And the villain is……!

I just finished reading the first volume of the Light Novel series Gosick. Shortly after I bought this book, it was announced that it is one of the titles that Tokyopop has cancelled because of their recent restructuring.

I had never heard of these books before I saw a review of vol. 1 on ANN. I decided to pick it up since it sounded interesting, even though the thoughts of a girl wannabe-Holmes didn’t give me very high hopes about how much I would like the story. The beginning of the book isn’t very thrilling either. Especially the descriptions of some of the characters from the police are very odd, and I found it hard to figure out what kind of mood the book was trying to create – should I take it seriously or not? I must also admit that one of the main characters, the “detective” Victorique, annoyed me a bit. She is a typical, “tsundere” genius, always complaining, always aware of everything that goes on around her. Even when people are getting killed everywhere, she will remain calm and keep insulting Kazuya. I’m sure a lot of people would disagree with me here.

But as we get deeper into the true core of the story, things change. The moment the two main characters, Victorique and Kazuya, are dragged into the mystery on board the yacht at open sea, things get very interesting. The sillyness fades away, and suddenly the situation is very serious and dangerous. Survival is now more important than simply leaning back and cracking mysteries. Even Victorique redeems herself a bit near the end when things get really rough, so I can’t completely dislike her after all.

And who is the real villain….? I was a bit disappointed by that revelation. I liked that character! Awww……. (even if I had a hunch, it was still too bad.)

In the end I must say that I like this book very much, and I’m sad to know that it’s not likely to see more of it in english. At least this first volume is a complete story in and of itself, so even though no more volumes will be printed in english, I’ll still recommend it to anyone interested. It’s a good short read.
Looking it up on the internet, I also see that this series has some really beautiful art. This isn’t very obvious from the looks of the plain and boring cover that Tokyopop has given the book, which is a real shame.

I guess this is, as they say, another good reason to learn japanese. And with that, let’s have another look at some lovely Gosick art: