First Impressions / GOSICK / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「Destin Histoire」 by yoshiki*lisa
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「黒い死神は金色の妖精を見つける」 (Kuroi Shinigami wa Kin-iro no Yousei wo Mitsukeru)
“The Black Reaper Finds the Golden Fairy”

Set in a fake nation smack dab between almost all that is Europe, a made up school with made up char- oh wait, did I go too far? Let’s just say it’s not a high school in Japan. I don’t know who or what was more serious about mysteries in this production, but someone out there wasn’t kidding around when they wanted to adapt GOSICK. The story does not wait for you, the characters do not wait for you, and you will get a mystery in the first episode, like it or not.

I suppose the quick pacing doesn’t really matter when it’s a series, so GOSICK merely went for the “ignore main character now, focus on girl first” route. I know absolutely nothing about Kujou Kazuya (Eguchi Takuya), except that he can be pretty funny, has no friends, and yells a lot. The obvious charm of the show is Victorique, voiced by Yuuki Aoi, who has claimed two main protagonist roles this season, the other being Madoka. An eccentric petite girl, dressed in the most Victorian of clothes, Victorique is the quintessential representative of a Goth Loli, although a little more mild mannered than her more famous counterpart, Shinku. Push her buttons, she’ll respond like a kid, but question her about a mystery, and she’ll deliver a monologue akin to Sherlock Holmes (comes with the pipe too). She’s quick tongued, unabashedly forward, and hard not to like when she rolls around the floor. Somehow relating to her is the oddly fabulous drill hair Grevil (Kiuchi Hidenobu), whose closest cousin would be Kogorou Mouri, and requires Victorique to answer all his mysteries. A failure of sorts, he actually provides most of the episode’s direction, which is kind of weird.

Gosick’s storytelling is, for some reason, hasty. And yet, I’m glad it is. For a rather bland setting, moving along the plot and focusing more on the characters is a smart idea. While Grevil provides the smaller mystery of the story, the scenes string together a much bigger one, starting with the old woman, her being killed, and an invitation to a luxury cruise ship. My attempt in seeing the big picture here is, the old woman did something evil, the maid killed her for it, and thinking that was over, the granddaughter awarded the yacht as a prize. Victorique stumbles upon the letter, and further explanations of the motives behind everything will probably be on the ship. And so, the two just board the ship, leave their school behind, and try to solve a grim mystery they know nothing about? These two are way too easy going. Initially, I had expected they might pull some slice of life stuff or have some small mysteries at school first, but I’m okay with this.

Not bad for a first episode, but I believe you can’t just binge on one aspect and expect to pull in viewers. It can be enticing if done right, but that requires some experience, something Nanba Hitoshi only has from Heroman. BONES must have borrowed him in-house or something, but I’m not so quick to write him off just yet. Being a BONES show, the animation is fluid, consistent throughout, and really exhumes their skill in animation in simple scenes like this. However, it feels as if to balance the lack of explosive action scenes, they directed their budget into the background art, which makes other shows seem like they take art from children’s books. Again, given that it’s merely the first episode, the best things so far are the characters. The two mains share a fun relationship, if only just because Kazuya isn’t afraid to touch her and go through her luggage with no remorse to stir up some hilarity. An air of quirky humor constantly lines all the characters, and help create relatively “new” kinds of jokes to laugh at. The plot is a little less impressive, seemingly fumbled together, but given that it’s a mystery, everything probably won’t seem enlightening until a little later. I’m hoping the mysteries actually shape up to a witty and intriguing ride, rather than end up seeing the characters go through the motions. It was already an obstacle jumped over that BONES isn’t the one making up the story, but the source material itself isn’t even impressive? Let’s hope not. If the OP is anything to go by, I think some good stuff will be on our way.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「Resuscitated Hope」 by コミネリサ (Komine Lisa)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

It’s interesting how bipolar the OP and ED are against each other, one possessing an upbeat tone while the other a depressing one. OP has far more interesting visuals, but that’s typical of a OP vs ED. It’s also indicative of where the series might go, story-wise or mood.

Preview

73 Comments

      3. Its a shame to discard such a beautifull dress anyway…
        Only tasteful shots of this kind I remember were Touma destroying the “walking church” robes on Index and Accelerator taking the cloak off the Last Order… Hmm I wonder why both of them were courtesy of To aru… series?

        ewok40k
        Reply

  7. I was actually the most impressed with this pilot so far. They covered a lot of ground, but I didn’t feel confused at all. I’m a fan of that kind of fast pacing; it actually reminds me of the first few episodes of Haruhi in that sense. And Yuuki Aoi is really great in this role.

    innerchihiro
    Reply

  8. Main draw of this show is definitely Victorique. We’ll see about the mysteries. Production value seems to be fairly solid, and I friggin’ love the ED.

    Unicorn Detective caught me off guard, however, since I was expecting something a little more serious.

    Stranger
    Reply

  9. I think the first 2 mysteries is by the characters. Victorique’s “imprisonment” in the tower (possibly because she is a national treasure) and Kujou’s nickname (possibly because his physical combat ability is impressive).

    The mystery in the series does move fast though. Already they are going into the “box on the sea” and the 11 rabbits the opening mentioned.

    The flipping though of her luggage is funny though the voice she used to shout in protest seemed out of place. Needs work that.

    Zaku Fan
    Reply

    1. Actually, they explained why people call him the reaper in this episode, and it has nothing to do with his combat skills XD It’s mostly because he’s Asian and the student body is obsessed about urban legends, so it’s more a case of racial insensitivity than an actual mystery 😛

      Arabesque
      Reply

      1. I don’t get it. I do remember the part where the students interest in myths and legends was mentioned by the teacher and he was encouraged to read more about it to make friends. Which part mentioned the legend on death gods being asians?

        Zaku Fan
        Reply

      2. Nevermind i think i get it after rewatching the front part and wiki on the series. It seems it is because he has black iris and there is some legend with the same title as the novel “The Reaper Comes in the Spring”.

        Would be nice if they threw a line on what the legend says. I also do not get how this translates though. If Kujpu did not join but 10 european people join the school in the spring how do they know who is the Reaper? Vote?

        Zaku Fan
        Reply

      3. You can pick up on the hints early on once Kujo walks in the corridor and the students are talking about it, and Victorique says it bluntly when she explains how she knew that Kujo would come to the library (because he’d want to search for the bases of the legend).

        The teacher, Cecile, did tell him to go and research the story, but for a different reason (making friends since the students are obsessed with these stories)

        Arabesque
        Reply

      4. I was ninja’d D:

        Well, the funny part is that neither his eyes nor his hair is black in the anime so it makes less since for him be called such XD

        As for who becomes the reaper, well whenever an Asian student comes along, they become the subject of cruel shunning regardless. European students get different stereotypes attached to them ^_^

        Arabesque
        Reply

    1. I actually think that Yuuki Aoi gave a great performance here. I really did think it fit with the novel’s description of her voice, though I suppose Chiwa Saito was much closer to the original intent

      Arabesque
      Reply

  11. Having read the first novel, I was very happy how Bones handled this episode, they didn’t slow down one bit and went straight to the point. As for if the material is any good, I can say that at least that the second novel starts exploring the main characters more throughly.

    ”ignore main character now, focus on girl first … I know absolutely nothing about Kujou Kazuya (Eguchi Takuya), except that he can be pretty funny, has no friends, and yells a lot.”

    Eh? Aside from the beginning of the episode and the flashback to the first murder, Kujo was always present on screen in some form. Hell, we know little about Victorique other than she looks like a doll, she’s smart and doesn’t go out much. Kujo on the other hand, we learned from the letter he had a father who is putting a lot of hope on him, we know that he’s something of an exchange student, that he has strong sense of honor (the way he stood up to Grevil when he stole what Kujo thought belonged to Victorique) yet at the same time turns in to a doormat whenever Victorique orders him around.

    I think we learned a lot about him from just one episode.

    Arabesque
    Reply

  14. Victorique was a win in this episode . Rolling in the floor, ballon face was very cuteeeeeeee

    To think she is voiced by Aoi Yūki, who roles are Jubei(hyakka) and Korone(Iciban). I’m expecting a cute voice like Jubei in the future since she also did that on Korone(acting as an imouto in Icihiban)

    I still want more episode so as to conclude this. ^_^

    ♕Croosboy♕
    Reply

  15. It feels like an effort to make Sherlock Holmes ‘modern’ without the charm of Holmes. The saving features are Victorique’s antics when she isn’t an omniscient genius.
    I will agree that the episode practically goes out of its way to tell us nothing about our main character. We have no reason for why he’s unpopular or why anyone would call him a ‘reaper’ and he gets even more taken over by the eccentric characters than Watson ever did. Seriously, is the whole ‘dark’ and ‘springtime’ thing a play on words or something?

    Grant
    Reply

    1. Holmes ”charm” involved him being an ass to everyone beside himself. Also, I’m glad they didn’t make her a copy of him, otherwise that pipe would filled to it’s brim with weed.

      Kujo doesn’t get overshadowed as did Watson. Watson at times ended up being the equivalent of a monkey in some of the cases. This wasn’t the case here.

      And they did explain why they called him the reaper. You need to pay more attention to what they have said.

      Arabesque
      Reply

      1. On Watson, he actually did things. It’s true that he was usually left out of the loop but at least he was an active person compared to Kujo. As for the name I’m assuming it was either missed by the sub team or they left it out. All I saw on the screen was a brief mention of a school legend with no apparent reason for why it would be attached to a student.

        Grant
        Reply

    2. Kujo is the only asian student in a school full of European people, so that’s why everyone is both curious about and a little scared of him. The year this takes place in is 1924, so consider the time as well.

      The episode tells us that his family has high expectations of him and that he’s a foreign exchange student. That’s plenty of information for a first episode.

      Suzushina Yuriko
      Reply

  18. I haven’t read the novels, but the manga starts off with some mysteries at the school, letting the characters actually get to know each other. This was one of my problems with this episode. They skipped that step. They just suddenly happen to get along really well, as if they’ve known each other for a long time.

    I’m sure I won’t drop it, though, I trust BONES in making a decent series.

    HenDarou
    Reply

  19. Not bad, I enjoyed the pacing and it was fairly interesting all the way through. I feel like it could have been twice as good if the mystery was better..the culprit was obvious but the rest of the details were interesting. Reminds me of that mystery episode in Haruhi.

    Yuumei
    Reply

    1. Well, if you watch the opening closely, there’s one part where Victorique’s clothes turn red. The Shinku clothes are complete with a bonnet and green emerald around the neck. For a brief moment I thought I was watching Rozen Maiden again.

      Aoihoshikage
      Reply

  23. As soon as I saw this on some winter preview from some other site I knew that this would be the anime of the season for me. I enjoyed this first episode, the characters are likable and it has an interesting setting, the mystery solving is a plus. I’ll be looking forward to this series.

    ClementIV
    Reply

    1. Actually, in the beginning of the light novels Kujo already knew Victorique and Grevil. I suppose the anime changed it to him meeting her for the first time to sympathize with the viewers or something.

      Suzushina Yuriko
      Reply

  25. For once I solved a mystery before it was explained! I felt just as high class as Victorique as she was explaining what happened because as soon as I saw that gun go off, I already knew who killed who. –grabs pipe– Show Spoiler ▼

    Sure enough, I was right. XD It wasn’t the hardest of mysteries to solve in the least but it was fun for a change to know what the outcome was before it’s told to you. 😀

    The artwork is amazing! When Kazuya made it to the top of the library and got his first glimpse of Victorique and the Garden, combined with the music that played, I felt like I was watching Final Fantasy XIII! When referring to many of the other shows’ background art, Child’s Play is right! D:

    Definitely sticking with this show.
    GOSICK! You can run and tell THAT!

    Shirt
    Reply

  29. you know i usually can tell the general direction of an anime on the first episode but frankly is this anime about detective story now?, hmm i guess i have to rely on more episode to tell

    lkaze
    Reply

  32. I liked this, but it is seriously too fast… Maybe I’ll take a look to the LN, it may be better.
    But still a good surprise, anyway. And it have the potential to become one of the best shows of this season.

    axilios
    Reply

  33. I can see that the first arc is definitely following the first novel. They did leave out some things though. From what I remember, Victorique and Kazuya have already met prior to these events. Oh well, I guess it’s to help introduce new people to the series easier.

    All-in-all, I did enjoy this episode a lot. The only thing I think they need to change is the pacing. I feel that it’s a tad bit too fast.

    ADiSiNS
    Reply

  34. I am surprise that there is anyone making gif out of the loli-roll. I swear that scene just make her totally like a cute kitten that want attention. It looks like this anime will be enjoyable seeing how the protagonist isnt a wuss(now that is rare these day). The pace in term of how events progress is just right too.

    UFO
    Reply

  39. I think that this is going to be my favorite this season. I mean I already liked the character of Victorique just from the opening and I never even heard about this until looking at the Winter lineup. Also, I’m a fan of mysteries and whatnot.

    SitRep420
    Reply

  43. Vic is so cute, i’m looking forward to know more about her. She reminds me a little of Alice from Pandora Hearts, not the way she looks, but the thing about she being locked & the way she acted when she was in he city, so cute.

    Lina ~
    Reply

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