- Story (8/10):
Kazuya Kujou, an oriental exchange student comes to Sauville, a fictional country in Europe in order to follow up his studies. Turns out he found himself in a completely new world, a world very different than where he comes from by more than the color of hair and eyes, a country very reliant and famous for its fables and mysterious tragedies, among them, the golden fairy that resides at the top of a tower. Enter Victorique, a short loli looking doll-faced sweet lover, a first-degree expert at bad mouthing other people. Have it be a murder, impersonation or a hoax, the duo strives to solve the mystery around every famous case by the request of the local investigation bureau. But the show is more than a sequence of cases that needs to be solved, but down the line, all of those cases become to be unraveled as only preparations leading to an even greater case of murder that could shake the whole country, and as consequence, the stability of the great powers in Europe.
I personally find most of the riddles very interesting, and another case relates to a prior one was just too satisfying to realize. I also appreciate the minimalistic amount of flashbacks, as the ones we've got were more than enough to keep the pace up of what's currently happening.
However, there was still something up there that didn't feel quite right. Because of the linear nature of the storytelling, sometimes the mystery being solved is either predictable, too obvious, or just interesting to follow up.
- Art (8.0/10):
Let's talk about the producing studio for starters. Studio bones, if that doesn't ring any bell, it's the same studio that did Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Noragami, Mob Psycho 100, Boku no Hero Academia...
Just so you know what you're getting because if that wasn't enough already, I can assure you, the quality of the animation remained consistent throughout the whole series and managed to keep up the quality up to today's standards. The fighting scenes? there isn't a lot, but the one we've got was enough to make your eye capture as much of that sweetness as a Sharingan can.
As a generalization, the art style feels very average and a bit cartoonish, something between Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Little Witch Academia. Which in my opinion was great to capture the atmosphere of the portrayed era, between the two world wars, a time of the great shift from the occult to science.
- Sound (8.5/10):
Aoi Yuuki (Tsuyu from My Hero Academia, Tatsumaki from One Punch Man) and Takuya Eguchi (Shinji from Koruko no Basket, Nero from 91 Days), need I say more? There may not be the biggest voice actors out there, but if you know those characters, you know how amazing their acting blends with a role. People would point their fingers at Kujou saying he's annoying, talks too much, but that was the point, he's a naive 15 years old dude in a foreign land, he questions anything new he sees and quibbles with how different things are dealt with there. And then comes Victorique with a delicate tone of voice, as golden as her hair and as fragile as her physic, you just can't deny the cuteness sometimes. I'm serious when I say, they must really love what they were doing, the effort is obviously noticeable in their performance, like when Victorique cries, it gives you chills down your spine as if somebody was genuinely crying.
- Character (7.0/10):
Aside from Victorique, there wasn't any figure on two legs that stood out much, Victorique was more than a main piece in the show, she was the center of her universe, but her beauty and brain, everybody else paled in comparison, but that doesn't mean they acted like soulless Americans, most of them were interesting in their own, like Brain, and Cordelia, Albert and so on. Victorique has had a great character development, she went from the shy unsocial unfriendly fairy to a very appreciative person, but not much can be said about Kujou, he kept a steady nagging through the run screaming “Victorique” at least 20 times each episode.
- Enjoyment (8.5/10):
Detective stories are not precisely my cup of tea, but having a loli take charge of things is another thing. [title] gave me more than mystery solving pleasure, I had my share of shipping and comedy as well, for that, I'm very welcoming.
- Overall (8.0/10):
Now, this is definitely something I'd recommend, even for people that aren't into the detective genre for how much diversity it can develop. As long as you can remain focused and keep up with the mind trickery that is, the show will be worth it.
