Gosick aired in 2011, but I’m going to write about it here because I watched it a few months ago, and Kujo and Victorique is the cutest and most endearing anime couple I’ve seen this year. Just look how adorable they are! This is way better than watching cat videos on Youtube.
The reason they’re so cute is mainly because Victorique is moe as hell. Under ordinary circumstances, you’d never believe that a tsundere loli could be a good character, let alone the best character, but Victorique defies all expectations. She’s clearly intelligent but lacks social graces, and even when she lashes out in unhelpful ways, there’s never any indication that she genuinely intends harm. What’s more, she matures greatly as a person over the course of the series while never losing her awkward charm.
But Victorique would never have been such a great character if she didn’t have her Watson to support her. It’s genuinely heartwarming to see Victorique gradually open up and trust Kujo. He has an earnest puppy-like demeanour that makes him impossible to dislike, so it’s no wonder that even the eternally skeptical Victorique feels safe around him.
What made the Kujo x Victorique dynamic so memorable to me was that I could sense how lonely these two young people were, and that was why they were drawn to each other. It’s obvious enough why Victorique is starved for human company; she is literally confined to a tower with only books to occupy her. Kujo’s case is a bit subtler, but he’s also an isolated individual. He is burdened with expectations as the third son of a high-ranking Japanese imperial officer. His father never openly showed him affection. He is also an outsider in European society, and Victorique is one of the very first friends he makes. Their interactions made them seem very vulnerable and human.
Episode 12 is one of my favourite episodes of the series. It’s pure slice of life. It shows Kujo and Victorique having a squabble, although Kujo still decides that he wants to spend his holidays with Victorique. For the rest of the episode they laze around and get to know each other a little better.
It is often said that the mysteries in Gosick are kind of crap and that the real point of the series is watching Victorique and Kujo be cute around each other. I would have to agree. Gosick is a bit like Hyouka in that sense. While I didn’t dislike the mysteries, I don’t remember any of them too well now, even though it’s only been a few months since I watched the series. On the other hand, the characters are extremely memorable from start to finish. They particularly shine in the second half (although that ending was a bit………..)
If there is one thing I found disappointing about Gosick it was the lack of interesting side characters and alternate pairings. Besides Victorique and Kujo, most of the characters were superficial. Victorique’s brother Grevil is the exception, though. The story of his crush on his childhood friend Jacqueline broke my heart. I would have liked to see more of those two.
Frogkun.com 
I agree that without each other, Victorique and Kujo are pretty boring characters. It is when they interact with one another you see the characters come to life. Their endless bickering, almost one-sided discussions on cases, Kujo’s constant concern for Victorique’s well-being, etc.
I remember liking the second half of GOSICK when I was still fresh off watching the series. Years later, I can’t even vaguely recall any of the mystery cases. At least, I still remember the main characters…
It didn’t occur to me that they would be boring characters without each other, but now that you mention it… yeah, you’re pretty right. Their interactions really do make the show.
Every time you said “Kujo” in this article, my mental image was Jotaro, and not Kujo. Damn it now Gosick will never be the same again.
If I happen to rewatch it one day.
btw I have to agree with you. I watched the show idk, 3 years ago? And I can’t remember anything from the mysteries, aside from something about a boat… I guess?
And thank god I found someone who disliked that ending. That’s probably in my top5 of most wtf endings (with Mahou Sensou being the 1st).
Now I wanna see a post about ships in Cardcaptor Sakura. There’s so much to explore that I think it could be a good text.
Yare yare da ze~
The Gosick ending was strange. It was definitely rushed, and I was really weirded out when Victorique’s hair suddenly turned silver, but there was that one moment when I thought Kujo lost his legs and that absolutely destroyed me (in a good way). So I guess even though the rest of the ending was kind of crap, I will always remember that one moment with a mixture of soul-crushing despair and grudging appreciation.
Cardcaptor is honestly one of my favourite anime of all time. I’d love to write about it in detail someday, but I’m a bit exhausted with shipping after twelve days straight of it, so maybe next time!
All the rolling, pouting, sarcastic laughing, fugee-ing, and whatever that is when Kujo baited her with snacks are unforgettable
Of course, I can’t remember anything else about the series.
Yep. You definitely remembered the best part.
I still have eight episodes of Gosick to go because I didn’t like the direction the story was taking, but yes, the interaction between Victorique and Kujo was what made the series.
Moments like this were what made it great.
Have you watched Dantalian no Shoka, a somewhat similar series set in the same time period?
Out of curiosity, what made you dislike the second half of Gosick?
I haven’t watched Dantalian no Shoka. I think I read the first chapter of the manga years ago and thought it was okay, but never chased it up. The anime has an awesome OP, though.
It has been awhile since I watched Gosick. I liked the ending. Didn’t think it was rushed, though it would be fair to say anti-climatic. Sort of like Return of the King, where you had all the goodbyes.
While not a magical show, magic did play a part, and I always thought that the change to silver hair was a sign of the passing of magic or the hand of fate over Victorique.
Also this show had a happy ending, and a couple you knew were together for the long haul, things that are not common in anime.
I thought that Victorique’s hair changed because of Marie-Anotinette Syndrome, since the show does go out of its way to show that everything that was thought to be magic wasn’t actually magic. Of course, that moment could be the one main exception since nobody in-show took the time to explain it.
[…] pretty sure it wasn’t very good. But I do still remember the characters. I even wrote a blog post about how good Victorique and Kujo are as a couple. Three years after I watched the series, their […]