Gosick – 18

I must admit: this episode rocks for blending in another mystery, right after previous one ended. It was subtly built up for during the previous episodes by setting up the right people at the right places, and delivered a great storyline that I did not see coming at this point, after such a major episode. This episode was clearly rushed, but heck: we’re on a train riding back from a huge flood. This episode nicely went on with this flow.

I’m a big fan of good adventure series, and thank god Gosick finally turned into one. The mysteries here all are interesting, the characters have stopped being annoying (or at least the most annoying characters have been gone in this arc) and the past three episodes just kept throwing interesting twists and turns to the story. Now that’s what I’ve been hoping for! Victorique’s hasty explanation at the end would have been really jarring if she did this at the beginning of the series with another of those lackluster stories of the first half, but right now it’s just a minor inconvenience. Finally this series has this great sense of adventure that’s really enjoyable to watch.

What I also want to praise this show for is for avoiding the hollywood gunpowder syndrome. I do not know enough about gunpowder to say this with certainty, but I’m glad that for once a bullet actually doesn’t make everything it hits explode. The only questionable thing about that scene was really Victorique’s aim, but then again we don’t really know how much experience Kujou has in shooting from a fast-moving platform. It’s still quite unlikely, but then again, when the rest of an episode is this good, things like these don’t really matter. The more mundane and boring an episode is, the more these inconsistencies and plotholes tend to stand out.
Rating: ** (Excellent)