Plot

Kazuya is wanted for murder! While running an errand for his teacher he witnesses the decapitation of a motorist and is blamed for the crime after calling the police. Victorique quickly exonerates him using her fountain of wisdom but that is just the beginning of Kazuya’s misfortune? A new transfer student from England named Avril Bradley involves Kazuya with a tomb and a mummified knight. Does her pretty smile hide some darker secrets?

The Case

Much like the first episode we are set-up at the beginning with a quickly solved mystery, but it follows with a more complex one that most probably tie (after all there are many missing heads) in but we aren’t quite sure how yet. Victorique’s powers of perception are dead on in this episode plus we see further just how well read she is. But we are all smart enough to know you don’t trust the mysterious transfer student; however it is nice to see Kazuya interacting with other people. ! I enjoy that the larger mystery once again has a supernatural feel that can be explained with logic.

The first murder is rather simple as is seemingly just there to allow Victorique to stretch her intellect and set up parts of the rest of the episode. Also while how the crime was committed is very simple to discern the real part where Victorique’s intelligence comes into play is her describing the culprit with some classic Holmesian deduction. The second murder in the crypt is a bit more complex it is thankfully not immediately obvious to the audience how this crime was committed. But the real unsolved mystery is why does Avril rush in and take the random book from the crypt when everyone else is freaking out over the body. Also why does she match the description of the killer in the decapitation fit Avril exactly if the killer has supposedly been caught? Clearly something is going on with Avril despite her seemingly innocent nature.

Final Thoughts

I truly don’t understand why this wasn’t the first mystery of the anime, but nevertheless it is an enjoyable one. I do have to say though, I never really get attached or trust the characters Kazuya encounters in the stories. Since we know the formula this seems natural but I still would like to care a bit about the people involved besides Victorique and Kazuya. I’m looking forward to treading ground I haven’t read yet with the following episode and from now on (until the ending arc which I suspect will be the second novel).

Having read the first chapter of the manga I knew that this was the first story from GosickS. For those keeping score at home this means that in the novels and manga this is chronologically the first story in the series. If you notice you will see the genesis to Kazuya’s grim sobriquet which is handled better in the original story. The triangle of interaction between Kazuya, Victorique, and Grevil is cute as always and we get more passing references to Victorique being a gray wolf that will clearly be important later on. Since they never finished the translation of this story I am curious to see how it all turns out as this is the first story I don’t know the end to. So if and how the two murders and Avril’s odd behavior are linked is unclear but I am curious to see if they are.