My favorite thing about this anime is the magnificent opening theme, "Signal" by TK. The song itself was so catchingly lively, yet so melancholic and beautiful. I could listen to it for hours on end, and now it has become probably my second-favorite opening of all-time. I know it's a bit of a stretch for a lot of people to say that this was so good of an opening that I would even say that it's upon that list. However, it's my opinion at the end of the day, and the 91 days opening is on my list for my favorite opening themes in anime history.
The animation done by Studio Shuka was great. They genuinely put 110% into making this series feel like a classic mobster anime, which hasn't been done this well since Baccano! back in 2008. However, what this show does better than Baccano! in my opinion is establish the setting of the story, which it does surprisingly well. There is always an eerie atmospheric presence luring in the shadows of each scene, which made you question "what was going to go wrong." The character designs as well were very interesting. I don't know if I would say they were unique, but they definitely were quite interesting to look at, especially Fango's. Fango was a creepy character which was done surprisingly well in the midst of the series.
Another thing I'd like to mention is the fantastic voice-acting done by the dubbing cast. I watched this series in it's English Dub, which was fantastic. They all emulated accents and dialect in a manner that few shows I have ever seen have been able to replicate. Everyone working on the dubbing for this series, from the cast themselves to the ADR Directors, did a fantastic job. This was, in my opinion, one of my favorite dubs. Stellar work Funimation!
One thing that this series surprised me with was the amount of focus on plot instead of simply focusing on characters. This show had serious emphasis on the story rather than character development, which was both a good thing, and a bad thing. Disregarding that much, the story was quite entertaining, from it's dark themes, to it's more light-hearted scenes, to the background of our main character, Angelo Lagusa. Learning about the story on why Angelo is even trying to do what he will was interesting enough, but seeing how strongly he simply to do it just shows how much he cares about this. The falling to darkness for Angelo was prevalent throughout the plot, as you can tell just how much he cares about this. Not only that, but the story's development throughout was nice and slick. I must also say that the story was slow-paced, but it worked well... for the most part.
Now that I've brought up Angelo, I feel like now's a good time to bring up the characters in the series. Angelo, our protagonist, is a troubled young man with simply nothing to lose, and one goal on his mind: Kill the Vanettis for what they did to his family. Seeing him plan everything out to eventually get what he's wanted all this time was really interesting. He was purposed character done right, because you could simply tell how much he was willing to give up in his life just to get revenge. Not only Angelo, however, but his partner and secret rival Nero Vanetti was also really likable throughout the series. He was super entertaining, from his foil to Angelo, being more upbeat than Angelo ever was, but he was also a really likable, nice, and trustworthy dude who didn't want to be involved in all the gang stuff. In fact, it was made quite evident that he didn't want to continue being a part of the Vanetti mob. I should also mention Angelo's friend Corteo, who was really likable, as he was just a good friend to Angelo, but it felt like Corteo lacked in development. Similarly, Fango was a really entertaining crazy dude, who just lacked in development. Aside from that small issue, most of the characters in the show were at the very least decent.`
However, you have to take another look at this review before choosing my verdict. Assuming that I found this show flawless would be a poor assessment, as frankly, I did have some minor problems. For example, most of the characters in this show lacked on so much development that it hurt. For example, Fango was so bland of a character in terms of development, despite him being such a fantastic "creepy guy" character. His character, along with Corteo, could've been done so much better throughout the course of the series. It's not a game changer, but it was a bit annoying how they didn't get that much backstory given to them.
Despite that being annoying, my biggest problem with this show was undoubtedly the same thing that made this show so unique in the first place- the story. Though it was fantastic in it's execution, it was still quite boring at times, as it was quite confusing, to the point of pure boredom among the audience. That may just be me, because I have yet to see anyone else admit to being confused by a lot halfway through the series. Regardless of that much, it was still baffling to me how something would confuse me on such a level that actually wasn't speaking of how the team behind Skelter;Heaven and Mars of Destruction got their budget.
Besides those insignificant issues, this series was still fantastic from it's gorgeous animation, to it's interesting story and characters, and utterly magnificent opening theme.Good crime dramas are a dying breed, especially in anime, but this show may just bring back the medium in my book.
Later!
