Gankutsuou Vol. 1-3 (Manga Monday)

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Title: Gankutsuou

Series: Gankutsuou

Author & Artist: Mahiro Maeda, Yuri Ariwara

Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars

Genre: Manga

Pages: 600+

Synopsis:

A manga adaptation of the anime, which in turn was based on the novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.

Sadly, while the book was Brilliant and the Anime was gorgeous, this was disjointed, disturbing and overall a real disappointment.

My Thoughts:

I was very disappointed in this.  The focus was on only one of the antagonists, the young people were almost cutout and there were some seriously messed up Freudian expressions.

My main problems with this were the following:

1) Villeforte kills his second wife and Gankutsuou brings her back to life.

2) Villeforte uses his daughter Valentine to replace his dead first wife, and I do mean uses.

3) Madame Villeforte, kidnaps her child and Valentine and does some seriously perverted things with Valentine.

4) The whole family end up torturing and keeping Villeforte as they torture slave.

Most of this was implied, [except #3, & 4] and not graphic but it was even more disturbing for not being in your face.

Also, Gankutsuou is shown to be the mega-mind of Chateau D’if that merges with Edmond Dantes, thus allowing Edmund to live and Gankutsuou to roam the universe. This made things to be almost Gothic, like Science Not Understood.

I can’t recommend this manga. Go watch the anime and be amazed however.