announced in March 2004, alongside its studio, its creator, and its status as an adaptation of Dumas's novel. The 24-episode anime aired on TV Asahi between October 5, 2004 and March 29, 2005; due to the anime's late night slot, its official broadcast date was a day behind the actual date. The third and fourth episodes underwent slight changes in their broadcast times. The series aired on Animax a day after its TV Asahi broadcast, running from October 6, 2004 and March 30, 2005. Late night and afternoon repeats followed the succeeding day. It was later broadcast on NHK BS2 between June 17 and December 2, 2008. A second repeat broadcast on AT-X between January 7 and June 20, 2012. Home media The series was released in Japan on DVD by Media Factory; the series was published across twelve volumes between February 25, 2005 and January 25, 2006, with two episodes on each volume in addition to special features such as interviews and artwork. The complete series was released on Blu-ray on August 24, 2011 by Media Factory. The anime was first licensed for a Western release by Geneon Entertainment, which released the title on DVD with both subtitled Japanese audio and an English dub. The DVDs were released as "Chapters" with four episodes per volume; the DVDs released between October 25, 2005 and September 12, 2006. The first "Chapter" also released on Universal Media Disc concurrent with the DVD version. This version was released in Australia by Madman Entertainment beginning in April 2006. Gankutsuou was among the anime affected when Geneon Entertainment ended anime distribution in 2007. Following this, Funimation licensed the anime from Gonzo in 2008. The complete series was released on DVD on April 28, 2009. United Kingdom company Anime Limited licensed the anime for commercial release in 2014. The Blu-ray version released in 2016; a limited edition released with steelbook case and artbook released on February 8, while the standard edition released on April 3. Adaptations Gankutsuou was adapted into a manga which ran in Monthly Afternoon from May 2005 to May 2008 issues. The manga was drawn by Maeda, who also provided the story draft; the manga and additional story elements were written by Yura Ariwara. Maeda was approached about a manga adaptation of Gankutsuou during production of the anime. Maeda agreed as it would potentially attract more people to the anime. The manga used