My opinions on Gankutsuou...(spoilers!)

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Okay, so before I start, I'm warning you: there will be HUGE spoilers in this journal entry, for both the anime AND the original book by Alexandre Dumas (yes, because the original story is quite different!)
So if you haven't read the book, GO READ IT NOW OR YOU'LL GET CONFUSED!!!

First of all, I'd like to say that of all adaptations I've heard of, this might be the best! (Even if it's the only adaptation I've ever seen yet... But I've heard enough about the other ones to know that they aren't good)

Reasons:
1) The duration: 
Other adaptations are all movies, so it's pretty obvious that they can't fit the whole story in 2-3 hours! (My mother says 6 hours would be a minimum) and Gankutsuou - The Count of Monte Cristo is a series, so that's enough to proove the adaptation is the best.

2) The pairings and characters: 
Okay, so according to a fan-made article I read, a lot of the adaptations remove Haydée Tebelin from the story, which is THE WORST DECISION EVER. Haydée is so important! She's the one that shows the Count's personality the best! (Plus in the book, she stops him from deciding to commit suicide by telling him she loves him! How do you change a scene like that?!). 
I understand that in the anime they had to remove other characters like Eugénie's piano teacher (who supposedly has a love relationship with Eugénie in the book) at the last minute, due to scenario changes (and the fact they wanted to make her more open to other relationships e.g. Albert or Andrea). 
They also removed other characters due to other reasons: the Abbe Faria was removed and kind of replaced by Gankutsuou. This is the only thing I don't like about Gankutsuou; he just comes in and makes a deal with Edmond, and that's it! In the book, there's a whole father-son-like relationship between Faria and Edmond (they spent 10 years together in Château d'If, so I'm not really surprised...). Also, the reason why Edmond learned so many languages and philosophical ideas, as well as how he got rich, is all thanks to the Abbe! (Seriously, I wish they had done something like, Edmond escapes the Château d'If, and since they're in space, Gankutsuou appears to save him from death (in the book, he just swims 5 km non-stop to an island, but space isn't as easy to swim in...). That would have been more logical! And then Edmond would have gone to Monte-Cristo and found the treasure.

3)The order of events:
So they decided to cut the 12 first chapters of the book... *flips table* WHYYYY?!
Those chapters helped us learn the characters! Edmond, Mr. Morrel, Danglars, Mercedes, Fernand, Caderousse, Villefort, Noirtier, Mademoiselle de Saint-Méran (Villefort's first wife)! You can't understand the characters if you haven't seen their personalities when they were young! (ESPECIALLY Edmond and Fernand!) Also, I know they supposedly put those chapters aside for the manga (I haven't finished the manga yet, please don't spoil!), but it would have been better for non-English or Japanese fans who can't have the manga to have those episodes in the anime! They explain SO MUCH! They removed the fact that Franz met the Count (while sailing to Italy to meet Albert for the carnaval) before Albert did! (Yeah, normally Franz, by curiosity, sails to Monte-Cristo and meets "Sinbad the Sailor", one of the Count's pseudonyms and disguises. I loved this scene! NO, not because Franz got high after eating haschish!... Well kind of-but that's not the point! it's only because that part was awesomely described in the book! (Did Alexandre Dumas drug himself? Wouldn't be surprised; they probably didn't know the dangers of it yet!)
The order of revenge is different too! Normally, Fernand is the first guy the Count has his revenge on, then Villefort, then finally Danglars.

4) Changed events:
The Count planned Peppino's pardon after Luigi Vampa asked him to, so Peppino has a life debt unwards the Count, and Franz and the Count save Albert without a fight, and Luigi says he will serve the Count's friends to excuse his mistake.(Because Luigi owes the Count a big one for saving Peppino)

So normally Albert first menaces to fight Beauchamp in a duel for publishing an article that could let out bad rumors on his father, but Beauchamp talks Albert out of it with good reasoning and pity (also the Count kinda saved Beauchamp from an instant confrontation by suggesting Albert waits 3 weeks). But then when another newspaper than Beauchamp's publishes a whole revelating article on Albert's father when he's on a trip with the Count (at the seaside), Beauchamp sends a messenger to inform Albert on the scandal. After explaining the fact that Haydée made Fernand admit the article was true, Albert understands that the Count is behind all of this and asks to duel him at the opera (but the Count stops Albert's hand from throwing the glove at his face and accepts the duel, also asking Maximilien to be his witness-Franz and Beauchamp or Chateau-Renaud or Debray being Albert's witnesses). 
But Mercedes comes over and changes the Count's plans (here, unlike in the anime, he shows emotions of frustration and anger because Mercedes asks him not to kill Albert, which would mean the Count would have to kill himself out of honour and to not look stupid. But Mercedes helps him out and tells Albert all about Edmond Dantès and Albert makes peace with the Count. So no duel and Franz never dies... (Franz's only use is to call of his mariage with Valentine; Noirtier has him read a letter telling the evnts in which Franz's father was killed/murdered, then reveals he was Franz's father murderer, thus making a mariage between his grand-daughter and the son of a man he killed to scandalous to happen.) 

Talking about the Villeforts, the scene where Héloise is discovered as the poisoner is much later than in the anime, and right before and after the Count's revenge on Villefort: Noirtier told Villefort Héloise was the only possible poisoner, so Villefort menaces his wife and tells her to poison herself to clean her husband's name or else he will publicly accuse her. Then Andrea/Benedetto, who is being trialed for false identity and the murder of Caderousse, (he actually believed the Count was his real father, lol!) publicly reveals that Villefort commited a crime by burrying him alive (note: Andrea had no sex with his mother). Villefort decides to run away from Paris with Héloise and his son before she commits suicide, but comes too late. Héloise just has enough time to poison herself when he arrives. He holds out hope for Edouard, but finds that Héloise poisoned him too, writing "I did this as a good mother protecting her son (poisoning the family), and a good mother never abandons her son." Villefort goes to his father's room where he find the Abbe Busoni (a disguise of the Count's) and the Count reveals himself (also as Edmond Dantès), saying he's been avenged, thinking Villefort is pannicked by the Andrea/Benedetto revelation. Villefort says something like "Avenged?!", pulls the Count to Héloise's room by the arm, and shows him his wife and son's corpses, saying "Are you avenged enough now?!".The Count is horrified and tries to save Edouard. Meanwhile, Villefort, not bearing the psychological slap in the face from the day, goes mad and the Count feels bad, feeling like a sinner, since innocents have died due to his blindness whilst trying to avenge himself.

Then Maximilien is more important than Albert in the whole book. After the Count fakes Valentine's death, he stops Maximilien from commiting suicide and makes a deal with him. (Note, after the Janina affair, Mercedes and Albert left their riches and Fernand commited suicide -first vengeance of the Count-) so Albert joins the army to get a new name to clean his family's honour, and leaves his mother in Marseille to get the money the Count left for the two -she refuses it and tells the Count she's sorry and that he must not try to help her because it's her errors and she has to deal alone with them).

Then comes the revenge on Danglars. Danglars abandonned his wife after receiving checks demanding 5 million from the count, who takes the ones Danglars had prepared for the Social Aids. He leaves as a bankrupt banker, and his wife is abandonned too (turns out she had a finacial plan with Debray and she was *secretly* stealing from her husband's fortune. But Debray leaves her with a thousand or something like that, and keeps six million- Debray meets Mercdes and Albert and hesitates on whether he should give them a million to help them but he thinks: "Madam Danglars left a poor-honoured woman with a thousand, but Mercedes leaves a rich-honoured woman with no money" so he doesn't give them anything. Me:*mutters* "Asshole.") Danglars goes to Rome to the Count's other bank and claims the 5 millions. But Peppino (remember him?) follows him and Luigi Vampa has Danglars kidnapped. They bribe him to pay huge amounts for food, which at first Danglars refuses, but then cedes to. He gives the 5 million to the guys (who happen to have a five-star kitchen (???)) and gets a whole lot of good food. But they don't release him 'cause they want his last 200 000. Danglars, surprisingly, wants to at least save those last 200 000. He gradually starts suffering from hunger, having illusions of an old man starving. Then he asks to speak to Luigi, and begs him for freedom, but Luigi says he takes orders from another man, who appears. It's the Count. Danglars sees this and asks why the Count is doing this to him. The Count says Danglars took everything from him 13 years ago(or 15?- it's 25 in the anime-maybe he didn't precise the number of the years, actually...). Danglars doesn't understand this, so the Count says "Do you remember a certain Edmond Dantès?" (or something like that, unless Danglars remembered it himself). Danglars, shocked that Edmond is still alive and understanding why the tragic events that touched the Villefort and the Morcerfs happened, bows down to the ground asking for pardon. Edmond pardons him, and allows him to keep his last 200 000. Danglars is released. Out of thirst, he goes to a river to drink, and sees his hair has become gray. (I think the visions of an old man he had were actually him.)

A month later the Maximilien joins the Count on Monte-Cristo (the deal was that if the Count didn't convince Max. to change his mind (on commiting suicide) by the 5th of October (I think), he'd give Max. the tools to kill himself. He does so, but it's a trick and actually Max. eats haschich instead of poison, so Max only dies for a few minutes (like two or three, I think it was haschich, or was it the same poison he gave to Valentine to fake the death, but in a smaller quantity?) and Valentine appears to Max. Haydée, who became like a sister to Valentine, tells the Count she loves him (so he renounces on wanting to commit suicide after his vengeance) and the two couples lived happily after, Valentine and Max being given the Count's fortune, followed by a letter, saying "Bide your time and hold out hope". Max says "Who knows if we'll meet him again", but Valentine repeats the Count's words: "Bide your time and hold out hope".



Okay, so I think that's all I have to say! Anyways, I still loved the anime, because I love fantasy, sci-fi, demon stories, tragic backstories, and revenge stories that have deaths of innocent people in them (because that just makes me love other characters more.). I also loved the artistic style! I love colourful anime and cartoons (which explains why I don't like the first two seasons of Black Butler very much; it's too dull, thank goodness for Grell.).
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AoiBara1992's avatar
Gankutsuou is my favorite anime (and Black Butler too), I think that is the best adaptation of the book) Even if the book and the anime are so different)