A Classic Retold

It's a given that I love anime and manga. Was watching Goukosen a while ago and saw this really kick-ass ad about the premiere of The Count of Monte Cristo (Gankutsuou as it is more aptly named) in anime. My jaw practically dropped! Have never been this excited over anime since the premiere of Witch Hunter Robin at Animax!

We have seen the hit film in 2002 so what else could we expect? For starters, Gankutsuou spans 24 episodes so it has so much room to show the entirety of the Alexandre Dumas classic. It also is set far into the future. Way far. At 5000 AD. Told from the point of view of the count's son, Albert de Morcef.

Ok, so wait a freakin minute, how could something 19th century still be alive by the 50th you may ask. It's much like 1602 for Marvel Comics. Put the same characters in a different timeline and you get a story quite different but much the same. A complex parody, yet simple in telling. So expect a lot of flying metal stuff, and I hope that does not turn you off because there is much of humanity depicted in this media if you are not hooked just yet.

From what I've heard from the trailer, the series' director is Mahiro Maeda, renowned for his work in The Animatrix for The Second Renaissance 2-part story. That alone makes you expect that this is going to be BIG.

Eye-catching are the effects which I have never seen done on this partucular medium. Still-backgrounds are used as texture for just about anything. Would bother you for a while before it grows in you, I'm told.

I can't tell much but enthusiasts from other countries seem to have loved it from the first time it was aired in 2004. It has already won Most Outstanding Anime, Television Category in the 2005 Tokyo International Anime Fair. The series starts on July 25th at 7 - 8 PM, with replays at 10-11 PM and 1-2 AM Tuesday. That's every Monday thereafter until all the 24 episodes are shown. Only on Animax!

Photos from here.

posted by Fritz @ 12:57 PM