a lot of gankutsuou interviews emerged out of nowhere on youtube (i'm assuming it's because of its 19th anniversary?) and i'm so obsessed with the way mahiro maeda promotes his own anime. that's exactly how i try to convince my friends to watch my favorite works:

"i made it gay because i wanted to" - the powerful ambition to make his dream fanfiction of a 19th century novel a reality... goals!

highlight is when he admits that gankutsuou is basically a nighttime soap opera:

what if grown up Albert takes after his parents both in height and handsomeness. as a treat.

was super curious about this anime insider article about gankutsuou's fashion design-- i'd seen it in b&w but not in color. i found the specific issue on mercari so i ended up scanning it today when it came in.

sorry i had to

Achieving Whiteness Through Social Mobility in Gankutsuou

SPOILERS: Detailed discussion of the entire Gankutsuou series.

There have been many adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.  Some have tried to simplify the story to make it easier to fit into a constrained time limit, while others were so faithful to the plot that the spirit is entirely lost. Gankutsuou, by contrast, is arguably the best adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo while also being its own original story.

It’s evident that the creative team behind this series had a lot of love for the source material that they were able to capture the nuances of what made the book a compelling drama to read.  Unlike the previous adaptations of the book, which overwhelmingly cast white actors for all the roles, the anime makes a point of depicting the main characters as people of color, specifically brown characters.

This racial aspect of the main characters is actually a more accurate portrayal of what they look like in the book—Alexandre Dumas goes into detail describing the race, ethnicities, and social status of his main characters. He also goes a step further to complicate this tale of vengeance by depicting the notion that, for these marginalized characters to be able to move up the social ladder, they effectively had to erase any historical ties they had with their respective communities in order to become part of high society.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

Drawing of Mercédès de Morcerf as depicted in Gankutsuou for an Anime Moms Zine

Genuine Question for the Monte Cristo fans:

Why is Fernand always ALWAYS the bff of Edmond in every single adaptation? Like, in the books they pretty much meet literally before the almost-wedding of Edmond and Mercedes, and they don't even like eachother much. It's pretty much stated that even Edmond who is benevolent af is only putting up with Fernand because he is the cousin and best friend of his fiancee, and he wants to form a friendship based on their shared love of Mercedes. But like he is not completely blind and knows that Fernand gives him the stink eye. As for Fernand, he is super vary around Dantes and Mercedes has to essentially beg him to be nice to him.

And historians think they were best friends ?!?!

In fact, book Edmond is super kind but he is not THAT stupid. He knows that Danglars is highkey jealous of him, he knows Caderousse is planning to exploit him (as his landlord) after finding out he got a promotion, and he KNOWS that Fernand isn't his biggest fan. He is just amicable with them and polite but doesn't genuinely consider them friends or trust them at all. He only trusts his father, Mr. Morrel and Mercedes, that's it. And Villefort because he doesn't think that being honest with an officer of the law will result in him being fucked over. Which is completely reasonable, and most people would do the same.

So why is his naïveté exaggerated in every adaptation? And WHY do people ship him with Fernand so badly? I get the whole "My bro stole the love of my life " trope but come onnnn.... it's a cliche and not what Dumas intended at all when writing the book! (At least that's what I think, I can't exactly ask him...)

Do You Know This Anime?

I love how in every scene where Albert talks to Monte Cristo there's always a cut to Franz just looking like:

montecristo posting on MAIN?

“Rather than creating a simple thrilling revenge tragedy of “It’s been done to me so I’m doing it back!” I was aiming, in this day and age, to create this kind of work. If a person should be faced with hatred from another, what kind of a relationship will be born from the way they act towards them? How should people face one another? It is these things that I felt I should focus on. In the 23rd act, it is not simply a matter of Albert saving the Count with the purity of his heart. Towards a person who will not face him and who his words will not reach, what kind of action will Albert take? And, conversely, towards a person who is attached to him and he must definitely kill in order to accomplish his revenge, can the Count’s will persist? I wanted to see that serious/true/hardcore collision. What that means is that up until the end, Albert is Albert and Edmond is Edmond. The two of them might spend their whole lives running on parallel lines, but in spite of that, can they continue to interact with each other? Can they continue thinking [of each other]? That’s probably the theme. If that’s where the words “Wait and hope” are to be found, then don’t Franz’s words “Feelings of love and feelings of hate both stem from caring about a person” serve as the light of that faint hope? That’s what I think.”

From a Mahiro Maeda Interview (x)

Color Wheel Challenge part seven; Pink!

Progress

Yellow | Orange | Green | Cyan | Blue | Purple | Pink | Red

Obscure Anime Of The Day

Gankutsuou

Aired: 2004-2005

Genres: Action, Cyberpunk, Drama, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, SciFi, Supernatural

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (2004)