Gosick – 02

When in doubt, just KILL EVERYONE!

I was so tempted to pick up the Gosick book recently since I have nothing to read, but then I realized that it would mostly ruin the anime for me. Of course, it probably works both ways, but this way I get to write completely random and baseless predictions about what’s going to happen next without technically writing “spoilers” since, you know, I won’t actually know if I’m right or not. There’s a difference, right? It should be fine if I don’t actually know the answer? Kind of like how you’re cool if you don’t know you’re cool, but “knowing” that you’re cool just makes you a pretentious jackass (I learned this from the Simpsons). Well, whatever, I’m going to do it anyway. I’ll either be a remarkable genius or a huge fool, and maybe you’ll be entertained either way. Oh, by the way, I’m reading Zaregoto instead of Gosick. Good stuff.

So we left off last episode with Kazuya and Victorique merrily skipping off to join an ominously themed dinner party aboard a looming cruise ship on a dark and stormy night. After some boring self-justification by Victorique, we dive into the actual mystery of this arc as the whole party is put to sleep.

I wasn’t always this jaded, you know. I had a brief stint as an opera singer.

The party wakes up in the lounge area, with many of the adults realizing what may be going on very quickly. Victorique, who is either extremely observant or just OCD, notifies Kazuya that there is an extra person in the room, and that person is likely the one who moved everyone. So begins the mystery that we, the loyal viewers, must unravel before it’s too late. Now, there are TWELVE people in the room. Not counting Kazuya and Victorique, since we can reasonably (?) omit them as suspects, this leaves TEN suspects to investigate. Time to look for suspicious activity in my screenshot folder!

Am I a jackass if I thought, “Boom! Headshot!”?

Whoops, make that THREE suspects. Within the next few minutes, due to a series of unfortunate events, one guy gets pierced through the skull with an arrow, and four others try to escape on a lifeboat before being engulfed by the tidal wave of despair. This leaves an old guy, a young guy, and a hot woman as the suspects. Now, I don’t want to be misogynist or anything, but I’ve come to learn that if one of the suspects is a woman, she definitely did it. However, even if you successfully accuse her, you are still wrong, especially if you yourself happen to be male. This leaves our heroes in a bit of a bind.

Youngsters these days don’t appreciate the value of a pointy mustache!

It turns out that the ship they are aboard, the Queen Berry, is basically a recreation of a ship from the past. At that time, eleven “hares,” which were basically children of various ethnicities or whatever, were gathered on the ship. I assume the booby traps were also present in the past, which lead the children to die one by one, first being killed by traps and later being killed by each other. The adults were apparently all present at the time, so someone who wanted revenge has gathered them up again and placed them in the same situation.

However, my genius sleuthing has left the two pictures above as clues. Notice: the two girls in the middle of the second picture. Of course, if my suspicions are wrong, then I just look like an idiot here.

Victorique’s spider senses reveals that the bottom of the ship is starting to fill with water, so the gang heads downstairs to see what they can do about it. Along the way, Kazuya and Victorique have some special moments, but let’s face it, nobody cares. Well, at least I don’t. Naturally, old men are crazy, so when they get to the bottom, the old guy pulls a gun on the others. The last thing we hear is a gunshot.

MORE PICS

Megane… megane…

Hah! You just triggered my trap card!

END THOUGHTS

I would say that this episode is moving the series in the correct direction. Instead of a “duh” mystery like the last episode, which seems to have just served as an introduction to Victorique’s questionably genuine intellect, we have an actual murder plot that is sweeping the protagonists along. They both nearly get killed, which is a definite change of pace from before. Plus, while almost all of the characters seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that this series is not a supernatural anime, and thus the Queen Berry is not a ghost ship, and everyone’s wits had to be rescued by Victorique’s robotic deduction, one thing is now certain: Victorique is not the only one saving the day. Kazuya’s manly dive and manly human shield show that he at least has some meaningful role in the story as Victorique’s bodyguard rather than just narrating the whole thing like Watson did for Holmes. This is a good thing because I hate Victorique’s attitude, and I do not, not, not want her to win every time.

The two are quickly becoming more familiar with each other, but I do hope that their relationship stays more of a brother/sister type. I would rather Kazuya take on more of a protective attitude toward Victorique rather than a romantic one because, to me, it would just be creepy if the two of them attracted toward each other. Victorique’s appearance looks more like a baby sister, even though her personality is more like a grandmother, so I definitely don’t want anything to do with that. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that it will eventually turn romantic, anyway, so I guess I’d better brace myself. Maybe they’ll compromise and wait 5 years for Victorique to, you know, grow up. I know I have a lot of Victorique hate going here, but her character design isn’t pretty enough for that attitude of hers to be cute. Maybe it’s just because I don’t like that gothic lolita style or whatever it is.

Hopefully Gosick keeps putting in enough clues for us to figure out the mysteries before they’re revealed, since that’s where part of the fun in watching mystery series is. It’s not really a requirement, but given that Gosick is pretty much sticking to the mystery genre and not delving into psychological or horror, it’s going to be a dull ride if we don’t get to hunt through the scenes to find clues. I especially don’t want Victorique to pull out some evidence that we didn’t even know about and act all cocky about it because then it sounds like she’s gloating over ME. If I never even had a chance, what’s there to be so proud about??? Anyway, I’m pretty confident that I know who the mastermind of this arc is by now, since they keep flashing the same images at us, so bring it on, Victorique. Let’s see if I’m smarter than you’re supposed to be.

PREVIEW

Sorry to spoil it, but it looks like Kazuya and Victorique both die, with Grevil taking over as the main character. It’s impossible for mere bullets to kill his hair. In all seriousness, though, it looks like this arc is actually pretty close to ending, since all that’s left is for them to identify the culprit and rescue themselves. I don’t really see how it can drag on for more than one episode unless PLOT TWIST.

About sassy

Follower of both dark and mysterious horrors and funny and pointless comedies. Fascinated with ghosts and the supernatural. Friendly and talkative, but I will kill you if you get between me and Itou Kanae.