Gosick/YMMV

Spoilers will be unmarked.

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• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: See Gorgeous Period Dress on the main page.
• Ass Pull: Crime scene details, more or less, come and go as plot demands it. For example, what appeared to be one room is actually one room and a massacred replica. And the viewer isn't tipped off one bit until it is shown.
  • The mystery-solving relies on a wholesale rejection of all things supernatural; the typical criminal in-universe is some devious person manipulating the superstitious into believing a falsehood. From this, a person might successfully deduce their way to the water-damaged double room. (Though it must be noted that the Queen Berry incident was the very first case in the anime, and if one is paying close attention, like Victorique does, one might be able to notice the difference or figure out how it could be pulled off.)
• Complete Monster: Albert de Blois - rapist, child abuser, and cold-hearted manipulator. This is not a series that places much store in making its Big Bad sympathetic.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Both ending themes qualify, especially the full versions available on the ED single.
• Just Here For Victorique: Quite a few people watch the show for the singular reason that Victorique is adorable.
• Magnificent Bastard: The alchemist Leviathan, who manipulated the king for years to keep his homecountry in Africa safe and even had an affair with the queen. He wasn't even a real alchemist, just a charismatic Con Man.
• Mood Whiplash: Frequently changes from dramatic crime-solving, to humor, to d'aww, often within seconds.
• Moral Event Horizon: Episode 19 makes it quite clear that the Marquis de Blois had crossed it long before the start of the series... and puts paid to any assumption that his relationship with Victorique's mother was in any way consensual.
• Nightmare Fuel: Whilst the series had touched on somewhat dark subject matter before, Episode 19's flashbacks were still quite remarkably disturbing both for what they showed and what they implied.
  • The fortune tellers. The looks on their faces are absolutely terrifying.
  • The sudden closeup on The Fake Avril's face in episode 4 was downright creepy.
  • Episode 24 when Kujo is knocked out and dreaming that his whole lower half is missing!
• Nightmare Retardant: Herminia from the Horovitz arc. Whatever the writers intended with her loony facial expressions and completely over-the-top psychosis, utter hilarity probably wasn't it, and yet...
• Tear Jerker: Take the time period of the series. Add the 20 years foretold to the dutiful third son of an Imperial Army Officer. It makes every episode heartwrenching. And then comes episode 15....
• Wham! Episode:
  • Episode 19, which shows just how horrifying Victorique's Backstory really is.
  • Episode 22 when it turns out Grevil helping Kujo find Victorique and his affection for his little sister might have all been an act
  • Dear God, Episode 23. Kujo's been deported. Victorique is Albert's prisoner. Albert has defeated the Science Academy and taken control of Sauville. And then... Cordelia reaches new levels of Badass in confronting Albert at a public function, stages a terrorist attack on him with Brian Roscoe's help, and then kills him in a swordfight. Then she gets killed, and Brian's twin makes an attempt on Victorique's life. Holy shit.
• The Woobie:
  • Victorique, especially as more details about her past come to light. Let's just say that living alone in a giant library which she needs special permission to leave was a big improvement on her previous situation.
  • Her mother seems to be a good candidate for the trope, as well. She lost her home twice over, as well as her daughter for a crime she did not commit and she was kidnapped and raped.
  • The Hares in the first crime.