And they all lived happily ever after.
What They Say:
“Slipping Through the Dirty Sky”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After the violent chaos of the penultimate episode, the natural assumption for most wouldn’t be for the finale to follow that up with downright tranquility. But Kishimoto and the crew behind 91 Days are mixing it up, surprising the audience even more than with the massacre of the previous week by going in exactly the opposite direction. Furthermore, the episode presents its stories in a structure not used earlier in the series, and almost never used in anime series at all. Two different sections of the story are chopped up and interwoven over the course of the episode, cutting back and forth between what happened when Angelo (as we might as well call him, since his secret is out to the world) was in the custody of those who found him at the end of the previous episode and the inevitable reunion of the two archenemies who appeared to be the closest of comrades for the majority of the series. As much as the style and content is nothing like that of Baccano! despite a similar (and unusual for anime) setting, this choice for the final episode of the series is reminiscent enough of Baccano! that it seems possible to be a tip of the hat, especially considering this series is an original work by a studio formed by the people who worked on it.
Because this is such a shockingly calm piece, there is potential for disappointment from those who wondered how such an explosively eventful episode could be topped in that department. But while it is such an abrupt tonal shift that it’s jarring enough with a week in between (let alone watching it in a marathon), the greatest strength of the series has always been in the character dialogue, so an optimistic take is that being devoid of any action just guarantees all the bloodshed doesn’t get in the way of the raw emotion that so desperately needs to make its appearance. Angelo has spent the series lying and manipulating everyone around him into thinking him their ally while losing their loved ones to his hand, and now that he’s put it all out there, he can freely share everything that has been on his mind. Nero’s life was moving on an ideal path until his world suddenly shattered, and now he has the perpetrator all alone to talk it out with. For most of their interactions, both are almost nonchalant, acting like old friends who are just bored with each other, but when they break the silence and actually talk about what has happened, the impact is profound. With this much tension, short bursts of what has needed to be said for so long are all the episode needs to leave an impression, even if not the same kind as a storm of bloody gunfire.
The theme isn’t broken even in the climactic moments of necessary finality to bring closure to a story that was never going to have a happy ending. The conclusive shot is fired simply and peacefully, as contradictory a concept as that is. We don’t see how drastically everything has changed after all this; we just see that life goes on for the few who survived, and the series has absolutely no desire to go any further than that. It’s a choice that can feel underwhelming, but ending it on a subtle, understated note is more interesting and tasteful than just proceeding with more brutality until every character is just reduced to a puddle of blood, so it works well enough.
In Summary:
91 Days has been an engaging drama driven by strong characters and storytelling in an uncommon setting since its beginning. A revenge story, it ends with the acknowledgment that no real catharsis can come from such an ambition while doing its best to breathe out a quiet catharsis in the process. What it lacks in production it makes up for in Taku Kishimoto’s writing.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Roku 3, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
