Gosick Review

Well 2014 has finally arrived and so I think it's time I started the new year by following through on my desire to blog. So let's get the show on the road with my first attempt at an anime review ever!!

Gosick...one of my personal favorite animes ever. You can find all the info on this anime here:
http://myanimelist.net/anime/8425/Gosick

Basically the premise of the story is about a Japanese foreign exchange student Kazuya Kujo who comes to study at a prestigious school in the fictional country of Saubure (roughly the western piedmont region of Italy) in the year 1924.  The school has numerous legends and he meets the mysterious Victorique de Blois, a sheltered bibliophile with genius deductive reasoning powers who solves the mysteries around here.

Victorique is really the focus of the story as it develops. What seems to start out as a Sherlock Holmes style setting with a gothic lolita heroine equipped with fake pipe, becomes a dramatic story about Victorique's past and the nefarious plans for her. Politics, intrigue, drama, and romance abound with a splice of action.

This is a 24 episode two cours series that aired in the beginning of 2011 . Like many two cours animes, I found that the drama and story really picked up in the second half of the series. And at that point I just couldn't put it down.

It's produced by Bones so it definitely has good animation and quality including a great sound track of which I'll have more to say later. The overall series composition is done by Mari Okada who wrote 11 of the episodes as well. I mean do I have to say more..it's Mari Okada for crying out loud so expect decent drama and emotion. But I know there are critics of Okada out there and all I'll say is , this isn't her solo type stuff so those things people don't like about Okada are not present here.

Now besides the fact that we have a decent story line and some decent drama what I loved about this was the romance. the story of Kujo and Victorique is one of my favorite anime romances akin to my love of Ryuuji and Taiga in Toradora! Victorique has a spoiled tsundere atmosphere about her though the spoiled part hides the reality of her past. Kujo is loyal, kind and pure. One of the reasons I love Kujo so much is the depth of his loyalty and he grows stronger as the show progresses just as Victorique gradually grows more emotional and less cold. But it's the gradual slow development of their relationship that makes the romance perfect and desirable from the audience standpoint. And it is one of the tenderest romances I've seen in a while.

Victorique is one of my favorite anime characters ever as well. Voiced by Yuki Aoi who is a favorite seiyu of mine. This time she takes on a tsundere role in contrast to her voicing of the meek Madoka in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika or the spoiled yet mature child Murasaki in Kure-nai. Starting out as a tsundere, the character gradually evolves into someone you grow to love and care about especially as her situation is revealed to the audience.

Now I'll interject here to point out a minor annoyance. the Japanese pronunciation of Victorique as Vic -tor-i-ke is a bit annoying as Takuya Eguchi (in his role as Kujo) spends a lot of time calling out her name. But yeah.. I'll live with it lol.

The anime is plot driven especially in the second half and very character driven among the two main protaganists. The side characters play an important part in the plot and have their roles but the main focus of the story is Kujo and Victorique.

It's difficult to give a review without spoilers because like many anime there are those moments ( you know..those moments) where an anime captures an emotion perfectly. And for me it's those moments that really make an anime and Gosick has quite a few of these.

Themewise I guess love and loyalty especially loyalty seem to be the main themes here in this anime and with Kujo and Victorique's mother these themes come through very well..  And the themes are done in both a melodramatic and in an endearing way.

As for the music.. loved the music..not a big fan of the OP but it did fit the series. I loved the ED themes of which there was two down by Lisa Konime. My favorite being the first ED theme "Resuscitated Hope" which is one of my favorite anime songs of all time.

In terms of atmosphere I love the sort of Victorian feel this anime has with it's society in industrial transition feel about it. And the old school monarchal politics of the times.

So do I recommend this anime. Absolutely! And I'll leave you with a video showing the first ED which will give you a feel for the anime. I wouldn't say the video gives spoilers so it's fairly safe to watch though it might spoil the odd scene.

Kujo x Victorique forever!!!

Thanks for reading my first review ever. feel free to comment and let me know what you think about the show or if you have any advice on how to do reviews that would be great. Arigato !