Plot: I would argue the first episode of this anime does an amazing job at situating the viewers and presenting the story and our main characters' goal and motivations. It all starts with our MC as a kid happily living with his family when suddenly a group of three men enter his house with the intent to kill him and his family, even though they succeed at doing so to his family they fail to get to Angelo and he manages to escape. 7 years later he receives a letter from a self-proclaimed friend of his father revealing the killers which prompted him to go back to the city he once fled under a new alias as Avilio Bruno set to take revenge on the ones who murdered his family at all cost. The method chosen by Avilio to get to his targets and execute his revenge is to get close to them and gain their trust since they had heavy security due to their status as mafia members, in the midst of him building trust with his targets he discovers there was a fourth member in the assassination making it so he can't end his revenge without figuring out who this mysterious fourth person is. The story doesn't focus solely on a mafia family but on three main families all fighting physically and politically for power and status which helps immensely with the world building and plot progression of the show.
art: The art style is nothing out of the ordinary when comparing to other shows, but it does fit well with the whole aesthetic and plot of the anime. The animations and the lack of vibrant colors throughout the series, with the exception of some scenes, really highlighted and properly showcased the atmosphere set by the anime both in terms of it's vengeance aspect as well as it's mafia and criminal life aspect. My biggest gripe in relation to this category is the underwhelming animation and lack of fluidity when it comes to the action scenes, most of the action in this anime happens in the form of guns and shooting making it's stale animation on these scenes bearable, however when comparing to other anime with guns as there main action it still felt lackluster.
Sound: The overall sounds throughout the anime seemed a bit underwhelming specially in relation to gunshots and so on where they didn't seem to blend well with the scenes and felt out of place at times. The opening is simply flabbergasting, it is sung by TK who has probably the most popular anime song ever (unravel) and it gives the perfect entrance to this show, it immediately sets you into it's dark and gritty atmosphere. I probably wouldn't put this song in an anime opening playlist as it doesn't really fit well with it and it isn't meant to listen casually on it's own but it is an absolute much listen during each episode and each time more enjoyable as you progress in the story. The ending is a simple melody with no lyrics and I would typically say it is underwhelming and a lack of effort but with how this show is where in each episode people die and a ton of impactful and shocking stuff happen it fits perfectly for you to simply lay back dwelling on everything you just saw. All in all opening and ending songs couldn't have been better picked.
Characters: An anime like this that focuses on vengeance, mind-games and betrayals needs to have amazing written characters with depth and development, sadly even though our main character Angelo and a couple of side characters like Nero and Corteo did achieve these requirements, the rest of the cast fell short making it so most of the characters feel bland one sided and forgettable. Angelo or Avilio is our MC and is an amazing character, the whole story constantly revolves around him and his motivations and we are presented with some amazing character depth through his constant disparity from his kind-hearted nature and his dark revenge fueled side, the story also isn't afraid to show us that Angelo is a character with many flaws that is constantly hurting those that are still with him in order to avenge those that are gone. Corteo is a character that isn't from the mafia life the anime centers around, he is a normal person that is reeled in to this kind of life and as a result starts losing his sanity throughout the episodes leading to a final break which made for a great character and the viewer can feel him falling more into despair each episode. Nero is a direct opposite to Angelo's character, Angelo ruined his present by being stuck to his past while Nero ignores his mistakes in the past which ends up catching up to him in the present. Nero's and Angelo's friendship is very dynamic and perfectly written with two sides to it that are constantly clashing. Sadly some other characters seemed to have great potential but were kept very superficial like Fango, Frate and Fio that although were given some screen time it just didn't feel like enough or it felt like very one dimensional characters.
Overall: This anime's story and atmosphere are very unique and refreshing in a world where most anime seem like carbon copies of each other, on top of this the show has an amazing plot, main characters and soundtracks. It does present some downside's in lack of world building, shallow secondary characters and some awkward moments related to sound and animation. I would definitely recommend this anime to avid anime watchers and even to people who normally don't watch anime as long as they like mafia style stories, although I believe the rating I gave to "91 days" of 8/10 is very objective I did boost it a bit due to how well thought out the soundtrack choices were and I believe this show could've have gotten a much better rating with some better animation or development of it's side cast.
~People don't need a reason to live , they just live~
