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The quality of the animation, the sound design, the music, the voice acting for both Japanese and English, have all been very good. However, almost halfway through the season and lots of story beats are built up only to immediately go nowhere. To be fair, that was also a bit of a motif in season 1, as MaoMao tried to avoid any political intrigues, but ultimately her relationship (for lack of a better term) with Jinshi was what forced her character to be in those uncomfortable situations and deal with them - that's completely lacking in this season so far. Their relationship development was a ... significant part of why I liked season 1 so much, amongst many other things of course, but that has not been present at all in season 2. I want to clarify that this isn't about shipping, my argument really is that there's not a lot forcing her growth as a character and Jinshi just kinda hangs around sometimes but never as an active player within the story as he was in season 1. With each passing episode I feel more and more disappointed that both MaoMao and Jinshi's character development have fallen to the wayside and completely stagnated. So far it has been a lot more about solving mysteries halfway, and then MaoMao bailing on those situations when they get more complicated. There are 12 more episodes ahead, so a lot can still change, but so far this season has left me a bit disappointed.

Gosick starts off with a mix of high and lower stakes mystery cases that aren't deeply involved with the two main characters in the long run, so there's not much motivation to keep coming back for more. But once the two build a stronger bond, and mysteries turn into conspiracies that can put them both in danger, that's when the anime really hits its stride. And on the point of romance, it very much delivers without feeling tongue in cheek or cliché. The anime does a good job of building them up, making you care about them both as individual characters and when they're together.

The ... setting is also really good. It is set mostly in 1924, shortly after the first world war. Carriages were still in use, telephones weren't everywhere. Delivering messages or knowing another person's location was very difficult. When one of the two protagonists cannot find the other, there is a lot of tension, because there's no way to know what might be happening. The anime doesn't treat this lightly, there's no teleporting the characters around to serve the plot. The lack of technology helps in adding a good deal of tension and suspense.

Furthermore, about the production quality: the art style, animation, and sound design, sometimes feel like movie quality. It has its highs, but never hits any noticeable lows. It is largely consistent on its presentation quality.

While mysteries and conspiracies take center-stage, which sometimes can be slow-paced, the careful build up of the romance between the two leads and what they go through together and for each other is what makes this anime worth a watch.

The start of the manga is really good, both of the protagonists are great and their relationship evolve nicely. The art is impeccable, simply put. However, it's a shame that the mangaka lost the plot, direction, and seemingly didn't know where to go next, much like other reviews have pointed out. It's all true.

At some point, it goes into an arc that indicated that the mangaka wanted to force in a story, setting and characters that didn't really make sense with the trajectory that the main characters were following. The manga tries do some out of pocket worldbuilding, introduces (frankly unlikable) characters out of thin ... air and expects the reader to care about them, while completely ignoring the fact that the major part of why we're still reading is because we really like the two leads. It felt like a bait and switch, and it continued that trend until it hit the hiatus.

I do recommend reading it, but when you notice that the manga has shifted drastically, don't be afraid to drop it even if you like the two protagonists. The story doesn't pick up its quality after it drops.