Story: The story and the title of the anime implies that the detective had a major influence on the characters around her before her death which included the main character (MC) and (possibly) other characters that we will see throughout the anime. Alternatively, (and this is what I thought) I believed it was a play on words as in the role of the "detective" has died in a metaphorical manner. Therefore, I was expecting the revival of the detective role either by the girl (if she faked her death) or by another person (possibly the MC) whilst the anime explains the importance and role of the detective and how vital the detective role is is for those around them. The irony was that I was half right. The story does try to focus on the part of the detective role and the importance of the detective to be alive since the crimes and the overarching enemy are still at large. However, the way it was executed was not suitable for a mystery genre especially when you have a detective and sidekick role. It is more accurate to say it was less of a mystery genre and more of a supernatural genre that so happens needs a detective character to make the story work (similar to Neuro: Supernatural Detective).
The importance of a mystery genre is the setup and exposition where the information presented is picked up by both the viewer and characters, this is known as presenting the necessary clues. As such, the clues available to the viewer and the characters should be enough to deduce the answer to the mystery by answering the fundamental three questions: What, How, and Why? I am sure you realised that what I just described was the basics of detective stories where a detective tries to answer these three questions. Of course, I am not arguing all mystery shows need to have all three questions answered but at least you need to answer the why question since a mystery is called a mystery since it has unknown causes where the focus of the story is to figure those unknown causes out. Those who are more familiarised with the genre can argue that I was describing the Knox Commandments and/or Van Dine rules (which you are not wrong but they are a little more technical and strictly not necessary for all mystery genres). However, the anime does not portray a single clue or information that allows us to solve the mystery (or in this context "cases"), and yet the detective in the story can solve the mystery despite the lack of clues. This should make the viewer seem impressed by her feats, but this is not the case which lies in me being half wrong. The anime tries to impress you that there is a character that can resolve cases before the cases actually happen and the explanation for such feats is that she has already kept tabs on the necessary people related to the case. However, this is no more than just a word of god (i.e. the author) just providing convenient excuses to make the character look impressive by providing convenient information outside the episode to say that the clues were there just were not presented in the episode (for an analogy it is similar to the MC being nearly defeated by the enemy with a sudden twist of the MC gaining enough power to defeat said enemy by the next instance just because the MC had a key item that he forgot he had without the audience knowing). The irony is that the detective girl is just a human person without using any supernatural phenomena to quickly gather information (Gosick takes advantage of this supernatural phenomenon which makes the detective in that anime more relatable), it is plainly her intuition, observation, and problem-solving skills that enable her to solve the case. This feat makes the MC impressed at her but ironically this makes me (and possibly other viewers) annoyed since it makes it too convenient and unbalanced as a character. As a result, this hampers the story dramatically since this ability enables the detective to always keep secrets from the viewer and we will never know why the enemy exists in the first place nor why she and the MC have to go against an enemy at all, as well as why the detective is necessary since the detective herself does not explain why she is doing it (it is implied it is in her nature but that is not enough to explain the whole story).
The lack of exposition and information which the detective should be conveying is not being conveyed (for the most important part of the story at least) and then it starts to focus on a passing-on-the-torch style where the detective dies and the role must be passed down to someone. However, considering that the importance of the role of the detective was not conveyed nor the reason why we need a detective, to begin with, makes this whole story quite pointless and very redundant. Arguably, you can say that no one needs to be a detective. There was a lack of structure of the whole mystery and a lack of reasoning behind the role of the detective as such it becomes very confusing why these characters are crucial, to begin with.
Character: The only good point about these characters is their two-faced natures which makes them interesting and fun to watch. Each character is two-faced since they are always hiding something from each other and they are willing to go against each other if it goes against their beliefs. Thus, you feel more related to them since you can understand they are not just blindingly following each other and obeying each other for simple reasons as devotion, love, etc. It is more on the build-up of trust despite their different beliefs and personalities they can still work together and trust each other. However, the main issue with these characters is their age and their capabilities (especially the detective).
First of all the story starts in middle school where the MC (despite looking like a highschooler) interacts with the detective girl during middle school and then all of a sudden you are told that three years have gone by (by the second episode) where he is now in high school, but during those three years, he went on many adventures with the detective girl. (You can argue it is just as ridiculous as Conan understanding many expert fields, like knowing how to ride a plane, during his middle school years). It feels very out of place for him to be in high school let alone to be in education it would make more sense for him to be a young adult that just graduated college or high school. The MC's personality and behaviour match those of an adult rather than a high school student. Furthermore, the banter he has with the female detective still works in adulthood rather than high school, considering how mature both of them are. The other characters that we interact with only highlight the relationship between the MC and the female detective despite their interesting qualities being only relevant for a short period of time. The characters that are meant to be the enemy could have been more interesting if we had a better idea of what their collective motive was. I am assuming that this is still too early in the LN and this would be explored later but as far as we can tell it seems that all they want to do is to cause havoc which sounds pretty weak for needing an organisation. Lastly, the girl's capability as a detective just rubs me off the wrong way since it appears that she is always one step ahead in the game but it just seems to be convenient excuses to make her sound impressive. I would let it slide if there was a valid explanation about her thought process on how she got the answer very quickly but consistently pulling out convenient clues and information at the right time just makes it sound like she has clairvoyance, which implies she doesn't. It is difficult to relate to her and the fact that she has an importance in the story does not convey properly since her personality and attitude make her seem all-knowing and a lack of her background makes it even more difficult to relate to her as to why she is who she is.
Art and Sound: The animation was very enjoyable and high quality where each character looked lively. The sound was interesting where it has some nice OST's with the OP and ED being mediocre.
Overall: I am more confused than informed about this anime. It is clear that it is talking about how the MC needs to keep the will of the detective alive but the way the story executes the detective role is lackluster and confusing since (after watching 12 episodes) I still have no idea what the importance/ plot of the detective is. Furthermore, the lack of knowing what the enemy is and what their main goal is is left in the air as well as the execution of the mystery genre makes it less of a mystery and more of a plot device. I would say compared to other mystery genres like Umineko and Hyouka this mystery cannot be categorised as a mystery since I (as the audience) cannot even comprehend how the detective girl can even reach some of these conclusions. The only mystery I did solve was when the MC tried to figure out a mystery related to an idol girl's request but instead of following clues, it was more along the lines of expectation by predicting that there is a twist to this mystery rather than actual clues lying around (which there weren't any). I will put it this way compared to Hyouka where there were clues presented it was actually possible to resolve the mystery without waiting for the answer but the twists are in the whydunit? Since, in the end, the reason for causing the mystery is always different and personal to the culprit. However, this series does not have such concepts making it more difficult to understand why the mystery is there and (again) the reason for a detective to be necessary.
