The truth of the Queen’s murder is examined more closely, but will it ever be truly resolved?
What They Say:
After Kazuya rescues Victorique, it’s with renewed confidence that she has the grave of a one-time dancer dug up in order to get at the truth behind the Queen’s murder. Victorique finds an important fragment of Chaos lying there and soon she begins expounding on a story of Coco Rose that is quite different from the one that’s being performed at the same time.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When truth becomes fiction, it’s generally done in order to cover things up and to present a more palatable story to the general population. As the saying goes, history is written by the victors and while they will contain truths, things will be slanted in other directions over time. Such is the case when it comes to the murder of the Queen that Victorique has been investigating. With the very well known story being put on in play form, it’s no surprise that the truth of the matter is a very different thing. The opening of this episode gives Victorique the next clue she needs as they dig the body out of the ground of a performer from years ago to discover a locket on her person that gives her exactly what she needs.
The fictional account of the Queen’s life in stage form has its moments, but where things change is during the stillbirth that happens. According to Victorique, this is when the Queen actually died and in place of her was the dancer Nicole who ended up changing the way the Queen was perceived. While they looked very much alike, she was far more outgoing and that caused some problems, but was still manageable. The problem for Nicole as the Queen though came in 1914 as she ended up meeting an emissary that knew the truth upon meeting her, and that led to the fallout that occurred. Watching this in stage form has the audience getting quite into it. With the Queen’s death as Nicole, the use of the preserved body from the Queen herself was able to be substituted into her place, allowing for some legitimacy to events some fourteen years after she really died.
With the mystery of who really killed her in place, the Ministry of the Occult expects Victorique to provide the answer, and they did this entire performance in order to draw out another Gray Wolf named Jupiter Roget. This last minute introduction is interesting as it adds a lot of tension to the moment, an unexpected occurrence to be sure, which leaves you very unsure of where the show will go from there. The show works through a fairly interesting tragedy as the truth of events unfold here, and there’s some interesting aspects to it where Victorique’s claim of not knowing the murderer feels like a ruse on her part, and we get a good sense of how terrible the whole truth likely was in the past. The things that draw to a close here do so in a good way, though open ended of course since the murderer isn’t actually named in the course of the main facing off between parties, but that’s less the point of things in the end.
In Summary:
With the end of this arc, the frustrations that I’ve felt elsewhere in the series again feel like they’re on point here. There are some very interesting moments as things are explained and dealt with, as best as they can be, but that when watched in full together without a week between episodes it will have a much stronger feel to it. The narratives are interesting, but there’s a convoluted path to getting to the point here which can be fun but also means you really have to work at it. This arc felt like they went in odd directions at times to get to the point and that proved problematic in following events, especially when you have people like Victorique holding back, but it definitely had its moments. Particularly with Kazuya as he went off on his own for awhile and did his best to find Victorique. Of course, the final moments make it all worthwhile juts for the sheer curiosity value of it all.
Grade: B
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
1 thought on “Gosick Episode #21 Review”