Gankutsuou : The Count of Monte Cristo
A co-worker who agrees with me that Count of Monte Cristo is one of the best books evar, told me to watch this series. While I’m not an anime fan, I thought this was very well done and faithful to the book except for the ending which was radically changed for some unknown reason.
It’s sort of a Count of Monte Cristo with robots. And as I look at the IMDb credits, I see that the storywriter was Alfred Bester, which may explain some of why it’s so good. The whole first part of the book (the sea voyage of Dantes) was omitted in place and only referred to in retrospect, but it worked. Certain parts of the story were changed to make better use of the milleu (eg, since it was in space in the future, Napolean would have made no sense). It also helps if you’re familiar with the book when viewing the series as so much happens in the book that it’s hard to cram it all in, even with 24 episodes.
The animation was both intriguing and distracting at times. Mostly intriguing, though. The textures of the fabric (and hair) animate separately from the characters wearing it to a very interesting effect. The voice artists worked well, for the most part, especially the Count. Some of the others were a little on the anime whiny side (open mouthed gasps that drive me crazy, for example).
Certain changes the story probably make more sense if you’re Japanese. The giant Transformer-style sword fights were exciting, even though I don’t get why robots bleed, and they fit the story well. But I never really did understood the whole “Gankutsuou” thing. I mean, I understand, metaphorically, that Edmund Dantes “died” in Chateau d’If, but this series seems to say that he actually did die and his body is now inhabited by some alien presence?
I do have some big issues with the ending, though. You can’t just change the ending wholesale like that. Don’t do it.
But on the whole, it worked. And the robot horses were very cool.
The also has the absolute worst opening theme song in the whole history of television.
