91 Days

Episodes 6-7

So at the end of the fifth episode, Nero found refuge with Fango by promising to deliver him Don Orco's head on a (metaphorical) platter. At the end of the sixth episode, Fango makes that platter literal in the worst way possible. I won't beat around the bush here – this episode was a bizarre tonal misstep in what's otherwise been a subdued dramatic narrative. Love him or hate him, Fango's always been an anomaly within the world of 91 Days. But this time, inexplicably, and just for one episode, the world was transformed into whatever JoJo's Bizarre Adventure-esque ultraviolent comedy that Fango escaped from. And then it all went back to normal, as if Fango had never baked a human being into a plate of lasagna and fed it to the rest of the cast. That was just the fate Fango had in mind for Don Orco, whose previous appearances all centered around his murderous love for the deep-dish pasta, like some sort of gritty Garfield reimagining. Fango even dons a chef outfit for the occasion, because he's nothing if not a showman. I can't call the scene ineffective. I think it achieved the effect that it wanted – to shock the viewer. It reminded me of Psycho-Pass's second season, but without the nastier tone that made me dislike that show. Something really bizarre and atonal just happened, and now it will never be mentioned again. I bet Fango did it on a Monday, too. That bastard.

Beyond that, some other stuff did happen in episode 6. Avilio tricked Don Orco into a vulnerable position through a ploy that reveals his true identity as Angelo Lagusa. That seems extremely dangerous, but it works out, so who am I to judge? The problem with all the scheming in these two episodes is that Avilio's plots are starting to rely on his opponents being just a little too stupid for me to buy. First of all, he and Nero strut up to Don Orco's place for an unannounced meeting and are somehow not shot to death on the spot. Remember that Don Orco (alongside Ronaldo) is one of the two primary guys who wants Nero dead in this situation. Next, Don Orco follows them straight into the abandoned mine that contains Nero's private brewery. Sure. And in the next episode, Ronaldo's men pat Avilio down for weapons, but don't check the bouquet he's very conspicuously holding. (Fun fact: orange lilies represent hatred in the language of flowers.) Presumably the gun was hidden there, as there's no other indication of how Fio got her hands on it. These gangsters do take some superficial precautions to ensure that Avilio doesn't straight up kill them, but they don't seem to be nearly enough, as evidenced by how Avilio straight up kills them anyway.

These are people who face assassination attempts every day of their lives. You'd think they'd have a halfway decent vetting process. (Then again, the Vanettis did usher the half-socialized vengeance gremlin Avilio into their fold. Maybe their standards are slipping?) The intent is to present Avilio as a weaselly schemer who plots circles around these unsuspecting jerks, but since his successes rely on people being improbably stupid, it doesn't land. I'm criticizing this especially because the show has pulled it off so much better in the past – Vanno's assassination was tightly written, as was Avilio tricking Fango to take in Nero. Still, these twists aren't show-breakingly horrible. They might have not had the time to work out the bugs in this round of scripts – logistical details are the dull busywork of storytelling compared to character development and overall plotting. 91 Days is still strong in those respects. The big picture is still solid, but I'm going to have to cite 91 Days for getting a little shoddy with the details.

Moving on to that big picture, these two episodes are all about Avilio navigating Nero into a position of safety at the expense of his happy home life. When the sixth episode began, the entire town wanted Nero dead. But by the end of the seventh, he's running the place. To get here, Avilio handed Nero the credit for taking out Don Orco and avenging Ronaldo Galassia. (In reality, Avilio is responsible for both of their deaths.) On the way there, he tricks Nero into murdering his own brother, Frate, and alienating his sister, Fio. You see, Frate was installed as the new Vanetti head after Don Vincent's deposition, but he's just a puppet, bullied into submission by Ronaldo. Ronaldo's gotten the kid addicted to drugs (amphetamines?) and plays on his long-standing inferiority complex to Nero. Nero is a natural leader – charismatic, assertive, and able to bend the rules in his favor – while Frate is a born follower – passive, mild, and submissive. While on the surface, Frate was praised for abiding the rules, he could tell that Don Vincent actually favored his delinquent older brother, whose “negative” traits made him better suited to leading a mafia family. Frate was a little fish born into a shark tank, and that drove him insane, so he tries to kill Nero to salvage his fractured ego, and his brother is forced to take him out first.

Fio, meanwhile, gave up the most for the family – offering herself in marriage to a powerful man that she doesn't love. It doesn't help their marriage that her hubby is trying to assassinate her beloved elder brother, as well as basically holding her little bro hostage. For his part, Ronaldo seems to genuinely like her or at the very least is sexually attracted to her. He's not a comically abusive husband, but their relationship is by its very nature coercive. Their suffocating domestic scenes make it clear that this is all exacting a devastating psychological toll on Fio. In the end, she kills Ronaldo – at that point the father of her unborn child – in order to protect her brothers. And just two minutes later, Nero is forced to kill Frate. Frate is ultimately framed for killing Ronaldo, so Fio's in the clear, but when we last see her, she looks far from content. Sorry lady, Avilio has some revenging to accomplish. You're lucky to have gotten out with your life and your baby. (As an aside, this may be the first time I've ever seen male-on-female cunnilingus in an anime. Say what you want about Ronaldo, at least he eats his wife out.)

The other big issue with this pair of episodes is that Avilio is still too emotionally inscrutable for my liking. Something seems to have changed about him. Earlier in the show, it looked like he just wanted to take out the three people who killed his family, leaving associates and bystanders mostly intact. Now he's after everything Nero loves. My guess is that this shift originates from their "bro'd trip," which I predicted would give Avilio some affection for Nero. By now, it appears to have had the opposite effect – Avilio's now after Nero's heart as well as his life. (And not in a sex way.) Having heard tell of Nero's happy childhood, Avilio seems to have amended his revenge plot to include destroying that as well. It's a bit hard to tell though. On the one hand, I appreciate 91 Days's consistently successful mimicry of the character-action based storytelling employed by films like The Godfather. On the other, I do feel that it tends to land on the side of not enough information rather than too much. By now, the exact nature of Avilio's feelings towards Nero should not be a mystery. To me, the natural emotional development for Avilio should be either the complication of his revenge in the form of an attachment to Nero, an intensification of the desire for revenge, or the two existing in tandem. (I'd prefer that last one, since it's the most complex and therefore most interesting option, if the most difficult to portray.) It's all just a bit too opaque right now. 91 Days has had this problem before, but it improved, and I hope that it improves again. In the meantime, Avilio has placed himself in the position of Nero's emotional crutch, claiming that “he's [Nero's] brother now.” Yeah, you're screwed, mobster boy.

All in all, 91 Days managed to recover from its momentary dip in quality, and the visuals have as well. The sixth episode featured some pretty severe derpface, but for the seventh, the animation is back to making the most out of the excellent direction and cinematography. As a bonus, they gave Fango a new haircut, and it looks much better than the weird blonde bob. Did you know that his voice actor, Kenjirō Tsuda, also voiced Christian Grey in the Japanese dub of 50 Shades of Grey? I realize that he probably isn't using the Fango voice for that, but wouldn't that be amazing? Love him or hate him, Fango is here to stay, at least as the next guy to naturally want Nero dead. I hope that he survives the show. Shine on, you crazy diamond. And may your lasagna always have the right amount of butter.

Episode 6 Grade: C

Episode 7 Grade: B+

91 Days is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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