Kujou Kazuya is a transfer student to the elite Saint Marguerite Academy in the Southern European country of Sauville. However, because of his Japanese descent, he is shunned by the other students. One day in the library of the school, he ends up following a long blonde hair to a beautiful doll-like girl call Victorique de Blois who can predict the future, including their own currently entwined one. Together, the pair begin to solve the mysteries that are beginning to plague their surroundings.
The mysteries of Gosick are good, but the series really kicks itself into gear in the later end when it starts to explore the overarching plot that it was feeding. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Gosick, then head on down below.
Anime Like Gosick
For Fans of Supernatural Seeming Mysteries
Hyouka
After his sister’s nagging, energy-conservative Oreki joins the Classic Literature Club. However, he gets more than he bargained for when he is dragged into a 45-year-old mystery that surrounds their club room by the endlessly curious and intriguingly cute Chitanda. Alongside his club mates, he also finds himself dragged into a host of other cases by Chitanda’s curiosity, using his keen mind to come to logical solutions.
Gosick and Hyouka are both about solving various mysteries. However, what ties them together is that each mystery seems like it might be supernatural, but always has a cause based in reality. This makes them particularly clever as far as detective anime go.
Beautiful Bones – Sakurako’s Investigation
Initially, high schooler Shoutaro is suspicious of Sakurako Kujo, a cool beauty in her twenties, for the disappearances in his neighborhood. However, he soon learns her true talent is analyzing bones as an osteologist. Accompanying her on her outings, he finds himself embroiled in a number of mysteries.
While Gosick sets its mysteries up to seem supernatural at first, Beautiful Bones doesn’t make as much of an attempt. However, like Gosick, you watch a magnificent female detective sort and feel out a case in front of their male assistant’s eyes in a wondrous way. If you enjoy the way Victorique solves mysteries, this series goes about it in much the same way.
For Fans of Macabre Atmosphere
The Mystic Archives of Dantalian
After losing his eccentric grandfather, Lord Hugh “Huey” Disward is set to inherit his estate, but on one condition. He must take over care of his grandfather’s archives full of forbidden knowledge and care for a mysterious girl named Dalian. However, he soon learns that the rival of his grandfather’s and his suspected killer is in the possession of a cursed tome that is causing problems in the world. Now with Dalian’s help, he must work to do what his grandfather failed to do – seal the tome away.
Think of Gosick and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian as two sides of the same coin. One is about unraveling supernaturalism and revealing the reality underneath, the other is about investigating the supernatural in reality. Both series are about normal guys teaming up with mysterious girls to investigate various happenings in their world and also reflect a distinct older European style in the world.
Another
Ever since 1972, class 3-3 in Yomiyama North Middle School has had a strange tradition of pretending that one of their students did not exist. When Kouichi Sakakubara transfers into the class, he finds himself drawn to a girl that no one seems to notice. Not paying heed to the warnings of his classmates, all hell is about to break loose.
Both Gosick and Another have the same set up of a normal guy being intrigued by a quiet, mysterious girl that no one seems to notice. They then discover that both girls are normal people, but in rather unique circumstances and dare to help them. While Gosick is rather gore-free, Another is on the opposite end of the spectrum as it features frequent killing.
Shadows House
The Shadows are a family of nobles who live in their massive mansion. They are pitch black in appearance and emit soot that will linger on everything they touch. In order to effectively display their emotions, each Shadow is given a Living Doll to be their attendant and their face. This is the tale of cheerful and curious Emilico, a newly created doll, who was given to her more soft-spoken young Shadow, Kate. While it is promoted that Living Dolls be loyal and unconcerned about trivial matters, Emilico is constantly intrigued by the massive mansion and those that live within.
While Shadows House is a mystery series, it isn’t a detective-based one. The mystery is unraveling what is really happening in that house. Like Gosick, it has a distinct Lolita/European style to the characters and setting. Both series also have a certain sense of menace that hangs about the tone of the series, even in the nice moments.
Pandora Hearts
Young Oz Vessalius is the heir to his noble house. However, during his coming-of-age ceremony, the Baskerville Clan comes to oust him from his seat and force him into the Abyss that he once thought fictional. Inside, he finds it much like the stories so now he must learn to survive and escape this place infested with beings called Chains.
If you enjoyed the Lolita vibe of Gosick paired with a World War II era sort of European feel to the characters, Pandora Hearts is much the same. However, it does emphasis action more than Gosick, but creates unique characters and a wildly unique setting.
For Fans of Holmes and Watson-Style Detective Partnerships
In-Spectre
At a young age, Kotoko Iwanaga was abducted by yokai and asked to become their Goddess of Wisdom to act as a mediator between spiritual and human issues. She agreed and lost her right eye and left leg in the agreement. Meanwhile, Kotoko meets Kuro Sakuragawa, a man who just broke up with his girlfriend after a kappa fled before him. Kotoko makes her move to not only lock him down as a boyfriend, but to have him help her settle various disputes with spirits.
Gosick is often about debunking the supernatural and In/Spectre is about the exact opposite. In this series, it follows a girl that is a mediator that investigates and tries to solve the problems of various spirits in the world with the help of a sidekick she strong-armed into helping her. While the dynamic isn’t quite as wholesome as Gosick, it is pretty cute in its own ways.
Heaven’s Memo Pad
Narumi Fujishima doesn’t really fit in at school, but still craves friends. When another misfit introduces him to a strange NEET girl that lives above a ramen shop, he is drafted into her ultra-elite private detective agency.
Both Gosick and Heaven’s Memo Pad are mystery solving series in which a rather aimless male main character becomes the sidekick to a genius girl detective. While Heaven’s Memo Pad lacks the same sort of unique setting, it actually shares quite a few similarities to Gosick.
The Detective Is Already Dead
Kimizuka Kimihiko is a magnet for bad events. He constantly gets caught up in everything from witnessing drug deals to getting kidnapped. This time, he was forced to carry an unknown package on a flight by criminals, which leads him to an encounter with the legendary detective, Siesta. After helping this beautiful girl unravel a case surrounding a mysterious organization she is hunting, he becomes her assistant. Fast-forward four years later and Kimizuka attends school aimlessly. After four years of international adventure, he is without purpose now that Siesta is dead. However, after meeting a girl that received Siesta’s heart from an organ transplant, this leads him right back to his mystery-solving days.
Whereas the mysteries in Gosick are, for the most part, unrelated, The Detective is Already Dead ties all its mysteries together to an organization working in the shadows. While this series shares the same dynamic of a genius girl and her less intelligent male sidekick and love interest, it lacks the same amount of depth to its mysteries.
Un-Go
Known at the Defeated Detective, Shinjuurou Yuuki solves mysteries with his associate Inga in dystopian Tokyo. While Yuuki’s insight and ingenuity help him solve many cases, his assistant appears to have other motives for pushing him forward.
Un-Go is a mystery series that kind of flips the script when it comes to its duo mystery solving partnership. Instead of the detective being the brilliant genius, much of the mysteries are solved by his assistant. Like Gosick, this series starts as an episodic mystery solver, but grows into a grander plot over time.
Holmes of Kyoto
In Kyoto’s Teramachi Sanjou shopping district, there sits an antique shop. Mashiro Aoi accidentally runs into the shop’s owner, Yagashira Kiyotaka, who persuades her to work in his shop part-time. However, aside from just selling antiques, the shop owner also handles various mysteries that are brought to him.
It is hard to not see the Sherlock Holmes influence in many mystery anime series about detectives, but at least Holmes of Kyoto dares to be more on the nose with it. Both this series and Gosick follow man and woman detective pair that investigate mysteries of various levels of severity. They also have a similar way of balancing out the mystery of the series with nice slice of life moments.
Ghost Hunt
High school freshman Mai Taniyama likes to spend her free time telling ghost stories with friends. One day she hears a ghost story about the cursed old school building. Overcome by curiosity, she decides to check it out. After peeking in the window, she spots a camera. After a twist of fate, she ends up breaking the camera and injuring an unknown man. It turns out that both belonged to the young Kazuya Shibuya, a paranormal investigator and high school senior. In order to pay him back, he forced her to become his assistant for his paranormal investigation company.
Whereas Gosick is about debunking spiritualism, Ghost Hunt is about the supernatural. However, the charming thing about Ghost Hunt is that they investigate paranormal activity using real world ghost hunting devices and techniques. While the content is quite the opposite in its stance on the supernatural, both shows involve man and woman duos investigating supernatural seeming mysteries and forming a deeper relationship.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Gosick? Let fans know in the comments section below.
