Gosick 01 – Victorique Holmes
Well I’m pretty late to the party here because I got tied up in moderating for an event over the past week. With that out of the way, I finally have an opportunity to write. A lot of people have pointed out some of the obvious parallels between Gosick and the Sherlock Holmes fiction. Victorique is a calm, passive, and analytical thinker, much like her counterpart Holmes, complete with a penchant for pulling out the iconic pipe while thinking. Kazuya, on the other hand, has not quite shown the level of intelligence Dr. Watson had, but has shown infinitely more emotional personality and natural curiosity than his enigmatic companion. However, there is also a parallel between this first episode and the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.
Elementary, my dear Kazuya!
At the end of the story the two characters look at the local newspaper, the Echo, and see a portion of the article covering the crime they just solved. The officers from Scotland Yard took all credit for the investigation. In all likelihood, they will receive a testimonial for their services on the case. Holmes doesn’t particularly care, in fact, he reasoned this outcome from the start. Watson insists on publishing an account of the mystery on his own, though, because he feels Holmes deserves recognition. In universe, this actually results in the printing of A Study in Scarlet. Holmes reads the book and at the start of the second story reveals why he didn’t care about appearing in the newspaper. He likes to work as a detective, but he doesn’t like the attention. He chooses to work as the world’s “only unofficial detective.”
This rather tidily matches up with Gosick’s first episode. Grevil barges in with a case he fails to solve, and Victorique not only corrects him, but presents him with the full solution. Kazuya sees the article in the paper the next day, and storms into Grevil’s office to demand the girl get something. Grevil throws him a bone, and Kazuya feels pretty proud of himself over it. Victorique really doesn’t seem to care too much about it. I imagine this has happened for some time, especially because the detective seems to have her in the palm of his hand. Just like Holmes, she probably likes to stay under the radar. She gets to exercise her mind solving cases without having to deal with the press and the accolades. After doing the research on this, I’m interested in seeing whether any other episodes parallel one of Doyle’s works.
I'm also interested in Victorique being adorable. ...what?
