The best part of this story is the character relationships. The story glosses over most of the politics used for 1800s southern Europe in the original book for the sake of updating it to a futuristic space opera, which is a bit "ehhh" because if you focus on those background details too much the story starts to fall apart because the world and its politics are not as developed as its source material. And the anime sometimes falls back on those fudgy politics for plot at random points (e.g., the whole thing with the Prince is mentioned maybe twice before a large chunk of exposition is given about it at the end of the story, then ignored again to move on with the plot). But thankfully it keeps bumping back to these character relationships, and focusing more on those, which is great! And the good news is that you don't need to read the book to understand who is who or what's going on, although maybe looking over a summary of the plot might help you keep track of things better. This is supposedly one of the best adaptations of the book, anyway.
The story itself is a mix of fish out of water meets break the cutie interlaced with a sort of Xanatos gambit revenge plot. As far as I can tell there is no more specific trope for "rich naive person starts to be broken out of their bubble because of politics and economics", other than maybe growing up, but this story idea does pop up elsewhere. It's dealt with slowly over the course of the story, because Albert, the central 'cutie' being broken, is dragged along through the learning process literally screaming and fighting just about everyone who's trying to help. At times Albert is very frustrating, but he does have a few very touching scenes where he's learning or helping friends. Interestingly, Albert does have some marketable valuable skills, unlike usual cases of the trope where the feckless rich person is pretty useless until someone puts them to a task where they sort of muddle their way through. It pops up in a minor way, but Albert has at least some mechanic expertise, as he's able to fix a car late in the series without help or evidence that he learned during the series itself, and potentially maintains his motorcycle. It was a nice change of pace, and made the inevitable drop from aristocracy less worrisome. It's not like he can't get a job with his skills, even if that's not ultimately the path he chooses.
Everyone in the story is complicated, has secrets maybe even they don't know about, and a complicated network of connections to everyone else. There are few one-off characters here, and most everyone has an arc. Going past Albert, and even the specific people Monte Cristo is taking revenge on, all of the spouses are complicated. Heloise, Villefort's second wife, is a detestable but ultimately tragic figure that the story doesn't forget about, even during the climax. The story leaves the fate of those around her ambiguous, though it's possible that she poisoned Valentine's mother, and had a hand in Valentine's grandfather's current state. Madame Danglers seems to be sleeping around with every man in the story (or trying to), and this isn't used as a one-off character descriptor, but comes in for important plot in multiple episodes, affecting the fates and arcs of at least five other characters directly. Valentine herself, despite speaking the least of any of the cast save perhaps her half-brother, gets some strong background development in one confrontation with Albert, and her story, combined with her grandfather's, is never forgotten, and gets more interesting as it moves along.
Yes, it's Dumas, so complicated and interconnected come par for the course, but the show somehow makes it never exhausting. Seeing Franz's focus and interests develop is compelling, just as watching Madame Danglers and Villefort scheming and how that develops is fascinating. Eugenie's struggle for independence and her anger at her family and her frustration with Albert are ultimately quite heartbreaking. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the climax of Morcerf's story. The dialogue in particular that concerns Albert is quiet shocking, given the little we're shown of his relationship with Albert during the story, but it's also pretty touching, and works by and large. From what I understand, a lot of what's in the manga was left out, and the original book itself is still there for anyone to pick up if they want, so hopefully it's backed up in the source material. Most people in this series aren't great - particularly the ones Monte Cristo is taking principal vengeance on - but their stories are very compelling. And there's an overall theme of taking revenge too far and how it affects those around the subject of such revenge that's fascinating.
The art is something I imagine early 19th century France would be quite proud to have - flamboyant, colorful, and hyperdetailed. The idea of having the single texture that outlines seem to move over is quite neat, particularly when they pull out the sparkly textures. I like Impressionism anyway, so that it was used for the art style here (combined with Ukiyo-e) is just another reason for me to like it. The 3D models skate the line of being too much. They look good by and large, even when there are 3D models and 2D characters in the same image (which happens rarely), but things like the mini mechas were a bit over-the-top. Thankfully they weren't used much.
One of my biggest criticisms is the opening song. The singer is sort of nasally and bored and just sounds bad. Like someone droning in a lecture decided to put it to song. It comes in to play over the latter end of the last episode and kind of deflates the energy of everything you're watching. The music itself is good, so the effect isn't completely destroyed, but ugh. Wrong singer for this. Otherwise, the music throughout the series, while not mind-blowing, works pretty well.
There's humor, joy, a metric TON of heartbreak, at least quadruple dosage of break the cutie, and a surprising amount of ho yay despite the apparent minimization when the creative team removed more before the show itself was ultimately put it, even after the trailer. The art is gorgeous, the dialogue is dramatic in a mix of ridiculousness and awe, and the music, excepting that dreadful male singer in the opening, works.
I recommend that people who like this read Mackenzi Lee's "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue", and watch "Natsume Yuujinchou" and/or "Yona of the Dawn". The former seems a bit like fanfiction for this series. "Natsume Yuujinchou" is a bit of comfort food after this, and "Yona of the Dawn" is another fish out water/break the cutie story, even with its own Xanatos gambit, but with a female protagonist. It's also a lot happier (unless you read the manga, which includes more of the darker stuff after the anime stopped; although don't let that stop you because the manga is great).
