Sunday 22 March 2015

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (Cavern King 巌窟王 Anime)


I love this anime so much. Opulent.  Even to the end, I still wished that somehow... Edmond Dantes didn't die.  How I wish that he would appear & say that somehow he didn't die at all...

At first I thought I couldn't bear to write about it.  Didn't want to talk about it. I wanted to quietly, personally brood over its beauty, its meaning, its unexplainable sadness to me.

Very rare I get troubled & disturbed by an anime that puts me into a brooding mood after finishing it. (There was another piece of anime or drama that made me feel this way, but I can't recall what it was).

Even the next day, my mind is filled with the song, the words. I brood in the depths of it. The genius of it shows me how lacking I am in comparison to what Mahiro Maeda has created.

It's not just an adaptation of the novel. It's a completely new piece of work.

A whole new background set in futuristic Paris, technologically advanced with gadgets that are pretty cool.  The moving pictures in the newspaper, reminiscent of Harry Potter, but not quite. The secret password pen is also reminiscent of Harry Potter but deviates from there into a technologically portal that allows access to a person's memories.

The skeleton framework is from the novel. But the anime has expanded & gone well beyond Dumas. I am truly devastated by the genius of this anime. How can I create something as beautiful as what Mahiro Maeda has done? It seems beyond me. I am ... saddened.  While I'm wasting my time having done nothing yet so far with increasing age... he has produced this.

I read the Dumas novel years before, and while I appreciated the writing, I don't recall it being near the scope and scale of this anime.

How did Mahiro Maeda do it?? The story-boarding etc...  His mind must be wow... He mentioned that he changed the angle to the viewpoints of the youngsters instead of the adults. And gave it a futuristic setting.

When Albert challenged the Count to a duel, I didn't know what to expect. I was thinking pistols... back-to-back.  Albert said armor and steel blades. I didn't expect them to get into huge armored giants like those space anime machine-body with swords! Mahiro Maeda said he did that for a difference from the novel.

The anime is so realistic in the human elements. I have not seen another anime like it.   Extravagant, operatic. Well done from start to end.

They even got a Japanese seiyuu to voice the narration in French! Even though I don't know French, it sounded damn real French to me, the way the words are spat at certain points! 

At first I thought it was Jouji Nakata's voice (first knew him in Peacemaker Kurogane as the sexily ill-tempered Hijikata) and was surprised he could speak French or somehow learnt it for this anime. I had a suspicion they had gotten someone to substitute his voice in French.

Listening to it a few times, I realized it didn't seem to be his voice. It's too heavy, too flat. After a while, I skipped over it because it was getting irritating. Checking it up at the end, I found that the seiyuu is actually a man called Yoshinari Torii who had studied in France for 9 years & returned to Japan.

I prefer they didn't use French narration at every start. Japanese would have been fine.

I love the music! Very rousing-ly operatic! The ending theme is very cool, very rock. The opening theme is nostalgic & meaningful. Where did they get this French fellow to sing it??

Actually, I had watched ep 1 of this anime some time ago, but couldn't get used to the strange fashion and the strange settings (not what I'm used to), so I exited.

But 3 days ago, for lack of anime to watch, I perused the list of anime in Goodanime (it has just shut down as of this writing) & clicked a few to see what they were about & started watching Gankutsuou. I realized I had given up on it before. This time I actually just watched Ep 1 without turning on the sound. I left it at there. (I actually watched it because of Jouji Nakata's voice).

Then the next day, I turned on the sound to hear Jouji Nakata's voice in Ep 2 & couldn't stop watching it as the story progressed!!

I also watched for Juurouta Kosugi. Also a man with deep bass voice like Jouji Nakata. Between them, it can be hard to tell the difference (for instance when they are talking at the dining table), but Nakata has a deeper sonorous quality to it when he puts it in.

Jun Fukuyama... I am quite tired of hearing his voice that's nothing spectacular. But in this anime, he is as usual, fabulous as Albert. Very young, very lovely sexy impulsive voice of a 15 yr old youth. Matched against the deeply mature, knowing voice of the Count.


I love the fashion!! The clothes are pretty strange. But it gets amazing as you notice. The clothes flow into the shoes. And the clothes move with the characters. Very fashionable, expensive designer-style clothes they are wearing! I wish I had those!!  Very stylish!!

The hair... Oh! I love the all characters' hair!! I love Albert's hair! It looks so windswept!! And the texture shows up so nicely! It's so unique to anime!!

I love the handsome Count Monte Cristo/Edmond Dantes. His name Edmond Dantes is sooo sexy!!! (even though it's a name given by Alexandra Dumas).

Mahiro Maeda really has an eye for drawing beautifully handsome manly men!!!  Even the cad Cavalcanti (voiced by Tomokazu Seki) is soo handsome!!!

I can't bear to watch Gankutsuou again. Because I can't bear for any part of my first impression to be overridden. I want to keep it in mind. This gem of an anime.  This sadness of Gankutsuou.

Gankutsuou is actually just a bully when I think about it. Why target that young 15 yr old boy? Just destroying his parents will do. Why also spare his mother?

Gankutsuou (Edmond Dantes) is torn between love and vengeance. He still reacts to his old love's voice every time she calls or speaks to him. He cannot help reacting to it.

I kept thinking at the start that Albert is Gankutsuou's son. But... till the end, he is not. But he looks so much like the young Edmond Dantes. I can't believe Albert is not his son.

Thinking about the dates... it was 25 years ago that Dantes was imprisoned. Albert is 15 years old. So he can't be Dantes' son.

Franz dies at 15 years old, by the way.  Poor, handsome, mature boy. I thought there was yaoi between him & Albert but no go.  :)  I thought Franz was going to confess to Albert that he loves him, but no go.

I thought Albert & the Count were yaoi too. Especially when Albert said he's upset the Count had toyed with his feelings. And the scene where they were wearing identically patterned robes in the Count's spaceship seemed rather suggestive. But seems nothing happened.

At the end, Albert rose on his feet with open shirt & bandaged stomach... to kiss the Count's-- ... I thought it was going to be mouth-to-mouth and I was rather surprised... -- cheek. What a beautifully unexpected scene!!!

I love the grandeur, the opulence of the graphics! Although actually, there are scenes that have intentionally been left looking like just drafted CGI like the train station & wide carnival areas. Very basic & bare grey objects.

I love the English subs!!  

Defeated by a boy:  

 
 
 


Check out Franz's shoes:

The lovely contrast on the inside of the Count's cape:

 

Franz's age on his tombstone:


Albert's cute dripping snot! I have never seen an anime show such a scene. The snot drips, he sniffs it back up & it drips back out. :)

 

So cute of the Count to kneel to the little girl from his tall position, whip out his hand for her to take, then kiss it. So telling of his kindness and lack of airs. Look at the little girl's posture. Amazingly drawn.  (He kneels because he knows she is the princess of the Janina empire, unfortunately sold as a slave.).



Then there's this sexy... little wallpaper from the Japanese site: Look at where the Count is putting his right hand... Naughty...


Update 24 Mar Tues: I finally figured out why the color patterns of her dress look so familiar.  It's KLIMT!!  The thought suddenly came this time after seeing the scene where the Count kisses her forehead...


 



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