Gankutsuou (Count of Monte Cristo)

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Wow! If you ever feel burnt out by anime, Gankutsuou is the show to rekindle your passion. It has to be the greatest mix of music and animation since Cowboy Bebop; combined with a dark, compelling story of revenge that is being carefully unraveled as each stunning episode flies by. The setting of the story is fantastic, a kind of neo-Paris, very futuristic yet peppered with Victorian aesthics to compliment the time the original story was authored. Who else is watching this show? What do you think?

I'm not Gonzo's biggest fan but I seriously think they're creating a mastepiece with Gankutsuou.
 
Wow, 18 episodes in an Gonzo brings out the mecha for Gankutsuou. This is seriously one of the greatest anime of recent years, and yes, that is a skull formed on the moon :) The imagery used in Gankutsuou is revolutionary. I can't wait to own DVD versions of this show. I'd go so far as to say this the best thing Gonzo have produced, and that included Hellsing and Last Exile.

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I really love Gankutsuou, and I believe its coming out in the US soon. It's as good as Last Exile, I think, and definatly better than Hellsing. I think the most interesting thing is how they took a basic story and changed it into such an epic series.
 
Gankutsuou is great, they've made a good adjustment from historic times to futuristic without losing the underlying story.
I really like the dual layer animation styling, I haven't seen that before.
 
Bump!

I've just ordered this set from oz for 30 quid. I've meant to get this one for a long time, but considering the price is going up, I've decided to get this now. I've always liked gonzo animation style, although I recognize they often lack in story.

Mechas? is it somewhat like samurai 7?
 
I've seen the film Count of Monte Cristo, and I guess both of these use the same source, but how do mecha's fit into it :lol:

This certainly does make me smile =D
 
This isn't completely to do with the anime, but.. Is 'The Count of Monte Cristo' that old black and white film they watch in 'V for vendetta'. The name seems to remind me of that film..
 
King Jimmeh said:
I've seen the film Count of Monte Cristo, and I guess both of these use the same source, but how do mecha's fit into it :lol:

This certainly does make me smile =D
Click to expand...

It's set in the future this time with some sci-fi elements casually dropped into the background. It isn't intrusive though (I can only remember a couple of parts with mecha at the forefront and they were done well). The story itself is pretty timeless with themes that are as relevant now as when it was written so the futuristic setting is strangely not as odd as you'd think it should be.

R
 
The Hollywood adaptation is horrific, butchering the characters and story. It's 'The Count of Monte Cristo' in name only. The only reason it has a decent score on IMDB is because most people haven't read the gigantic novel.

As for how mecha fits into it, the story is set in 5053 in the anime. The futuristic setting actually makes very little difference to the story since for the most part the story plays out in France, complete with horses pulling carts, old fashioned clothes and duels to the death being declared by throwing a glove at someone else. The only real impact the changed setting has on the story is that names of planets are used instead of names of countries/cities and posh people duel in gigantic robots with swords instead of dueling with swords like normal. The execution of Gankutsuou puts Gonzo's awful attempt at injecting mecha into the story of 'The Seven Samurai' to shame.

Example: Edmond meets Albert during the Roman carnival in the novel. Edmond meets Albert during the Luna (on the moon) carnival in the anime. The events play out in the same way in both versions, the only minor differences being due to the time limit the anime had and a very minor character from the Rome section being changed to play a small role in the story.

If anyone is interested about the title, it means 'King of the Cave'. The novel was called Gankutsuou when it first released in Japan, so the anime was also called the same name.
 
Rui said:
King Jimmeh said:
I've seen the film Count of Monte Cristo, and I guess both of these use the same source, but how do mecha's fit into it :lol:

This certainly does make me smile =D
Click to expand...

It's set in the future this time with some sci-fi elements casually dropped into the background. It isn't intrusive though (I can only remember a couple of parts with mecha at the forefront and they were done well). The story itself is pretty timeless with themes that are as relevant now as when it was written so the futuristic setting is strangely not as odd as you'd think it should be.

R
Click to expand...
I've seem the novel a long, long time ago. Right now, I can't tell if it was the original one or some sort of adaptation. I like the little I remember from it, although I remember the story as a whole, I can't remember it's nuances.

Aion said:
The Hollywood adaptation is horrific, butchering the characters and story. It's 'The Count of Monte Cristo' in name only. The only reason it has a decent score on IMDB is because most people haven't read the gigantic novel.
Click to expand...
Never seen, can't say anything.

Aion said:
As for how mecha fits into it, the story is set in 5053 in the anime. The futuristic setting actually makes very little difference to the story since for the most part the story plays out in France, complete with horses pulling carts, old fashioned clothes and duels to the death being declared by throwing a glove at someone else. The only real impact the changed setting has on the story is that names of planets are used instead of names of countries/cities and posh people duel in gigantic robots with swords instead of dueling with swords like normal. The execution of Gankutsuou puts Gonzo's awful attempt at injecting mecha into the story of 'The Seven Samurai' to shame.
Click to expand...
I really liked Samurai 7 (which is the anime version of the seven samurai), so maybe I ddi the right thing watching it first and keeping my standards low.

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I need to re-read the novel myself. For anyone its hard to take in everything the first time around when dealing with a 1200+ page novel (with small print), but my bad memory makes it almost a requirement for me to go through every story at least twice to have any hope of it sticking in my memory.

I answered a few questions in a thread on MAL months ago. I'm going to link to it in case anyone is interested: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=19310

Also, there's another Gankutsuou thread on here, made by myself. It includes my early thoughts and one of the many retard contests me and The Geek entered into.

Link: http://forums.animeuknews.net/viewtopic ... 61&start=0 (I find listening to 'Duel of the Fates' whilst reading enhances the experience)
 
There's also the small matter of Japanese voice acting being bloody amazing 99% of the time.

This is were I stopped reading.

But I'll watch it one day, Seven Samurai I really liked for the first 12 episodes then it just turned awful.
 
Aion said:
The Hollywood adaptation is horrific, butchering the characters and story.
Click to expand...

There's been more than one attempt at it. I admit that I don't care to watch the 2002 film ever again, but I have soft spot for the 1975 TV movie with Richard Chamberlain, while my parents swear by the 1999 Gerard Depardieu mini-series. Checking IMDB, there are some 57 adaptations from around the world. You don't just have to rely on the talents of Mike from Neighbours to carry the film.
 
Star wars 'Duel of the Fates'? (been to the thread ever since and I figured out what you mean... it's quite a fitting OST for that =))

I'm anxious for this to arrive, even though I'm pretty I won't be seeing it before next year.
 
Chaos, where did you order the AU set for £30 and does the store you purchased it from mark down the value declared? If they do, I'd be interested in getting myself another Gankutsuou collection.

Just Passing Through said:
Aion said:
The Hollywood adaptation is horrific, butchering the characters and story.
Click to expand...

There's been more than one attempt at it. I admit that I don't care to watch the 2002 film ever again, but I have soft spot for the 1975 TV movie with Richard Chamberlain, while my parents swear by the 1999 Gerard Depardieu mini-series. Checking IMDB, there are some 57 adaptations from around the world. You don't just have to rely on the talents of Mike from Neighbours to carry the film.
Click to expand...

I haven't bothered looking into the other adaptations because the general consensus seems to be that the only good adaptation after 100's of years is Gankutsuou; an adaptation set in the year 5053 that skips a lot of the book (understandably), changed Edmond's character a lot and made a fairly unimoprtant character into the main character. Watching the doomed to fail Hollywood attempt at butchering the best revenge story ever made me not want to see any other adaptations.
 
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0271910547

I've requested a quote to post it to the UK and received a better quote than the one ebay was showing. Altogether, it was 40, 27 for the box set + 13 for postage.

I've asked it to be gift wrapped, which usually prevents people to write down the price. The downturn to it is that is entitles customs to open the package, but I've got away from paying custom taxes by doing so previously.

It never occurred to me to request someone to write it down, I might give it a try next time.

If I get this all right, I'm definitely buying me another set and selling on ebay the next day...
 
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