When Avril  and Kazuya go to see a movie, Avril attempts to keep him from Victorique by showing him a clock tower on campus that looks exactly like the one in the film. As it turns out the similarity is no coincidence and soon Kazuya and Victorique are uncovering a mystery involving an immortal alchemist, court intrigue, a grisly murder, and a puzzling pop-up book. When someone else also dies under mysterious circumstances in the clock tower how does their death tie into the events that took place long ago?

The Case

A case in a mysterious clock tower, yay! But we don’t actually know if there is a trick to the tower yet, presumably there is since this is where the alchemist spent his final days. We are dealing not only with a campus mystery, but also some half-history of an alchemist who is so clearly based on Rasputin. Victorique finding the book is a bit of a coincidence, I hope it won’t influence her ability to solve the case but rather just continue to annoy her. This episode also made me note how much less of a weenie Kazuya seems in the anime compared with his jumpy self from the books. We also see the return of our intriguing magician, finally he is at the heart of a mystery, but I suspect this won’t be the last we see of him.

We have two murders and one major mystery. In the present Kazuya finds Kai Wong dead in the clock tower. Kai Wong falls to the floor having some sort of attack, mentions Leviathan the Alchemist, and then dies. It seems like no one else was present so if it was murder then the killer used an indirect method. At the same time Victorique  finds pop up book supposedly written by Leviathan the Alchemist that tell of his time and the court and how he murdered a boy named Ian Musgrave. The book challenges the reader to discover the answers behind the incident. I actually wonder if there if either death was a murder in the first place. Alchemy books were often written in code to protect their secrets. The text and pictures often seemed like fanciful stories but if you knew the proper keys you could decipher the book to learn the formulas and techniques within.  I am wondering if the murder of Ian is an actual murder or is the whole story just a hidden formula for those who know how to read between the lines. In fact many of the characters in the story have analogies to Tarot cards which makes me very suspicious. I am wondering if the characters in the story and their number in the major arcana is the key to deciphering the book. The book keeps referring to the reader as the Fool making them zero. The alchemist would be the Magician and number 1. The king and the queen would be the Empress and the Emperor or 3 and 4. Ian when he first appears might represent the Sun but his murder might represent Death. At the same time clearly the murder in the past is connected to the situation in the present but the question is how. I know that I have seen a similar mystery where someone has one purple finger and dies in a similar fashion but I cannot remember the story that took place in or what the significance of the discolored finger is. My shoddy memory aside I do wonder if Kai Wong also has a copy of the same pop up book and tried to reproduce the formula in the book accidentally poisoning himself. That would explain the discoloration on his finger and why Kazuya did not see a killer. Then again maybe he was working the mystery of Leviathan with someone else and they poisoned him. I think we need a few more clues from the next episode to get a clearer sense of what is going on.

Final Thoughts

I think this is the best episode so far; it boasts a lot of elements but balances them well. It is really the right foot to start the later half of the show on. The one character that still never quite jives with me is the teacher who randomly shows up, but baring her presence everyone has a piece in this mystery. It was nice to see more of the real Avril here, but I have to feel bad for her. You can’t call it a love triangle when Kazuya isn’t even torn, not even a little bit. We get lovely new ending song and credits as we start the second half of the series.

They are clearly setting up Avril and Victorique to meet in this arc. I would bet good money that the person who grabbed Victorique at the end of the episode was Avril. Arvil also seems to think she can take down her rival. Such a silly girl. We also get some more Grevil with his hair down which made Narutaki a very happy camper. I wonder how long before Grevil goes back to his normal hairstyle and Narutaki is just disappointed. There is also the return of Bryan Roscoe in the same ambiguous role he has played for the last few arcs. The question is will he step into the spotlight or is that for another arc. The new ending was a nice way to start the second half and they clearly hint that at some point Kazuya and Victorique will be separated like prophesied in village of the Grey Wolves. I was amused someone interpreted the ending to mean that Kazuya and Victorique will never be together when that last scene in the ending could not be clearer. Oh! I almost forgot. We also get some high tension combat action. If nothing else I am glad to see an exciting mystery in Gosick and am actually looking forward to how this all plays out over the next few episodes.