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"Gankutsuou" is a re-working of "The Count of Monte Cristo", in a futuristic setting. While in Japanese, the prologue to each episode (recounting the story so far) is in French with Japanese subtitles -- this is set in Paris, afterall. The artistic style is certainly very eye-catcing and far richer than one would normally expect from anime. An interesting technique has been used to animate the clothing and hair, using what is best decribed as a fixed background pattern over which a transparent area for the clothing/hair moves, giving a dynamic look. As a further note, the fashion designer Anna Sui will be designing costumes for the last episode (no. 24): after visiting the studio in June 2004 and seeing a promotional film, she agreed to join the team as a special designer. On 2nd April 2005, Gankutsuou won the “Notable Entry Award” for the Television Category, Tokyo Anime Award at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2005. As such, it was selected as one of the three best TV programmes among 233 entries for this category. On 2nd October 2005, Gankutsuou received the "Best Picture Award" in the TV section at the 10th Animation Kobe festival, in Kobe, Japan. Soundtracks The soundtrack album, on Victor records (catalogue no. VICL-61551), was released in Japan on February 23rd 2005. This CD features the opening ("We Were Lovers") and ending theme ("You Won't See Me Coming") and other instrumental pieces by JJ, together with various classic music pieces compiled by sound designer Koji Kasamatsu. At the time of writing, there was no word on a release date for outside of Japan.
The track listing is: Mardi Gras; We Were Lovers*; Prologue; Dark Dream; Anger (A Letter From Edmond); Scene, On a Sunny Day; Distant Memory; Montecristo; Celestial Globe; Sorrow (Destiny); Auteui; Days of Boys; Waltz (Waltz in Blue)*; Desire (Revenge is mine); Mercedes (On the Beach); Underground Palace; Moonlight Night; Eagre; You Won't See Me Coming* (TV version); You Won't See Me Coming* (Full Version). Tracks in blue are by JJ: those with an asterisk are songs, the others are instrumental. The titles in italics are translations from the original Japanese, kindly provided by Yuka Takahashi.
DVDs A DVD of the first and second episodes of the TV series was released in Japan on February 25th, 2005. This release is distributed by Media Factory (Product Code: ZMBZ-2101; JAN Code : 4935228034208; JPY5,800)
Broadcast outside Japan There are no plans for North American Broadcast. In France, broadcasting began on September 4th 2005, on Cine Cinema, CineFamiz. The show was dubbed into French. Links
www.gankutsuou.com (Official Web Site) "Gankutsuou" ©2004 Mahiro Maeda·GONZO/MEDIA FACTORY·GDH | ||||||||||||||||||||
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In 2004, JJ contributed substantially to the soundtrack for the Japanese animated TV series
"Gankutsuou". His involvement came about due to a invitation from the director
of this production, who flew to London to ask in person. This also fulfills a long-standing
desire to write soundtrack material.
As would be expected from a soundtrack album, the tracks present a broad tapestry of
styles, depending on the action or mood within the plot, including one track featuring
a bizarre fusion of opera and electronic dance. For JJ's tracks, instrumentation and
arrangements are by JJ and Louie Nicastro. Additional guitars are provided by Baz Warne
and additional vocals by Phillipa Cookman. These tracks are produced and engineered by
Louie Nicastro. "You Won't See Me Coming" garnered much attention in Japan. However, the
hidden gem of this collection must surely be JJ's "Waltz in Blue", a beautifully melodic song,
in French, which harkens back to his work on "Un Jour Parfait".
In April 2005, another soundtrack compilation was released (VICL-61587). This CD contains 7 classical tracks
used in the show. None of JJ's work appears on this release.
Most of these sites are in Japanese. For those not fluent in Japanese, you may wish to go through the