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Please forgive my bad grammar during this review as English is not my first language even though I speak it so well. I aim to do a simple review with a little complex vocabulary so it remains easy to read and understand by everyone.(contains spoilers, so be wary of reading before finishing it.)

Early SPOILER-FREE recommendation: It is preferred that you read the count of Monte Cristo novel by Alexandre Dumas beforehand, as the anime structures its plot and characters in a way that it kind of expects you to have already read the original story, however the details are still done in a new ... and unique way, so it is entirely up to the viewer's discretion.

Major highlighted differences between the novel and gankutsuou:-

-The story is set in a fictional world with an earth similar to ours but the characters' morals and values still date back to the original novel's, and a major sci-fi and supernatural element exists in gankutsuou whereas the original novel takes place in the 19th century France during the Napoleonic wars.

-Edmond Dantes is no longer the protagonist. Albert de Morcerf is now the main focus and has a much larger role involving the count in gankutsuou compared to the original novel

-Certain important story events are both added and removed as well as moved to different sequences that greatly affect gankutsuou's plot and diverge from the original novel.

-Romantic relationships are more focused on the newer generation of characters rather the older.

-The Abbe is replaced with a supernatural entity known as "GANKUTSUOU"

~~~~~FULL REVIEW~~~~~

"shout out my name, seek out my soul. my name is gankutsuou! and i am always with you."

The Count of Monte Cristo: Gankutsuou is a story that is based on that of the original Monte Cristo novel by Alexandre Dumas, but it is merely based on it. The events of Gankutsuou and the direction the plot takes differs from the novel even though almost all the characters are brought within it and even kept their names(with the exception of the thief, Peppo).

SETTING & PLOT:-

The story starts at the city of Luna but later takes place in Paris, France. The world, unlike the novel, has a different magnitude of location due to the existence of better technology and the option of space travel, and the likes of it being the equivalent of olden days of sailing boats. The conflict that exists in the setting within Gankutsuou is between the empire and the state(in contrast to the novel's Napoleon and King Louis XVII) which gives the general story a more in-depth and open setting, and gives the anime it's own unique atmosphere. The plot remains unchanged in that it is still a story of tragedy and revenge, however even the events that led to the end of the revenge are completely differ from what it was originally.This gives new-time viewers and even novel-readers a new experience equally since it contains both taken and original events and ending. The reason for this difference is the fact that the Count seems to be more focused on getting his revenge even if it brings his death as a result whereas in the novel he was taking his revenge with the idea of God paving the path of vengeance in the form of retribution for his enemies. I also see this idea as a somewhat symbolistic meaning that vengeance taken with hatred at the cost of one's life will lead to one's demise. Besides the events of the story and different hidden themes within Gankutsuou, there seems to be a slight detail that I find somewhat off-putting. In the Chateau D'If, Gankutsuou told Edmond Dantes that he would receive his power and knowledge in exchange for his body and soul, but they clearly make out that the count is very wealthy, even though it was never told HOW he managed to gain that wealth(the novel hadn't done this and actually showed us the fact that he dug up immense treasures buried on an island). I'm not sure if this is some type of writing mix-up or something left up to the viewer's imagination, but I believe it is an issue that could have been avoided.

ART STYLE & ANIMATION :-

The art style is phenomenal. The different characters are given realistic skin tones and clothes that use the Unmoving plaid texturing. While this might come across as lazy and very disturbing to look at, I can vouch for it by saying it supports the type of story that Gankutsuou is and simply complements its bizareness as an anime to remember. The only issue I face with it is the lack of a thick or obvious outline to kind of support the characters' images and prevent them from merging with the patterns of the background, but maybe this is done intentionally to give the viewer a realization of the environment. There isn't much to talk about the animation, it seems very much average and not exceptionally pleasing. However I do want to point out that the CGI's animation during battle scenes differ greatly and are actually pleasing to watch in this anime considering that the bizarre art sticks out and complements the CGI somehow.

SFX & Music :-

The Sound Track in this anime is by far one of my favorites of all time, ranging across different genres like classical, ambient, and even metal! The Count's Seiyuu Nakata Jouji did a great job as he is obviously used to the calm and collected, yet mysterious and possibly evil character(Kotomine Kirei, Alucard,Diethard Ried, etc.). the other seiyuus also did a splendid job representing their characters and were even better than I imagined. I was also especially surprised at the fact that they used ACTUAL FRENCH DIALOGUE in the series for the narrator and gankutsuou.

Characters & Script

The characters have the same names, but have slightly differing personalities in Gankutsuou compared to the novel. Albert and Franz are more concerned and closer as friends than they were in the novel and the count has more of a bloodlust for revenge and is more reckless.
Albert de Morcerf son of Fernand Mondego, one of the count's targets for revenge, has an especially important role in the show, being a supposed "tool" of the count's that enabled him to visit paris and allow him to meet his enemies face-to-face and initiate his plans for vengeance. However Albert is very oblivious of the count's dark side and simply admires the count for being a mysterious and eccentric man who saved his life multiple times. This gives Albert a very linear and well-orchestrated development for when he finally realizes the count's dark side and creates for an intense development. His eventual love that sprouts for his childhood friend Eugenie is a means to motivation in keeping his sanity and not hating the count later on for the betrayal of his feelings. Franz, friend of Albert's is a character who worries for the safety for his friend from the man known as the count and tries to find out what his objectives are to protect Albert from his catastrophe. This creates a great bond between Franz and Albert that further aids in Albert's development.
The Count of Monte Cristo is a man that has forsaken everything for the sole sake of vengeance on his old friends who are now leading top tier lives in society while he rotted in a prison, unable to die and causing him to suffer. Now that he has forsaken his own life and emotions for the sake of vengeance, he has gained immense power and knowledge that he can use to the best of his ability to gain his revenge within the short amount of time he has left. This of course means that his vengeance is planned out in such a way that it doesn't lead to the death of his enemies but a suffering worse than death for the deeds they committed. This character creates the psychological aspect that creates a very tense mood which would put you on the edge of your seat waiting for his next plan to occur. His enemies: Fernand, Danglars and Villefort are all men that succumbed to their desires to better themselves and sacrificing an innocent man's life and then later paying the price for their deeds which their own greed, selfishness and desires caused their downfalls. Their character set creates a feeling of satisfaction once the cycle of karma makes its way on to them, making the viewer feel just as satisfied as the count when dealing out vengeance.

Enjoyment, Screenplay & Final episodes :-

At the end, The count goes to deal the final blow of vengeance to his former best friend, Fernand Mondego whom helped in his imprisonment and took away and married his fiancee by having him duel with him after losing all his dignity, power, friends and family to show him the despair that he once dealt to him. However, due to the influence of Albert, all the people dear to the count would try to stop him in his tracks before dealing the final blow to Fernand until the moment where Albert whispers in to the count's ear something unbeknownst to us the viewer, which causes the effects of Gankutsuou to completely disappear from him and allowing his earlier fatal shot to resume its course and eventually kill him. The events that lead to this point were all for the sake of stopping the count and allowing his soul not to be completely tainted with murder in honesty made me feel a bit like it wasn't right, but seeing that this is merely a base off the original, i feel that it was the best option to allow for an original,different and unique ending where more humane qualities are present rather than plot completion. The director of Gankutsuou did a splendid job of coordinating the resources of the anime to the best way in order to grab every viewer ahold and never let them go once they start watching after the first few episodes. In all, I would recommend The series Gankutsuou and to be looked at as not the greatest anime adaptation, but a very important one that all classic novel lovers should give a shot.

TL;DR NO SPOILER: The Story is different and unique, the events are done differently and possibly better connected, The art might be disturbing for a few episodes, but you'll eventually get over it, the characters are great and the development expands over the amount of development in the novel. It puts you on the edge of your seat even if you've already read the novel before. The ending is different but not bad, this anime is recommended to every historical genre lover.

I hope you enjoyed reading this long review! If you have any criticisms or questions about any of the points mentioned during this review, feel free to leave a post on my profile saying how much of a stupid idiot I was haha. Thanks for reading! :)

I'm probably going to receive a lot of hate and criticism for this, but please spare the hate until AFTER you've read this review. Also, please forgive my bad grammar during this review as English is not my first language even though I speak it so well. I aim to do a simple review with a little complex vocabulary so it remains easy to read and understand by everyone.(contains spoilers, so be wary of reading before finishing it.)

Psycho-pass 2, is the sequel to the first season of Psycho-pass 1 which is set in an advanced, systematic future where humans have things called crime coefficients and ... A mental I.D. called a Psycho-Pass. I won't delve much deeper into it so I'll assume everyone has seen the first season.

Now the main point and the audience'ss failure to enjoy this season was the lack of Kogami. Kogami Shinya, who was the main character of Psycho-pass 1 had been expected to return after the end of season 1 where he *SPOILER*killed Makshima Shogo, myself included. This built up high expectations of this season which, unfortunately, didn't happen. That caused the rating of the show to overall decrease by fans and even dropping the series. Regardless of this, Psycho-pass 2 is VERY MUCH INDEED a well done sequel.

ART [9/10]

Let's talk about the art and animation. Since this was more of a revenue sequel rather than a immediate sequel, the studio that originally worked on Psycho-pass, production I.G., has given the main production to Tatsunoko Production which obviously means we're going to have a lesser animation art style from the greatness of season 1's. Thank goodness it didn't turn out that way much. The art style remained the same, the animation felt like it had some forced scenes at certain times and wasn't as good the first few episodes, but eventually that problem was fixed and it was almost like watching the first one.

Sound [9/10]

Not Much to say about the sound, since they reused the OST and added some tracks I think? The opening song sounded fantastic and felt a little like the first opening of the first season. The ending was amazing, as expected of EGOIST.

Story [9/10]

Now, while it wasn't as amazing as the first, here's the story part of Psycho-pass 2, the one urobutcher didn't write but someone else did. You've got the PSBC Investigation division with a few new members and even a new unknow villian, sounds like it's going to turn out just like the first season right? No. The whole way this season is done goes against the values and ideals of the first season, with the preventing of crimes from going unpunished,to the killing of people to maintain justice. While in this season, the main theme is asking us "What color?" as in what psycho-pass reading do you have? or what is the color of your soul? It leaves it to the viewer to come up with his/her own view of what the theme means. In all honesty that was really well done and a brilliant idea, many others could agree on. The only real issue with the story is that it didn't have as much to it as the first psycho-pass because it was purely character development that helped this time around.

Character [10/10]

Now here is where the REAL goodness comes from that surpasses psycho-pass 1's quality. All the way from the physical and mental states of characters, their origins, and even their ideals are what really surprised me this time around in psycho-pass 2.
THE PSBCDF
First of all, Akane Tsunemori. Akane is the head inspector of division 1 of the PSBCDF where she formerly was a subordinate of Ginoza, who is now an enforcer. She has taken on the role of Kogami and has made reckless decisions, excellent deductions, as well as perfectly tracking down and understanding the state not only her enemy is in, but also her colleagues. She has developed very well in this season other than in the end where she (SPOILER) decided to trust in Sibyl's actions and to arrest Kamui Kirito, whom we'll talk about in a bit. Togane Sakuya and Mika Shimotsuki, two rookies who joined the PSBCDF and are under direct supervision of akane, have their own side story in which Mika has discovered that togane Sakuya is in fact, the son of togane misako, who is a member of sibyl and the PSBCDF chief(one of them at least). Mika is probably the most hated character in Psycho-pass, being spectacle and overall a bitch towards akane and most of everyone in the PSBC, save Yayoi. We soon later find out that she actually has insecurities about her psycho-pass becoming worse and she forces herself to work with sibyl just to maintain clear. and sakuya togane, as people would say, has a mother complex and his job is to make people's minds pitch black. There isn't much else to talk about other than the inspector who was made "clear" by kamui, and Saiga Jouji who makes people's hues worse just from talking to him which is neato.
The Kamui Faction and SIBYL
Kirito kamui, an antagonist to the sibyl system, who has the minds of a 100+ people put into him which prevents him from being judged by the sibyl system is most possibly the best type of antagonist that came into psycho-pass since makshima shogo. While he is the antagonist, he plays a role that makes him look like the good guy and the PSBCDF the bad guys, meaning that he has a whole faction to help him achieve his objectives and judge sibyl. He never intended to escape unharmed or alive after he proved that sibyl was able to be judged, he just wanted a system that was truly capable of judging correctly which meant judging itself rather than just judging others. So he forcibly caused it to develop and have the ability to judge groups as one coefficient. That in perspective was a big improvement to an antagonist compared to makshima shougo, who just aimed to mess around and know the truth. The dialogue seemed more what actual inspectors would say and it felt more natural so it felt easier to understand and see what they were trying to do this time around.

Enjoyment [10/10]

Psycho-Pass 2 did have it's issues and little problems there and here, but it wasn't enough to break my high enjoyment of it, especially during the gory/psychological scenes during it.

Overall [9/10]

All-in-All Psycho Pass 2 wasn't the greatest of sequels out there, but it isn't as bad as one would think considering the main character isn't the same badass we all know and love, and that you should watch this with the expectations of how sibyl and akane will turn out rather than how kogami would show up. Is this worth watching before the movie? hell yes, this season is mostly a set-up for the movie so for sure it is what you should watch before the movie. Thank you for reading my review and I hope you might have changed your mind and thought a little better about Psycho-pass 2, if you haven't, please comment on my profile what you thought was bad about this season and I'll be willing to discuss it with anyone :).

Psycho-Pass is really outstanding. All i can say about this anime is that it thoroughly impressed me from start to finish. It is EXACTLY the type of anime that peaks the interest of watchers who are into dark/sci-fi genre with it's ability to produce both a psychological sense of mind awareness as well as it's inexplicable presentation of the type of mental ID called "psycho-pass" which allows for judgment of one's psychological state of mind.

The characters were also outstanding, they all had their own unique traits to support their psycho-pass's details without issue. The idea of not just having Inspectors as detectives, but enforcers as ... well was done superbly. I especially liked (SPOILER ALERT:) Makishima Shogou's view on the current system as being unidealistic, stale, and limiting as well as unfair to the current human state while still depicting him as a villain (kind of really reminded me of Lelouch :P).

There's also a big type of morale to the story which makes me people think whether it's right or wrong to have a system that judges your actions and your right to live, die, or become part of the system. This idea was presented well on us during episode 1 where the kidnapped lady's criminal thoughts escalated so high that the system has chosen to execute her for merely being a victim.

The art was superb, especially during the second opening where it depicted an artistic expression of the story and the soundtrack was very well done, except that it wasn't really...explosive..as to say.

Overall Psycho-Pass is an amazing work created by Production I.G. that i think is a well-deserved spot in the top rankings as well as one of my favorite series.

tl;dr: Psycho-pass messed with my brain a lot, it was scifi-ey a lot and it's characters were 2cool4me. 9/10

Really Really Liked this anime. It was consistent with it's story and it's soundtrack offered a deep feeling to the atmosphere around it. Not much to complain about except that it's setting is a kind of turn-off to most people who aren't generally into magic-related anime.

the plot was amazing though, and the characters were superbly outstanding with the way they reference both of Shakespeare's works (Hamlet and The Tempest) and even act on the story by using these works as the outline of the plot haha.

The only thing wrong with the characters is that they tend to get a little mixed up in between who's ... the main focus and who's a background character, otherwise it was perfect.

It's also very interesting to a degree of philosophy for those that are all over psychological anime with it's mysteries and surprises.

In general, Zetsuen No Tempest is a very well done work with very few unrecognizable mistakes that make it stand well as a series with good art, sound, characters (and even a very original story) and overally enjoyment.

Robotics;Notes was an anime that was all about robots. From start to finish it was the type of anime that stuck to one main theme and acted upon it, which made me really enjoy watching it. Heck it even reminded me back in the old days when i used to watch gundam as a kid even though it was different.

The story was well done. I had no real complaints as it did it's best to portray the setting with an equal-level plot.

The art was superbly done (credit to Production I.G here) and looked beautiful in the way it expressed the fighting scenes as well as ... the character and robot design.

The soundtrack was very enjoyable and gave a down-to-earth feel to Robotics;Notes atmosphere.

The Characters were also well-expressed and had little to no awkwardness in all its cases.

Overall I really liked Robotics;Notes and think it deserves a well awarded 8/10. The only thing i wished i didn't know when i started watching it was that it was the successor to Steins;gate since it was 5pb/nitro+ 3rd installment in it's sci-fi series. That made me kind of expect too much from it :P.