91 Days

Episode 5

Some time into their exile, Nero and Avilio receive a phone call. It's Valbero, informing them that the Vanetti and Orco families have reached a truce, so it should be safe for Nero to return. However, Valbero is still suspicious and requests that the two meet up before returning to the family home. They do, and Nero receives a warning that things aren't all well in the ancestral home.

When he tries to go there regardless, he's greeted with an assassination attempt. Another one of Nero's buddies/employees, Tigre, is gravely wounded while tipping Nero off, but they all manage to get away. He, Avilio, Nero, Valbero, and the tagalong Corteo find temporary shelter on the docks, but the city's exits have all been blocked, and there's nowhere else for them to go. On top of that, Tigre's condition is rapidly deteriorating. While Nero stands around insisting that he won't let another friend die, Avilio invents a way out of their impossible predicament.

The solution comes from an unlikely place – Fango. In a twist of fate, he's the reason why the two families are no longer openly fighting. At some point while our (anti)heroes were on the road, the Orcos finally decided that their pet madman wasn't worth the trouble of upkeep. However, when he and his posse proved tougher to kill than expected, the rising family found themselves fighting two wars at once. So they called a truce with the Vanettis, who were on the losing end of things and thus grateful for a cease in hostilities. In the meantime, Fango's been shacking up on the island speakeasy where the show's action got started way back in episode one. That island happens to be one convenient rowboat ride away from the docks, so Avilio crosses over there (while making plenty of heavy-handed allusions to the River Styx). He gets a meeting with Fango and proposes a deal: if he harbors Nero and company, they'll deliver him Don Orco's head on a platter. Beyond that, Avilio bluffs that Nero is the one with the plan, so Fango will have a reason to keep him alive. (This is important because Fango has a beef with Nero specifically, as the highest-ranking Vanetti to authorize the hit on him. Avilio's the one who actually tried to kill him, but that's just business as usual in their world.) Fango agrees to this, as enormous displays of cojones are possibly the only thing that'll get through to him. Now the plot has made an almost complete 180 of where it was two episodes ago, with Avilio, Nero, and Fango working together against the Orcos, Galassias, and Vanettis.

Wait a minute. Why are the Vanettis included in this? Aren't they Nero's family? Well, that situation has also gotten complicated. It turns out that Nero's younger brother Frate (who I inevitably call Fart in my head) arranged the assassination attempt at the behest of the Galassias, the super important mob family that's trying to absorb the Vanettis. Nero's sister married one of them, the lumpy redhead Ronaldo. The Galassias want Nero dead for his insubordination and to appease the Orcos. However, Don Vincent isn't too hot on killing his own son. So the Galassias take him out of power and install the compliant Frate in his place. So the Vanettis, lead by an eager-to-please teenager, are now a wing of the Galassias.

Whew, that was a lot of plot. Honestly, despite all the switcheroos, this episode wasn't too eventful, mostly set up for dramatic reversals that will go off next episode. Considering how much the production quality dipped, I'm glad that they didn't attempt anything too visually complicated. I suspect that Studio Shuka doesn't have a ton of resources on hand for 91 Days – this is only their second show after all. (And the first was Durarara!! x2, which was somewhat infamous for production slippage.) So far though, I've got to say that Shuka has done a fantastic job working with the resources they have to realize this story visually. The direction and art design have been an on-point mimicry of live-action gangster films, totally compensating for the often limited animation. But this episode might have been too much. There's a whole lot of off-model face going on. At least some of them are pretty funny in an ironic reaction gif kind of way, but it's pretty bad. I can only hope that this a momentary low and not a consistent problem going forward. Beyond my initial trepidation about the narrative, the animation quality has always been my biggest worry with this show, and this level of derp is enough to spoil the otherwise excellent narrative and design. I've got my eye on you, 91 Days. Even if that isn't exactly pleasant right now.

Some scattered observations – I spotted Corteo reading a book called The Waste Land. Presumably, this is a reference to the T. S. Eliot poem, which was published in 1922. I haven't read it myself, but if any of you book-learned commenters have, I'd like your opinion on why 91 Days might have referenced it. Also, was that lady with Fango the same one from the second episode, or does he just have a type? If she is, I'm impressed that she stuck with the guy after getting her armpit skin shot off. They might really be made for one another. On that note, nice job keeping a straight face during that butt-squeeze, Avilio. Your stoicism training has paid off.

Grade: B-

91 Days is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.