Yes! This is more like it! The creators shut Avril up and focuses on the interesting parts: the story of Leviathan and Victorique. That’s what this series is great at, and this episode once again proves that Gosick can be excellent when it wants to.
Most of the mysteries of Gosick were either really obvious, or would require reasoning so far-fetched that the only way for Victorique to have been able to solve them was by having access to the script. This was actually different: Leviathan’s story has deep roots in Sauvure’s background, and instead of immediately knowing the answer, or waiting for a plot device to carry the final clue to solve the mystery, Victorique acquired the answer through careful study, and reading up on Leviathan’s background.
I really like how the creators linked the existence of alchemists to the gold rush in Africa and America, and how the alchemists used that kind of gold to create a legend around themselves through careful tricks. As this episode went on it did become pretty clear that Leviathan really had a large amount of gold to his possession, but even then his background as a former slave who couldn’t be silenced made a lot of impact.
Also, that build-up to Victorique’s father: it just keeps returning, and it’s getting more and more effective. It’s the red thread that connects all of the good arcs to each other. It’s still a big question mark of why such a huge tower is located in the back yard of a prestigious school and all, but at least this was made good use of when Victorique’s father played a key role in Leviathan’s demise.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I’m glad you decided to watch it. Indeed, this episode proves that Gosick can actually be amazing when it wants to be.
I really loved this episode! Finally it felt (once again) that they did justice to the novels with this episode. Especially those last few moments were awesomely done.
I really hope that this time they’ll be able to keep it up, this show deserves all the amazingness that it can get by its producers!
Fully agreed. This episode was certainly a treat.
It keeps explaining it but perhaps youve missed it, the school used to me a military academy and arsenal and for the last three centuries its been where the nobles hides all the countries dirty secrets and weapons, the second being a plot point.
You know I’ve been thinking this since the first episode but Kujo would have been a lot cooler if he at least knew some martial arts to make him a little useful, you know him being from a military family and all.