The story of Gankutsuo is very compelling, and also confusing as balls. However watching the show, it does all get resolved in the end for the most part. Basically you have your main characeters Viscount Albert de Morcerf, or, albert, a aristocrat's son living it up as rich as can be along with his best friend Franz, and eventually Albert and Franz meets up with this Count of Monty Cristo guy while attending an opera of sorts, and from that point on the show truly revolves around the count because i can't think of a moment when he was on screen that he didn't steal the screen at all, his presence is even amazing. Albert however, while you can't blame him all the time because he is a teenager, can be a complete idiot, or a very intriguing character. The setting in the show is set in France, and very well in the future, as there involves frequent travels to space, and there is a very futuristic fantasy setting here that looks very awesome. The best part of this story is you are trying to figure out who or what this count of monty cristo is. He always seems polite and gentlemen like then seems like an obvious psychopath the next. It is undoubtedly what makes this show so damn entertaining.
The animation is what this how is known for because my god the show looks either one, weird as all hell as it is a very "weird" animation in and of itself, or two looks absolutely stunning. The show looks like it's a trippy rave party half the time, but it's a style that is very different, and if i had anything to give this show credit for, it definitely unique.
As far as sound goes, not much to say here. The opening is skipable but not bad at all. While the ending credits song is amazing, it really makes you pumped for the next episode, at least it did for me. As for dub vs sub, take your pic, both are good, but the dub while casted good, has it's fair share of problems. Mouth syncing, not so good sometimes. The sub however, has accents in it and nice feeling for the show. Now if i were to pick, dub just cause Jamieson Price portayed an amazing count, so good, that there's no one i could see doing it better. And the infamous Johnny Young Bosch does a pretty decent yet annoying Albert.
Characters I normally would go into all of them, but the cast is so big I could sit here and write about ten million paragraphs, so just stick to what I've told you about the count and albert. As far as the others are concerned I would say you should just take them as they go because there isn't a bad character in the show. The parents are as good as they are twisted, and the side characters keep stuff interesting and help push the plot along.
Overall this show's very entertaining, but it's biggest strengths are plot and characters and animation. The plot can be extremely confusing but as long as you pay attention you should be good. Show is fun in both sub and dub, so that's a pretty sweet plus. Now it's faults are not many but they are something to bring up. You have an annoying main character who makes stupid decisions and the animation can stray your eyes as gonzo seemed to wanna test how much you can handle with this style. And the ending, while very good, does have a few faults, and the last episode has a few questions unanswered, everything up to that point was very good, so i feel an 8/10 is worthy, but most importantly this anime needs more exposure as it is highly underrated.
