Story (8/10) - Engaging and complex. Great setting and social themes. Poor climax and slow pacing.
Characters (8/10) - Great supporting cast. The count is an epic character. Protagonist is too naive and is used as a plot device.
Visuals (9/10) - Innovative style of presentation that works. Bad CG during some action scenes.
Sound (7/10) - Great voice acting. Average background music. Amazing opening theme.
Enjoyment (8/10) - Strong mystery factor effectively hooked me and the revelations did not disappoint.
Long version:
Gankutsuou is an adaptation of the famous novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas. Like many novel adaptations, the strong suit of this anime is an intricate and elaborate plot. The story follows a tale of revenge across light years of space and decades of time. It has a very interesting setting that combines the historical aesthetics of 19th century aristocratic France and sci-fi elements in a futuristic world. Such a risky combination is executed quite in Gakutsuou which creates an engaging and unique environment for the story. Moreover, the world of the aristocrats is substantially fleshed out which helps fully immerse the viewer in the lifestyle of the privileged Parisians.
The anime starts off with a very good hook as it presents us, the viewers, with The Count of Monte Cristo. A very mysterious character that is shown as a ruthless, powerful man with an intimidating aura. The mystery surrounding him and the strong charisma that he displays easily makes him a fan-favourite. As the story progresses we start to learn more about him as a person, whether he is good or bad and what his motivations are. And to say the least, the revelations about the count only make him more interesting as everything surrounding his development and actions is coherent and believable. The other main character is the young aristocrat Albert Morcef. Since he is only 15 years of age, he is shown to be naive and easily swayed. This is completely understandable but his trustfulness is sometimes overused to reach certain events which makes him seem like a poor plot device. The events that take place around Albert in addition to the passage of time throughout the story develops him as a character as he becomes more mature and this development has its implications on the Count as a character too. The supporting cast of Gankutsuou is very rich. Every character has their own problems and sub-plots. All these sub-plots intertwine within the cascade of events that form the narrative in a very sublime way. Each of these sub plots substantially develop or explore these characters, adding different layers to them. This kind of story inherently has slow pacing as it relies mostly on vocal interactions between different characters with very rare actions scenes. Nonetheless it manages to keep the viewers hooked as almost every episode ends with a strong cliffhanger or some big event taking place. Unfortunately, the climax of the story was disappointing as it had some incoherent and contradictive character decisions and cheesy asspulls.
Gankutsuou is widely known for its unconventional presentation. The use of random still patterns and imagery on the characters' outfits and even hair sometimes might be hard to adjust to initially but is one hell of a fresh experience that becomes visually pleasing as it grows on you. The backgrounds follow the same idea of uniqueness as it uses some very rough art-style. During action scenes such as mecha fights and car chases, bad use of CG can be off-putting but luckily such scenes are quite rare. The voice acting in this anime was great. The fitting choices for voice actors among the main and supporting characters is worth crediting. The deep voice of the Count fits his powerful character so well and the innocent tone of Albert's voice contributes to his unpretentious image. The actors do an exemplary job at conveying the characters' emotions in each scene using different tones and pacing of speech. The background music does a good job at adding a thrill to the important scenes. Otherwise, it wasn't very memorable. The opening theme is a perfect fit for the story and the count's character in particular. It has very meaningful lyrics that are sung by pleasant vocals to a fine tune.
Overall, Gankutsuou was a very enjoyable and refreshing experience. The story tackles themes of love, hatred, gluttony, pride, ambition and many other social matters. It takes a risk at trying to be innovative with its presentation and succeeds. In many cases, mystery is used in stories as a hook for readers but revelations usually turn out to be disappointing which is not the case in Gankutsuou. I would strongly recommend anyone to watch it.
Thank you for taking the time to read.
