Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: Older Teen
Price: $10.95

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo starts out promisingly enough with a couple of French aristocrats aboard a ship bound for the moon.

The two, Franz and Albert, are on vacation. During their adventures on the moon, Albert sneaks a peek at an interesting character at an operatic performance: The Count of Monte Cristo.

The count is an unknown. He’s a mysterious figure who, for some unknown reason, takes quite a liking and involvement in Albert’s whereabouts. In fact, it seems as though the count’s underlings have been keeping tabs on Albert for quite some time.

The two, with Franz, experience an interesting sight on the moon, and the count expounds on some of his personal philosophies.

Albert takes a liking to the count. But unfortunately, the two must part as Albert heads back to Paris on Earth and the count stays behind.

On Earth, more background on Albert, Franz and their families is laid out. And a sequence involving the count in the latter half of the volume is the height of Gankutsuou. The art, which is fairly minimalist throughout, actually excels in this segment. However, although the art is better here than in the rest of the volume, the story is rather bland.

In addition to that part, the story is a bit difficult to follow with all of the formal names of the characters bandied about.

Overall, this volume doesn’t impress artistically too much. It also doesn’t do much to impress with the story. However, the characters are interesting, so there is some redeeming value.

 

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