Gosick

Wow. I haven't done one of these in what? A year? Anyway.

~Title~ Gosick? What kinda weird name is that? Well, I'll tell you. It's a weird way to spell Gothic. I say this, because the Romanji should actually be Goshikku. So, not even I know why they decided to spell it Gosick.

~Animation~
From what I hear, the light novel is amazing and much better than the manga. I haven't read it nor have I read the manga. I've only seen what's out of the anime so far. So, that being said, I have 'innocent eyes' in terms of judging the anime. A friend of mine has read the light novel and called them out on some basic discrepancies, but nothing major.

Anyway, it's from Studio Bones, who are most well-known for Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka Seven, Soul Eater, and Ouran Host Club.


So, the animation is of very high quality. I swear, sometimes it's like you forget you're watching an anime. Unlike FMA and Ouran that have their 'chibi moments' or Soul Eater that's Tim Burton's wet dream, it's best to compare it a bit more to Eureka Seven in terms of art that sucks you in. The difference being that it's not a mecha series; and mecha series can be surreal. Gosick often just seems very realistic.
I mean, look at that tree? That is a pretty tree.

Quite beautiful art though. I can't find an image of the mural in the library, but trust me. It's pretty.

But this guy totally ruins the realistic imagery so horribly. But even then, it is possible to get your hair like that, and there are reasons for it in the story. So, I guess I could let it pass.

~Story~
The best way to describe this show, I suppose is a detective/mystery series. I mean, she's a little girl who holds a pipe to her mouth when she's thinking. That's gotta be a Sherlock Holmes reference, right? However, it's nothing like Detective Conan or any other things like that. This actually has a pretty good overarching story with smaller stories that intertwine with both each other and the main story. If you like mysteries, that makes the show much better. But I don't think you have to like mysteries to enjoy this show.
(I also giggle when I'm able to figure out the mysteries in much the same way as Victorique and some of my friends don't. ^_^)

Setting:
The story takes place between WWI and WWII in a fictional European country with a rich superstitious history. A Japanese exchange student by the name of Kujo starts his first day. He goes to the GIANT library on the campus, which itself has a dark mysterious history. Deciding to look up some of these legends, he gets to the library. Curious, he goes all the way up the steps to find... this.
A little girl in a Gothic Lolita dress. I can't remember what episode she does this in. I just find it adorable. I'm pretty sure she was reading her giant strand of books or something. My not remembering it breaks spoilers, I guess. Anyway. This is Victorique (which for some reason is pronounce Vic-tore-ee-ka. Granted, I know Spanish; not French). I simply bring up the spelling-pronunciation discrepancy, because he yells her name a lot in this series.

There's a lot of rumors about her. You later find out that she's basically stuck on-campus due to being the illegitimate child of a Duke (who you will later hate). These reasons unfold throughout the actual plot.

Her half-brother (the guy with the weird hair) is made a detective. The thing is though, he always comes to Victorique for the answer and takes the credit. This is what a lot of the earlier episodes revolve around before getting into the overarching plot.

After meeting Kujo, Victorique seems to be allowed to leave the academy more and more. Solving murder cases and whatnot. Some of these cases are plot-related and some are filler.
Did I mention that people die a lot in this series? Because a lot of people die in this series.

She also does this Code-Geass sort of number before spelling out what happened. The only problem I see with this however, is that... it takes time to go through that little spiel of recycled footage. I don't know how many seconds it is, but I get too impatient and skip through it whenever she starts doing that...

~Review~

Plot: The plot is pretty amazing. There's one large overarching plot throughout the thing, that then goes into backstory and whatnot. And it's very interesting trying to figure out not only what happened, but where it's going.

And then there's the filler. Well, some of the early filler is to better know the characters. But it's always really good and really well-done. Those earlier ones are kind of like Detective Conan filler. But again. Quite good. (And figuring it out makes me feel smart, because I know people who can't figure them out as fast as me. XD)

And then other episodes... well. I wouldn't call them filler. They're actually very plot-related. I call them 'arc-setup episodes'. I hate those episodes, because important stuff happens, but it's all so...boring! Luckily though, there aren't many of those, so it's okay. But when I do see them, I can't help but wanna skip through them.

And while the series can get really dark with a lot of death. Some of it is pretty funny. Some of it an ironic way.
And I got that kinda "Wait, what!? Plot twist!" more than once. (... Even though I figured most of those out beforehand. >:3 )

Characters: It's funny. The plot-heavy characters are pretty awesome. I mean, you learn to hate them, but they strike emotional responses, which is what's important.
I even tend to really like a lot of the 'characters of the week'. They're usually really interesting. They all not only have a point, but usually a backstory. Their reasons for being in that particular episode are actually explained, rather than them just showing up. Though, that's part of being a 'mystery' series, I suppose.

What I don't like are the reoccurring background characters. Such as their teacher. And their classmate that one case revolves around. They annoy the crap out of me. They're supposed to be the comic relief, I suppose. But these comic relief characters just aren't funny.
Though, I must admit that they did a good job on her step-brother. Because while he may be a comic-relief character and the butt of a lot of jokes, when he's played as a serious character, he becomes incredibly likable. I just think that a lot of their purposeful humor is lame, and a lot of the actual things that I found humor in were unintentional; I mostly laughed at a lot of the irony and plot twists.

While I don't dislike Kujo, I... just don't like the fact that he exists. By that, I mean, I like him as a character in terms of personality. But I hate the fact that they felt the need to have a Japanese character in Europe. I felt that was too much localization that doesn't really hold up. Yes. Having a foreign main character is a good and easy excuse to have the characters explain the setting that people living there would have already known. But Japan? Seriously? I guess it doesn't ruin the series or anything. But still.

I love Victorique though. I mean, she is the main character despite it being more from Kujo's point of view. Which makes sense, because if it were from Victorique's point of view and you got her thoughts, it'd ruin the fun of solving the cases yourself. In fact, I don't even remember much 'in their head' dialog in this series, if any. And that's something that I like.
However, I admit that Victorique is a niche character. Some people hate her type of character, which I understand. For some, they might hate the series, just because it's based around 'such a loli tsundere'. At least I can predict that'd be the response of my friend who prefers '80's manly mecha and hates moe'.
But I personally really like her type of character. Incredibly smart and intelligent to the point of being smarter than every adult in the series. Who also has no social skills and acts with child-like curiosity. And of course, bits of tsundere and apathy mixed together. I like cute characters. So, she's a definite plus for me.

Music: The background music is usually really pretty. And they also know how to shut the hell up. By that I mean, sometimes I hate it when they try to set a mood with music, when it's much better in silence. They actually use silence from time to time. I like that.

The opening is pretty visually. I wouldn't call it great. It's good. I liked it. But it just seemed so...ordinary, I suppose. I don't really know. And I like similar stuff. It just seemed like they could have made a better choice in my opinion. I don't know.
The first ending is better than the opening to me. It's a sad song. But it's really pretty. I don't know. That's just my personal opinion. And I actually like the English bit at the beginning. Usually that annoys me. This time it didn't.
The funny thing is. I like the lyrics to the first ending the most. But I like the sound/music of the second ending the most. But I just don't care much for the lyrics. Maybe I'm just crazy.

Either way, the music overall is really good in my opinion.

Overall:
It's a 9/10. Very well-done. It's Studio Bones after all. The animation is beautiful. And their mysteries and logic behind all of that is very sound. Very fun cases to solve. And not a bad plot. And I'm really impressed with their original setting. That's the best way to describe this series: Impressive.
I can't give it a 10/10, because (1) It's still airing though almost done (2) The light novel/manga is still on-going.
Because of the manga still going, and the way the anime is going. I think there's gonna be more of it. Thus, it's not a complete enough plot to give a 10/10. My fear though is that we'll end up with a crappy filler season while the light novel/manga keeps on going and they'll milk it as bad as a shounen or mahou shoujo series. Hopefully though, we might end up with some decent filler if that turns out to be the case, as it'll be a good 'you can skip this second season' point...

Anyway. Again. Kujo being Japanese annoys me. I really don't like the secondary comic relief characters unless they're serious and NOT being annoying in their attempts of humor. (Though, I do like that Victorique also gets annoyed at this, so maybe you're supposed to hate them.) And set-up episodes bore me. Other than that, I really like it.

If you wanna check it out before downloading from somewhere, I think Crunchyroll is showing it.