Gankutsuou/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Complete Monster: Andrea Cavalcanti
  • Creepy Awesome: The Count of Monte Cristo.
  • Foe Yay: Possibly between the Count and Fernand.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The ending theme, especially with the given CGI effects.
  • Freud Was Right: Albert is way too interested in his mom's private life. And Haydée is in love with her father figure precisely because he's her father figure. Not to mention Andrea's antics.
    • For Albert, that was the Count's manipulation on most part, though. The Count needed him to start doubting his parents so Albert would rely on the Count further. After Albert realizes, his interest quickly vanishes. In fact, he goes as far as blaming her for the entire ordeal.
    • For Haydee, this is more explicit in the original novel--in Gankutsuou she never says that she thinks of the Count as a father figure (however she has known him since she was about 7, so he was partly responsible for her upbringing, and one could argue that the trope still applies even if it isn't outright stated).
  • Ho Yay: The relationships between Albert and Franz and between Albert and the Count are dripping with all sorts of subtext, even if nothing untoward ever takes place (except for an almost-confession by Albert and later a very dramatic kiss in the end, though that was only on the cheek). And to a smaller extent, it looks like Andrea and the Count are going to end up with some sort of dramatic ho-yay, but no. Though Andrea may have 'all kinds of talents' as advertised, he's much happier to go after his own sister. And mother.
  • Jerkass Woobie: The Count of Monte Cristo.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The Count himself. Sooner or later, everyone in the story dances to his tune...
    • The Count is this trope defined. His magnificence is matched only by his bastardliness.
    • He's Magnificent because he's such a Bastard.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Arguably, when the Count kills Franz by mistake while trying to kill Albert in a brutal and gory way in front of his mom. The fact that Albert and Franz are barely more than children doesn't help. Interestingly, this marks a significant difference with the novel, where Mercedes not only knows about his plan to fight Albert in a duel, but begs him and eventually convinces him to spare her son
    • Let's not forget Andrea seducing and bedding his own mother, then raping his half sister, and finally poisoning his father. And then getting away with everything like a Karma Houdini should.
      • At one point he even implies that he's even going to rape Haydée, however the count steps in and nothing actually happens
    • And lets not let Héloïse Villefort off the hook here. She seems perfectly normal in her first few appearances, with a warm motherly appearance and pleasant smile. She is the stepmother of Valentine and is the second wife of the crown prosecutor Villefort. She is the biological mother of her young son Edward, from her first marriage. Valentine is to inherit all of the fortune, leaving her stepmother jealous because Edward doesn’t get a single penny. So when the Count seduces her and innocently introduces her to toxicology and gives her a deadly ring which releases a deadly poison Héloïse becomes murderous and tries to poison Valentine and her husband, as well as inadvertently almost poisoning Albert and poisoned one of the servants of the Villefort household. And she does all this while maintaining her angelic motherly facade up till near the end of the series when her husband finds out what she's been doing and points out that she's nothing more than a murderous insane woman. She tries to deny his accusations before she breaks down and collapses to the ground, finally giving in to her insanity. Her husband then puts her in an insane asylum for the rest of her life. Not to mention the scene where she masturbated while thinking of the Count and the poison ring he gave her. In essence, she was also getting off to the thought of killing her stepdaughter and husband.
      • It's heavily implied that she was poisoning Valentine long before Count entered the picture; her garden is full of poisonous flowers and Valentine is quite sickly even when she's introduced. She just didn't have the guts to go all the way.
        • I got the impression she was just trying to poison Valentine slowly because the sudden death of someone in their mid teens would certainly raise some suspicions. Eugenie's mother even mentions that there are rumors that Heloise is beating Valentine, so naturally this would only strengthen those suspicions.
  • Narm: The opening song of the anime "We Were Lovers" is a beautiful moving piece. However, when the singer says the word 'love' (in the line "I just pray that you will love me and trust me") it becomes hilarious due to the way he stresses the L in love.
    • He also hits the wrong note at one point
  • Nightmare Fuel: Everything that involves Gankutsuou. Albert's nightmares about the Count (especially after he kills Franz). The execution scene (especially in the manga... ohmygod). Edmond's imprisonment. Haydée's whole past. Your mentor and substitute father stalking you and trying to kill you. Your dad turning out to be a parvenu and an opportunistic betrayer and murderer, then trying to kill you along with your mom, then trying to kill a young girl whose father he already murdered. Your future husband trying to rape you and turning out to be both a criminal and your half-brother. Phew, Someone's having a bad day.
  • Tear Jerker: The final episodes, big time.
    • Also, Franz's death. And just the fact that Franz was in love with Albert.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: For those whose minds don't explode from the show's art-style, the entire series can look like this. In-universe, several characters remark that the Count's little garden is this.
  • Wangst: Franz (especially with his death scene and the episode that came after it). He did suffer beautifully, though.
  • The Woobie: Albert during the latter half of the series, definitely. And arguably the Count in some specific scenes.
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