Gankutsuou

In the year 5053, French aristocrats Viscount Albert de Morcerf and Baron Franz d'Epinay attend the festival of Carnival on the moon city of Luna. While Franz is just looking to have fun, Albert is seeking something more to fill his life—but he finds more than he bargained for in The Count of Monte Cristo, a mysterious and charming self-made nobleman who meets his gaze during an opera performance.

Through a few twists and turns, Albert befriends the Count and introduces him into French society. The Count, however, has more on his mind than just friendship; he plots to finally unleash his vengeance on those who wronged him years earlier. Gankutsuou follows Albert and the Count's intertwined destinies and the ultimate price paid for enacting revenge.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

The Count of Monte Cristo Main

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

d'Epinay, Franz Main

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

de Morcerf, Albert Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Tebelin, Haydée Supporting

Yajima, Akiko Japanese

Gankutsuou Supporting

Torii, Yoshinari Japanese

Peppo Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Danglars, Eugénie Supporting

Nakamura, Chie Japanese

Cavalcanti, Andrea Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Bertuccio, Giovanni Supporting

Ishii, Kouji Japanese

Morcerf, Fernand Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Maeda, Mahiro Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Original Character Design, Key Animation

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Kanbe, Hiroyuki Episode Director, Special Effects, Key Animation

Katou, Toshiyuki Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 29, 2023

deadlyspawn

Recommended

This is an old tale which has many different mediums covering it's epicness, all of them taking their liberties and changing it for modern audiences. Those aside, so far this has been the best abridged version since the original tale/book.

Not from the same era yet it rivals Shakespeare in my eyes. It has the same qualities in many regards for those who are a fan of Shakespeare. King Lear being my favorite, I guess it's not an understatement to the testament of my opinion on the comparison.

It starts as a slow burn, getting you at ease with the environment, the elegance, ... prestige & characters. Introducing philosophy and psychological fencing within your mind to arouse a sense of - where is this going? Once you cross that threshold you will be at the edge of your seat wanting to see what happens.

I'm glad it took the liberties to introduce it differently than the original and I ended up liking it more for it. This studio is the first to do it right and give the story a fresh take. Some don't like a 10 rating because it is generally viewed as a biased one; makes sense, I just can't ignore that it is in my top 20 of all time for good reason. Perfect isn't a 10; nothing in life is perfect and the rating system was made within it so, then a perfect score would be 11.

Expect the unexpected!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 19, 2023

Benx2019

Mixed Feelings

The animation is unique... but kinda hit or miss in terms of execution. Not a whole lot of flash and not incredible when it is flashy. The art style is really cool and it at times super well implemented. Other times it looks bad, the cg clashes hard with the art style and the color choice and patterns can make the animation too busy. The characters are pretty solid. Some characters are a little mustache twirly, but overall very good, a little annoying at times though. The story is the best part of the anime. Great world building, intriguing plot and some great twists and ... turns, although the climax is a little nonsensical. Pacing is terrible in the first half, but pretty decent in the second half. The first half is very slow, while the second half really hold your attention well. The voice acting is great overall. Impressive performance by several voice actors, but primarily by Albert's voice actor. The soundtrack was not very memorable, but scored alright. The op is not very well sung in my opinion, but the instrumentals are the one memorable track from the anime and is pretty good, the ed is good. Overall the art style is very unique, but the execution wasn't always there. I'd love to see someone try it again. The Story and characters make the show worth a watch, while the pacing in the first half makes it hard to recommend to everyone. Enjoyable, but rough. I recommend it to those who can sit through the first half without giving up on it. 6.70/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 29, 2024

guardianlune

Not Recommended

I can completely understand why this anime gained popularity and a following. It has a distinct art style and a fun adapted setting in space. Although the style itself was a bit distracting for me, I appreciated the creativity art-wise, and my eyes grew accustomed to the extreme movements in the background and clothing after a few episodes.

However, I value plot and character quality very highly. If I consider this anime in a vacuum (ie: not as an adaptation), the plot and characters are roughly average: mostly shallow, with some interesting slightly-less-shallow characters sprinkled in. Unfortunately, the main character, the Count himself, is bulldozed flat ... by the anime adaptation. He just becomes just another visually-impressive revenge-crazed character. I believe in giving adaptations a chance and I think that some changes can certainly be improvements, and I'm not inherently opposed to making changes to the source material, but sadly the plot and character choices made in this particular adaptation were not improvements.

In the original book, the Count is indisputably human, and he's a character that really earns his sympathy through his actions and behavior, not just by relying on his tragic backstory (which by itself is certainly deserving of sympathy, but a character should be more than just their backstory). The original Count is not unreasonably blinded by vengeance, and he does not indiscriminately hurt innocent people. He shows compassion and sincerely rewards people who help him, and in the end, he moves past revenge, shows forgiveness, and gains hope and love. In addition, the original Count of Monte Cristo has a rich, masterfully-crafted plot that pieces together events gradually as the Count figures out what has happened over the years, and there is an element of discovery and mystery that's difficult to capture in a short adaptation.

The adaptation would probably have benefited from creating an original plot instead of trying to be an adaptation of an existing story of significant length; there was too much information to cram into 24 episodes, and the attempt to maintain some faithfulness to the source material unfortunately resulted in a rather artificial and un-interesting plot involving several characters who display unbelievable actions and random insanity that felt somewhat out of place. Several characters in the anime also display undying love, devotion, and forgiveness to characters who are honestly not very likeable, and I found this frustrating to watch because I liked the characters making the sacrifices and felt like their existence was cheapened by the strange plot choices. Overall, I felt that the anime tried to hype up certain characters' likeability just by "telling us so", but those characters fell very short because they lacked the development within the anime to back up the profound loyalty shown to them by the people who cared about them.

I think the interesting art style and setting in this anime deserved a better plot.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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