Gosick (Anime)

• Concept
• Plot
• Characters

It’s like it was predestined
It’s like I have known it since the distant past
Like following atop invisible wires
We’re guided to our meeting where the seasons intersect
- Gosick Opening Theme ‘Destin Histoire’
(Basically sums up the first encounter of the two main characters)

It may sound weird beginning the review of an anime with comments on the opening song, but every time I listen to the song ‘Destine Historie’, the music and the lyrics just fill me up with an indescribable feeling. This feeling was exactly what was needed to give me the push I needed to watch the episodes. I felt that way, and I am sure everyone else will too. I am not saying the show is bad, at all. In truth, Gosick is one of the most beautiful and touching shows I have had the chance to witness in the seventeen years of my life.

GOSICK

Genre: Mystery
Episodes: 24
(Manga) Written by: Kazuki Sakuraba
(Anime) Written by: Hitoshi Nanba
Directed by: Mari Okada
Studio: Bones

Summary

Gosick takes place in the year 1924 at the fictional country of Sauville. Here, Kazuya Kujo, a Japanese transfer student and the third son of an Imperial soldier, comes to the highly esteemed St. Marguerite Academy, where the students love to gossip about horror stories and urban legends. At this school, Kujo discovers the small and blonde Victorique (pronounced Victorica in Japanese) whose looks and figure can be easily mistaken for a doll. However, as the scenes progress, it is shown that Victorique is more than just a cute looking maiden, as she possess unmatched intelligence which is used by her step brother, Inspector Grevil, to solve cases which, like all cases, seem to mysteriously appear out of nowhere. The series mainly focuses on Victorique and Kujo adventuring off to different places in order to find the answer to these enigmatic incidents.

The anime is, in one word, beautiful. While the plot is something to talk about; great care has been given into the animation and I salute the mangaka for coming up with a character design such as Victorique. She truly defines all aspects of the word ‘cute’, and despite her being drawn in a rather ‘moe’ style, the content of the series is far from being non-serious.

Wields a pipe and an avid lover of sweets: The combination of the two best detectives of fiction; Sherlock Holmes and L respectively: Victorique. Expect this girl to be as good as a detective as them.

Critique

As much as I love the show, I must say that no matter how difficult the show displays the cases to solve, in reality, if you really think about it, you will figure out the mystery as soon as Victorique does herself. Other than that, whenever a tough case is solved, a lot of mysteries are still left unsolved and even if they are solved, the answers are gotten from seemingly out of the blue, which gives the ‘mystery’ genre tag more than a little bit of a dent. However, despite that, the way the mysteries are displayed, and how horror is mixed into each case in one way or another, is a trait that is to be respected and loved from this show.

CONCEPT/IDEA 9/10

Typical concept: Mystery. The two main characters spend the series solving tough (usually murder) cases and help save the day. Same basic idea as popular shows like Scooby Doo, Detective Konan or any common detective-type American serials you can think of. Gosick doesn’t really match up to any of these shows in terms of having mind-blowing mysteries, but by mixing the idea of ‘horror’ and ‘myths’ into almost every cases, this show retains a certain brand of uniqueness not found anywhere else.

Plus point for adding politics into the main story. Not that I like politics anyway.

Another plus point for adding a fake World War 2 into the main story. Who doesn’t like wars?

PLOT 7/10

When talking about the plot of Gosick, two kinds come to mind: The plot of the cases and the plot of the overall story of this anime.

As I have already said, the cases are not as interesting or mysterious as ones you might have already watched in other mystery shows, so don’t expect too much. You are free to keep your hopes high though. I did, and I wasn’t fully dissatisfied.

The plot of the entire show is another matter to consider. Usually, after a case has been dealt with and an episode ends, a certain part of Victorique’s life is revealed or talked about, and ultimately, when the true past of this seemingly happy cute blonde is shown, your entire opinion about this show will change. One thing I will say though, Victorique had a sickeningly horrible past, more so than most anime characters I know about.

In terms of story and character development, the show tells the story in a nice and relaxed manner yet having a lot of contents in just one episode. For a somewhat short show, the plot is more than decent.

CHARACTERS 6/10

Gosick has a short array of widely varying characters. Victorique herself has a personality I have never seen in any other fictional character. I don’t really know what motivated the creator of Gosick to create a character like Victorique, but it seemed that she shared a lot of interesting characteristics, which will make you adore her if her looks don’t make her like you. Then again, it’s hard to resist her anyway.

It feels shameful of me to talk about Victorique so much and not about the other characters. However, the other characters, as interesting as they have been made out to be, have not been given as detail as Victorique has been literally blessed with, so comparison is out of the question.

The last scene of the first ending theme. A very nice picture of the two, if I must say.

I personally didn’t really like the other main character, Kujo, as he seemed more like a stepping stone, with his only purpose being to serve as a companion to Victorique.

OVERALL RATING 7/10

You must obviously be wondering by now why this anime is titled ‘Gosick’ of all names. The silly truth is, ‘Gosick’ is simply a corruption of the word ‘Gothic’, which points out to the gothic style drawing that has been invoked into the show.

Never the less, no matter what I think about Gosick, it is an anime worthy of being at least in my top 10. Like Victorique herself, this anime has been made in such a way that it is hard to resist. I highly recommend it.

(P.S. I just wrote this entire review while listening to the opening. It is that good.)

Victorique does some pretty funny things when she's bored. Rolling on the floor is one of them.

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