Contrary to my standard practise, this is a show I didn’t even google before watching, just remembered hearing the name – I had heard it was crazy looking and high quality.

To be honest I most likely wouldn’t have started the series if I’d known the Dumas link. Gankutsuou is based on The Count of Monte Cristo. As a rule I don’t like taking in literary adaptations prior to experiencing the original. And I still think the idea has the potential to be pretty appallingly pretentious. More fool me, this is a well-paced and exciting story.

Gankutsuou is a perplexingly gorgeous show with a great sense for texture. There are clear contrasts between nature and design – trees and flesh in standard (and not particularly nice) anime style, clothes and objects in patterned CGI. Yep, GONZO CGI, obviously artificial. And here it fits into place as part of an artificial and surreal world. It’s sure to alienate some, and it works better in the more peculiar scenes and settings, but I find it fascinating.

The OP is a soft folky song with a weathered look – emphasising the show as drama. The sinister horror aspects are shown off in the rockier ED. So far the show works by moving from well drawn character interactions to the odd moment of vampiric menace. Not that this is at all violent – even when we had a knife being held to an eyeball it was a scene with no gore, no visual shlock kick. Just a dark room and a feeling of menace, followed by a scream.

The dominant aesthetic is sci-fi decadence. We’ve seen an underworld. It’s murky and colourless, inhabited by raving creeps. But up above it’s the future of partying. Technology only deepens the rich shades in the opulent interiors. Disco strobes and coloured lights fill the sky. But there’s no light pollution, much the opposite – the heavens glisten like an impossible sea of christmas lights.

The costumes are solid objects in human shapes – wallpaper fabrics. Each character’s head poking out of their own personal shade. The count always dressed in black. In the cold high tech future there are (mechanical) horse drawn carriages – and that’s his style. It’s a show which, for better or for worse, parades the sinister.

The world of overrich aristocrats feels real as a projection of society into the future. In an age of spaceships, they drive polished vintage cars. And there is definitely an awareness of class issues alongside an implicit critique of their values. Out of town means a showy resort on the moon, where the party animals pair off for the night and the rich sons get engaged to their unsuited matches, before slipping into lifetimes of running the galaxy from home.

A universe of possibilities, and we’re stuck with the posh kids. Stuck in a Paris where it’s all sexual and political games. Our hero has a longing for something wild, but all he’s doing is making himself a pawn in somebody else’s game.

The early episodes focus on a central friendship, with a creepy eloquent old man intervening. Perhaps these effective relationships between the core characters are where the original text shines through, but I can’t really say. Diffident and close relationships, and the odd jump into action have been at the heart of the experience.

In episode 2 there’s a twist. No, nothing to do with the count – it’s a twist regarding a certain rather cute young character – which had me laughing out loud. It simply brought me joy. And that’s the thing here. Yes, it’s a literary reinterpretation. And yes, it’s visually inventive almost to a fault. But really it’s got all the pace and wit you could want. That’s why I like it, because this really is entertainment – and as such is both charismatic and effective. Unless you’re going to be put off by the looks, it seems to be well worth a shot.