GOSICK 01 – The World’s Greatest Loli Detective

Well, It may be far too early to tell but I have a really good feeling about GOSICK already, it’s shaping up to be the cure for my bad anime blues (you might even say that GOSICK is NO SICK! *slaps knee*). But seriously, the pacing of this show feels just perfect.

What lurks behind those eyes....

Ignoring the cold open for a moment, the show first presents us with what is perhaps the most important character in the series: the setting. Nestled between Italy, Switzerland and France the small country of Saubure is your run-of-the-mill, idyllic ersatz European country complete with British architecture, French writing, Itallian cooking and inexplicably Japanese sensibility ^_^ (then again, these are nobles so they’re supposed to be polite right?). Set in the year 1924 the show really tries to create an atmosphere reminiscent of the early 20th century  which-with the exception of the curious lack of crushing poverty and mass industry-is pulled of fairly well.

Funny how I missed that place on my atlas....

 

Old time noms!

 

The obligatory bistro

The narration is provided by none other than our male protagonist the oh-so-exotic Japanese transfer student “Kuroi Shinigami” Kazuya Kujo. It seems that our poor Kujo-san is afforded the opportunity to attend this school for nobles based solely on his academic merits, which while interesting, still seems a bit anachronistic. But still we have our young hero dealing with the minor hardships of adjusting to a new culture in a fantastically opulent school. Ah, yes how could I forget the school. The illustrious Ouran High School St. Marguerite Academy for the terminally wealthy is a neat little base of operations for the characters that I would honestly have no problem getting a chance to explore for the rest of the series but there’s intrigue afoot and no time to waste on sightseeing!

Behold! Our Watson

 

Ooooh! Noble-ly XD

 

So off we are whisked to our next and principal character: the lovely Victorique.

 

Sorry it took so long my lady...

 

I really really wanted bubbles to start flying out of that thing...

 

frightening.........ly cute!

 

Victorique’s initial predictions about Kazuya serve to impress him but not to the extent that he becomes incredulous (thank God). However, the viewers get a taste of her true talent when the arrival of the FABULOUS inspector Grevil brings with it the first murder mystery of the series.

 

"The party's up there"

 

His is the hair that will PIERCE THE HEAVENS!!!

 

Attention duelists!!! My Hair is solving a mystery!

 

A wealthy, elderly fortune teller with a taste for exotic servants and a penchant for animal abuse-we were already introduced to the deceased back in the show’s cold open-has been found dead and both the cause of death and the culprit are a mystery. Now, I know that this is the first episode and all that and things must inevitably become more complex but the case inspector pompadour described was laughably easy to solve, granted Victorique’s ability to decipher the minutiae of the case is impressive nonetheless.

 

Yeah dude, Professor Plum in the dining room with a candlestick!

 

Insta-solve!

 

Elegant, demure and utterly an Ojou-sama, Victorique is the Sherlock to Kazuya’s Watson. Her sharp wit is sure to provide many of the show’s more memorable quotes and her quiet standoffishness is acerbic without being too overbearing, at least for now anyway. Victorique, to me, is the consummate quiet genius who looks at life through a lens of scrutiny honed to perfection by her impressive intellect (her “fountain of wisdom” she calls it). It makes her a more well-developed character thanks to such salient points of information like her “precious” charm and the fact that for all her intelligence she is still just a child and her lack of life experience is clearly represented in the scenes such as those with her on the train and even in her very own admonition of her school top observatory as a “prison”; it adds an interesting sense of vulnerability.

 

Watashi...."Elle" desu!

 

So....she's Yuki Nagato then?

 

Notice how I have resisted the urge to make a tasteless LotR joke here...

 

I feel like singing Aladdin now...

 

So this is how you capture the Moe Otaku market huh?

 

Oh, so Loli rape is a game now is it?

Without revealing too much of the show’s events I’ll say that one thing leads to the next and our dear inspector has graciously invited our heroes on his yacht for a voyage but circumstances surrounding the fortune teller case end up causing him to postpone it prematurely and send our intrepid detective duo hot on the trail of the murderer. They are eventually led to the suspiciously-named and even more suspiciously suspicious “Queen Berry” for a evening cruise of fine dining, beautiful ambiance….AND MURDER! This is where the episode closes, successfully whetting the appetite for more of Kazuya’s and Victorique’s adventures.

Quite frankly, I didn’t expect the first episode to be so good but the flow of the show’s events was done well enough to hold my interest and force me to become actively involved in the plot.  If this kind of quality continues GOSICK has the potential to become the first great series of 2011.

 

Team of the year maybe? Who knows?

Aspire towards Nirvana, anime watchers!