Sauville's Location and Gosick's Historical Accuracy
I know some of you are going to wonder why i'm nit picking the historical accuracy of an anime, but the ending of Gosick kinda made little sense to me.
First off, let me tell you that Sauville is a real place. Well actually two places. And they're both communes (incorporated municipalities or villages) located in France.
You might recall from the final episode that Kujo's sister tried to talk to Victorica in English and French. If we look at how some countries in the area have adopted languages, you'll notice it's generally based on the geographic location of the country. Luxenbourg speaks French and English. Belgium speaks Dutch, French and German because they're nestled between the Netherlands, France and Germany (if they don't split the country). This will leave you assuming Kingdom of Sauville was likely somewhere on the northern coast of France somewhere between the western tip to Calais in the north, but according to the story it was between France, Switzerland and Italy.
Next, in 1925, the series claimed Germany had already invaded Poland and Sauville was siding with Germany. Germany shouldn't have invaded until 1939. Also, if the Occult was able to determine the outcome of WWI using that "sacrifice the children on a boat" method, they should have known they were on the losing side of history. Then why on earth did Sauville side with the Germans???! (BTW this probably would have made the British withdrawl and Dunkirk difficult). If Sauville was placed somewhere in the Alsace-Lorraine, this might have made a bit more sense.
Next, Kujo is drafted (or volunteers) into the Japanese Imperial Army(episode 23,24). He was most likely fighting in Manchuria during the Japanese escalation. The issue I see here is that Japan didn't get serious about Manchuria until 1931. However, according to the story, it looks like WWII wraps up in 1929.
Also, the Russian T32s (at least that's what I think they are) in the picture are accurate in being in Manchuria. Russia was involved in fighting the Imperial Army for about 2 weeks during the dropping of the atomic bombs.
Overall, most anime don't follow historical events too well. That's not what we watch it for anyway, but I can say that the author of Gosick could have put alittle more effort into the plot, because he definately missed some big points.
"I saw this Chinese guy and started speaking Mandarin to him. When he looked confused, I tried Cantonese. Then he said to me in English that he was Vietnamese."
There have been a couple of episodes with a map of the continent. Trying to speak English to someone if you don't know their native language is not unheard of, even if your English is only at an academic level.
Anyway, if you remembered your history correctly, the sanctions on Germany after WWI were widely considered to be grossly unfair. Mix some discontent, Keynesian economics, and a charismatic leader, and you have one war machine that no other country believed was possible, and thus were taken by surprise. Is it really that hard to believe that in an alternate reality, some countries still would ally themselves with Germany, and that a war could happen at an earlier time?
Yes, trying to communicate in rudimentary English would work in the latter half of the 20th century after the Second World War thanks to the American influence that was cast on Europe following the war. What you'd use as an intermediary language would depend on the what country has a cultural or economic sphere of influence in the area. Places like Maccau, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Japan, China and South Korea speak english because the US is such a huge trade partner. Likewise, if you were to go to North Africa in the early 1900's, the intermediary language would have been French. The point is, I think the author of Gosick was implying that English was a major language in Sauville, which would not have been historically accurate, considering now I know it was nestled between France and Italy.
Anyway, if you remembered your history correctly it was not surprise that took France and the Allies on the onset of WWII, but arrogance. Hitler was clearly violating many aspects of the Versailles Treaty way before he even annexed Austria, it was no surprise. The French had the opportunity to cross the border and stop Germany from building up its Army (and no that is not hindsight), but instead they hid behind their Marginot Line. And the idea that Germany could have rebuilt their Army in 7 years after the first war when it took the Third Reich close to 10 starting in the 1930s? No very unlikely. It'd have to be in a very very alternate reality (called fantasy).
My point is the occult had a proven method for knowing who'd win wars but they chose the losing side, not that I was blinded by hindsight to wonder why anyone would ally with Germany.
I would say that Britain had a heavier influence in East Asia, followed by the French. Something about having colonies there and all, Hong Kong in particular. =P
I guess you can define Western Europe's thoughts about Germany at the time as arrogance. "Oh, Germany's increasing spending on manufacturing? There's no way they can keep it up, not with their country on the verge of bankruptcy!" "Their economy's improving while everyone else is still experiencing the Great Depression? That's not going to last for very long!" "Military manufacturing? Huge expense, it's going to collapse under its own weight! Why retaliate when they'll self-destruct?" "Oh #$%@, they're invading Poland."
The occult thing I would explain away as requiring a war to be in progress before the winner can be divined, and I wouldn't have been surprised if part of the role the country had to play in the war was to switch allegiances halfway through it or something.
As for seven versus nine years, I don't think it's that far-fetched if popular support for a leader is there right from the beginning, and if the country hasn't experienced massive inflation in the years after WWI in part because of the treaty. Then again, we're arguing economic feasibility in a universe where mixing Grey Wolf blood with "standard" blood somehow produces a super-mystic.
It's not just about the economy or a people's willingness to get into another world war. It's about if they have the resources and manpower to do it again. Germany's population of men of fighting age was devastated after the end of the war. Unless you were going to start recruiting child soldiers it is very unlikely they could have replenished their population within 7 years to fight again.
I realize this series deals quite a bit with mysticism and magic, though it does try to incorporate deductive reasoning. I guess you really can't argue on the basis of what would have made sense and what wouldn't have when dealing with this kind of genre. There's always going to be a way of explaining things off.
In the first episode of the anime, Sauville is shown to be located between France, Italy and Switzerland: http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x399/Kemonomachi/Sauville.jpg
I also don't really mind them playing a bit fast and loose with history. Sure, in this case some more accuracy probably wouldn't have made things worse, but there's no guarantees that it would have been an improvement either.
I wish i waited til the season was over to watch all the episodes. That way I would have remembered this.
The anime is simply entertainment. It's not meant to replace your history books.
No of course not, but to blatantly disregard it makes it mediocre. If you want a masterpiece, you pay attention to the details, just like with good figures.
If a figure is based on an illustration, it strives to be as close to that illustration as possible.
However, in Gosick's case, I do not believe it was ever aiming for historical accuracy. Perhaps the whole setting about fictional Gray Wolves being able to tap into a wellspring of wisdom to magically pull facts from thin air hinted to me that this show is not about historical accuracy.
What Kazuki Sakuraba is attempting to do (as I see it) is creating an alternative history. In other words, the light novel takes actual names, places, events and ties them all together into a fictional story.
The key phrase here is alternate history, and when what you present holds very little plausibility of being historical, the genre changes into fantasy.
Whether a figure is a masterpiece isn't based on how close a sculptor can make a figure look how it is drawn, but how much detail relevant to the figures character can be manifested in the artwork. otherwise the Higurashi figures would look as poorly as they are drawn and still be considered works of art. Likewise, making a masterpiece is about maintaining a moderation and balance between fantasy(the appeal of the figure) and realism. In other words you cant just make figures with oppai each the size of the figures head just because people like oppai.
In the same way, an authors work is only a masterpiece if he can maintain the balance between fantasy which is interesting, and reality which makes the story more believable, and the author clearly didnt get that balance.
So what you're saying is that GOSICK's history is an alternate one where World War 2 started in 1925? Although there are some conflicts before Britain's declaration in 1939, but still...
A war involving Germany and Japan, yeah id have to say it was WW2