LogFAQs > #976084099

13. You Won't See Me Coming - Gankutsuou ED (Gankutsuou song 2 of 2)
https://animethemes.moe/anime/gankutsuou/ED-NCBD

This song is awesome and its visuals are trippy af. It both sounds like and looks like a rave party, but with the hovering menace of the storyline. I really like how it contrasts the OP, and how it kind of inverts expectations - you might expect the OP to be bombastic and visually stirring and the ED to be mournful and placid, but instead we have the reverse, as if the ED contains the truth of the present but the show has concealed it.

It's all the cooler because of the one of the show. It blends melancholy with this elevated, soap-opera-y feel. Because it never gets into the silliness that I love about so many other anime, it can actually sustain a higher pitch of melodrama without feeling too ridiculous or cringe-y to me. Characters will sincerely go into hysteria and I buy it because that's the feel of the show throughout - and then suddenly, when the episode ends we go surreal and weird again. (This is in addition to the French-voiceover recaps!)

Gankutsuou is one of my favorite anime for the first two thirds or so of its run. I didn't know the story of the Count of Monte Cristo (and have since read a translation), but deciding to make the kids the point of view characters is an ingenious decision, especially for people who don't know the story - it turns this revenge tale into a combination of a mystery and coming of age story - super-compelling. We don't talk about the ending though.

The trippy visuals are a big highlight of the show as well. It's so unlike anything else I've seen in an anime series the way it uses those textured color patterns and it really enhances the Shakespeare-meets-steampunk feeling of the show. The Count is inexplicably blue which just is kind of hilarious, but no one ever draws attention to it, and that type of thing just continues to contribute to the greatness of it all.