foconner - 2015-03-30 02:11:52

Gankutsuou, la adaptación a anime de la obra literaria "El Conde de Monte Cristo" viene a ofrecernos algo mucho más especial que una simple adaptación, Gankutsuou en sí, brilla con luz propia.
Comenzando tenemos un estilo de animación único, hermoso y artístico, dándole a este anime este toque de diferenciación del resto. El anime a pesar de basarse en el libro, difiere en algunas cosas, siendo los hechos de Gankutsuou ubicado en los 5xxx; esto en vez de arruinar la adaptación lo que logró fue una combinación perfecto entre lo futurista y lo clásico, ninguno de los elementos que verás te harán pensar que están fuera de lugar, al contrario, todo encaja de manera excelente. El guión esta muy bien escrito, desde el primer capítulo simplemente no vas a querer detenerte, al contrario, querrás conocer mas de el misterioso Conde de Monte Cristo.

100% recomendado, es uno de esos animes que tienes que ver sí o sí.

wwolf - 2014-09-02 05:02:50

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, or, as they know him in the anime, Gankutsuou. Even with it fresh in my mind, it'll be difficult to write a review about this series, for it's hard to find the right words to describe something that should belong in an art museum. Yes, this anime is truly a work of art. The Count of Monte Cristo, roughly based on the original novel written by Alexandre Dumas, which had been turned into a movie back in 2002, and a few years later, it has been turned into a 24 episode anime.

First of all, when I saw this while browsing My Anime List, I was instantly intrigued. Having both read the book and seen the movie, I wondered, "How could they possibly turn such a classic piece of literature into a fully animated series?". After pondering that for a while and reading the reviews from other users that were praising the series, I went online and bought the box set. Now, I will admit, it has taken me quite a long time to fully get into the series. Having spent most of my anime life watching anime such as One Piece, OreImo, The World God Only Knows, Space Dandy, etc., it was a major change to go from genres such as those to historical fiction. As of 2 days ago, I had decided to finally sit down and finish the series. It was a long ride, but don't get me wrong... what I had watched was truly beautiful.

For starters, let me just say to those expecting a perfect adaption from the novel/movie: Gankutsuou is indeed a story about revenge and betrayal, but there are many differences compared to the novel/movie and the anime. The anime takes place in the 51st century, so space travel is possible, in fact, it's used throughout the series. Enter our main protagonist, Albert de Morcerf, a noble on vacation with his best friend Franz d'Epinay, in the city Luna. As fate would have it, Albert befriends the dark and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo. From there, their lives are entangled, and thus begins a journey full of romance, revenge and betrayal. An interesting concept once the series starts progressing. About halfway through, things start getting even more in depth, and shocking discoveries are made with each episode you watch. However, despite the series progressing so well, the last episode left much unanswered, and I felt a little bit robbed of a happy ending. Yes, it's a story about revenge and betrayal, so you can't really expect one, but in the end I was lead to believe there might be a glimmer of hope to the ending I was wishing for.

I'm trying to find the right word to describe the sort of art style that Gankutsuou has shown us... a few words come to mind: radiant, gorgeous, unique, and amazing. This is bound to be the most original art style I've seen in the history of anime. There have been some good styles I've seen, such as Nagi no Asukara, Another, and Steins;Gate, but none were like this. It's as if each set of clothing, hair, and inanimate object was made with real life fabrics, and the setting was just magnificent... detailed, extraordinary, brilliant. One of the most incredible pieces of art I've seen in a long time.

I'll be honest... I really, REALLY enjoyed the English Dub for this series. Johnny Yong Bosch did an excellent job playing the role of Albert, Ezra Weisz's best acting role I've ever heard was as Franz, and I've never heard Jamieson Price's voice until this... his Count of Monte Cristo role was amazing. Perfect match. I have not yet heard the Japanese Dub for this series yet, but before I listen to it in Japanese, I'm going to be watching the FRENCH Dub for this series. I'm hoping the reason why is pretty clear to those who have watched Gankutsuou before. And then there's the soundtrack... a beautiful opening song, a... slightly different closing song (meaning it goes from peaceful and dramatic to heavy rock and roll), and an amazing OST that will leave you speechless.

Characters... characters, characters, characters. Let me say, there was a fairly long amount of time where I actually liked most of the characters in the show... but then the betrayal aspect of the anime started kicking in, and there were quite a few characters that I instantly started despising up until the very end of the series, and even those I didn't hate had their low ends at some points. Albert was a good protagonist for the most part, but his flaw was that he was fairly selfish for a good portion of the series. Franz was the loyal best friend, but at times he took things too far. Any other details about characters' flaws would be giving away many spoilers to the series. But overall, for the most part, the characters were decent.

Now, the big question, did I enjoy this series? For the most part, yes. However, for most drama series, there will always be a few times in some episodes that might leave you depressed or angry. It's hard to enjoy an anime that makes you yell at a fictional character to get their act together. I have found myself guilty of doing that at least 6 or 7 times. But for the most part, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo was indeed, as most reviewers say, a work of art. For those of you who love drama, stories based off of classic literature, and music so beautiful it will make you want to download the entire soundtrack, I recommend that you watch this series. Don't marathon it, take your time. It takes time to fully appreciate art. As for the studio that gave us Gankutsuou, I must tell you one thing... Well done.

roberts.laurel - 2013-07-19 20:50:42

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo is a rare thing in anime: Unique. This is perhaps expected is an adaptation of a 19th century French novel, updated to a Space-age setting, but nonetheless, it's something you're unlikely to find a decent parallel to. Which is a shame, because the world could use more shows like this one.The show begins on the moon-based city of Luna, a culturally-rich metropolis, where our protagonist, Albert de Morcerf, meets a strange man calling himself The Count Of Monte Cristo. After he winds up owing his life to The Count, he helps him to integrate into Parisian society in return. However, it quickly becomes quite apparent that The Count has an ulterior motive in coming to Paris...Now, if I don't get this out of the way now, i'll spend most of this review gushing over him, but I really can't stress enough how good of a character The Count actually is. The entire show hinges on his worth as a character, and he absolutely delivers. Complex, yet instantly loveable, and with charisma in spades, he makes the show what it is: fantastic.While it does take a few episodes to really pull you in, once you're there, you'll be glued to this show. The ever-deepening mystery of who The Count really is, and what he's after, grows with every episode, and makes for some of the best dramatic tension ever committed to film. As his plan begins to unfold, a stunning rampage unfolds... while I would like to explain more, I don't want to spoil anyone. This is something everyone should really experience for themselves.Now, at this point, this may sound like flawless material, but sadly it has some setbacks that really damage an otherwise amazing show. The first, and by far the most obvious, is the art. It's an incredibly dodgy, alienating use of textured backgrounds and colouring, all of which stay in place while everything they're attached to move around. Usually, this means that the shading on somebody's clothes will stay in place while they move. It can easily be argued that this is for the sake of art, but this argument is devalued by the fact that the idiosyncrasies with the art extend far past the colouring, and notably by the fact that it is produced by Studio GONZO, who are infamous for poor animation.The second, however, and by far the most significant, is that almost every character is incredibly unlikeable. With the obvious exception of The Count, most of the characters are greedy, selfish bastards, motivated only by money and personal gain. To make things worse, the absolute nadir of the main cast is probably our protagonist Albert himself. The fact that we're supposed to sympathize with a character who does nothing but whine all the time, and cry to a clearly villainous man for help, makes it really hard to enjoy the show at times. On top of that, the homoerotic subtext between the two can be really offputting... I mean, at one point, he actually says the line "I'm just so frustrated!" whilst crying into The Count's chest.I really wish I was making that part up.Aside from the art, though, everything else from a technical standpoint is well-made. The soundtrack is great, barring a lacklustre OP and a somewhat dated-sounding ED. The dub, though, makes it inexplicable Jamieson Price only has a few roles in anime, because is his performance as the Count is nothing short of stunning. The voice suits him so well that you couldn't possibly imagine him being voiced by anyone else, and unlike so many other dub actors, he can actually act, something he proves on numerous occasions. While the rest of the dub is non-stellar, if not terrible, Price alone makes the dub a better bet than the sub.But I digress... despite my grievances, the show has a lot more to its credit than it does to its detraction. The problems this show has would kill a lesser anime in its tracks (i'm looking at you, Eureka Seven), and while I can't explain too much about the positives without spoiling anyone who hasn't seen it, it's truly a must see... the presence of the Count alone makes it worth watching, let alone the fantastically-constructed plot.Final Words: I've heard that the novel is significantly better, but it's shocking that anything could be significantly better than this.Animation/Graphics: 2/10Story/Plot: 9/10Music/Background: 8/10English Dub: 8/10Overall: 9/10

richie.schneider - 2013-05-18 10:39:36

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."No doubt I'm not the first person to use this cliche in a "Gankutsuou" review... probably not even the first person to open the review with that line, but it's excruciatingly hard not to use it. While some might say this is because of my limited imagination and questionable writing ability, I'd like to think that the real reason is because out of the plethora of works that the overused phrase has been applied to in the past, very few if any has done it justice the way "Gankutsuou" has. It is a show that the phrase seems to be tailored for, a show that fits the phrase so perfectly that you might think it's where the phrase is derived from in the first place. For in "Gankutsuou", revenge is a dish that gets served very cold indeed, and nobody serves it better than the Count of Monte Cristo.[Note: I'm gonna assume most people, like me, have a cursory knowledge of the original story, and therefore this review contains minor spoilers]"Gankutsuou" is a bizarre sci-fi adaptation of the Dumas classic "The Count of Monte Cristo"... but then you probably know that already. Or if you didn't, you'd most likely have gleaned that info from all those other reviews by now. So let's just skip the introduction and go straight to the juicy part of the review where I can drool and gush over the anime like an obsessed fanboy, because this show is that awesome.Lets start with the appearance, because that's the first thing about "Gankutsuou" that will catch your attention. "Gankutsuou" goes for a very avant-garde look, filling the artwork to the brim with audacious, experimental CG. It's something that's impossible to ignore as it overflows and visually overwhelms you from all corners of the screen, I hated it at first. Gonzo must have spent an absolute fortune on it, and all it did was make my eyes blurry and my head hurt. The way the patterns on clothes stayed still whilst the people wearing them moved around got to me especially. The animation isn't the only thing about Gankustsuou that's eccentric. The artistic direction of the anime is very abstract and surreal, and I generally dislike this kind of stuff. But that's the thing - "Gankutsuou" takes a lot of weird sh*t (most of them of the type that I hate), throws them together, and... it just kind of worked out! The melodrama, the embellishing orchestral score, the aristocratic society (that's er... set in space) and the eccentric direction worked in tandem to make the whole thing into something that has a feel of a large scale theatre production, and I was able to just lap it all up without trouble. Even the ending theme - an unorthodox punk disco song - which should have come off as disastrously out of place, but instead fits the anime like a glove, and adds an extra intensity to the (often cliff hanger) ending that often psyched me up into watching the next episode straight away. Not long into the series, and the animation was probably the only thing I still wasn't keen on, but at least I was getting used to it, and it has moments that impressed me as well - the shimmering gown that one of the characters wears to the opera in one of the episodes is breathtakingly beautiful... it's the kind of scene that makes me think THAT is exactly the thing CG is made for.The central attraction of this anime is the Count and the mind boggling story. Despite the Count being a bit of a bastard, the guy oozes so much charisma - gotta give credit to the voice actor here, for pulling off the performance of a life time and bringing this larger-than-life character to life - that it's practically impossible to hate him despite the things he does. His general badassery even manage to make that cliched manic laughter used by so many lesser villains seem cool. He didn't just charm nearly everyone in the anime with his quiet confidence, strength and eloquent mannerisms, he damn well won me over too. Even when he eventually showed the ugly depth of the darkness within him, I still wanted to believe there is more to him... just like Albert did. Unlike the book (which I've not read, but I heard a bit about), Albert is the central character, and to tell the truth, he comes across as a little bland initially, but possesses such an innocence and sincerity that it's difficult to dislike him. Even though the count is the star of the show, Albert is able to shine through in his own way and garner a lot of sympathy for his cause. His dogged persistence in his incorruptible beliefs eventually wins over most of the cast - again, an effect that's replicated on me as well. This remarkable ability of many of the "Gankutsuou" characters to influence the viewer in the same way that they influence other characters makes the viewing experience a very convincing one - when you feel what the characters are feeling, you can be pretty sure you're completely engrossed in the show.Gonzo's anime are famous for their stella animation and production coupled with a half baked story, and if, like me, you always had that nagging feeling that they just need to work with a half decent story (i.e. one that they didn't write themselves) in order to produce something amazing, then "Gankutsuou" will go a long way towards convincing you of that theory. The source material is considered to be of an extremely high standard, and boy did Gonzo deliver this time round. The plot development is nothing short of superb. I found opening episodes to be a little slow, but the sense of being at the tip of an iceberg presented enough intrigue to keep me going. As the story unravelled bit by bit, the momentum quickly picked up, and by the time the series is half way through, it was fiendishly difficult for me to stop watching at any point. It just kept getting better and better as everything clicked into place and the full extent of the web the Count had been spinning was revealed. The later parts were peppered with so many astonishing twists and shocking revelations that I was nearly overwhelmed (in a good way) trying to get to grips with everything that was happening. And then it was all over... in the penultimate episode, oddly enough. The last episode is a bit like a gentle epilogue showing the aftermaths of the event. I bet a lot of people yawned through it, but I quite like it as it provides a nice calm closure after the hectic non-stop events of the previous 15 episodes or something. It's actually told in a weird non-linear fashion, and the point of doing this in a trivial closure episode is totally lost on me - it just made things more confusing, to the extent I had to backtrack and watch some parts more than once in order to confirm what I thought had happened. These are very minor complaints though, to be honest, and is nothing compared to the horrendous lack of story clarification found in most Gonzo works. The good thing is that by working with a well established story, Gonzo was able to avoid most of its usual cock ups, but its trademark mistakes are still evident in the parts it did change. The primary one is that they've changed the back story of the Count to involve some supernatural being... but they only touched on that briefly, and I was still a little bewildered by it after I had watching series. Typical. They've also thrown in mecha battles for no apparent reason - just another thumbprint of Gonzo's quirky habits, but it just about worked out for them in this particular case despite coming off as a little odd.Nitpicking aside, Gonzo has undoubtedly transformed Dumas' classic novel into a classic anime. If you still need convincing, then I've got one more argument up my sleeve. Firstly, Gonzo's repertoire contains quite a lot of popular hits, but they tend to be unanimously shunned by critics over their lack of coherence and substance. Secondly, adaptations from books often get ripped to shreds almost as a knee-jerk reaction from the fans of the book, ESPECIALLY when it deviates significantly from the original material. "Gankutsuou" bucks not one but BOTH these trends - not only is it praised by the general (anime-watching) public and critics alike, but it also received at least a level of grudging acceptance from fans of the book, despite it being an audacious re-imagining of the original tale. These are no mean feats, and an anime that has achieved them is surely worth a try, right?