Gosick

[Kraco]

"Gosick takes place in 1924 in a small, made-up European country of Sauville. The story centres on Kazuya Kujo, the third son of a Japanese Imperial soldier, 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 content of the library or solving mysteries that even detectives can't 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." -AniDB

Themes: Mystery, detective, historical
Links: AniDB, ANN, Official

Download:

Episode 1 - Random remux

Episode 1- Tsuki

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This was one of the series I was looking forward to based on the short description. Just like last season with Yakumo, I thought a detective/mystery series with a pinch of fantasy would be jolly good. After the first ep, this looks pretty heavy on the mystery indeed. The 20's atmosphere adds greatly to the feeling, naturally. I don't mind the gothic loli either as it seems she isn't there just to attract lolicons but has a well built character (voiced by Aoi Yuuki (Mina Tepes of Vampire Bund, Madoka of Puella Magi, Korone of Daimaou). The male main character isn't a total loser either, I noted, and is voiced by Takuya Eguchi of hardly any previous roles (Satoshi Osugi of Eden of the East among the few).

I'll keep watching this. The few characters introduced so far has been fairly interesting, the art is quite nice, including backgrounds, and, like I said, it's serving mystery decently so far.

Even if the case was obvious as soon as the detective explained it.

[RyougaZell]

Yep. The mystery was really obvious, but it was also just the beginning since it led them to yet another mystery. I really liked it and look forward for more.

Though I still don't understand all Shinigami nonsense.

[Kraco]

Luxury liner:

Episode 2 - Horimux

I had to extract the subtitle file from the mkv, increase the font size, and remux it back in. The subtitles were too small originally.




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This was enjoyable, but I find it annoying how Victorique is so readily used to explain everything. I suppose there isn't enough time to leave the audience to figure everything out by themselves but still it makes also the other characters seem useless. At least Kazuya trying to act like a knight in a shining armor seems to amuse Victorique so there're some dynamics left despite the puzzles getting answers so fast. I hope we will see a bit of variance in the future.

Other than that, I like the plot so far.

Victorique's mechanic laughter was also hilarious, especially considering the circumstances.

[Buffalobiian]

How dare they cliffhanger me!!

I watched Derp's release, and the OP/ED Karaoke rendering lagged like hell on my older laptop (as did some of their previous releases).

Kujo's soft, but he's got a personality. This would have sucked hard if he was being led by Victorique's know-it-all attitude 100% of the time. Then he would just be a wuss and her annoying.

I find it hard to believe that Victorique truly smokes tobacco though.

[RyougaZell]

I watched Derp's release, and the OP/ED Karaoke rendering lagged like hell on my older laptop (as did some of their previous releases).

I deleted Derp's releases just because of this. My computer is only two years old and the lag made it unwatchable. I waited for Hatsuyuuki-Tsuki to release Ep2. They aren't a fast group (specially with Hatsuyuuki involved) but they end up with good quality.

[shinta|hikari]

I got the tricks behind the room change and the text on the wall way before Victorique revealed them. Pretty simple so far.

I think it is possible that the gun backfired on the old guy. It makes sense if you consider that the hunting dog planted the weapons him/herself. It would be risky to give them usable weapons that they can use to kill you.

Does Victorique even light up the pipe?

[Xelbair]

I've thought the same about the gun, room trick and wallpaper was obvious.
I don't think so - the pipe is used to give 'Sherlock' feel to her.

[Buffalobiian]

I don't think so - the pipe is used to give 'Sherlock' feel to her.

Now just replace "Kujo" with "Watson" and she's perfect. Ha-ha-ha.

[shinta|hikari]

Ha- ha- ha-

[Nadouku]

Started watching this anime today and I'm impressed with it. Although the mysteries were pretty easy to solve, I like the atmosphere that the anime provides. I also agree that the gun must have been rigged and Maurice must be dead by now. We'll see, though.

[Buffalobiian]

As per Zell's recommendation to post the results, the following's a test I ran using Derp's Episode 02 OP passage:

Intel i5 760 (2.8GHz, quad core, 8GB RAM), CCCP - no lag
Intel C2D E8400 (3.0GHz, dual core, 4GB RAM), CCCP - no lag

Intel C2D E6600 (2.4GHz, dual core, 4GB RAM), CCCP - LAG ( <-this PC used to handle everything that my laptop couldn't, including [Derp]_DenYuuDen OPs).

^ Same machine.........................................., CoreAVC - LAG (no lag apparent until towards the end of the OP, ~2:27 of episode 02)

AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 Mobile (1.6GHz, dual core, 2.6GB RAM), CoreAVC - LAAAAAAAAAAAAG

Conclusion: It takes a powerhouse to render those subs.

Note that the number of cores doesn't really matter as the decoding's single-threaded. The clock-speed and architecture (how new, and resultantly more efficient, the CPU is per clock) would play a bigger part. I don't think the i-series was that much more efficient than the C2Ds though.

[Kraco]

Note that the number of cores doesn't really matter as the decoding's single-threaded.

Not true. Although I'm not altogether sure about CoreAVC as I haven't had it installed ever since I switched to this quad core. Or are you referring specifically to the subtitle rendering? If so, then I have no idea and you might indeed be correct.

[Buffalobiian]

Not true. Although I'm not altogether sure about CoreAVC as I haven't had it installed ever since I switched to this quad core. Or are you referring specifically to the subtitle rendering? If so, then I have no idea and you might indeed be correct.

You're right, my knowledge was (really) backdated, and H264 multithreaded decoding was emerging as early as 2007. :O

I confirmed in Media Player Classic's threads to see what's going on, and sure enough I see 4 threads (assumingly because it's a quad core) decoding comfortably. (<2%CPU per thread).



When the OP starts playing, the thread required for subtitle rendering jumps rockets up. It peaks at 20% CPU towards the end, at which the clock rate was 3.2GHz. Working out the load on a single core, turns out that the thread alone required 2.5GHz worth of calculations on the i5 at that point - which seems consistent with our previous results.(the 2.4Ghz struggled, then failed.)



In summary: H264 - multithread (thanks for the correction), easy. Subs - single thread, killer.

Work-around for if you want/need Derp (applies to ED too):

1) Skip the OP, or if you must watch it,
2) Turn off subs while watching OP (use the "s" key in MPC to cycle through the subtitle tracks.)


edit: DXVA isn't on animus. Perhaps that may be workaround #3

Well now that Derp's little puzzle's solved..

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Although the mysteries were pretty easy to solve, I like the atmosphere that the anime provides.

The gun/lock trick was easy, but that was the only mystery I got. I couldn't see the room change, or the wallpaper (yes, the wallpaper!!) until it was shown to me. I always had a feeling I was never cut for detective work...

[animus]

I haven't tried watching the Derp release but do you have DXVA on?

[shinta|hikari]

Rather than being an indication of detective talent, those tricks are simply common in detective stories. I am not even a fan or read much of them and I remember those tricks being done in a story I have watched/read before.

[Nadouku]

I'm assuming that every mystery in this anime is going to be man-made, so supernatural powers shouldn't intervene... unless you're Victorique.

[Kraco]

The clean/rotten room one was more than obvious, but my overthinking ways sure backfired once again, because I thought the bloody text on the wall was created by having a swinging wall fragment...

What I was referring to earlier were things like the wine bottle and such. Perhaps some other details I don't remember anymore. But more the fact nobody else of the characters around has any chance to do any thinking.

[Buffalobiian]

Derp - Episode 03

[Kraco]

Victorique's past surely was quite cruel - assuming she was telling the truth. I wouldn't bet Shinta's left hand on that just yet. But at the very least she can now spend her imprisonment in a more comfortable environment. The past would explain her thirst for mysteries, even if not her skills at analysing human behavior. But quite a few of her observations have been physical evidence based, not psychological, so I guess it clicks.

This arc was wrapped nicely enough. An overly complicated way of seeking revenge, sure, but if the woman was mentally instable, it makes perfect sense. The weight of the purse was a good observation, but the tennis ball in the armpit... She must have encountered such a trick before in some novel. Not that the wrist of a twisted arm would be the best place to check the pulse anyway. She did good job of getting Kujo away from the faker, though.

[Buffalobiian]

Victorique's past surely was quite cruel - assuming she was telling the truth. I wouldn't bet Shinta's left hand on that just yet. But at the very least she can now spend her imprisonment in a more comfortable environment.

I would. Shinta's left hand that is.

In that scene where she elaborates on how the culprit used to be locked in a small room, her brother coughs. Normally you'd think its his detective pride kicking in so she'd stop talking, but he was fine with her explaining the entire case afterwards anyway. Victorique also said that she meant it generally with no hidden meaning intended afterwards. Things seemed to fit in place.

There was also the earlier scene where she asked Kujo if being superior intellectually would promote you to First Born status in his country. Taking her past into account, it likely wasn't simply just a passing-by question.

Finally, taking Drill-hair's words from the first episode where he said Victorique could only move around with his permission anyway, I'd say Victorique wasn't lying in the slightest.

Her situation nicely fits in with the feel that I got from her in the first episode. That golden hair and the tall library gives the impression of a bird trapped in a cage.

Not that the wrist of a twisted arm would be the best place to check the pulse anyway.

I never liked checking the wrist for a pulse. I always like to jab the neck. I imagine it's not as nice for the recipient though.

I'm loving Victorique. Her remarks are funny without being overly arrogant like in Vampire Bund.

Note: I'm not sure if this applies to the episodes 1 and 2, but episode 3 from Derp contained an "Efffects" subtitle track as well as a "Non-Effects" one.