I don't understand how so many people can hate mecha. It brings true sorrow to my soul that you can't enjoy all mecha has to give. Even these two mecha fight's had their merits, for what they were.
Episode 21 was the best episode followed by the episode where Franz died. I'm ashamed I didn't put two and two together until 2 mins before the reveal. That whole fight was extra foreshadowed and I usually wait for the story to follow predictable story beats. But in this case, not knowing the reveal made things so much better.
I loved Andrea Calvacanti as character. I'm happy he lived to the end and I even added him to my MAL favorites. It's nice to see unrepentant evil and I was for most part ok with what he did. The mother torture and sister marrying was a bit much tho
This art style is literally like nothing I have ever seen. Even in 2023, with everything Orange, BONES, Madhouse, Toei, WIT, and MAPPA have done up to this point, I've never seen anything like it. The animation was incredible, even more so for the time that this show came out. The only comparable thing for me would be what XEBEC did with Zoids first two anime. Perhaps one day, CG on the level of this show and some of Zoids anime will become the norm. But for now I am pretty happy I took this journey.
Is there any reason why that weird place fell apart when Edmond died? I could somewhat forgive the choices before that, but that whole last part took a whole point away from my final score.
Also, Edmond said he hoped Albert could still respect him in the future. I don't know that I could have forgiven Edmond the way Albert did. Plus they said Gankotsuou had only one weakness and that was emotion. So the whisper in the ear was not talk no jutsu and you anime watchers need to put some respect on these writers names. It was very elegantly done. And for most of the anime I saw Albert as the annoying conscience of the Count. Of course he was whiny and annoying cuz that's what your conscience is supposed to be. And for a coddled 15 year old, Albert behaved just fine. Like a regular kid, instead of all these anime children who behave absolutely nothing like actual children.
I wanted to give this anime a 9 out of 10. But I can't. It really fumbled the ending. I did read the Count of Monte Cristo 20+ years ago in middle school, so I can't say I remember every part of a 500+ page novel written in the Dumas "I use my words to say much more than you ever would need to know" style. But it was a pretty great novel at the time. From the bits I can remember, I'm ok with the vast majority of the changes this anime did. I really don't understand why this anime is so homoerotic. It's really blatant and I wish I had known that before I watched it, like when I watched Banana Fish. This anime is definitely better than that one and handled the life of a guy where every gender wanting a piece of you pretty well. Even if I can't personally relate to wanting a relationship with a man.
Since the climax mucked things up, I give this anime a 8.5 out of 10. But since MAL scores don't work that way, I'm gonna rate it as a 8 out 10. I can sorta see why some people gave this anime a 10 out of 10. I can even understand a 6, as long as your reason isn't "I hate mecha." But I give this show a fair score. Ambitious and fallen short of the mark it wanted, this show nonetheless is a fantastic show that's an easy recommendation for any seasoned anime fan that's sick of the anime tropes that infect most shows these days. Consider giving this show a watch.
But you gotta know, this is a really, really, gay show. Which may have made the show better. Maybe. |