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Title: Gankutsuou
Series: Gankutsuou
Author & Artist: Mahiro Maeda, Yuri Ariwara
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 600

Synopsis:
A manga adaptation of the anime, which in turn was based on the novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.
Sadly, while the book was Brilliant and the Anime was gorgeous, this was disjointed, disturbing and overall a real disappointment.

My Thoughts:
I was very disappointed in this. The focus was on only one of the antagonists, the young people were almost cutout and there were some seriously messed up Freudian expressions.
My main problems with this were the following:
1) Villeforte kills his second wife and Gankutsuou brings her back to life.
2) Villeforte uses his daughter Valentine to replace his dead first wife, and I do mean uses.
3) Madame Villeforte, kidnaps her child and Valentine and does some seriously perverted things with Valentine.
4) The whole family end up torturing and keeping Villeforte as they torture slave.

Most of this was implied, [except #3, & 4] and not graphic but it was even more disturbing for not being in your face.

Also, Gankutsuou is shown to be the mega-mind of Chateau D'if that merges with Edmond Dantes, thus allowing Edmund to live and Gankutsuou to roam the universe. This made things to be almost Gothic, like Science Not Understood.

I can't recommend this manga. Go watch the anime and be amazed however. " ( )

I saw the anime version of Gankutsuou (which this manga is based on) first, and it's feeling pretty utterly impossible to view them separately, so I'm not even going to try. Suffice to say I read this to get a different take on an anime I enjoyed, but so far a rewatch of the anime looks preferable to reading more of this.

One of the most notable things about the anime (the visuals) couldn't be transferred to manga of course, but the odd art style it chooses to set itself apart instead wasn't appealing to me. It's still recognizably manga style, but it does have a sketchy, rougher look than most that brings to mind some American indie comics. Either way, even regardless of art style preferences, I do think it was less expressive than it should have been.

On the story-telling front, things went mostly as I remember in the anime (though it's been a while so I don't remember well) but felt a little, sometimes a lot, more rushed. A quick glance through the second volume does look a little more different than my sketchy memories of the anime, but not really in any way that intersts me.

(If I may bluntly admit my bias? I like Franz. I wanted to see more Franz. Future volumes seem to focus even more on the count and his objects of vengeance, and if I wanted that I'd just go read the actual Count of Monte Cristo. Come to think of it I might at some point. But Gankutsuou is for the different perspective and weird look/setting/genremash, isn't it?) ( )

"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. Based on the acclaimed anime, this science fiction version of Alexandre Dumas's classic The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of a young man's seduction by evil-and a grown man's struggle with his past. ( )