News
Anime Limited Acquires Gankutsuou for 2015
posted on by Andrew Osmond
Anime Limited has announced that it has licensed Gonzo's Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo television anime series from 2004 for release in 2015, on Blu-ray, DVD and Video on Demand. (Anime Limited added on its facebook page that the series is provisionally due in the first quarter of the year.)
Director Mahiro Maeda (Blue Submarine No. 6, The Animatrix's "Second Renaissance") oversaw this science-fiction re-imagining of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel about revenge and deception. Natsuko Takahashi (07-Ghost, Tales of Agriculture) and Tomohiro Yamashita (Afro Samurai, Red Garden) supervised the scripts, while Hidenori Matsubara (Ah! My Goddess, Sakura Wars) designed the characters which Gonzo gave a distinctive stained-glass texture. The anime aired in Japan from 2004 to 2005, and won the award for the best television series at the 10th Animation Kobe Fair.
Instead of the post-revolutionary-era France of the original novel, Gonzo's retelling takes place in a surreal distant future. Albert, the son of a renowned general, meets the enigmatic Count of Monte Cristo during a festival on Luna. Albert invites the beguiling count back to Paris. Unbeknownst to Albert, his father had once framed the count and destroyed the count's personal and public life. What follows is a dark passage for Albert as he discovers the depths of the past wrongs and the lengths that the count is willing to go to avenge himself.
Image © 2004 Mahiro Maeda • GONZO / MEDIA FACTORY • GDH
