The Count of Monte Cristo: Gankutsuou – review

Director: Mahiro Maeda

Release date: 2004

Contains spoilers

The connection between Alexandre Dumas, père’s the Count of Monte Cristo and vampires is fairly obvious to anyone who has read the text. Dumas draws similes between the Count and that first English language vampire Ruthven, even drawing the name of Byron into the story.

Because of this the mash-up novel the Vampire Count of Monte Cristo was almost inevitable. So, also, was the Japanese anime (to some degree) that is subtitled Gankutsuou.

Gankutsuou displayed in neon

Unlike Baugh’s mash-up the story is lifted into the distant future, indeed in the year 5053, and becomes a sci-fi – and strangely this was one of the problems I had with this anime. I need to say at the outset that the vampire aspect is not necessarily obvious. Edmond Dante (Jôji Nakata) returns to Paris as the Count of Monte Cristo but he is possessed by an alien entity, which lives a symbiotic/parasitic existence, named Gankutsuou. The alien “surfaces” as a neon overlay on his face (and is slowly taking over him) but Monte Cristo also seems to have fangs.

more traditionally vampiric

There are references to vampires occasionally and we see him bear fangs in a typically anime way at one point. However, he does not seem to do much that one might call vampiric. He can only be killed by piercing the heart (and then only before Gankutsuou consumes him entirely and turns the heart to crystal). Dantes has allowed the possession as a means to gain his escape from the Chateau D’if and get his revenge on those who wronged him, knowing that eventually he will be no more and Gankutsuou will take over him completely.

Albert and Franz

So I mentioned issues and one issue I had was within the setting. For somewhere in the distant future, with interstellar travel, no one seems able to communicate without being face to face. There are sequences and plot points that rely on communication where an email, instant message or phone call would have sufficed. In other words, technology is almost ignored for a period feel and plot point, yet shouldn’t be.

Haydee

I was also not very taken with the anime style. We have drawn characters against a(n often 3d generated) backdrop – which is fine. But then clothes and hair have been filled using a Photoshop technique that adds a (for want of a better description) wallpaper effect that moves independently. It can be said that this gives textiles an unreal (and thus futuristic) look – but I simply disliked the technique and found it distracting.

Power Suits

The story stays fairly true to Dumas (though reorders the narrative arc away from the novel’s chronological order) but adds in the sci-fi elements that one would expect. The massive combat powersuits that individuals wear for combat (and duelling) looked fantastic btw, sleek and 3D modelled. The anime, however, did not rock my world. 5 out of 10. The imdb page is here.