So, you’re a bad guy. You know that the good guy has something you really want, so you go to the good guy’s room and turn it into a mess in the hopes of finding it, but you fail to notice that huge suspicious cupboard that could hide a small person. Um, tunnel vision?
I really don’t understand the bad girl of this episode. So, she’s looking for a book that contains a letter that contains a rare stamp (the Penny Black, the first stamp in the world, and a misprint at that), that is left behind by a phantom thief. She finds the book, but fails to remove the letter and instead hides it at a bizarre place, only to knock down Kazuya when carries the book when Victorique already removed the letter. Not to mention the bizarre reason in which Victorique managed to find back the book. I mean, if I were to hide a book in a library, I’d look for a random place and then think of an easy way to remember its place. Not the other way around. And how did Victorique get this on her first guess? See what I mean by her “script logic”? Am I missing something here?
Anyway, I had some hopes for this episode, and it did tie together some of the threads that seemed rather random in the previous episode. The way it did this was forced and mediocre, but that’s not really a surprise for this show at this point, because I have to admit that piecing things together creates at least an interesting back-story> i just hope that this wasn’t the final episode of this arc, because it left so much unresolved, especially the backgrounds of these characters: who were they? This episode answered this for none of the characters involved: the bad girl: who is she and why is she the second incarnation of the phantom thief? Avril: where did she come from and what is her relationship with her grandfather and where did that letter come from? What exactly went on between Maxim and his sweetheart? I mean, leaving some of these backgrounds unanswered is no problem, but this was just too much.
One thing I did like in this episode was its clever use of a red herring: her bandaged hand seemed to suggest time and time again that she also decapitated that motor driver, and the entire previous episode seemed to hint that these two stories were connected… and they weren’t. Those wounds were just bite marks. I have to give that to this series: that’s a neat little twist.
Also, to nitpick a bit: “the train from England to Sauvure”… how did that work exactly in those days?
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Yeah, i’d like to know what the headless motordriver had to do with all of this. Just a false indication this time?
There wasn’t that much of a backplot this time, rather than the use of the concepts of those weird ghost stories, and Victorika was also included in those at last.
But still a bit underwhelming. But I still have hopes up for this…
Re: Hiding Book. Victorique might have heard from her brother that the phantom thief was back in business again. If she already knew that the original phantom thief (Maxim) was dead, the copycat might be looking for treasure the original one is hiding. The book in the scene of his demise surely fit. It is surmisable, although still a long, long shot, that the thief was hiding the book in a hurry, and thus more likely to rely on old habit, which is the legends of the school. The reasoning is definitely not the best, but it’s (kinda) there.
Finding the postcard is probably the stroke of luck, though.
Victorique always pulls random crap from her ass and passes it off as deduction. This has been happening ever since episode 1, so it’s nothing new at this point. While annoying, she still can’t hold a handle to Kujo, who should just stop speaking in order to preserve the mental sanity of the audience.
Yeah, I also had trouble following the plot. Mystery without suspense doesn’t do much. I thought Episode 2-3 were really good… but it devolved pretty badly in Episode 4-5. I’m considering dropping it around episode 10 if it keeps following this pattern.
I’ll have to cross my fingers they’re doing the same than Yakumo and rushing through early plots then slow the pace to something better. Or so you said because I dropped Yakumo at the 3rd episode because I couldn’t stand seeing an anime remove all suspense from the most suspenseful mystery manga series I’ve read in years.
Rant aside, you might want to double-blog Dragon Crisis too since both these series seem completely hit and miss this season and we don’t know which is the keeper yet. And I saw that Heartcatch Precure ended so you have a spot :D!
Re: Hiding Book
If you hide the book in a random place, there will be a chance that a random visitor will happen to find it.
She hide it in a place that she believes that there’s 0% chance people will find it, because of the people here’s obsession of ghost story.
@psgels: Concerning your questions about this arc. No, it won’t continue, the storyarc is finished, but most of the things you asked could have been answered.
And just because it confused many people why Kujô doubted Victoricas existence: This story is the adaption of GOSICKs 1 (the first novel of a spinoff series) that takes place before the Queen Berry case.
The fake Avril was an orphan who was picked up by Maxim/the phantom thief as a child and was raised to be a thief herself. She was not only a copycat, she was the successor to the name of Kuiaran.
That is why she knew that he and his loot had to be somewhere on the schoolgrounds, because he never returned 8 years ago.
Avril is the real transfer student. Her grandfather was just a nobleman who wanted to leave her the famous stamp. Kuiaran stole it before he could give it to Avril, but Kuiaran (as Maxim) was in turn killed by Milly.
And Maxim (who was really Kuiaran) had an affair with Milly and turned to her everytime he returned in spring to hide his loot.
8 years ago she was diagnosed with a terminal illness, so she drugged Maxim and locked him with her in the crypt so that she did not have to die alone.
And while you are nitpicking: How can a body mummify in only 8 years, while leaning against a door that is probably neither airtight nor in a rather dry area.
“Train from England to Sauvure” – boat train, probably. You could buy inclusive tickets. Like you could buy a ticket from London through Paris all the way to the end of the Orient Express, because the train took you right down to the port and the boat ride over to the next train was inclusive.
Motorcycle guy — goes to theme as well as red herring. Women can be killers of those they love like Milly, or killers for gain like Kuiaran II. And sometimes we don’t know why people kill, like we don’t know what motive the motorcycle guy’s killer had. Of course, this may be what V’s brother was worrying about, too, so the story might not be over.