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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2814
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 8:47 pm Reply with quote
Some say the most dangerous assassins are those who don't plan to leave alive after the job is done, after the ending scene Angelo has certainly picked up the resolve to die after he finishes off the two main targets.

To be honest, Corteo was going to die by Angelo's hand going by what transpired over the last few episodes. What the first half of the episode did was to throw enough smoke as possible to misdirect viewers on his eventual fate.

Vanetti senior might be at death's door, but if he dies before Angelo can pull the trigger in his face then the whole scheme is anti-climatic. Angelo still lacks enough clout in the organisation (especially after Barbero's work behind the scenes) to get close to Vincent for a close-quarters kill so the theatre opening probably is his best and only chance.

Regarding Corteo's hiding place, where exactly could one hide one of the most wanted persons in Lawless town indefinitely without getting caught? Had Corteo not been let loose from his confinement, the Vanetti family would have eventually found #4 out and both he and Corteo would have been shot. Corteo had to leave town if Angelo wanted him alive, unsurprisingly the latter chose his old haunt as a bolthole (which worked since it was the telephone call summoning Corteo back which sealed his fate, Barbero had no idea where he was despite his enquiries).

Angelo's treatment of Corteo in this episode does how he has some humanity left despite his revenge-obsessed personality. I wasn't sure if he was just using Corteo to get the leverage he needed with the Vanettis, but the reaction at the end suggests it was a genuine relationship despite the number of years they hadn't seen each other. Corteo is less believable in his conviction to die on Angelo's behalf considering the earlier scene involving the money tossing, but his mother owed a lot to the Lagusas when she was alive so there's probably that factor as a mitigating reason.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:03 pm Reply with quote
I wonder if Corteo is really dead. I'm a little suspicious because Man #4 tossed Angelo a bag of bullets earlier in the show. And conveniently, Corteo and Angelo were the only two people in the room. With Man #4's help, it wouldn't be too hard to carry out the ruse that Corteo is dead.
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Iemander



Joined: 18 Jun 2005
Posts: 443
PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:29 pm Reply with quote
Pretty extreme deus ex machina to see Corteo somehow bypass a full camp of gangster being a wanted man to arrive just in time to shield Avilio from suspicion.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:39 pm Reply with quote
That Corteo is a sly one, for sure.

By the way, can I just say how glad I am Fango is dead? Scenery-chewing villains are never my fave.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2814
PostPosted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:48 am Reply with quote
@Iemander

He didn't have to. The whole family knows Corteo by sight and the orders were to bring him to the Don if he was caught. Why do you think the henchman was so insistent on interrupting the confrontation between Barbero and Avilio despite being told to go away?
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2814
PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 3:07 pm Reply with quote
#11

It didn't all go according to plan, but only one target remains.

Barbero's paranoia and jealousy nearly ruined Angelo's plan completely, but his decision to call one of the purported targets without realising Ganzo was the writer sealed his own fate. Del Toro is quite the physical specimen to kill two gangsters armed with knives despite being stabbed in the front, back and shoulder. Just as well Angelo did the job properly.

I found Nero's decision to head to the opposite box on Ganzo's advice rather perplexing. He knew Angelo was after his father, so why not head straight to the box and intercept him there? Was it a combination of trust built up between the pair which caused him to doubt Angelo's complicity, or did he really think about using the rifle and forgetting to bring it along with him to the other box?

Another surprise was Don Vanetti NOT getting shot by Angelo at the end. There was nothing stopping Angelo from putting bullets into Vanetti after Don Galassia kicked the bucket. Perhaps he suspected the Don would have died anyway from his illness and wanted to torture him more with the knowledge that the heavily armed Galassia bodyguard would butcher all of the Vanettis. Since the Chicago family is so much larger, any Vanettis they missed would be hunted down after the performance.

Looking at the post-credits scene, I wonder what Strega plans to do with the injured Angelo. His uncle just died which is great since he takes over, but Nero is still active and is the sole figurehead for the remaining Vanettis to rally around. Viewers should eventually get to the scene with Nero and Angelo pointing their guns at each other, but the journey getting there for next week isn't a predictable one.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 1:43 am Reply with quote
Harleyquin wrote:
I found Nero's decision to head to the opposite box on Ganzo's advice rather perplexing. He knew Angelo was after his father, so why not head straight to the box and intercept him there? Was it a combination of trust built up between the pair which caused him to doubt Angelo's complicity, or did he really think about using the rifle and forgetting to bring it along with him to the other box?

It was a calculated move by Gonzo to misdirect Nero to where he thought Angelo would snipe from, when really the plan was for Angelo to go to the personal box.

Harleyquin wrote:
It didn't all go according to plan, but only one target remains.

Barbero's paranoia and jealousy nearly ruined Angelo's plan completely, but his decision to call one of the purported targets without realising Ganzo was the writer sealed his own fate. Del Toro is quite the physical specimen to kill two gangsters armed with knives despite being stabbed in the front, back and shoulder. Just as well Angelo did the job properly.

-----------
Another surprise was Don Vanetti NOT getting shot by Angelo at the end. There was nothing stopping Angelo from putting bullets into Vanetti after Don Galassia kicked the bucket. Perhaps he suspected the Don would have died anyway from his illness and wanted to torture him more with the knowledge that the heavily armed Galassia bodyguard would butcher all of the Vanettis. Since the Chicago family is so much larger, any Vanettis they missed would be hunted down after the performance.

I think you are underestimating what actually happened, because for according to Angelo it had gone exactly as planned. He knew that Barbero was onto him, it was actually his plan to get captured, allowing him to use Gonzo to kill Barbero, leaving Nero alone. Angelo getting Gonzo's name on the letter was not a safety measure but foreshadowing that he wanted to be captured. Followed up by killing Don Galassia, would have Gonzo killed by Strega, Gonzo acted as if he was not a target because he did not fire a shot, but it did not matter to Angelo, he wanted to kill him, and it seemed pretty clear that Gonzo probably would have killed Angelo afterwards anyway. Killing Don Galassia also guaranteed that it would turn Galassia onto destroying the Vanettis, which was an even greater revenge on letting Vincent and Nero stay alive to see that happen. He did not only want to kill them, Nero wanted to destroy them, and that is actually what he did.

Right now Nero and Vincent might be alive, but they are going to be hunted the Galassias, yet it also brings into question what Strega would think of Angelo, after all it is letting Strega take over his family, and leave the Galassias to then take over the city after the Vanettis are removed.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 12:55 pm Reply with quote
My mistake with the misdirection. Re-watching the segment shows Ganzo telling Nero to head to the opposite box since he wanted Nero to believe the two dons could only be killed by a rifle from across the theatre. The so-called bulletproof door with no handle was enough to convince Nero that Angelo wouldn't try the direct approach (which he did since Don Galassia was in on the act).

I disagree with Angelo planning it all that Ganzo would end up dying from a Galassia bullet. There is no guarantee Ganzo would have been right next to one of the Galassias when the hit took place, even though it's heavily implied that the Galassias knew about the plot and had already made a failed proposal for Angelo to defect and join them in Chicago. Angelo noted that Ganzo did not shoot at him on that fateful night despite being in the perfect position to do so, but after hearing his motives for leading Angelo back to his family's killers there should have been no compunction from Angelo on taking out #4 especially after his complicity in Corteo's death.

It's even less convincing that Angelo knew Barbero was right behind him when he finished off Del Toro. The chances of him dying at Barbero's hand were high enough that I thought Barbero's decision to call Ganzo rather than Nero being the stroke of luck that kept the whole scheme going. Angelo had planned to have Ganzo's name on the envelope and the letter as an insurance policy, but insurance policies which put your life on the line with only a small chance of getting the right man into the interrogation room to save you can't really be called insurance.

Although I was initially surprised by the decision to shoot Don Galassia, I agree that Angelo's decision meant the complete destruction of the Vanetti at the hands of the bigger mafia group. What I disagree with was Angelo not shooting the elder Vanetti even after letting him see the act of the elder Galassia die. The knowledge was there and one would think Angelo would have wanted the satisfaction of a bullet in the head of the mastermind behind his family's murder with the additional bonus of the target himself knowing his own organisation was doomed to utter destruction.

I might be missing something in the above ramble, but I supposed some of the questions will sort themselves out once the final episode is aired.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2814
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2016 5:00 pm Reply with quote
#12 End

Because of the way the episode was structured, I was initially confused as to the unfolding chain of events until about half way down the episode.

Strega was the big winner in this revenge scheme as he not only gets to be Don faster than he anticipated, he gets to put on a show to the rest of his family and to enemies of the Galassias regarding the price of betrayal. He even admitted as much to Avilio that being manipulated in the end wasn't a death sentence for the wanted fugitive.

Up to the very end of the episode, I kept wondering about the reason behind Nero's decision to drive Avilio all the way up to an abandoned beach to meet his end. They even got Fango's brother into the act for the initial escape from Lawless before abandoning him at a random village store. Although understated throughout the series, it seems the bond between the two men somehow survived enough to convince Nero to hear out Avilio's reasons behind the whole scheme and to grant him a death by his hand at a desired location.

As for Avilio himself, his reaction to accomplishing (most of) his revenge seems rather typical of others in his situation. Fulfilment from a grudge avenged is fleeting at most, lots of examples from fiction seem to match Avilio's own emptiness right at the end.

Nero's eventual fate is left in the air, but I don't think a decisive conclusion for him (death by the Galassias, spending the rest of his life as a fugitive etc.) would have made much of a difference to the rest of the story. He played his role and must now bow out of the stage now that the show ends.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 01, 2016 7:32 am Reply with quote
Episode 12 (finale)

91 days, or 13 weeks, although I guess it was still 13 weeks if you count the recap episode. I guess this was how it was fated to end, the family destroyed, Angelo feeling empty, and Nero hitting the target he missed in the first episode. It is mostly only implied that Angelo was killed, but it seems to be pretty much confirmed with his footsteps disappearing with the waves. I would say it was a poetic ending of some sort.

I have not really been someone interested in mafia stuff, but I quite enjoyed all of this. The artwork was a bit wonky at times, but characters like Fango grew onto me. Even if there was not a lot of outward emotion from Angelo, he was enjoyable to watch in his revenge plot, even if in the end it did not do much to make him feel fulfilled. I give a rating of Good (7/10), it is worth seeing.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 12:52 pm Reply with quote
Hmmm, interesting. Well, I have to say I did experience a sense of poignacy at the end (helped by the music and image of rolling waives, of course). Watching such a tragic and joyless protagonist wasn't a ton of fun. The poor guy was doomed from the time his family was killed. Basically, he spent 7 years in a dreary limbo, had 91 days to exact his revenge, only to discover in the end that it was meaningless (and oh yeah, required him to kill his best friend in the bargain). Not a lot of sunshine in this tale. I rated it Decent, but I don't see this title be a contender to get on my Rewatch list.
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 7:22 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
Watching such a tragic and joyless protagonist wasn't a ton of fun.


This is my biggest complaint about the show. I wasn't rooting for Avilio at any point because I wasn't attached to him in any way. I found most of the mafia characters, especially Nero to be more interesting.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2814
PostPosted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 12:17 am Reply with quote
#13

Bonus home-viewing only episode composed of 3 parts. The first two deal with the Vanetti children and the background to Vanetti senior joining the Moreno family. The third one is a little skit featuring Avilio and Nero on their American road trip during the main series.

The recollection skits are more interesting since they show the older members of the Vanetti family in a very different light. Testa Lagusa's first encounter with Vincent Vanetti is probably the most interesting part since viewers know what happened to the former eventually. Had he trusted his initial instincts and sent Vanetti packing, there would be no story to tell.
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animecosplayer



Joined: 22 Jun 2017
Posts: 25
Location: Tampa, Florida
PostPosted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 1:14 am Reply with quote
This is artistic anime at its best. No magics, no powers, no supernaturals or ghosts. No samurai/ninjas, no robots/mechas, no aliens or angels or devils. No princess to save, no erotical lady character for the sake of cuteness.

Its just a regular man fueled by revenge and deceit in the Prohibition period. This is pure brilliance.
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