Treadmill Reviews: Gankutsuou, The Count of Monte Cristo

I've been trying my hardest to keep up with my daily treadmill exercise, but it's been getting difficult to find new things to watch while I walk. I had a haphazard list of shows and anime I wanted to go through, and after much deliberation, a couple weeks ago I finally decided on Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo.

Gankutsuou is a futuristic sci-fi/fantasy retelling of Alexandre Dumas' famous novel, The Count of Monte Cristo. I'm pretty familiar with The Count of Monte Cristo, and I would even name it one of my favorite stories, which is why I chose this title out of my list to watch.

My first experience with the Monte Cristo story was watching the 2002 movie starring Jim Caviezel years back. I fell in love with the straightforward plot, about a young Frenchman named Edmond Dantes in the early 1800s who's friends falsely accuse him of treason for their own gain. Edmond is sent to prison, but manages to escape with the help of another inmate, and uses his newly acquired riches to integrate into high Parisian society and carry out revenge on those who profited from his betrayal.

It wasn't until I read the book years later that I realized how simplified the movie is, in comparison. On its own, the movie is still pretty amazing, but there really isn't enough time in a two-hour movie to fit in everything that came in the original story (In fact, there's hardly enough room in the book to fit the entire story; when I went to buy Monte Cristo, I couldn't find a non-abridged version, and the copy I finally did pick up is almost 600 pages long and cuts out two subplots). Because of this, the movie took some liberties and made a major change to the ending so that everything would make sense, along with cutting out entire characters.

For the most part, the characters cut out of the movie version are the children of the men who betrayed Edmond, and their friends. It was my impression that part of the lesson learned in the book comes when Edmond, in the guise of the Count, realizes how his vengeance is affecting those who had nothing to do with the initial betrayal. While we do see Albert (pronounced like 'al-bear'), the son of Edmond's former best friend, quite a bit in the movie, he plays a much bigger role in the book.

In Gankutsuou, the anime adaption I've been watching the past two weeks, Albert is actually the main protagonist. The story starts with Albert, the Viscount de Morcef, and his best friend Franz d'Epinay visiting the space colony Luna for Mardi Gras. There, they meet the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, who fascinates Albert and saves his life, though Franz has a hard time trusting him.

Albert and Franz at Mardi Gras

It's impossible to talk for long about Gankutsuou without mentioning the art style. All the digital animation is layered with Photoshop textures, almost like cell shading but with full patterns instead of solid colors. The affect is really interesting, and while most would argue that it's an unnecessary visual complication, I think that it really adds to the atmosphere of the story. There's a mix of futuristic elements with the 19th century Parisian lifestyle, as well as a mix of hand-drawn, digital, and 3D animation, which combine to give the whole show a surreal or magical realist air.

That's on top of the story itself. Going in, I knew this would be based on The Count of Monte Cristo, but I wasn't sure how many plot elements would be carried over, and how much would be removed, added, or changed. I was happy to see that this is actually very similar to Dumas' original book, or at least more similar than the Caviezel movie (which isn't hard to do; I stress again how little subplot you can fit into a two-hour movie).

The Count of Monte Cristo, a fusion of
both Edmond Dantes and Gankutsuou

Of course there are some changes. Gankutsuou, the title, translates to 'King of the Caves', and at first seems to refer to another part of the Count's true identity. We start the show knowing nothing about the Count's past as Edmond, unless the audience happens to know the story to Monte Cristo, in which case we still don't know what's really going on. The story's consistent enough to the original to introduce new fans to Dumas, but different enough to have a new flavor for everyone who already knows Monte Cristo.

I also can't help but talk about the music. There are two theme songs for Gankutsuou, an opening and a closing, which remain consistent throughout the show's 24-episode run. The closing theme is a fast-paced piece played over a jumble of quick images and vague silhouettes, with lyrics that seem to fit in perfectly with the vengeance story. The opening theme, however, is a slow piano/violin piece with lyrics that almost seemed to imply forgiveness, like everything would be alright. I loved both themes, which were written and sung by Anglo-French singer/songwriter JJ Burnel, but I could help but feel like they purposely contradicted each other, and were written to make me lower my emotional guard (which, quite honestly, was an ingenious plan).

I also really like listening to the full versions of shortened TV theme songs, and I had to force myself not to look these two up online, because I knew that if I fell in love with the full songs, I'd be annoyed whenever I had to listen to the shortened versions again. I'm glad I didn't look these songs up. At the end of the last episode of Gankutsuou, after the whole ordeal is over, the full version of the opening theme plays, and I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the full song was totally different from what I expected. Though it's pretty simple, it's now one of my favorite pieces, and the only reason I'm not teaching it to myself on the piano yet is because I have something else I'm forcing myself to learn first.

I highly enjoyed watching Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo these past two weeks, and I've added the title to my DVD wish list. You can watch the entire series for free online via Funimation, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes anime, science fiction, or revenge stories, though this recommendation comes with a warning; while there isn't anything really violent or explicit, there is one scene at the end of the seventh episode that should really be skipped over. Other than that, I found this show amazing, and I'm glad I had the chance to watch it.

If you don't have time for an anime, I would still recommend The Count of Monte Cristo as a must see story. The Jim Caviezel movie is available for DVD rental via Netflix, and probably from any other movie rental service, and is a wonderful, quick version of the Monte Cristo story. The Dumas novel can be found at practically any bookstore, though you may have to work to find an unabridged version, and while it may be thick, it's well worth the read.