Gankutsuou: The Count Of Monte Cristo

The HentaiMaster · Post by **The HentaiMaster** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:23 am

Well guys this is the lates anime i have seen, it toock me about 2 days and i must say that after seeing it i was a troubled, not to say traumatised, by it. The fact that it was based on Alexandre Dumas's novel made me want to see it, but i did not take in to consideration the fact that it was anime and Japanise and so i was imensly touched. The way it was made was just marvelous, the way the characters were presented and made was outstanding the animation and out fits were the most original i have seen in an anime.
What troubled me was the fact that this anime was deep very deep, how friendship, revenge, love, treason, passion, hatred, and soon. Those themes, much like the novel were amplified by the anime creator.
What brings me here today is this feeling of uneasyness i have with this beautiful creation and i would like to know how all of you think, inderstood and like this anime.

IamSano · Post by **IamSano** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 11:53 am

Wow! I have seen the Movie for this (that stars James Caviezel), but I never knew an anime existed for it. I will defintely attempt to find this and check it out.

The HentaiMaster · Post by **The HentaiMaster** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 1:49 pm

Well if you loved the move which is amasing you will like the anime altho booth are based on the same novel both have a diffrent view on this famous story.

the vampire alucard · Post by **the vampire alucard** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:29 am

is it a mini series or a movie ?

The HentaiMaster · Post by **The HentaiMaster** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:07 am

It's nither. It's actualy a normal anime serie with 24 episodes.

I for got to ad to my previus post that this anime was more like art than anything elce, many of you may be skeptic about what i am saying but i would suggest that you watch it. It's something exeptional, something very original.

OtakuMan22 · Post by **OtakuMan22** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:22 pm

If memory serves me correctly, that anime is also quite old.

*Double checks*

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=4194

Okay, so I am VERY wrong about that, and I must say that I was not expecting that kind of art style. I also was not expecting it to be out stateside and have a UMD release for PSP as well!

But regardless of age, it's still based on classic literature, and it reminds me of some older anime based on literature which did very well!
Heidi and Anne of Green Gables are two that come to mind, and one of the strong points behind those two was that they had Hayao Miyazaki working on them. When anime folk get their hands on classic literature, it goes one of two ways:

1) Totally radical adaptation that bares little to the original story, but still comes off as good and cool!

2) Exceptionally faithful adaptation that highlights the most powerful and emotional points of the original book to bring the words to life almost literally.

How the anime folk do it, I don't know, but they do it well. Some are edgy and serious (Monte Cristo for example) others are for kids (anyone remember the Grimm's Fairy Tale shows on ye olde Nickelodeon's Special Delivery?) and then there are those that take the literature and run like hell (Lupin the 3rd)!

Either way, it usually works well!

Now what I'D like to see is an anime adaption of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"!

~Otaku-Man

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:49 pm

The HentaiMaster wrote: It's something exeptional, something very original.

In all honesty, the style used actually reminds of another Mahiro Maeda directed Gonzo series, Final Fantasy Unlimited. Of course Gankutsuou is MUCH better executed in terms of plot.

The HentaiMaster · Post by **The HentaiMaster** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:40 am

OtakuMan22 wrote:If memory serves me correctly, that anime is also quite old.

*Double checks*

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=4194

Okay, so I am VERY wrong about that, and I must say that I was not expecting that kind of art style. I also was not expecting it to be out stateside and have a UMD release for PSP as well!

But regardless of age, it's still based on classic literature, and it reminds me of some older anime based on literature which did very well!
Heidi and Anne of Green Gables are two that come to mind, and one of the strong points behind those two was that they had Hayao Miyazaki working on them. When anime folk get their hands on classic literature, it goes one of two ways:

1) Totally radical adaptation that bares little to the original story, but still comes off as good and cool!

2) Exceptionally faithful adaptation that highlights the most powerful and emotional points of the original book to bring the words to life almost literally.

How the anime folk do it, I don't know, but they do it well. Some are edgy and serious (Monte Cristo for example) others are for kids (anyone remember the Grimm's Fairy Tale shows on ye olde Nickelodeon's Special Delivery?) and then there are those that take the literature and run like hell (Lupin the 3rd)!

Either way, it usually works well!

Now what I'D like to see is an anime adaption of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"!

~Otaku-Man

So true and i think that one falls upon the second category. I do not know if you have seen it but i woudl strongly recomend it however keep in mind it is extremly emotianly deep and you better be readu for osme insane senes regarding the most valuable things in life, frienship, loyalt and so on.

By the way thnx for mentioning othe animes falling in that same category ill have something to watch these days.

As for you angelx03 i havent seen that anime but i will glady look it up but so far i wouldn't know, but i woudl trust ur word. If i understand correctly you have seen Gankutsuou.... if i would like to ask you how did you feel and how did you understand the last 4 episodes. personaly i had quite some trouble and i woudl like to have your opinion on it.

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:05 am

I only saw the first 8 episodes of itbefore it got licensed by Geneon so I didn't really see the ending.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:40 am

Just finished it.

I thought it was absolutely amazing. Very interesting take on characterizations on this rather well-known work. This is NOT Monte Cristo in space, as much as people might like to think it is. The characterizations and key ideas were at the heart of this one - not the plot, which although excellent, was really not the shining point of this (although there was a number of very nice departure twists - the biggest one of which I unfortunately saw coming from one episode beforehand).

Artistically, sheer bliss. The costumes, the architecture, the character design... The visuals were something else and needn't be described with words. But nothing I've seen quite lives up to it, and I'll have a hard time watching more normally-colored anime for a bit now.

The surrealism of it irked me a little sometimes, since it occasionally detached me from the setting - but then the detachment from the setting often served as a way of focusing on characters, so it was probably deliberate. Plus, eh, trippy.

***

And, maybe this is out of nowhere, but is it too much to ask if the same team approach another literary classic - Bulgakov's 'Master and Margarita' in the same fashion? I think it'd look stunning in much the same way