Gosick (Japanese: ゴシック, Hepburn: Goshikku, stylized as GOSICK, derived from the word gothic) is a Japanese light novel series by Kazuki Sakuraba, with illustrations by Hinata Takeda. The series includes 13 novels published by Fujimi Shobo between December 2003 and July 2011. Set in a fictional European country in 1924, a Japanese exchange student meets a mysterious, brilliant girl who only leaves the library to sleep. Her brother, a detective, relies on her exceptional mind to solve difficult mysteries. Tokyopop released the first two novels in English in North America. A manga adaptation drawn by Sakuya Amano was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine. A 24-episode anime adaptation by Bones aired between January and July 2011. A sequel novel titled Gosick Red was released in December 2013.
Plot and settings
Gosick takes place in 1924 in a small, French-speaking fictional European country; which stretches in a strip from Switzerland, through the Alps between France and Italy, to the Mediterranean Sea. The country is called "Sauville" in the English translation of the light novels; it is called "Saubure" in the anime adaption. The story centers on Kazuya Kujo, the third son of a high-ranking officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, who is a transfer student to St. Marguerite Academy, where urban legends and horror stories are all the rage. There he meets Victorique, a mysterious yet beautiful and brilliant girl who never comes to class and spends her days reading the entire contents of the library or solving mysteries that even detectives can not solve. The series mostly focuses on Kazuya and Victorique getting involved in different mystery cases and their struggle to solve them, at the same time forming important bonds with different people.