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Despite being set in space and making Edmond Dantes something akin to a space vampire, the first half of this is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. Certainly more faithful than the movie from a few years back. The Count of Monte Cristo is about the only “The best way for a protagonist to get revenge is totally to target your enemy’s innocent loved ones!” story I can stomach, much less like the vengeance-seeking protagonist.
The book, as I recall (I haven’t read it in years, though this made me want to reread it), primarily focused on Dantes, a young sailor framed for treason who returns years later to wreak vengeance on the people who ruined his life, largely using their families to do so, but the anime shifts the focus to Albert, the son of Dantes’s enemy who serves as Dantes’s gateway into their lives, and his friends, most of whom are also the children of Dantes’s enemies. Dantes is a much darker character, here, and the plot in the second half takes a lot of liberties (beyond the space vampire bit, I mean), primarily in regards to how he came to be the man he is in the story, and in the fates (and loves) of Albert and some of his loved ones.
I think the anime got a little too close to trying to absolve Dantes of some of his crimes at the end, and could have done without a couple of the scenes in the subplot of Albert’s fiancée, Eugenie, but other than that, I really enjoyed it.
A lot is made of the art in the series, and it seems to understandably be a dealbreaker for many. Many of the backgrounds are in 3D, but more importantly, fabrics and hair are made up of what appears to be photoshop textures, and those don’t movie when the characters do. Here’s the trailer for the US release of the box set, for reference:
With the exception of a few outfits and sometimes pondering how it made the hair look quite pretty, I mostly stopped noticing the strangeness of the animation after a few episodes, but easily see how others would hate it, or how it would cause confusion or headaches.
On the subject of art, I will close with the opening credits, which I am pretty much in love with:
The book, as I recall (I haven’t read it in years, though this made me want to reread it), primarily focused on Dantes, a young sailor framed for treason who returns years later to wreak vengeance on the people who ruined his life, largely using their families to do so, but the anime shifts the focus to Albert, the son of Dantes’s enemy who serves as Dantes’s gateway into their lives, and his friends, most of whom are also the children of Dantes’s enemies. Dantes is a much darker character, here, and the plot in the second half takes a lot of liberties (beyond the space vampire bit, I mean), primarily in regards to how he came to be the man he is in the story, and in the fates (and loves) of Albert and some of his loved ones.
I think the anime got a little too close to trying to absolve Dantes of some of his crimes at the end, and could have done without a couple of the scenes in the subplot of Albert’s fiancée, Eugenie, but other than that, I really enjoyed it.
A lot is made of the art in the series, and it seems to understandably be a dealbreaker for many. Many of the backgrounds are in 3D, but more importantly, fabrics and hair are made up of what appears to be photoshop textures, and those don’t movie when the characters do. Here’s the trailer for the US release of the box set, for reference:
With the exception of a few outfits and sometimes pondering how it made the hair look quite pretty, I mostly stopped noticing the strangeness of the animation after a few episodes, but easily see how others would hate it, or how it would cause confusion or headaches.
On the subject of art, I will close with the opening credits, which I am pretty much in love with:
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this is a really gorgeous ambient/shoegaze(y) album that you really ought to listen to. the guitar is so soft and it's such a good album to nap to during autumn. 
