(L) Gankutsuou (Count of Monte Cristo), Classical to Sci-Fi

[Melazoma]

While the ever so important VA cast for the part of The Count of Monte Cristo has not been revealed, here are some of the cast members and their characters,

Note: Spellings of names are as they are in the Dumas novel to the matching characters, the non-matching ones are romanized as best as I can.

Albert de Morcef: Fukuyama Jun (Touga of Gravion and Rick in Kyou Kara Maou)

Fernand Mondego/de Morcef: Kusunoki Taiten (Sly in Mahoujin Guruguru)

Mercedes de Morcef: Inoue Kikuko (Belldandy of Ah! My Goddess, Kazami Mizuho of Onegai Teacher)--thanks go to AznPmsAvenger so I didn't have to click a couple more links. I'm feeling lazy.

Franz d'Epinay: Hirakawa Daisuke (Miyagi of Papuwa)

Peppo: Nakahara Mai (Kasugano Midori of Midori no Hibi, Eina of Gravion)

Lucien Debray: Domon Jin (Ichiban of Green Green)

Porshan(romanized): Shratori Tetsu (Sanada of Boogiepop Phantom, Sai Argyle of Gundam SEED)

Shatou Runoh(romanized): MIKI (not sure who this "MIKI" is without some reference ^_^; )

A pretty much spoiler-free character relationship map has also gone up. So far this is looking to be a spectacular production.

[Silent Otaku]

Originally Posted by Fighter Volk

Gonzo doesn't really have the greatest track record in my eyes, especially because they enjoy making awful manga adaptations. They're usually good for the first few episodes, until Gonzo makes up its own story and it sucks. I really enjoyed Last Exile and Final Fantasy Unlimited, though, and this series looks beautiful. I wonder what they're going to do with it.

I know, I hope this one doesn't turn out like the Chrno Crusade Fiasco

Does anyone know if there has been any mention on an air date?

[nekodar]

When I first heard Gonzo was going to do Monte Cristo in a future setting I was very sceptical, but the preview piqued my interest and this is now one of the shows I wait for the most... The designs are part of what makes it interesting...
BUT... It is produced by Gonzo, which in my eyes have an extremely bad track record.
If this turns out to be good, then I will believe there is still hope for them, but if it ends up being bad, then there is no hope any more (IMO).

If someone fansubs this (which I'm sure someone will do, if not prelicensed) then I hope they check all names properly against the original novel for characters that appear there. Some names can be hard to get, like バティスタン which I had to get someone to look in the japanese translation and compare with the english to get the correct name, Baptistin.

Advise for any group (none of the groups I am in are planning to do it to my knowledge) that is going to do it:

• Do prior research. Get your editors and translators to read the original. Editors in english, translators in both english and japanese if possible.
• Have the english and japanese versions handy in case you need to dig up stuff as the show airs. The english at least is freely available on internet. Dunno about japanese.
• And lastly... Please don't do it at all if you are not confident you can make it justice. Go help some other group if you think you have something to offer.

[Melazoma]

Originally Posted by nekodar

When I first heard Gonzo was going to do Monte Cristo in a future setting I was very sceptical, but the preview piqued my interest and this is now one of the shows I wait for the most... The designs are part of what makes it interesting...
BUT... It is produced by Gonzo, which in my eyes have an extremely bad track record.
If this turns out to be good, then I will believe there is still hope for them, but if it ends up being bad, then there is no hope any more (IMO).

If someone fansubs this (which I'm sure someone will do, if not prelicensed) then I hope they check all names properly against the original novel for characters that appear there. Some names can be hard to get, like バティスタン which I had to get someone to look in the japanese translation and compare with the english to get the correct name, Baptistin.

Advise for any group (none of the groups I am in are planning to do it to my knowledge) that is going to do it:

• Do prior research. Get your editors and translators to read the original. Editors in english, translators in both english and japanese if possible.
• Have the english and japanese versions handy in case you need to dig up stuff as the show airs. The english at least is freely available on internet. Dunno about japanese.
• And lastly... Please don't do it at all if you are not confident you can make it justice. Go help some other group if you think you have something to offer.

Another thing, it's best if you have someone, preferably the Japanese translator who can (also) speak French. The romanizations of the character names in this show are all romanized to their respective French pronounciations, not to the Anglo pronounciations. Names like Baptistin(バティスタン Batistan) and Lucien Debray (リュシアン・ドブレー Lucian Dobray) are prime examples.
On another note, The female character, Peppo(Nakahara Mai) may be based on the character Peppino, who is male. From what could be gathered about Peppo on the official site, the two characters certainly have a bit of similarity.

Thank you, Nekodar for the advisory and "Baptistin." Can you figure out any of the correct French spellings of the names I Anglo-romanized in that partial cast list?

[nekodar]

Originally Posted by Melazoma

Thank you, Nekodar for the advisory and "Baptistin." Can you figure out any of the correct French spellings of the names I Anglo-romanized in that partial cast list?

シャトー･ルノー looks to me like Château-Renault (reference to François-Louis Rousselet, marquis de Château-Renault maybe?), and ボーシャン is likely Bauchant.

[Melazoma]

Originally Posted by nekodar

シャトー･ルノー looks to me like Château-Renault (reference to François-Louis Rousselet, marquis de Château-Renault maybe?), and ボーシャン is likely Bauchant.

Actually it's ポーシャン with a P. That's why I excluded names like Bauchant or Beauchamp. The French don't pronounce P as B right? I wasn't sure so I used "Anglo-logic," as it were.

[nekodar]

Originally Posted by Melazoma

Actually it's ポーシャン with a P. That's why I excluded names like Bauchant or Beauchamp. The French don't pronounce P as B right? I wasn't sure so I used "Anglo-logic," as it were.

I copied from the gankutsuou cast page and that shows it as ボ instead of ポ. The character page also have it as what I pasted, if you look at the source of http://www.gankutsuou.com/world/char...aracter16.html
Kinda hard to read from the image only.

[Melazoma]

Originally Posted by nekodar

I copied from the gankutsuou cast page and that shows it as ボ instead of ポ. The character page also have it as what I pasted, if you look at the source of http://www.gankutsuou.com/world/char...aracter16.html
Kinda hard to read from the image only.

I had my eyes 2 inches away from my screen--it is a circle, not two dots.

Spoiler for A Blown-up Picture:

[nekodar]

Originally Posted by Melazoma

I had my eyes 2 inches away from my screen--it is a circle, not two dots.

Spoiler for A Blown-up Picture:

Blame Gonzo for that screwup, as it is dots in the html

Also, if you zoom in on the relation chart, you'll see dots in the image and ring in the html... Why can't Gonzo get this right -_-

[Melazoma]

Originally Posted by nekodar

Blame Gonzo for that screwup, as it is dots in the html

Also, if you zoom in on the relation chart, you'll see dots in the image and ring in the html... Why can't Gonzo get this right -_-

You're right Same reason we got Pope Joan Paul and Brooklym in Chrono Crusade

[nekodar]

While looking at the char page I found another name where I wonder if Gonzo botched it...
ユージェニー・ド・ダングラール
This would be Eugenie Danglars, but what is the "do" doing in the name? On other names it has meant the french "de", but there is no such for Danglars afaik.

Another that I just wonder about is G侯爵夫人, which translates into Marchioness G if I didn't botch it... In the original, I can only find a reference to a Countess G, and Countess is lower ranked than Marchioness so I wonder if Gonzo either thought they were equal and just used one of the possible titles, if the japanese translation indeed use the kanji for Marchioness or if Gonzo just decided to "promote" her
Or maybe there is some other reason that I can't think of right now.

[wao]

Or maybe because it is just an adaptation and obviously not fully faithful to begin with (mechs were not in Monte Christo), so they feel they have the liberty to change the names around.

I really don't like the way GONZO can mess up english names, but then
1. their target audience prolly doesn't care
2. It's not like we never mess up Japanese names ourselves.

Personally when I saw the characte designs on the site I thought they weren't all that great. While it's an interesting take to put on such complex patterns on their clothes (How will they animate it? Instead of putting in colour, fill in a set pattern I suppose.), one thing is I felt some of the patterns were good on their own and should not have jut been stuck onto the person - it looks extraneous and also frequently does not fit into the colour scheme. ALso, it looks kind of flat. Still, I'll see.... I admit I don't like Gonzo myself... They have so much potential in the visual area, though.

[dreamless]

I hope they can pull a Rhapsody of Zephyr kind of Count of Monte Cristo adaptation...

Personally I like the "flat" art-style a lot though... it feels like they have animated paintings imo

[Rikichi]

Characters Gankutsuou

Spoiler:

Japanese painting of age measured.

Spoiler:

Personally taste a lot of the works of the Gonzo. Because they are always looking for innovation, it is not as studio as Pierrot, Xebec and now it ties the Bones (FMA) that survive of you formulate done and previsible, as for the unfinished ends of the Gonzo so criticized, why nobody tells anything in relation to Ghibli.

[wao]

I dunno, I felt some of the designs were a bit too ornate and distracting. It might turn out to be good but that's just the way I feel.

Oh, but I do think the Count of Monte Cristo looks the best out of the lot

(I almost typed that as Mount of Conte Cristo... what's next, Count of Monty Python?)

[nekodar]

And Nakata Jouji (Folken, Alucard, etc) does the voice of the Count of Monte Cristo! Yay!

I'll let someone else compile a new character/cast list.

[dreamless]

maybe a bit off-topic, but I kinda wonder how many concurrent projects GONZO has most done in the past... It seems when GONZO releases Gankutsuou, it will be doing 4 anime series at the same time which will be Samurai 7, GANTZ 2nd Season, Sunabozu (sand buddhist?) and this one...

BTW, I think the Sunabozu official site looks really cool too, although in different style from Gankutsuou
http://www.sunabozu.com/

[mayukhers112]

Heh, doesn't look MG, but I'll still check it out. The characters have great costumes...

[FlyByNite]

Originally Posted by dreamless

maybe a bit off-topic, but I kinda wonder how many concurrent projects GONZO has most done in the past... It seems when GONZO releases Gankutsuou, it will be doing 4 anime series at the same time which will be Samurai 7, GANTZ 2nd Season, Sunabozu (sand buddhist?) and this one...

BTW, I think the Sunabozu official site looks really cool too, although in different style from Gankutsuou
http://www.sunabozu.com/

Gonzo's also doing the GI Joe OVA.

[TheLaughingMan]

Having recently read The Count of Monte Cristo, I immediatly thought "OMG OMG cool!", when hearing that it was going to be coming out in an anime. I looked at the official site http://www.gankutsuou.com/ and must say, the character designs look pretty cool. The main character (whose point of view the story seems to be told from from) appears to be Albert Morcerf, son of the count's former fiancee.

I pray that this doent go the way of Reign the Conquerer, which I personally didn't like. Hopefully they won't ruin a really cool concept.

Well, I just saw the promo. The animation I can't really make a judgement on, it just seems "different". The character designs still look pretty damn cool. Apperently it takes place in the "future" not sure if that is good or bad. In summery, it looks like it has awesome potential.