91 Days

[HughJ]

I recently finished the mafia anime 91 Days and highly recommend it to anyone curious

Its last episode came out just a few weeks ago, so it's very recent but prime for someone who dislikes awaiting serial releases

I'd give it a 3.5/5 stars overall, with its real strength lying in character development and twists

Has anyone else begun or finished watching it? The ending was especially fascinating and open, so if enough people have finished the season I'll clamp a spoilers tag on the title and we can get down to interpretation

[Simon]

Low key my favorite anime of last season. It gave me a Bacanno/Gangsta vibe as well as interesting characters in a setting that really isn't showcased all too much in anime. I definitely recommend this to anyone who watched any of the two anime I mentioned earlier (For Gangsta, the manga was more impressive as the anime adaptation wasn't all the good for the most part).

[HughJ]

Yes! There was a definite Baccano vibe, and I absolutely love anime set in early 20th century US

It was simultaneously less gory and more realistic/mature, despite Hollywood's tendency to assert those two as directly related

The intro theme wasn't quite as good as Baccano's but it held its own at a 7 or 8 out of 10 (my entire perception of OP themes has been reframed after the unfortunate mess that was Death Note Part 2).

What did you think of the ending? Some have seen it as unsatisfactory while others find it appropriate... Where do you stand?

[Simon]

You're right about that for sure. Hollywood unfortunately has overused it so much in movies that it lost most of its effect on me.

It was okay imo. It was straight to the point while also having some foreshadowing throughout it. The ending I enjoyed alot more.

The ending was fine with me. While Avilio hates Nero for essentially playing a part in killing his family, he couldn't bring himself to kill him. Neither could Nero except he needed to right the wrong that he should have shot Avilio years ago and to get to revenge for his fallen comrades. tl;dr dis is some gud shit.

[HughJ]

Spoiler text is so small, I'm bumping font

A big part of the way people interpret the ending is the footsteps and the waves. At the end, we see two tracks of footsteps, one that stops short and one that continues along the beach

Do you think that Nero did kill Avilio, and the waves just washed his body away? In that case, the terminated footsteps would be Avilio's and the ones that kept going were Nero's.

I think that Nero closed his eyes and left the shot to chance, but ended up missing (just like he did seven years ago). This was his means of letting the world decide whether to let Avilio live or not, because by the end of the series both are so devastated that they give up their agency ("You don't need a reason to live, you just live.") Then when he misses he retraces his footsteps, while Avilio continues walking.

While Avilio may have lived, Nero almost certainly didn't, as determined by the man we see tailing him in the end. Nero smiles, either as he sees the hitman or as he reflects nostalgically on the canned pineapples. I think it was the former, because it's a lot more grim when you consider that the mobster would be tailing Nero as a result of Avilio's actions. In this way, even if Nero had killed Avilio on the beach, Avilio still would have killed him (albeit indirectly).

[Simon]

I did consider that originally but I believe he died due to the symbolic usage of the footprints and it being washed away by the waves. I actually didn't consider that the guy was a hitman so that Avilio would be dead as well. I do believe it he smiled for all of those reasons as well as remembering his memories with Avilio and that he'll finally be at peace soon.