Gnosia

Episode 15

This week's episode of Gnosia is titled “The Final Problem,” which absolutely has to be an allusion to the famous Sherlock Holmes story that attempted to kill the great detective off by throwing him off Reichenbach Falls along with the dastardly Professor Moriarty. Already, we're getting the episode started with me feeling very divided. On the one hand, Sherlock Holmes rules, so I'm always down when like-minded mystery-freaks drop a wink and a nudge to signal that they've got good taste. On the other hand, though, I think Sherlock would lose his goddamn mind if he were trapped on the D.Q.O. with fifteen of the world's most obvious liars and cheats and a race of space aliens that may as well be addicted to exposing their villainy at every turn. At the very least, he'd be scouring every corner of the ship for a bump of that sweet Space Cocaine to keep his senses from dulling into mush completely.

I'm teasing, of course. While I do still have my problems with Gnosia's structure and the way it frames its Gnosia trials as mere mechanical inevitability instead of as games for the audience to actually play along with, the show is still good fun, for the most part. If nothing else, I have to give it credit for consistently delivering well-crafted episodes that make it bearable to get through two straight weeks of people standing in a circle while they attempt to out-logic and out-lie one another. While I maintain that the Werewolf games are the least interesting element of any Gnosia episode, they've never left me feeling so ungodly bored that I want to shut the episode off. Instead, I mostly end up tolerating the incessant back-and-forth of exposition and banter until we arrive at the bits of the trial that feel like they're properly moving the story along. It doesn't always make for great television, but I'd rather be stuck on the D.Q.O for twenty-three minutes a week than, say, slumming in an isekai hero's guild while someone explains how stat screens work for the hundred-thousandth godforsaken time.

To Gnosia's credit, the second half of this two-part deluxe edition Gnosia Trial is probably the most successful attempt of the show thus far to make the investigations legitimately suspenseful. After taking a bit too long to power through the inevitable ousting of Racio as the Gnosia in the first half of the episode, Yuri ends up getting stuck in a bind when their initial suspicion of Chipie turns out to be a false lead, leaving Jonas and Remnan as the only viable options. Jonas is clearly the AC Follower, but Remnan is ostensibly the Doctor, so what is Yuri to do? The answer is that our hero must trust their gut and use the most important tool of any Werewolf game: Deception. When Jonas lies and claims he used his Engineer power to identify Remnan as a Gnosia, Yuri says the same thing. Thankfully, this all works out in the end, because Remnan really is a Gnosia who assumed the role of the Doctor when the real one got axed early on.

Now, I want to make sure I highlight my caveat from earlier when I say that this was the most successful attempt at a suspenseful and compelling that Gnosia has made so far. For me, it still wasn't enough to get me emotionally invested in anything happening on screen, though I can still recognize how this might still work for other folks much better. The inclusion of the random AC Follower element has resulted in scenarios that seem like unsolvable puzzles, so there is at least some fun to be had in watching Yuri deduce his way out of such a sticky situation on the fly. I just wish that the stakes of the trial were more resonant than “If Yuri wins, we might finally get some more clarity about what the real stakes of this entire story are!” Barring that, I wouldn't mind if the cast had more to do than tossing in the occasionally charming line in between all of the video-game trial patter.

Ultimately, I can only be thankful that this was a moderately entertaining conclusion to an extended “boss fight” of a trial that is probably a hoot to puzzle through in its interactive form. Now, on with the show, please. Thank you.

Episode Rating:

Gnosia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.