Episode 24 Final –
Well, it seems that the fortune telling from a while back was more of a red herring than I had anticipated. While the fortune regarding Victorique and Kujou did come true, at the same time it wasn’t the complete truth. Either ways, as a conclusion this episode wrapped things up fairly well, but at the same time there wasn’t really any sort of major climactic moment or anything this episode. All the important stuff happened in episode 23, and this one was pretty much just an epilogue that told us what happened to everybody after the war.
The big moments of drama here all revolved around Victorique and Brian Roscoe, where Brian Roscoe chases after Victorique simply to try and kill her. He slips up and fails, though, and ends up gravely injured after falling off a cliff(?). His final words tell of his history with Cordelia, and why him and his twin followed her (even into death). Brian Roscoe has always been rather lacking in character development, as well as his backstory. This episode does somewhat touch upon their past, but it was still rushed and crammed in last minute. It’s kind of a shame that this series never explored his character more, especially the fact that they are twins.
Either ways, aside from Brian’s death, Victorique escapes with her life partially thanks to Grevil, and even gets a package of letters from Kujou (courtesy of Roget). It ends up that Kujou is on the battlefield fighting for his very life, amidst air raids and bombings, and so forth. Probably as a symbolic gesture of Victorique’s grief and loneliness, her hair color changed to silver (probably dyed hair, although the episode does hint that it’s now her natural hair color(?) Perhaps from shock…?). Blonde hair and short stature were the universal traits of gray wolves, so her loosing her blonde hair could probably also be considered symbolic of the end of her role as a caged up “despised gray wolf”, and a signal of a new life with freedom.
And of course, in the very end, the lonesome gray wolf awaits Kujou at the end of this wretched “great wind” that blew them apart. As the prophecy predicted, they were indeed thrown apart from each other by the “great wind”. However, “their hearts were always together” because of the trinkets they had given each other. And here’s where that prophecy turned into a red herring; while the prophecy said that they would be thrown apart by the war, it never said they wouldn’t reunite after the war. It’s a bit of a cop out on the creator’s part, but I guess having a happy ending is best.
Honestly, aside from that, the episode pretty much just tells of what happens to everybody after the war. The war ends, the Ministry of Occult is no longer in power, Avril is back in England, Roget rejoins the King, Grevil is once again working in the police force with his love, and various other minor characters are seen living happily ever after. In the end, all this episode did was show what happened to the cast after the war. Nothing more, nothing less. And of course, the romance between the main couple was finally realized, with Victorique by the end wearing what looks like a wedding dress (or at least, very fancy white dress). Aside from all of this closure and “happily ever after” wrap ups, there really wasn’t anything intense or spectacular worth noting here. I do appreciate how this episode was much more relaxed and normal, because it allowed for some quiet closure for this series. Looking back, I am a bit disappointed that the Cordelia vs Albert de Blois was the ultimate climax of this series, because quite frankly I was hoping for something more awe inspiring (or something along those lines). As a normal conclusion though, I can safely say that this was a fitting way to end this series.
Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5
Screenshots are later in the post.
Distant Paradise 
I did not understand though, howcome Kujo could walk after they show that his legs were destroyed in war…
It was probably just psychological or something, where it was trying to show the despair that Kujou was going through on the battlefield. I guess it was also to emphasize how Victorique was his hope and goal in those desperate times.
yeah that’s what I thought too! I’m pretty sure that back in 1929 they didn’t have very realistic prosthetic limbs, especially if it was his entire leg (which it looks like in the anime).
Though I guess if we’re expected to believe that Victorique’s hair changes colour overnight then………..
I get the feeling that there were some huge time skips in between the events going on here, which might explain the color change. As for Kujou losing his legs, it was probably all a dream of some sort, or symbolic of his fighting in the war. Or at least, that’s how I interpreted it.
nah his legs weren’t destroyed, they were burried, then he shocked and continued to see them destroyed after moving.
her hair just grew old. want overnight, how many years had passed between the start and the end of the war, that added to worry(for kujo) and prressure to escape. it all added for her hair to grow silver
that added that they werent that young to begin with(24-28yo) when the war starts
Oh they were buried? I’m just wondering as to if you know this is 100% true. I haven’t touched the source material so I wouldn’t know, unfortunately. Overnight silver hair does seem a bit ridiculous though. Perhaps it was dyed hair initially, but eventually she got that silver hair. Who knows I guess, the series never did give a concrete answer.
I do wish the hair stayed blonde though, I preferred it blonde over silver. And for 24-28 year olds, Victorique is really, really tiny o_o
I always though her hair turned silver because her wellspring of knowledge drained up -Or she lost her Grey Wolf genes- It could be dyed though. I’m hoping for an OVA, maybe clearing up some loose ends or just how Kujo and Victoique are doing. I liked the series alot, maybe a 4.5/5
Well, there is no solid explanation for the hair color change in the series. An OVA would be nice, though I think this conclusion did a fairly good job at wrapping things up anyways.
Well, I’d say i was expecting more from the series… It is kinda sad that a lot of other characters did not receive enough screen time and back story, it had a captavating setting coupled with interesting characters. Oh wells~ I am pleased with the happy end that Kujo and Victorique got at the end where they will be together for that time on. These few episodes have been a lot more darker in terms of atmosphere and general use of colour than say the first half of the series. Kinda miss the brightly lit and cheerful top of the library.
somehow i will miss this series (TT_TT)
The series took a really dark turn of events towards the end of the season, which quite frankly made up for a lot of the disappointments in the earlier episodes. As you said, I was expecting a bit more from this series, but it was nevertheless a solid adventure series that was fun to keep up with. And of course, there is the “happily ever after” ending which I’m sure everybody was waiting for. ^_^
Now I wonder if Kamisama Memochou will be similar to Gosick; well, at least they have some basic similarities in terms of character descriptions.
Well i feel that my weekly Gosick gap will be filled with this season’s “Dantalian no Shoka”. Though Kamisama Memochou did seem a lot more similar, somehow I think that Ginax’s Dantalian no Shoka might just shine really well.
It was a good happy ending… 4.1/5
However… there are parts that don’t make sense a bit and I wish there was more background info on Brian…
Silver hair on Victorique… looks nice! 😉
Well, while the pacing in the final episode was ok, you could easily see how the creators had to forgo including certain bits of backstory and such. With even one more episode, the amount of added backstory and closure to certain characters would have been very satisfying.
LOL… must of been a rush.. either that or they got lazy .. ^_^
“And here’s where that prophecy turned into a red herring; while the prophecy said that they would be thrown apart by the war, it never said they wouldn’t reunite after the war. It’s a bit of a cop out on the creator’s part, but I guess having a happy ending is best.”
ah good point.. I guess it was a nice touch to maintain that ominous feel regarding Kujou and Victorique’s relationship. Not to forget, that dream sequence where Kujou was in the desert with his legs missing and sinking in despair emphasized that prophecy for a bit before the story shifts back to normal, depicting the other characters’ lives
The prophecy did a great job with maintaining tension with regards to Victorique and Kujou’s relationship, especially because the two were aware of the prophecy, which made them all the more desperate. While the prophecy was kind of a red herring, at the same time it was brilliant at showing how powerful the main couple’s relationship has become over the course of the series. Bravo, writer for this series, bravo…
I thought the final fight between Vickie and Brian was well handled. Since she is small and frail, I wasn’t sure how she would get out of it, but the way they showed it was very credible.
As for the final episode in general, it had enough gravitas to satisfy me as truly being an ending to the series, and concluding the whole story. Much better than many shows. But they obviously were packing a lot into one episode, such that some moments were a bit confusing (E.G. where and how did Jupiter get the letters / track her down?). All said I liked the ending and the series as a whole.
Well, I don’t know about credible, but it makes a lot of sense considering Victorique’s small physique in comparison to Brian.
I actually thought the pacing in this episode was fine. What was more of an issue was the huge lack of explanations. Now how the heck did she get silver hair again? and like you mentioned, how did Roget track down Victorique on a seafaring ship, especially when you consider how nobody was supposed to know her whereabouts. Lack of explanation, time skips, etc were notable flaws in this finale, but it was a satisfactory finale nonetheless. Happily ever after is nice, after all.
Victorique’s hair most likely changed to silver due to Marie Antoinette Syndrome when she heard of Cordelia’s death as well as seeing Brian die in front of her.
And to fillian, they are both 15 in 1924. As the series progresses, they are 16 in 1925. The war ends in 1929. They are both around 20 years old when the series ends.
With those comments put there, i honestly LOVED this series. I give it 5/5 and await Bones next anime adaptation (maybe BokuTomo? doubt it) and Gosick is a series that will always be engraved in our hearts.
Aha, finally a credible answer to the hair change, although I’d still like to see the reason from the original source material one day. It certainly makes sense in that context, though I figured the syndrome would only kick in if a traumatic event on the scale of something like Kujou passing away.
Anyways, I digress. The series wasn’t quite good at showing the passage of time in the series itself, and even in the end it was a bit difficult to gauge exactly what rate time was passing at, relative to the pacing of this series.
As for Bones, I do believe they are working on two Noitamina series this year, one in the Summer (No.6), and one more in the Fall (I believe it’s called Un-go). Is Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (BokuTomo) being done by Bones too? Because that would be a surprise considering the source material.