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

Nishiguchi, Naomi Producer

Hashimoto, Taichi Producer

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

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 10, 2009

KC_Writes

Recommended

When I first browsed through my friends shelf of anime I didn’t pay Gankutsuou much mind, he had told me how good it was and that I would like it but I thought I had better things to do than watch it. As it turns out, I was completely wrong. I eventually picked it up and began watching it and at the end of the first episode I was hooked on it. It was like a drug that I needed to continue pumping into my system, and even now that it is over I crave for more. So now I shall take an in depth ... look at the anime; Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
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Art
In most reviews I’d start with perhaps the characters or the story, but now I must truly start with the art. The art itself was disorientating to me at first, I looked at it and found it hard to concentrate too long on the screen, things blended together so well that at times I found it hard to believe the entire scenery wasn’t part of the character I was watching. But after the first few episodes the art was something else altogether, it seemed to take a new life. I watched it and was captivated by it, at times I even had to rewind because I had missed several lines of text because I couldn’t tear myself away from it all. The art simply leaps off the screen and at first it may seem a little jarring but eventually you’ll ever wonder why you questioned the design of it all. While the art itself is beautiful there are some places it lacks, although the rest more than makes up for it. Some of the characters I found to be too plain in certain situations, however it was a miniscule thought, it did not detract from the visual experience of the show in the least.

Story
Now for the proverbial meat of it all, story. The anime is a loose adaptation of, what is called by some, the greatest story of revenge ever told. Coming in to that there are many expectations that must be lived up to in order for this story to truly hold it’s own and it lives up to them beautifully.
As I stated the drive of the story is revenge, everything else within it are simply unfortunate souls that get caught up in the bloody, sadistic revenge of the man known as the Count of Monte Cristo. But although The Count is what the story revolves around it is told from the perspective of the naïve, and often downright foolish, Albert Morcerf. The story begins with a meeting of destiny between our protagonist Albert and someone I can’t quite call an antagonist, The Count. With his charming words, devilish smile and warm eyes he quickly wins his way into our naïve Albert’s heart and becomes an important figure in the boys life. He continues to pursue his friendship with The Count despite the nagging of the, obviously smarter, Franz Epinay, Albert’s best friend. As the story continues the happiness of our hero is bombarded by the darkness and despair brought about by circumstances that might have been prevented.
Story is everything for an anime such as this, if you lack it you’ll produce a piss-poor adaptation of a great piece of literature. Being able to make your heart break one moment and your blood boil the next, able to leave you breathless in your seat with your heart pounding in your chest, these are proof that you’re watching something amazing. It is clear that Gankutsuou, if not at least meeting your expectations, it will blow them away and leave you speechless.

Sound
This will perhaps be the shortest section of the review, simply because the sound played no part in my heightened or lessened enjoyment of the show. Do not mistake my words, the music within the show is very fitting and very well done, however it does not simply jump out and grab you. It does not make you stop and go “I have to listen to that once more.” However that is within the show itself, the opening and ending themes are a different matter. It was almost strange to see them both, it honestly seemed as if someone had goofed and mistaken the ending for the opening. However after two episodes I was humming along with the tune to both and even downloaded them to put on my mp3. The songs themselves are so good I’ve almost started singing along with them out in public. There really is nothing more to say than, the music worked well, it was subtle, let you know it there but didn’t make any bold statements.

Characters
I’m tempted to simply write “flawless” and call it a day here but that would be an insult to the greatness of each. I will not list them all here, of course, but I shall list those that I think play an important role and need to be looked at in the spotlight. But let me state that although I do not talk about all the characters, I believe none are truly “secondary” for they all have their own role that drives the story, they all have their own flaws and a depth you wouldn’t expect from characters you rarely see. Now, onto the spotlight

The Count: Was everything that he needed to be and then some. He could be the hero of the piece or the villain, whichever role he was playing at the time all eyes were glued to him. Charming, subtle, seductive and kind he played them all so well and then there were times where we all saw the darkness he brought with him. He was a strange maze of understanding, never knowing what he was going to do next simply because he didn’t know what role he’d slip into. The Count is truly one of the most dark and captivating characters I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Albert: I have a desire to scream idiot here and be done with it, but again that is not true. He is not an idiot, he is simply naïve and often childish in his decisions. He refuses to see the bad in people, which can be good but not all the time. He’s hard headed and stubborn, but he’s a character that you feel for, he bears the most humanity of them all and when his heart breaks, so does yours.

Franz: The best friend that everyone wants, loyal, caring and willing to do whatever necessary to keep his friend safe. He’s stubborn as well but he is the voice of reason in Albert’s and his relationship. He is the first to be skeptical of The Count and one of the first to pursue information about the mysterious man.

While there are other characters that perhaps deserved the spotlight I felt that, mostly, these three characters were the most important simply because they were around for almost every single event that drove the plot. The others characters, however, are not to be dismissed, they each have good character designs as well as wonderful personalities and even flaws. Some even evolve throughout the show, which can be rare for a character deemed “secondary.” But they all fit together and play off each other so well it would take too long to praise them all.

Enjoyment
I truly doubt there is a single thing I did not enjoy throughout my entire watching of this show. There are a few minor things but they’re so miniscule when compared to the good things that they’re just overlooked and swept under the rug, still there but completely forgotten. I found myself completely captivated by this show, every emotional twist made me feel what it was supposed to, every mystery kept me guessing and theorizing and wondering. I ranted and raved about things that had happened when I wasn’t watching, I sometimes found myself balling my hands into white knuckled fists at the more infuriating scenes and crying like a child at others, I truly believe I went through almost the entire emotional spectrum while watching this show. And that is truly a mark of my enjoyment of it.

Overall
In the end this can only be summed up as something that you need to watch, that is said a lot in reviews but it is truly something that will be appreciated (even if you haven’t read the novel). It’s compelling story, beautiful artwork and in depth characters will drag you into the world and never let you go, even after you’ve finished the final episode The Count of Monte Cristo will still have you under his spell.

-To those who vote "Not Helpful" if you could message me to tell me what you disliked I could improve on this and future reviews, thank you.-

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 8, 2011

DirtyMidnighter

Mixed Feelings

While I will admit that I have not read of the classic revenge novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, Gankutsuo certainly appears to be a more interesting entry into the ever-growing heap of remakes of this tale. However, it failed to make a real impression. It certainly has some commendable qualities, but in the end, its jumbled and inconsistent visuals, stilted dialogue and murderously slow pace ruin any chance of redemption.
The most immediately striking thing about this series in the visual style. Let me make this clear- there is a difference between visual style and animation. The show's visual style is rather stunning. It's main ... trick is that it employs complex textures and patterns in the coloring of any and everything. This looks pretty cool as long as things are still. The animation, however, suffers greatly because when all of these detailed textures begin moving, all depth and illusion of real texture is lost. Instead of the designs moving with the items that they are transposed on top of, they just stay still. Thing look like jarring kaleidoscopic acid trips more often than not and its just way to much to take in. Interestingly, this visual style is actually extremely reminiscent of the way that thing seem to form complex patterns when under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. Perhaps the first anime conceived on acid? Somehow I highly doubt it, actually.
Gankustsuo, overall, just ends up being a case of the good being slightly edged out by the bad. There is a good foundation plot from the original source material… but the they end up adding mechs, immortal demons, space travel and a plethora of needless non-sequitors. The story actually ends up in a very different place than the original tale, actually. While there is some genuine moments of emotion near the end of this overly-long series, the majority of the plot points are played out with the stilted melodrama of a high school play. The English voice actors, aside from the titular character, are awful. The main protagonist, Albert, is possibly the most whiny, insipid character I have witnessed in an anime, ever. The dialogue between him and best friend Franz is particularly uninspiring. It really is an example of just how bad anime translation can get, both actors doing what they can to make sense of a conversation that has more holes and ridiculous lines than the Matrix movies.
The setting of the show is a rather baffling juxtaposition of 19th century aristocratic France and science-fiction space-opera. The characters travel in space freely and battle in giant mechs, yet they still write letters on parchment and travel in horse drawn carriages. It's like the artists couldn't decide on a consistent motif so they just threw all of their influences into the tub and saw what came together. All of these sporadic technologies and settings create a lack of believable space and time. If you have no relatable setting and no relatable characters, what is there? Just a somewhat-interesting story which takes entirely too long to reach its climax. This series could have easily been a 13 episode series instead of a 26. My mind literally goes blank when trying to recall important plot points from the middle of the series. The big question of the series, whether or not the Count is really evil, just ends up being answered 3/4 of the way through when we find out his back-story. The 15 episodes after the beginning but before that are often mind-numbingly boring. I honestly struggled to finish this series along-side Lucky Star. Lucky Star, dammit!
Gankutsuo is actually pretty critical acclaimed and I'm not really sure why. Perhaps it's story is a subtle one, revealing itself slowly through repeated viewing ala Neon Genesis Evangelion. Maybe the dub is just garbage and left a bitter taste in my mouth. However, I really don't feel like this should weigh so heavily on the overall experience. Plenty of great pieces of entertainment has cheesy, stilted dialogue. Quentin Tarantino, anyone? Maybe it's the visuals, filled with ambition and moments of beauty but ending up looking like a few too many ideas thrown together. Gankutsuo wants to be a series that is sophisticated in the classic sense of French materialistic excess. However, as we see here, all that glitters in not gold.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 1, 2018

Necriptos

Not Recommended

To be honest this is an insult to Alexandre Dumas' genius and his masterpiece.
this review contain slight spoilers.

let's get into it:

Story 1/10:
First of all they start the anime by the middle of the books, and put the start of the books at the end of the anime, they then took an insignificant character from the book and turned him into the main protagonist, then they took the protagonist of the book and made him the main vilain/antagonist of the story. They took random names of characters from the book and put them here and there, created new characters out of thin air instead of ... using the multitude of characters from the books and made some important character being completely useless and unimportant here (poor Bertucio...). then they tried to follow the books story but by the middle of the anime diverged into incoherent and poor alternate story that is to me a slandering attempt at the book. and then the ending is so awful i refuse to mention it here.

They have some good ideas here and there, i like the whole sci-fi setup, supernatural and alien elements, spaceship instead of ships, even the mech battles were ok in my books BUT why did they have to denature and take a piss on the original story is a real mystery to me, everyone saying this is a faithful adaptation is really out of his mind. If they had kept the same story this whole show would have been a solid 8/10 for me.


Art 1/10:
You are gonna love it or absolutely hate it, i'm the latter. the issue is not the cgi that was actually good for it's time, nah the real issue is just the constant mix between an acid trip and a david bowie clip. with those "psychedelic rococo" textures splattered on absolutely everything. It is headache inducing and made me want to puke multiple time during my watching of this abomination.

Sound 6/10:
the only redeeming parts of this whole anime was the solid seiyuu acting of Jouiji Nakata as Monte Cristo, and the soundtrack during the episode with some of the classics played. rest of the characters acting was just average if not flat, mc with the most annoying voice, the opening theme was not fitting for this kind of story at all, it felt like they just looked for a french singer able to sing in english because they wanted to be a link with france somehow. the ending theme is just bad. oh also as a french the broken french narrator voice at the start of each episode was impossible to understand, had to mute it and read the subs instead...

Character 1/10:
Only good character was Monte Cristo, but they decided to make it the main vilain instead of the hero of that story, doesn't make any sence, all the others were your traditional cliche and devoid of emotions anime characters (i admit i laughed at Eugenie being a tsundere) besides that nothing much to say here.

Enjoyment 3/10:
If you do not care about the book or haven't read it you might find some enjoyment there to be had if you treat that as an independant story, but the pacing was atrocious and they even had the luxury to skip lots of development from the books to show you random stuff that have no link whatsoever with the source material.

Overall 3/10:
They are plenty of far superior adaptation to the book, and this one is absolutely not one of them, if you had to watch a good adaptation the one i recommend the most is the 1998 tv-drama movies with Gerard Depardieu as the Count.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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