It's hard to give a score to a series that begins well and ends poorly. To put it simply, the issue is the choice to change the main character from The Count to Albert de Morcerf. Initially this doesn't seem to be much of a problem. Albert is mostly used as a vessel to connect the viewer to The Count. In some ways this is done exceptionally as it adds an extra level of mystery to The Count. Since he has less screen time, whenever he is on screen there's a greater emphasis to his presence, making the viewer understand the tension the other characters have when they interact with him. Sadly, someone made the decision to make Albert the "hero" of the show.
To make Albert the "hero", many changes were made to the story that ruin the build up of the earlier episodes. Every scene Albert is in he is portrayed as pure hearted only wishing to do good for everyone. But in the process, he comes off as an intolerable, naive idiot. He does absolutely nothing right in the show and his constant nagging and stupid trust in people is incredibly annoying. But that's not all. The Count is changed as well. There is an attempt to portray him as a good guy that has been corrupted by an evil spirit instead of a man simply out for revenge for losing what he had. This doesn't succeed as everyone The Count harms throughout Gankutsuou are horrible people who deserve what they get. Hence, all the tension of the last ~8 episodes where the focus is on Albert vs The Count is lost since it's just an annoying brat vs a guy that's doing Paris a favour. If anything, they've somehow done the opposite of what they intended where Albert's actions are actually villainous since he's trying to uphold the corrupt leaders of Paris while The Count is the hero trying to take them down. Consequently, Albert's "act of love" during the climax is more hilarious and baffling than heroic.
Otherwise, the rest of the cast of Gankutsuou are well developed for supporting characters. There isn't much depth to them, but they all seem to enjoy their sinful lives making them genuine and believable. I'm not sure if that was the aim of the creators of the show, but it made the scenes without Albert enjoyable. The few characters that aren't trying to ruin people's lives, for example Franz, are much wiser than Albert and hence fit their roles well, which makes me wonder why the writers couldn't have made Albert intelligent.
The art style is very unique which is a plus. But the CGI is fairly poor. I'm not sure if that's because of the money being spent mostly on the crazy wallpaper style clothing the characters wear or if they just didn't bother making it look better. The sound department does their job for the most part. Nothing stood out musically or seemed out of place.
One thing worth noting is the setting. While it seems like putting this story in a far distant future would lead to something unique, it doesn't. Instead there's nothing gained at all from changing the setting.
Just like Gankutsuou, I feel like this review has gone on too long. While I'm giving it a decent rating, I still wouldn't recommend it to people because there's almost no enjoyment in the last few episodes and there are better ways to enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo.
