Definitely a better read the second time around. Damn, I love this series.
Features
Writer/Artist: Yura Ariwara
What They Say
"To those who betrayed me, who stole everything from me, I will give death and despair unto death. Your wives and children, your loyal followers, one by one they will fall to my charms."
While vacationing on the moon, Albert, a young Parisian nobleman, meets the Count of Monte Cristo, a fabulously rich aristocrat from the far reaches of the galaxy. Fascinated by the count's sophistication and intelligence, Albert is unaware of the older man's dark purpose: to enact revenge for a terrible act of betrayal committed against him twenty-five years ago. Soon, all of Paris, including Albert's own mother and father, will feel the terror of the count's vengeance.
The Review!
Packaging:
I had been anxiously waiting for the final product to see what the cover would look like, and I’m happy to see the Count in all of his stylish, handsome, and vengeful glory. The cover looks like an old portrait with gold trim and different shades of red, pink, blue, yellow, and a handful of other fancy designs. This definitely brought me back to the days of buying each dvd. I couldn’t wait to see each cover because the art was always gorgeous and full of vivid colors and patterns. The back is a dark red and gives a summary of the volume that starts with a quote from the Count that promises death and despair to those who betrayed him.
Artwork:
What a difference some brightness makes.
When I first read this I complained about how dark some of the pictures were and that problem is now solved, but now that none of the pictures are horribly dark I swear there’s things in the manga that I don’t remember seeing before. For example, I really don’t remember the execution scene being as brutal as it was, I don’t remember seeing the blood splatter across the panel or the bodies being twisted and forced down to the ground the way they were. There’s also small things that are noticeable now, like Heloise’s (Villefort’s wife) ring and the emphasis on it whenever she’s in a scene, or the pictures of Albert, Mercedes, and others that the Count looks at. There’s also something else about the art and how sketchy it sometimes looks like a pencil sketch. It makes some of the scenes look a lot wilder (such as the execution scene) and the characters look more frantic and panicked.
I still think that the absence of the patterns and colors was a good thing for the manga. After a second read I realized that I like the sort of old, Victorian style, though the more modern feel of the anime was very cool. The manga feels more like Alexandre Duma’s classic because of the non-patterned clothing, but there’s always something to remind us of the sci-fi aspect. It’s a bit of a whiplash, to be honest, because on one page Albert is horseback riding with his father then the next page the Count is looking down at the Earth from the middle of space.
I’m still impressed with the art, which makes more of an impact because it’s not nearly as dark as it was with the pre-release copy. I definitely didn’t notice the insane amount of feeding tubes and the boiling pot full of fish heads, or the dripping eye and the large image of Gankutsuou as Edmond Dantes was going insane and how his body started to sort of drip apart into Gankutsuou.
Reminded me a lot of Akira. Just… very disturbing and gross, but almost… fascinating? Just when you think you‘ve seen him tortured enough, his body is breaking apart and you can see his ribs through his skin. Yeah, you’re definitely rooting for the Count to extract vengeance on these guys.
Text/SFX:
Anything that needs to be translated is saved for the end of the manga. There’s three full pages of translation notes for the different languages that appear in the manga (Latin, French, Italian, and Japanese) and other notes such as the significance of the title and certain character’s names. This volume of the manga is mainly told in three different points of view: Albert, Franz, and the Count. I hope that in later volumes we get to see the story told in other character’s points of view as well. Something else that the manga does is have captions of character’s names as they are introduced so that it’s a bit easier to keep up with everyone.
Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The story starts with a young boy named Albert going on a trip to the planet Luna with his best friend, Franz. Albert is hoping for an escape from his dull life as a rich boy with a overbearing father who expects him to be the best of the best. Albert is a bit… naïve about everything around him, but Franz is always there to try and pull him away from the evil clutches of the world outside of Albert’s sheltered life. During the second read I noticed some things that I either a) didn’t notice the first time because I was too busy fangirling over the manga or b) weren’t there before, such as Albert and Franz’s banter on the place to Luna, and some of the shady people Albert was about to follow before Franz saved him. But Franz is unable to pull Albert away from the mysterious man they meet on Luna: the Count of Monte Cristo. A pocket watch and too much curiosity sends the two friends down a path that neither one is ready for.
After meeting the Count both boys are invited to watch a public execution, one of the highlights of the carnival on Luna. This brings about some interesting conversation about human life and death as they all watch the execution together. One of the men is given a pardon and the other criminals immediately turn on him, screaming for the man to be killed as well because they were all supposed to stick together. The scene is so brutal that Franz passes out, and the second read definitely showed more of the brutality because of the art. It’s a bit chilling, especially since Albert takes the Count’s hand instead of helping out his passed out friend. This was handled differently in the anime, where it was Albert who had to decide who to give the pardon to. This version makes the Count look way more sinister, and in a way, it makes Albert look just as corrupt since he’s almost fascinated with the brutality (in the anime he was definitely the nervous one, not Franz).
Franz is later called home to assist his fiancee’s father. At this point Albert is more than happy to leave after having everything stolen away from him in a set up where the young girl he was sleeping with turned out to be a young boy. We get to meet quite a few characters at this point and get to see Albert and Franz’s lives at home. Franz is engaged to Gerard de Villefort’s (the highest ranking judge in Paris) daughter, Valentine, while Albert is engaged to Baron Danglars’ (the president of Danglars’ bank) daughter, Eugenie. And if you add Albert’s father to the trio you have the three men who completely ruined the Count’s life in the past. We get that story a bit earlier than we did in the anime and it’s much more brutal, so get ready for lots of wires and ripped limbs.
We learn that Albert has invited the Count to his home but no one believes that he’ll actually show up. For some reason the first time I missed that three months had passed, but its mentioned that the Count promised to come to Paris in three months time. Albert and his friends start to place bets which leads to an interesting deal between him and Eugenie: if the Count shows up, Eugenie has to wear a dress but if the Count doesn’t show up Albert has to wear a dress. The Count arrives in a rather dramatic entrance and Eugenie is forced to wear a dress (though getting a compliment from Albert’s mother makes her feel better about it). The Count decides to befriend the three men with the most influence in Paris with an extravagant card trick, and at the end of the manga Albert’s mother, Mercedes, sees the Count and she wonders if it’s Edmond. It’s obvious that she still loves him--she visits his grave every year (much to the disdain of her husband)--and she decides that the Count can’t possibly be Edmond (but you can tell that she believes that it is Edmond). The anime was a bit more subtle with their relationship, Mercedes (in the beginning) would definitely stare and you could see her wondering about the Count from the way she looked at him, but in the manga she literally runs to the window to see him and asks herself, out loud, if he is indeed Edmond.
Comments:
Gankutsuou is ranked as one of my top three anime series, you know, that one series you find that you feel is just perfect (the other two being Revolutionary Girl Utena and X/1999). There’s no flaws, there’s nothing you’d change even if certain parts make you swear or cry, you love the characters and you especially love to hate certain characters. The thing I love most about Gankutsuou is that as I watched the Count get his revenge I was cringing from how cruel he was while rooting for him to destroy the people who messed up his life so horribly. When I found out that there would be a manga for the series I pretty much had a complete meltdown of happiness. I’m already wanting volume two.
The manga isn’t nearly as subtle in the anime, it definitely punches you in the face with its images and a lot of times characters come out and say the things that they didn’t say right away in the anime (Mercedes questioning who the Count is, for example, from the way she was reacting it seems like she‘s ready to run into his arms and completely forget her husband). You can definitely see which characters like and dislike a certain person; I swear Albert has more of a boy crush on the Count in the manga than he did the anime--the fact that he took the Count’s hand when Franz passed out says a lot. Albert… is essentially like that Lifetime movie kid who goes up to the strange man who’s offering a fistful of candy. Franz is the friend who’s trying desperately to pull Albert away from the candy man, but Albert doesn’t listen and gets into the old, beat up van and lets himself be taken away. The ironic thing is that the Count himself use to be just as naïve. In the flashback where he’s wrongfully arrested he truly believes that his friends will save him, smiling and waiting patiently to be released from prison. It never happens, of course, but instead of sitting there crying he eventually decides to pretty much kick all of their… you know. Only Gankutsuou does it in style, and you know for a fact that by the time the Count is done those men will be wishing for a quick and easy death.
To be honest, I’m surprised that Edmond even survived, the manga definitely goes beyond the story where he sat in a cave and rotted away. He’s chained up, his skin is deteriorating, and dear god there’s bones and fish heads!
There are a lot of things that I feel the manga does better than the anime. I love the characters, first of all, I always have, but I love them even more in the manga. Albert is even more naïve but I can’t help but love him. He has such a boy crush on the Count and sees something in him that sort of gives hope to the Count being more than just a heartless so and so. I have less hope in the Count in the manga, at the same time, after that flashback with Edmond Dantes I feel he’s even more justified than he was in the anime. He seems more cold-hearted than he was in the anime. He just seems so diabolical, rightfully so, and as much as I don‘t want him to hurt Albert I really, really want him to rip apart the ones who destroyed his life. Franz is still the voice of reason that Albert needs to be listening to, but he never does. And Eugenie, I just love how tomboy she is, wearing suits and hating dresses.
There are certain scenes that are done very quickly in the manga. I remember Albert’s encounter with Peppo and the gang taking an entire episode, but in the manga it’s only a couple of pages (and we don‘t even get Peppo‘s name). That sort of made me sad because I loved Peppo in the anime, at the same time, that wasn’t necessarily a vital part to the story. There’s also the fact that Haydee is missing from the volume, so I hope she shows up later since she’s pretty important. This volume psets the stage instead of spending a lot of time on smaller scenes, like Albert being kidnapped in Luna and the Count rescuing him (the scene took about a page to finish up in the manga and an entire episode in the anime). The manga focuses on scenes that revolve more around the Count and Albert--the execution scene, the Count coming to Paris, and things that show their developing relationship as the Count begins to plot his revenge by befriending (or I guess… re-befriending?) the three men who screwed him over. I hope the next couple of volumes gives time to the other characters too. The great thing about the anime was that it wasn’t just about Albert and the Count, it was about Franz, Eugenie, Valentine, and every single character that we were introduced to. Though this is one of those series that I trust will be treated well and I’ll love it just as much, maybe even more, than I did when I watched the anime.
I just hope I don’t cry the way I did when watching the anime.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
