Gosick (ゴシック) is a Japanese light novel series written by Kazuki Sakuraba, with illustrations by Hinata Takeda. The series includes 13 novels published by Fujimi Shobo between December 2003 and July 2011. Set in a fictional European country in 1924, a Japanese exchange student meets a mysterious, brilliant girl who only leaves the library to sleep. Her brother, a detective, relies on her exceptional mind to solve difficult mysteries. Tokyopop released the first two novels in English in North America. A manga adaptation drawn by Sakuya Amano was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine. A 24-episode anime adaptation by Bones aired between January and July 2011. A collection of side stories titled GosickS was published between 2005 and 2011, while a sequel novel series named Gosick New Continent was released in between 2013 and 2016.

Plot and settings

Gosick takes place in 1924 in a small, French-speaking fictional European country; which stretches from Switzerland, through the Alps between France and Italy, to the Mediterranean Sea. The country is called "Sauville" (ソヴュール王国) in the light novels and "Saubureme" (ソヴレム) is Sauville's capital in the anime adaption. The story centers on Kazuya Kujo, the third son of a high-ranking officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, who is a transfer student to St. Marguerite Academy, where urban legends and horror stories are popular. There he meets Victorique de Blois, a mysterious yet beautiful and brilliant girl who never comes to class and spends her days reading the entire contents of the library or solving mysteries that even detectives can not solve. The early episodes mostly focus on Kazuya and Victorique getting involved in different criminal cases and their struggle to solve them, at the same time forming important bonds with different people and each other. However, as the series advances, the tenebrous background of Victorique and her family comes back to haunt her. Its sequel series, Gosick New Continent, takes place in 1931 in New York City, where Victorique and Kazuya are a couple and own a small detective agency. It's revealed Kazuya's father did not accept his bond with Victorique, so they fled to the United States to be together with the help of his sister Ruri. The World Wars belong to the past now, but the pair's peace is shattered by a new party that seeks to get their hands on Victorique.

Characters

Main characters

Other characters

Media

Light novels

Gosick began as a light novel series written by Kazuki Sakuraba, with illustrations by Hinata Takeda. Fujimi Shobo and Kadokawa Shoten published 13 volumes between December 10, 2003 and July 23, 2011; nine comprise the main story, while the other four under the title GosickS are side story collections. The first GosickS volume takes place before the first volume of Gosick, GosickS II is between Gosick IV and Gosick V, and GosickS III takes place after Gosick VI. A new series titled Gosick New Continent started on December 25, 2013, following Kazuya and Victorique in 1931 after they moved to North America following the events of the main story. Tokyopop released the first novel in English in April 2008 and the second in March 2010. It is also published Germany by Tokyopop.

Gosick

GosickS

Gosick New Continent

Manga

A manga adaptation, illustrated by Amano Sakuya, was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine between the January 2008 and May 2012 issues. Fujimi Shobo published eight tankōbon volumes between July 9, 2008 and June 9, 2012.

Volume listing

Drama CD

A drama CD based on the first volume of GosickS, was released on April 21, 2006.

Anime

Gosick was adapted into a 24-episode anime television series by Bones under the direction of Hitoshi Nanba and script supervision by Mari Okada. The series aired on TV Tokyo between January 8 and July 2, 2011. However, the broadcast of episode 11 and afterward was affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The series was simulcast by Crunchyroll with English subtitles. The opening theme is "Destin Histoire" by Risa Yoshiki and was released on March 2, 2011. For the first 12 episodes, the ending theme is "Resuscitated Hope" by Lisa Komine and was released on April 27, 2011. From episodes 13-24, the ending theme is "Unity", also by Lisa Komine. Bandai Entertainment had licensed the anime, but later cancelled the release of Gosick. Madman Entertainment have licensed the series in Australia and New Zealand and are releasing subtitled-only DVDs until a dubbed version becomes available. Funimation has licensed the series in North America and released the first half of the series on a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack on May 30, 2017 with an English dub. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.

Reception

Anime News Network's Carlo Santos commends the first volume of light novels for "a mysterious, elegant atmosphere and an intricate plotline [making] this a thrilling read from start to finish". However, he criticises the light novels for "flashback scenes [that] never really fit in". He also mentions that "the final conclusion is rather far-fetched."