I’ve been a fan of <i>The Count of Monte Cristo </i>for an incredibly long time, so naturally upon seeing that there was a manga version of the story I needed to read it. After having followed this story in a number of its many various forms, I’m pretty well acquainted with the story itself. This manga version follows the tale quite well, hitting all of the important and key points. A man, wrongfully imprisoned for treason at the desires of villains who seek to improve their own ends by removing him from the picture, Edmond Dantes uses the treasure of Sparta to bring about his revenge.

Truly a wonderful story for a variety of reasons, <i>The Count of Monte Cristo</i> is filled with cruel plots and exquisitely planned revenge. I’ve always found this to be a deeply captivating story, though I will admit that I’ve always loved the 2002 film version the best. As a manga, <i>The Count of Monte Cristo</i> is done well, but unfortunately falls into a snag in regards to how lengthy the actual tale is. I don’t think the manga did an exceptional job at piecing the vast array of events together. It is a difficult task to determine which pieces to rush through and which to actually portray within illustrations, and unfortunately the various portions of the tale that were skimmed in favor of having a shorter book were a great loss to the graphic novel as a whole.

All in all, the graphic novel certainly holds true to the general story, but I was less impressed by the quick summarized pieces and felt that they took away a lot of what I would have liked to see in the novel. Perhaps this should have been built into a longer book or perhaps it should have been published in multiple parts, but I simply did not get enough of the story that I loved out of this.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This was honestly... meh? I was never even a fan of the original work, but I was intrigued to see how it would be turned into a graphic novel and I was just... disappointed because it is still boring.

However, I did appreciate the art style and well check out more things from this author!

I LOVED IT! I've read the German translation of the original a few years back and The Count of Monte Christo is one of my favorite classics if all time.
Of course the manga classic edition can't possibly cover every single detail and plotline, but it's worth it nonetheless.
The art is beautiful, the dialogue appropriate for a classic retelling and I'd recommend this to all manga fans, who want to read more classics or to people with an open mind that feel a bit intimidated by the size of the original book.
I found that there are more manga classics coming out and I'm thinking about starting to collect them.

I lost interest in reading it. The illustrations weren't very special and the story was adapted too simplistically. It might appeal to those who are new to Dumas' story, though.

The Count of Monte Cristo is an interesting graphic novel, full of beautiful illustrations. I loved this Manga adaptation and thought it was quite impressive. I enjoyed the plot and the dynamic characters. I really liked the style of the illustrations of this book, which I think complimented the story well.
I received this ARC from NetGalley and Udon Entertainment in exchange for an honest review

First of, I'd like to say that I haven't read the novel yet, though I already saw the movie, which lead me to this manga. So I cant quite comment on the accuracy. However, I did enjoy reading this very much, making my reading of the classic swift and graphic which is really helpful. It was concise and easily undetstood. I was hooked to it from page one and read it in one sitting.
If your quite intimidated by classic literature I suggest start reading this and work your self up to the actual novel..

Great adaption of the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo!" I was immersed from start to finish! The only thing that confused me was the large cast of characters, but that didn't deter me from enjoying the story.

This manga adaptation was my first reading of The Count of Monte Cristo. I know the general idea of the story, one of massive revenge (the Simpsons did a small skit on it at one point), but I have never read the book (I’m sure there is also a film adaptation I have not seen either). But I swear the book is on my list of classics I need to read. It is no surprise that I am obsessed with manga, so when I found this on NetGalley, I was in heaven and was desperate for a copy!

My review is not necessarily going to be on the story itself because Alexandre Dumas wrote it ages upon ages ago, but I will mention my thoughts on it before getting to the artwork and this adaptation!

The Count of Monte Cristo blew my mind and immediately made me wish I had read the story beforehand. Although life seems to be going great for Edmond Dantés, bitter acquaintances of his decide to change the luck Edmond seems to have consistently. Thrown into jail before his wedding, Edmond suffers nearly twenty years wondering how and why he is thought to be a traitor to crown and country. Edmond meets the man in the cell beside him and begins to concoct a plan of revenge. And damn, did Edmond do a hell of a good job at planning every single detail upon breaking out of jail. Just when I thought that things were working against him, Edmond surprised me when it turned out he knew exactly what was going on. I loved it! The story had me turning pages like crazy, dying to know what would happen to Edmond or those he enacted revenge upon. As for the ending, I was pleasantly surprised at how everything came together. There was a moment where I was beginning to wonder about things . . .

This was my first manga classic adaptation (I first noticed Pride and Prejudice on Amazon a while back and wanted to get hold of that. If only I had known to get on NetGalley!) Everything about this version was perfect. The illustrations were precisely what I had hoped they would be, beautifully representing these characters. I am sure the original novel is quite large, but the illustrator and plotter did a fantastic job of keeping the action going without detracting from the story. There are some portions where they have explained something happening/that had happened without illustrating it, but the moments/scenes chosen to be cut out and stripped to only a breakdown of what happened helped keep the book flowing.

My only gripe was that the pages were a little pixel-ly, but there could have been a glitch or something when transferring it into a digital format (did I mention this was my first e-Copy of a manga? It was so trippy!). But I won’t ding any stars for that because I am sure the paperback copy looks great. I have this on my wish-list of books I need to buy. I enjoyed it and cannot wait to read the others I was accepted for, along with finally getting a copy of Pride and Prejudice. I bet it is just as amazing!

First of all I wanna say I'm a HUGE Alexandre Dumas fan and Count Of Monte Cristo is one of my absolute favorite books. So i was a bit hesitant to even read this

Boy am I glad to have chosen this as my first manga read ever. I LOVED it and loved how close it stayed to the original story.

I will Highly recommend this to manga and ya readers alike.

4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is the first Manga Classic I've read, and ironically, it's for a classic novel I have yet to read. However, given the graphic depictions of this story of revenge and how close the artists and writers try to keep the manga version to the original, I'm inspired to read the source material.

I've enjoyed many manga series ever since I was in high school, and as our society seems to be moving to a more visual means of learning, I believe the Manga Classics are a great means of understanding the source material. In truth, I wish I'd had access to these supplemental materials to help comprehend what might have been confusing or difficult to grasp within the pages of the text.

Trusting the artist and writer have tried to remain as true to Dumas' novel as possible, I believe they have likely condensed it well. With such a lengthy novel to work from, I'm sure that process was on the challenging side, and they do explain it in the pages following the ending. I think high school students would benefit in having access to these literacy tools, especially having the opportunity to see how the story was crafted and the characters designed. Again, it is likely not a replacement for the original novel but an excellent supplement. If all the other Manga Classics follow this example, I believe English teachers or high school librarians would benefit in offering a collection in their classrooms and libraries.

Highly recommended.

I love this Manga Classic adaptations!
I've read Jane Eyre and Pride and prejudice, two of my favourite books, and I found them almost perfect. But this manga of The Count of Monte Cristo is my first aproach to this liteature classic, so I can't tell if it's a great adaptation or not. I found no difficulty with the story, which of course is great (it's a classic for some reason!). I knew the story and I became hooked since page one. And the art is beautiful! With not too much detail but with movement, a lot of facial expressions, even you can see how the characters grow old. I loved it.
I think it's perfect for youngsters (and not so young people!) as a first aproach of a great literature classic.

Excellent retelling of Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo!

This is a very complex tale with a huge cast of characters: good guys, bad guys and a host of
bystanders, all cogs in the wheel of Edmond Dantès's quest for vengeance. No scheme is too far-fetched or too cruel for him to get his revenge on the three men who so betrayed him: Mondego, Danglars and Villefort.
I can certainly understand the count's righteous anger, being wrongfully imprisoned and tortured for years will leave its mark on a person. And Edmond Dantès is very much a changed man once he escapes from the Chateau d'If. I just feel sad that he takes it so far and loses so much of himself in the process. His actions affect more people than just his three intended targets.

I loved the Manga version of this classic adventure novel. The author did a great job in adapting the story, keeping all the major elements and characters. That being said, you need to keep your head in the game when reading this story, because it gets quite complicated. I was very glad to have the character relationship guide to help me remember who everyone was and how they were all connected.

The illustrations are very beautiful. I loved how all the characters had their own distinct look.

I like reading revenge dramas, but this one was way too elaborate. I started having trouble remembering all the twisty French names somewhere around the middle of the book and then it kind of turned into a nightmare keeping track of all the names of (so many!) characters.
But of course, I'm glad I read this as a Manga because I'm sure my patience would have worn out after a couple hundred pages otherwise.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

This is my 4th classic in manga style. I love what they have done, the art work is stunning and the adaptions are brilliant.

This is my new way to enjoy classics! Anyone whom has the issue of classics being slow, or the language barrier needs to read these. This is how I finally enjoy the classics. I will be purchasing them all from Amazon. 5/5 stars!!!

I remember how much I enjoyed the original book a few years ago when I read it so I was glad to get a chance to read this version. The illustrations were beautifully done and I feel like anyone interested in reading this classic that doesn't have time to sit down and read the entire original version would have a much easier time with this shortened manga version. Thank you to Udon Entertainment and NetGalley for the chance to read this book.

The Count of Monte Cristo is about a man who is wrongly imprisoned and then takes revenge on those who sent him there. This is the manga of that classic and it is very well done in my opinion. I have not read the original, so I couldn't say how it matches up to that, but the last few pages describing the process say that it was kept close to the original.

I liked the art work and how they were able to create Edmond as a young man to scraggly prisoner to the count, who is given more of an edge. I liked the story line of Valentine and Maximilien and why it was used. I thought it was a nice conclusion ending with them in the last scene. It was a little hard to keep track of all of the characters, and had to do some thinking as I read, but I didn't feel that burdened the reading too much.

After the ending they show their thought process of creating the manga. They had to trim a lot of the book while still keeping it interesting and easy to understand, which I believe they succeeded in. I found it hard to put down especially in the last 100 pages. They even visited France and fixed their artwork after seeing the real places, such as Chateau D'if. I really appreciate all the research that went into this adaptation.

I’ve always wanted to read the novel, but the thickness of the volume scared me. Getting the manga adaptation from netgalley is a god-sent.

I’ve started reading on a Sunday evening and found it hard to put down.

Highly recommended who always wanted to read this classic but got intimidated by the sheer size.

I enjoyed this manga but it was nothing extraordinary, maybe I would enjoy it more if I read the book first and then the manga, but I would still recommend this manga, enjoy the illustrations and the writing style

Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, a story about a man who seeks revenge against those who ruined his life, has been adapted again, this time by Crystal S. Chan with illustrations by Nokman Poon. I was pretty impressed with what I read, and I've been fortunate to have previously read two other illustrated adaptations of this novel (an ancient Illustrated Classics version that belonged to my father, and a version published by Moby Books/Playmore in 1979, which was illustrated by Mitsu Yamamoto).


Edmond Dantes has everything going for him. He is about to become captain of the merchant ship, The Pharaon, and is about to be married to Mercedes, when he is arrested, thrown into prison, and forgotten. During that time, he meets a fellow prisoner, Abbe Faria, who helps him figure out why he has been imprisoned, and who his enemies are. The religious man passes on, but not before he bequeaths a secret treasure to Edmond, one which Edmond can use to bring vengeance upon those who had ruined his life for their own gain...if only he can escape from the prison, Chateau D'If.


Here's where I confess that I haven't read the original novel...however, Manga Classics' version of the Count of Monte Cristo appears to be a more complete adaptation than the other two versions that I mentioned earlier. Upon reading the end of Manga Classics version, the Count's words, "Wait and hope," made more sense to me than when I had read them at the end of the other versions. In fact, this version has probably made me more inclined to actually read the original. There are appendices at the end of the book where Crystal Chan explains the process that was used to adapt the novel into the manga version, which was quite fascinating to read.


The drawing style appears to be a mix of shoujo and shonen. The content and plot of the Count of Monte Cristo does not lend itself to a lot of humour, and I did not notice any chibi, so if any did appear, I completely missed it. There are a couple of pages in the appendices that show character design sketches. I also appreciated see the character map, which showed the relationships between many of the characters that appeared in this story.


There's something about this type of media that makes it a great avenue for presenting classical literature. I was caught up with Edmond's quest for revenge, and the path of self-destruction that he embarked upon. In my opinion, Manga Classics' version of The Count of Monte Cristo is a great gateway book to capture young (and maybe not so young) readers' interest in reading a classic story.


Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of Manga Classics' The Count of Monte Cristo, adapted by Crystal S. Chan and illustrated by Nokman Poon from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

The Count of Monte Cristo is a Manga Classic that provided by Netgalley for an honest read. The book is such a classic and the movie is one that I love to rewatch and I have had the novel on my TBR for years and this is a way to be able to do that without reading the huge classic that is kind of intimidating. This is my first manga, so it took a little bit to get used to the format, but being familiar with the story helped that transition faster than I believe it would have if it was a new story. I recommend this book to someone who is wanting to try out a manga. This book obviously has some changes to the story to fit into the confines of a smaller book, but is still enjoyable and gets the messages that comes with the story across.