91 Days

91 Days is a 12 episode original period drama by Studio Pierrot.  The series originally aired in Japan over the summer of 2016.

    Set in a fictitious Midwestern American town during prohibition the story follows Angelo Lagusa as he exacts revenge on the people responsible for killing his family.  When Avilio was a child his father, mother and brother were gunned down one night by members of the Vanetti Family.  Avilio's father was a book keeper for the mob and for some reason a hit was put out on him.  Seven years after the murder he returns to his home, the town called Lawless, on an anonymous tip as to who pulled the trigger. 

    Angelo, using the pseudonym Avilio, infiltrates the Vanetti Familly in order to get closer to his targets, still unsure of everyone involved.  He, with the help of a childhood friend, work their way into the mob's lucrative bootleg business.  Unfortunately his presence and his friends liquor stir up a sleeping rivalry between Lawless' rival mafia families.  Angelo see's this as a perfect opportunity to kill the people responsible for the deaths of his family.  Time for a whiskey soaked blood bath.

    The quality of the artwork and the sometimes ridiculous characters detract from what is actually a pretty engaging story with some good development and secrets.  It does suffer at times from pacing issues, particularly when a good chunk of time is used in a story where Angelo helps the son of the Vanetti don skip town after war breaks out with a rival family.  The second half of the story seems rushed at times, but I think production was behind schedule and in serious danger of not meeting deadlines.  At one point there was a recap filler episode and the final episode was delayed and broadcast as an hour long.  Production errors aside the story its self was pretty good.  Not heavy on character development the real meat was the unfolding revenge story its self.  With its massive flaws 91 Days still ended up being a relatively enjoyable story.  It could have been a lot better in many area's but the story it's self was well done, even if it has some problems with its execution and pacing.  Have I mentioned the artwork is low quality for modern standards?

    Angelo is an emotionless uncaring character who at times can be difficult to root for.  The character I had the most sympathy was the Vanetti son, Nero, who seemed to be the most empathetic member of the entire cast.  Though at the end of the day he was still a hardened criminal and murderer.  There is no attempt at salvation and forgiveness for Angelo, he fully dirties his hands and is only driven for revenge.  Nothing else matters to him and you wonder if he even has any drive to survive his revenge.  It seems that once he has achieved it he will lie down and die, his life's purpose being complete.  Some of the other characters are interesting and note worthy as well, but over all much of the focus is on Angelo and Nero.

    The series simulcast on Crunchyroll and also received a dub treatment.  Since the dub exists I expect there might be some disc release at some point, but I wouldn't be surprised if it never actually materialized.  The series was a nice change of pace though.

Yuri!!! On Ice

Yuri!!! On Ice (ユーリ!!! on ICE) is a 12 episode slice of life sports comedy anime that is an original story by Kubo Mitsuro.  The series originally aired in Japan in the Fall of 2016.

    Professional figure skater, Katsuki Yuri decides to hang up his skates aftr a less than stellar season and not making the podium in the Grand Prix.  He slumps back to his hometown to wallow in self pity and his families delicious pork cutlet rice bowls.  Gaining some weight and feeling rather pathetic he struggles with how he moves forward in his life, not sure what he will do.  Before he can figure out how to join the ranks of the normal's his skating hero and senior rival appears at his parents inn.  Victor Nikiforov is the top skater in Russia and he has rashly decided to put his career on hold to become Yuri's coach, convinced he can whip the dough boy into shape and make him a champion.

    Yuri, with his strong man-crush on Victor, agrees to let him coach him to victory, banking on his ability to become the world champion in the next season so he can retire on top and let Victor get back to winning before hes too old.  It's not going to be as easy as he would like as the rest of the top international field is also vying for the championship and don't like Victor coaching the pathetic Yuri.  Can he life up to his heroes expectations and skate his way to glory and gold?

    Initially I had no interest in this for a number of reasons, mostly because I don't like sports anime and have little interest in figure skating.  A lot of chatter around the first episode piqued my interest and I was hooked about half way through.  This turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, anime of the fall season.  The animation is fantastic, moving effortlessly between detailed realism and goofy super deformed comedy.  But what really sells it are the finely crafted characters.  Each with their own personalities, even some of the most minor players have well rounded identities.  My only issue with the artwork is during the skating routines it can get a little, odd, visually when sometimes the character animation doesn't flow correctly in comparison to the background animation.

    Yuri is the typical hero lacking in self esteem but benefits from being surrounded by people stronger than him who believe in his potential.  If you are at all familiar with professional figure skating and the stereotypical personalities that exist in that world you will easily recognize the competitors that Yuri faces on his course to the Grand Prix and personal salvation.  The story actually moves along pretty quickly and doesn't get stuck into too much of the training and build up, with competitions taking one or two episodes only.  the story just kind of burns through months at a time as it progresses, not falling victim to the trappings of a shonen sports story.  They could have easily turning this into some multi season grinder with no real end in sight, but thankfully did not.  The brief time we spend with the characters was worth every moment and they teased at the potential to a follow up season!

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and there is no word when a physical release will be available.  But check it out because its a fantastic semi-yaoi filled ride!!

The Fall of The Fall

There has been no activity here due to non-anime life taking up a lot of my free time.  The reviews should return shortly, as there are many shows to review.  The Fall season heads towards its finale and I am watching as much as I can.  See you, more, soon!