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「足音の行先」 (Ashioto no Ikisaki)
“Where the Footfalls Lead”
Putting all the pieces in place.
This week’s 91Days just sort of carries the plot along without spicing things up too much—and that’s totally okay. I feel the last two episode have sort of spoiled us with nonstop action and intrigue, while episode three slows the pace down so that more elements of the plot can be planted and start coming together. Tensions between all three families are on the rise, as everyone’s scrambles to figure out what exactly happened at the end of last episode, and where to go from there. I’m not going to lie, the narrative this week didn’t do too much for me. It wasn’t uninteresting or poor-quality in any way—just sufficient. I understand there’s a lot of complicated plot to set up and build, and to this episode serves that purpose well. A lot of key pieces need to be put in place before we can really have some fun.
That being said, I would maybe have preferred if more time was spent on fleshing out the characters. Especially after the death of Vanno—I want to see how deeply affected hurt his close ones are, and what sort of actions and shift in character this might prompt. As it stood, the death seemed mostly inconsequential—at least concerning character (we only really got one, brief genuine moment of sadness). Now, I understand that these guys are probably prepared to see their loved ones go down, especially in this line of work. They need to maintain tact and composure in order to survive and function within their families. Buuut it was a little frustrating not really seeing them showcase some real emotional devastation at the loss of someone so close, especially when the previous episode developed him so well in such a short amount of time. Maybe the show will tap more into this in subsequent installments, but as it stands, most of the emotional momentum of last week’s episode has been somewhat quelled this time around.
Furthermore, I think way more attention should be given to Avilio. At least recently, I don’t feel that he’s the driving emotional force of the show like he should be. We get very little insight into where he’s at after everything that’s just went down, and if he’s phased or changed in the slightest. He just continues to be level-headed. I’m not perceiving any inner turmoil—conflict which should be pushing the show forward. But again, I understand that this episode was more involved with building the greater plot—I just feel at least some room could’ve been spent in his mind. However, as Nero and Avilio depart together alone, I feel like this intimate space will be privy to some great character development and exploration.
Something that just came to mind though. What if the narrative is intentionally making Avilio a sort of vague and cryptic character, as the perspective maybe shifts to Nero? Maybe in preparation for some intense twist later on? A passing thought, but an interesting possibility.
Something quick that confused me though: is this character a Vanetti or a Galassia? My impression was of the latter until it’s revealed that he’s apparently the younger brother of Nero? If that’s the case, then how come he’s always hangin’ around the Galassias? Is like a half-brother or comrade or something? Is this mystery intentional or am I just missing something?
In terms of Avilio, maybe that’s the intention? That he’s just so empty inside and vengeance is the only engine moving the body around, so it gets left up to the other characters, especially Colteo, his old best friend,, to give the emotion? I actually wouldn’t be surprised if Colteo ends up “betraying” Avilio, believing it to be for his own good when he starts going too far or something.
Frate is Nero’s younger brother, yes.
And I think its more of his new Galassia brother in law that’s hanging around with the Vanettis, rather than the other way around.
What I don’t get is how Vincent Vanetti seems to be completely fine when the topic of killing his eldest was brought up. Isn’t la famiglia the cornerstone of every Mafia family? Granted, he’s probably in on Nero’s escape plan, but surely he should be a bit more indignant that the Galassias want his heir and scion killed because of a sketchy death of a mere Orco henchie?
I’m guessing he’s keeping up appearances in front of the new Galassi son-in-law. Frate is probably the one you have to watch for. With Nero out of the way, as the only son left, that would make him the next in line for Vincent’s spot as head of the family, with only the Galassi newcomer—who isn’t a blood relation—and his older sister—who doesn’t seem interested—in his way. Right now I have him as one of the more likely candidates as Angelo’s mysterious pen pal. I still think it’s Corteo, though, since he is literally the last one you’d expect.
I guess this is a spoiler even though it’s totally speculation, but I really think Frate is Show Spoiler ▼
The show seems to be setting him up for that. But maybe I’ve just watched too much anime
Guys, I’m sorry but this anime takes the boot from me. I can stand the ridiculous names and the implausible gunfights, but hearing that the lasagna had too much butter took my suspension of disbelief in a field, had it kneel and executed it with a shot in the back of the head.
FYI the lasagna sauce is made with olive oil, not butter.
Could it be a possible mistranslation?
Blame the Japanese for being clueless as always about pretty much anything.
Not so sure about that, my mom makes her lasagna sauce using butter and milk as the main ingredient so I guess is matter of the kind of recipe the person uses.
How I wish Fango would finally kick the bucket! And speaking of Fango, I wonder why he gets the special treatment from the boss of the Orco family? That fellow was upset by a mere lasagna, but somehow tolerated Fango’s outrageous behaviour?
I’ve realized that I stopped trying to care about the characters (T_T). Never succeeded, never will.
I really wanted to like this anime, but Fango is too much. In something like Akame ga Kill he’d have been great, but in this show, where everything else is grounded and quite hard-boiled, he’s absurd. At this point Black fucking Lagoon was more grounded than 91 Days, and Black Lagoon had combat maids and transgender loli axe-murderers.
When I think of colourful characters in gangster stories, I think of Joe Pesci’s characters from Goodfellas and Casino, or Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco. I find Fango buffoonish and crass. Maybe there’s something in the Japanese psyche that finds 24/7 full blast psychopaths compelling (though I doubt it), but in a serious show for me all it does is diminish the scenes that kind of character is in. The way Fango acts in the Don’s dining room didn’t make me think he was badass, it made me think that the Don must be seriously weak to put up with that silliness.
Have to agree with Dio above, the gunfight didn’t work for me either. Lots of plot-convenient shooting and it felt really stilted.
Agree about Fango. A bit of a loose cannon character is fine, but he’s too over-the-top crazy IMO for this story. Good point about the dining room scene as well.
Overall pretty good, but not up to the previous 2 episodes IMO. Personally, I spent a bit of time trying to figure out how the whole deal with Serpente’s corpse could work out. IMO it requires viewers to fill in some gaps, have some suspension of disbelief/give benefit of doubt more than it should. :/ Not worth TL:DR post go through all the details/questions, but IMO the best shows pay attention to details in this kind of situation.
Agree with Dio and Puffles above that the fight at the end has issues. ML literally brings a knife to a gun fight because…??? We saw he had his Colt M1911 .45, so what happened to that? It literally just disappears for the entire fight. I kept expecting ML to pull out his gun and shoot Fango during the ruse, but nope. ML doesn’t use it and he didn’t give it to anyone else (say Nero so he can pull the same stunt as Fango with a 2nd gun). Just wasn’t a good scene way it played out IMO.
Other random thoughts:
– Definitely get a sense show is trying to suggest ML is on the brink of becoming unhinged. All those closeups of ML’s eyes and he snaps quickly to suspect his buddy (bootlegger – forgot his name) before they move on to thinking the bartender was involved with moving Serpente’s corpse.
– Not sure to what degree Nero has doubts about ML. There are times when I think Nero is suspicious, then times when he acts like he’s not. For example, if Nero suspects ML is up to no good, I wouldn’t think he’d be cool running off alone with ML. Maybe Nero does suspect ML, but thinks he can handle himself.
– Wow, red-haired Graccia family guy (groom) sure seems to be chomping at the bit to take over the Vanetti family. Really? Kill the don’s son? O.o Also surprising is the mild reaction by Nero’s dad. I would have thought he’d be a little more emotional/pissed off about such a suggestion.
– Overall getting the impression that the Vanetti family is fairly weak/on the decline – more so than I initially thought. I get the reason to avoid a mob war, but they seem pretty lax about what Fango does & the Orco family’s encroachment on their territory in general.
– Personal pet peeve. *sigh* Is this really necessary? Soooo tired of the overplayed, “crazy villain shows just how crazy he/she is by licking weapon” (usually some blade) cliche/trope. Just once I’d love an anime to spoof that. Bleh.
Two things:
At this point, I get the feeling they are indeed intentionally making Avilio’s reaction to everything he’d done so far vague. It was no coincidence that his collar was hiding his face as he watched Nero mourn. It was so us viewers couldn’t make out his expression.
And with how fast things are moving, I think the characters just didn’t have enough time to mourn for Vanno. But we could see how it affected Nero. The scene at the end aside, there were actually tears in his eyes when he was holding the gun against Avilio’s face. You can tell he lost a close friend.
because of the ridiculous names im having a hard time remembering who is who .
Anyone else getting a Count of Monte Cristo vibe? Like Frate will turn out to be Angelo’s little brother? Not a spoiler because I have no idea, I’m just going based on a vibe haha
I read The Count of Monte Cristo and let me tell this two stories are nothing alike for two major diferences: the Count didn´t involve innocent people on his revenge, where Avilo couldn´t care less if he had to burn down the entire city to acomplish his goal; the Count expected something beyond his revenge and enjoyed the little things in life, Avilo in the other hand is a walking corpse and it seems to me that he doesn´t belive he´s going to walk away alive form this grand plan of revenge.
Haha sorry I should have specified, I meant the rubbish film lol, in which I guess Show Spoiler ▼
and That I bet Frate will turn out to be his brother, not his enemy’s