Gosick - Episode 22

It's Christmas time!  Okay, well it isn't actually Christmas time obviously, but it is in the world of Gosick as of episode twenty-two, so bear with me here.

Of course, this particular time of year means celebrations and silliness aplenty, both of which are on show at the academy with a Christmas party in full swing and all and sundry dressed up in various costumes.... except for Kujo that is, upon whom these customs are somewhat lost.  Thankfully, Cecile has a spare rabbit costume on hand, which leads to a recounting of an old folk tale about a creature known as Monstre Charmant and its rabbit protector - a story which is a very obvious match to Kujo and Victorique's relationship and situation.

If all of this sounds like filler, then think again, as dark forces are at work in the background here as the world slides ever closer to war.  For Kujo, this means that he finds himself marched away by "men in black" as all foreigners in the country are slated to be sent home - something which Kujo doesn't want to do for obvious reasons, meaning that he manages to clip away from his captors at an opportune moment so that he can find his way back to Victorique.  To do this, he employs the help of Grevil - little does he know however that in doing so he's just become a hostage for the Ministry of the Occult to ensure that the otherwise stubborn Victorique does their bidding.


It's been foreshadowed throughout much of the series (quite clumsily in the case of the prophecy that has been replayed over and over), but at last we reach Gosick's big finale... and it looks decidedly promising.  From a beginning that felt a little like "Christmas special" filler, we ended up getting down to the heart of the matter - what seem to be the dual destinies of Kujo and Victorique, and an absolutely heart-rending finale to this instalment that puts its weight on everything that the show has built up in terms of the relationship between the two main characters from the very start.  It's a smart move too, as it works excellently on a deep, emotional level that the series has sometimes forgotten to mine - on this occasion however, I'm left with what has actually been quite a rare feeling for this show - a desperate desire to see what happens next.