almost always do not like Mafia stories. Maybe just ... American Italian mafia stories (I loved Black Lagoon). They bore me. So picking up 91 Days was something I did extremely hesitantly. If you're like me and you're debating whether or not you want to spend your time watching because of that element, trust me when I say it's definitely still worth it.

What makes 91 Days so gripping is how the revenge plot unfolds. The first several episodes are such a bore, it was a pain to get through them, but by the end of episode 5, I was hooked. After a certain point, almost nothing pans out the way you expect it. I can't count how many times I ended an episode with my mouth hanging wide open as each plot twist is so unexpected. With the amount of death in the anime you really shouldn't be surprised, but every murder is still a shock each and every time.

All the characters are a piece of shit and have just about 0 redeeming qualities except for Corteo. HOWEVER, given that this story focuses around the mafia you can't expect them to be bound by any sort of sensical moral center. I mean, these men go to church and talk about family but then won't hesitate shoot up the place in the next second. It's obviously a purposeful depiction of what the mafia was like that you're supposed to analyze, but I honestly just rolled my eyes at the hypocrisy and unabashed greed of the men.

Like I said, this is a revenge story, so you do end up empathizing with the main character because you understand his reasoning for revenge, but as it becomes his reason for living, nothing and I mean NOTHING will stand in his way or jeopardize his goal. He is ruthless until almost the very end so you'll probably experience a lot of mixed feelings and question a lot of choices he makes.

There's a decent amount of depth to the story and significant symbolism that you can get into if you like that sort of thing. However, while the mastery is somewhat there, the overall appeal is definitely lackluster (this may be in part due to the art which I will briefly mention after this) and does not at all match up to other revenge stories like Code Geass or Gankutsuou. The ending messages are deep but nothing to leave you in awe over. It's an obvious kind of final message for revenge stories as well as a commentary on the stupidity of gang violence.

The art was definitely the weakest aspect of the anime and at first made watching all the more unenjoyable. The aesthetic was so blasé and maybe its to fit the tone of the story (Prohibition era, Mafia, Gun Violence, etc.) but I'm thinking it probably had a low budget. I was not a fan in the least bit of the art and it is definitely nothing noteworthy.

Still, I highly recommend! It was a decent watch.

Do you like meta anime? This might be for you! Wait, but do you also like anime that isn't some sort of amalgam of random, not exactly interrelated themes and motifs, some for obvious shock value and others that are supposed to be maybe introspective or a commentary on society? Then you might want to rethink Mawaru Penguindrum. Or at least put it off until you REALLY have nothing else to watch. And even then, think about it one more time.

I primarily watched because the same director that did Revolutionary Girl Utena , Ikuhara Kunihiko, wrote and directed Penguindrum. I loved RGU, so I had ... very high expectations for this anime, but not a single one of them were met.

Ok, so Penguindrum initially focuses on Himari's waning life span and her two brother's mission to help her stay alive. If you watched RGU, then you will see a lot of similarities between the two shows, beginning with the magical girl-esque transformation accompanied by some catchy ass music that transfers you from the already metaphor drenched reality the story takes place in to an even more meta dimension where some really weird shit ends up happening. However, while this is the main focus of the story for about 16 episodes, once episode 17 hits the story takes a hard left and it's almost like half of the plot points in the first 16 episodes have little bearing upon how the show closes up. I'm thinking its to mimic one of the themes of the show--transferring to a different fate/destiny--but while you think Himari is the focal point of the plot, she's actually not? It changes so many times between episodes 17 to 24 that you unknowingly end up on a rollercoaster of crazy metaphor and symbolism that you're just begging to end.

To further comment on the pacing of the story, after watching RGU, I patiently waited and waited and waited for all the pieces of the puzzle to fall together nicely. They did in a sense, but it wasn't smooth nor as masterful as a lot of these reviews and the overall rating would make you think it would be. For a 24 ep anime, you have to wait SO LONG to understand what the fuck is even going on. RGU was similar, but that was what, 34 ep total? So 17 ep of confusion of that was at least only half way through.

As for the themes covered, some were done well and others felt out of place/unnecessary. You have one message thats centered around family: feeling accepted, feeling loved, being abused by parents, being fucked up by parents, abandonment. Those tied into the overall message of the story. But then theres also the recurring theme of being abandoned by society...being unchosen vs being chosen. Grooming yourself to fit into a mold. I didn't quite get how this tied into family and cult membership (I told you there's a lot going on. I'll mention the cult later). We also have recurring sexual abuse that is omnipresent in the story...literally one female character is raped by another female character but IT IS NEVER REALLY MENTIONED AGAIN. LIKE WHAT. So obviously, your next thought is, it's probably a metaphor. Which is was, but why even have that part? It didn't do anything for the story. It was just weird and kind of uncomfortable to watch because the character is literally drugged and raped and you witness the whole thing (no nudity though). There are probably other themes I'm missing but so much happened I can't remember it all and I literally finished watching 20 minutes ago. Oh, I just remembered death is mentioned a lot. It was tied in well in the beginning (first 16 episodes) but then.....I don't even know.

Going back to my mention of cult membership...yea. That's a huge part of the story. Feeling overwhelmed? Me too. Ikuhara is clearly referencing the 1995 subway gas attack (the reason why there are literally no public trash cans in Tokyo. Trust me on this, I was there in June and it was impossible to find a trash can) which was executed by a Japanese cult group. However, the reason for having this cult group in the show wasn't entirely clear to me. Yes, they want to change society, yes they want to create a new world, but the reasoning was never clear to me. Shou mentioned the Child Dump (lord I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me right now) and his father was just like "oh yea thats where the unchosen children go. sucks right? we have to change it." but again this is after episode 16 where shit is spiraling out of control and your face will look like the ?? ?? meme with the black dude looking hella confused.

IN ADDITION to all of this, there's a diary. For so many episodes, everyone and their momma is trying to get this diary. It has the secret to finding the penguindrum. What is that? I couldn't even tell you exactly. I have an idea but that would probably be a spoiler if I say it. Then suddenly, the diary's importance diminishes A LOT but then it comes back within the last episode but then it's not needed anymore !!!! It held the key to solving everything apparently but when it came time for one of the characters to save the day, they didn't even need the diary to do it! LOL WHAT.

Oh my gosh, how could I forget the most important theme? Fate/destiny. Do you know how many times it was mentioned per episode? Probably 20. This is a huge theme that is reinforced through a lot of symbolism. This somehow ties it (albeit messily) with apples. The story of Adam and Eve is alluded to several times but then randomly towards the end they also quickly reference the greek myth of the Three Golden Apples.

Ok, there's just too much to comment on. I couldn't do it in one review. I feel like my train of thought is so messy, but honestly this show was messy and it would be nearly impossible to neatly comment on everything I want to in this review. So basically, watch at your own risk. This is meta level 9000, greater than NGE, greater than RGU, greater than Murakami books. You will be confused for almost 70% of the time you spend watching and you will end the anime feeling extraordinarily confused about what the fuck you just watched.

I rarely ever write reviews for anime I've completed...in fact, this is the first review I'm writing since becoming active on MAL about 2 years ago. I also almost never watch shoujo or anime that fall into the romance genre in general. I'm not a fan of romance stories period. So to be honest, I can't speak about the romance part of the story since I don't have a large amount of "experience" watching the genre. Orange is definitely not going to be understood or enjoyed by everyone, but for those who have experienced depression and self-hate, part of the story-line will definitely hit home ... hard. The biggest reason I wanted to write a review because as expected, some of the top reviews are giving this show terrible ratings which obviously is just someone's opinion, but I want to give a different point of view for those interested in watching.

The show does a lot of thing well in relation to illustrating the pain of going through depression and also the difficulties in having a friend going through depression. I really liked how there was almost always a positive message and symbolism through the story to almost teach the viewer about what depression is like how to help someone who is going through it. The story very accurately depicts how unpredictable depression can be....one moment can go so well, but that doesn't mean you're suddenly free of your inner demons that are causing you so much pain and suffering.

Death is also a huge theme in this story which almost seems counterintuitive to a shoujo, romance, feel-good anime. The story explores how someone deals with death in their life and how someone deals with possible impending death (aka suicidal thoughts).

There are so many feel good moments and an equal amount of heart-wrenching moments that this show really took me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. I have never cried so much while watching an anime. Literally, after a certain point, I cried or at least teared almost every episode.

Speaking on the romance aspect of the show, it wasn't strong at all; it absolutely focused on friendship more than anything, so if you're expecting a decent romance story, I won't say you should look for that in this anime.

As for the art, I enjoyed it. It's pretty simplistic in my opinion, nothing amazing. Opening song is decent. Characters are lovable and admirable, and the storyline is definitely engaging. I wouldn't recommend to everyone, but if after reading my review you're still interested, then definitely watch !