Bethel Anime Club

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“I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!” —Malvolio, Twelfth Night

“O, vengeance!”
“The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge!”
“How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge!” —Hamlet, Hamlet

“Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!”
“All the stor’d vengeances of heaven fall
On her ingrateful top!”
“I will have such revenges on you both
That all the world shall—I will do such things—
What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth! You think I’ll weep.
No, I’ll not weep.
I have full cause of weeping, but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws
Or e’er I’ll weep.” —King Lear, King Lear

“Be comforted:
Let’s make us medicines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.” —Malcom, Macbeth

“Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head!”
“Vengeance rot you all!” —Aaron, Titus Andronicus

“O God, which this blood mad’st, revenge his death!
O earth, which this blood drink’st, revenge his death!” —Anne, Richard III

“If it will feed nothing else, [that flesh] will
feed my revenge.” —Shylock, The Merchant of Venice

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This is the story of an avenger, and of the innocent boy who becomes by turns vengeance’s instrument, victim, and challenger. It is also a story of the implacability of time, of the subtle yet certain justice of fate, and of the transformation of the human spirit in the face of a drive so overwhelming that human beings become means only. It is the story of the far-reaching consequences that arise when a personal vendetta becomes a consuming passion. It is the story of Oedipus, the story of Faust; the story of Hamlet; the story of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Albert de Morcerf is only 15, and 5053 is a great time to be young, noble-born, and rich. The son of the most respected military leader of the age, Albert’s easy life and loving family have inculcated in him a deep faith in the basic goodness of all people, coupled with a dangerously naïve conviction that everything works out all right in the end. While returning from an off-world trip with his best friend, Franz d’Epinay (a trip that was meant to “show him the world” but was actually a mere tourists’ jaunt), Albert encounters a terrifying yet fascinating stranger calling himself “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Fabulously wealthy, impeccably sauve, and inexplicably perilous, this deep-voiced blue-skinned sharp-toothed figure begins to haunt Albert’s dreams and to radically rearrange the vast social network that defines his life. Insinuating himself into the three most powerful families of the age (including that of Albert’s fiancée, the lively but discontent Eugénie de Danglars), the Count and his ominous servants set in motion a scheme of beautifully-planned revenge that will suck Albert—and all who know him—into a maelstrom of swirling passions and palpitating horrors.

This show proves once again that any anime that has anything to do with France is fantastic. Visually rendered in a unique and beautiful style, its removal of Dumas’ classic tale to the far future is not mere sci-fi icing but serves to underscore the primal and timeless agonies of lust, love, hatred, and the drive for retribution. Perfectly exploring a cast of dozens, its tangled relationships and highly involving characters will make you laugh, weep, gnash your teeth, and generally become more involved than the surgeon general recommends. One of the best anime of recent years—and we are watching it! now! at the Bethel Anime Club!

24 episodes; most nights we will watch two.