GOSICK (Episodes 4 - 6)

(For a review of Episodes 1 - 3, click here. Some spoilers may be lurking.)

Upon watching the first three GOSICK episodes, I was certainly glad to see a show readjust how mysteries are to be seen in anime. We've had our share of modern-day genius teenagers and tykes beating the adults to the culprit and playing them like a game of Clue, but it was about time that we had someone attempt the Holmes/Watson formula back in a time period further from Milky and closer to Sherlock.

Placing the show in the fictional country of Sauville has done wonders for the story, as long as it didn't interfere with actual events that took place in Europe. With the setting well in place, now that we have seen the pint-sized Victorique in action with her self-appointed assistant Kazuya Kujô, it's time to see how the characters are to develop amongst one another, and that requires the addition of a new character.

While Kazuya has managed to adjust himself to school life overseas, he's still a lightning rod when it comes to gory murder and criminal activity. After having escaped from the sinking Queen Berry with Victorique, he suddenly finds himself witness to a murder, as a random motorcycle rider gets his head severed from his body in the middle of a ride. While the murderer is easily deduced by Victorique, Kazuya's reputation is again sullied by rumor as the "Spring Reaper".

The arrival of an English transfer student, the bright and cheerful Avril Bradley, does turn Kazuya's spirits around temporarily. Avril shares some of his interests in ghost stories, and she may have an apparent interest in Kazuya himself, but he can't get over the fact her hand is bandaged like the girl who murdered the motorcycle rider. On top of that, a corpse falling out of the local catacomb before a funeral and a haunting voice calling for help at a deserted warehouse makes things even more mysterious, especially when Avril is spotted snooping around all of the locations, including Victorique's library.

There's no doubt that the mysteries are easily solved by Victorique's prowess, but an additional mystery suddenly takes its place, one with a special connection. A plate is stolen during a bazaar by a nun, only for the Sister to show up during a trip to Horovitz taken by Victorique and Kazuya when they answer a call advertised in the local newspaper. Somehow, this is connected to the "Grey Wolves" in Horovitz, as Victorique has taken this rare opportunity to leave the study. Her mission is to prove the innocence of her mother, Cordelia Gallo, who was blamed for murders in Horovitz.

GOSICK may not necessarily be an exciting anime when weighed only for its action, but the suspense surrounding the mysteries is quite valuable to the plot. While each arc of two or three episodes has a general mystery to solve, each episode has a smaller crime that requires its own solution. Victorique may be solving them a bit too quickly for the viewer to react with their own possible solution like one might see in a Meitantei Conan episode, but it is nice to have mysteries that mean something for a change.

Perhaps the best thing we're getting out of GOSICK's first six episodes is the interplay between Victorique and Kazuya. There's no doubt that Kazuya is getting sick of being mocked by the "little squirrel" moniker the vain Grevil has given him, but there's also that part of him that is thankful he's being useful to Victorique, even if she acts as a little kid about the smallest things. It's comforting to know that Kazuya and Victorique have that sort of detective/assistant dynamic between them, and the arrival of other female characters doesn't turn this story into a harem anime.

Granted, the pace of the show may be a little uneven, as action is sparse, but it is good to see the attention paid to the time and location of the show. There are no modern devices that come into play, and GOSICK follows its temporal location well, creating mystery in items and places

unique to its era and European landscape. In other words, we're not seeing steampunk robots or out-of-place tropes we'd normally see in Japanese high schools—the aspects of the show fit its location in history relatively well.

Six shows down, it's also refreshing to see GOSICK is to last two full seasons. There may be little dynamic on the surface between Victorique and Kauya, but the opening animation definitely indicates more to the story than simple murder mysteries. The art is clean and crisp, the characters are providing some stable drama scattered with bits of humor, and the general plot isn't boring.

In short, I'm not sick of GOSICK at all, and I won't be for a while.

GOSICK (Episodes 1 - 3)

If you count the confusing advertisement of Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru as a "detective show", there were three less-than-stellar attempts at such shows last season—Psychic Detective Yakumo lost its emo-steam quickly, while Tantei Opera Milky Holmes failed miserably at trying to convert famous detectives into moe derivatives. There's no doubting it—if you want quality detective stories, Meitantei Conan and The Kindaichi Case Files are the archetypes for all Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew wannabes out there.

As the calendar year turned to 2011, there seemed to be at least a little more promise in the genre with the announcement of GOSICK (think "gothic" with the Japanese corruption of the "th" sound) going to anime. The series of mystery light novels written by Naoki Prize winner Kazuki Sakuraba was so popular in Japan that all of the titles were republished as a mainstream set of novels, and Tokyopop had translated the first two stories for English fans. Perhaps there sincerely was hope for the genre, after all.

Or perhaps it's just the pint-sized lolita.

GOSICK takes place in the fictional European country of Sauville ("Saubure" in the inconsistent subtitles from Crunchyroll) following World War I. Our main character, Kazuya Kujo, in order to escape the shadows of his family and the attention thrust upon his older brothers, heads to Sauville to study overseas and attempt to impress his family. However, being the only Asian in his school, he soon is singled out for being dark and lonesome, a black "spring reaper" amongst his class.

Kazuya's teacher suggests he reads ghost stories in the meantime, and upon his trip to the large library in town, Kazuya comes across a short golden-haired girl in gothic clothing, mistaking her for a doll at first. Despite her bitter and demanding attitude towards Kazuya, Vicorique predicts he will come back to the tower, and Kazuya's inevitable return showcases the girl's brilliant intelligence. Victorique may be eccentric in the way she spends her days alone in the library, rolling on the study floor incessantly when bored, but she's actually the brains behind the star detective Grevil du Blois, giving her egocentric older brother insight as she solves cases for him.

In a twist of events, Grevil gladly provides an opportunity for Victorique to leave her studies, as she and Kazuya become guests of the ship, the Queen Berry, when they discover an invite in Grevil's new yacht. The unraveling of one murder leads to the sudden realization that those invited to the Queen Berry are to relive its fate, as the ship had been sunk ten years ago during a horrendous human experiment in psychology. Victorique and Kazuya are challenged to play Holmes and Watson as guests of the Queen Berry are killed one by one, but who is the twelfth guest in this dinner party of eleven?

If the character designs and European-style landscapes look a little familiar, you're likely correct in guessing the studio in charge of animation and the show that the designers worked on. Character designs are helmed by Toshihiro Kawamoto and Takashi Tomioka, and both worked on designs for the Fullmetal Alchemist TV shows. Studio Bones, who also worked on FMA's animation, provide some spectacular artwork, and the classical designs are given just a touch of modern style.

The first three episodes provide quite an exciting mystery to solve, even if some of the common characters between the Queen Berry's past submersion and its present emergency are easy to guess, but the interaction between Victorique and Kazuya is what solidifies the series into a quality story. The Holmes / Watson dynamic is pretty close to what we see in the duo—Kazuya has to convince the doubters both back home and in Sauville that he is a capable man, while Victorique is steadfast in her intelligence, yet genuinely afraid of the outside world and in real need of guidance by Kazuya. Considering the two have a full 24 episodes to help each other mature and understand trust, it will be interesting to see both of their pasts unfold.

It seems that GOSICK has little in the way to be a great crossover hit for Crunchyroll, as there appears to be more in terms of adventure with this series. Granted, you may still see fans fawning over Victorique like many did for Kuroneko in Oreimo last season, but the cast is much more gender-neutral than many female-heavy shows out there. More importantly, GOSICK seems determined to let the cases lead the characters, not the other way around—you'll likely find secondary characters come and go like they do in a Meitantei Conan show, and that will do wonders to build the relationship between Kazuya and Victorique.

Heavy in criminal psychology and light in comedy, GOSICK is required viewing for the winter 2011 anime season, as it will likely be your best shot at mystery and adventure without the risk of fan service or harem comedy. Come for the mystery, stay for the endless loop of Victorique's mocking patter of laughter—GOSICK will be the best show this season, or else I will get a hairdo like Grevil.

(GOSICK is simulcast on Crunchyroll every Monday at 1 PM EST.)

Fall 2010 - Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Detective shows can be hit-or-miss when it comes to anime and manga. While the genre tends to work well when given more than one chapter or episode to tease the reader or viewer about the criminal and his or her modus operandi (Meitantei Conan, The Kindaichi Case Files), they fail to appeal if all of the action was left to one episode. However, if the show tends to have a common criminal and detective—a Professor Moriarty to one's Sherlock Holmes, if you will—it has potential to carry interest even with shorter cases and even develop a fandom for the criminal (Lupan the 3rd).

Currently running on Crunchyroll, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes tries its hand at the latter formula with a small twist. Instead of a developed teen genius detective like a Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown, we're provided the Sailor Moon version with four colorful teenage debutantes trying to educate their way to fame as detectives. In a society filled with great sleuths and equally great thieves, the climb is bound to have some pitfalls.

The four friends that make up the Milky Holmes detective troupe (Sheryl, Nero, Elly, and Cordelia, all derived from famous detectives) at the Holmes Detective Academy make up a new class of detectives, as students at the academy each have a supernatural ability known as "Toys". During a struggle against a particular team of thieves, all four suddenly find themselves unable to use their Toys. According to Henriette, the Student Council President, not having one's Toys is grounds for expulsion, and she gives the team three months to get their abilities back.

Easier said than done.

It turns out that this team of klutzes doesn't particularly know much about their abilities, but that doesn't stop them from trying to solve mysteries. While the "Gentlemen Thieves" start to plunder more museums, Milky Holmes still chases them down, often butting heads with the "Genius 4", the city's best police unit. What both teams don't know is that the "Gentlemen Thieves" are masquerading as students and employees in the academy, the leader of the Thieves being Henriette herself!

Considering the director of Milky Holmes is Makoto Moriwaki, known for his madcap styles in Oruchuban Ebichu and Hyper Dolls, the show tends to go for quick jokes without much of a care for the consequences. There aren't many pauses in the comedy, as the action is about as fast as an Excel Saga episode without as many in-jokes. Needless to say, that means that a lot of the plot doesn't make much sense either, and it left me wondering about the holes in common sense in the story:

1. Why does Henrietta and her team slap down Milky Holmes so easily, only to help them out in the end?
2. Why does Milky Holmes not recognize the Gentlemen Thieves for who they are in school? The Clark Kent Syndrome is rampant here.
3. Why is the leader of the Genius 4 such a dunderhead?
4. Why isn't the U.N. on the case at Holmes Academy? Apparently, not having your Toys abilities means you have to revoke your human rights.

The one thorn that really sticks in the side is that Milky Holmes can't decide whether to be cute for the purpose of drawing girls to the show or to be cute for drawing otaku to the show. The designs are saccharine sweet in color, perhaps intended to mesh with the radio show from which the anime blossomed, but the situations are brutally adult. The Gentlemen Thieves are hardly timid in their actions, attacking the group with swords and bombs, while "Twenty" goes into full stereotypical gaijin-mode with his flamboyant English and his stripping shows. Hardly the stuff you see in shows like Magical Doremi.

The biggest flaw that Bushiroad didn't consider when developing Milky Holmes as an anime is that there is no underlying development of the characters. We are thrust into the story, expected to know and identify with the characters and their abilities without any background. The heroines are all immature in personality, forcing their unlikeable counterpart villains to carry the show. Milky Holmes ends up suffering as a show without direction and character balance, and its lack of actual sleuths reduces the show into a colorized Keystone Cops fracas. In the end, there certainly is a mystery here—we need to hire a gumshoe to investigate who came up with this mess.