Reviews

Right of the bat 91 days is a series that wants to establish itself as average. Sure it's not a highscool or robot anime and it deals with real life issues like gangsters and turf wars but it does so in a very bland and predictable way. The story focuses on revenge and it does a decent job of getting the point across. But it also uses lots of cheap tricks like underdeveloped characters, confusing pacing and killing off like 90% of it's cast. The writers seem to think that the Mafia world is nothing but murder all the time and while that is necessiraly true for the most part it fails to develop the characters further than "I want to kill you". A lot of the twists are shocking at first but then you realize that they only happen because the plot demands it and the characters are given temporary stupidity powers. Obviously in the actual world of gangsters people would be more complex and less trusting. For the most part it is not a bad series and it is worth a watch because not many animes focus on this type of material. I just wish it would have presented it in a deeper way instead of using it as an excuse to kill off characters left and right. In almost every single episode a character dies and after a while it's not even shocking or meaningful. Even the main character acknowledges that it may have been all for nothing. That doesn't stop it from coming across as bland though.

Story
Cookie cutter revenge plot with some twists and turns here and there but doesn't really go anywhere with it. The ending itself seemed anticlimactic and the overall story structure and pacing could have been delivered better. There are way too many plot convinieces that seem out of place and are just there to muddle the story even more than it needs.

Characters
For the most part they are varied but apart from that they all come off as very one dimensional with not a lot of motives to work with. The names fit the setting but other than that some characters are killed off too quickly and too carelessly that it's hard to take them seriously. Betrayals become the order of the day and it makes one wonder how the characters made it so far if they are so trusting. As stated before, some characters appear to get stupid out of nowhere just as an excuse to make it easier to kill them off later. So some times it's hard to even take them seriously.

Art/Sound
The presentation itself seems solid enough, although the animations do seem a bit clunky at times. The art does it's job and shows a certain style to it that reflects that prohibition era setting. But other than that it's nothing to write home about. As far as the sound goes, the opening seems a bit out of place and a big band number or something having to do with music from that era would have been more appropriate. The ending theme "Rain or Shine" seems to fit the series a whole lot better. The tracks used in the anime itself are not really memorable but they also don't distract from the plot.

Overall this series depicts life during prohibition era in a somewhat lose fashion. It gets the point across but it also takes a lot of unnecessary liberties like making the action take place in a fictional town and having some unknown brewer make what seems to be the equivalent of liquid gold in the form of lawless heaven. It gets confusing at first because you are not sure whether the story takes place in our universe or a parallel version of 1930's America. It seems unnecessary in my opinion and they could have made the story take place in a real town while still making references to bigger cities.

Worth a watch if you're looking for something other than high school anime. Just don't expect it to be anime of the year or anything like that.