Gosick - Review

Gosick finally draws to a close and still I don’t know what to make of it. The entire series inhibited a perpetual state of good moments succeeded by weak moments. The overall inability to remain constant – either good or bad, really let the show down as a whole. Gosick would have certainly benefited from a little more editing and a lot more sense-making! Chuck out the uninspired mush and condense the finer episodes and Gosick would have received a higher rating. Through that still would not have explained the show’s title – what exactly is ‘Gosick’?

In general Gosick lacked direction, seemingly unable to know what genre it was from the very get go. Initially we are introduced to an ‘unravelled the mystery’ plot, composed of a little light school drama and potential romance, before leaping full throttle into adventure, love triangles and the occult. The opening gambit was particularly substandard, the mystery element, lead by the main protagonist, the genius moe-detective Victorique was nothing short of disappointing due to the tiny detail that Victorique is not a genius, every other character is just remarkably dumb. The primary mysteries are ludicrously easy to solve that the only aspect to leaving the viewer in wonder, is whether or not the rest of the cast will cotton on. As the series progresses, the mysteries interweave and the bigger picture has a lot more too often, albeit a lot more convoluted activity.

Nevertheless the series did offer something worthwhile in the form of the oh-so-adorable Victorique. Wonderfully well written and superbly executed, Victorique more than carried the series, especially considering her supporting cast. Gosick fell into the trap of accompanying its leading lady with a hero completely void of a personality that his only faculty seemed to be screeching Victorique’s name at any given opportunity. Other than his ‘Japanese sense of honour’ Kujo has no real purpose to befriend Victorique nor is there any chemistry between them as heavily implied love interests. It’s a shame that within 24 episodes the writing staff was not able to develop this character is to someone vaguely three dimensional. There were nevertheless much more badly written and annoying characters throughout this series, all eggs were undoubtedly placed in the basket marked Victorique.

Rating: 6.5/10