ABSTRACT
Upon tracing a history of the Gothic in Japanese literature and research, and then focusing on the haunting atmospheres invoked by exotic Europes as imagined in girls' manga and anime, this chapter engages with a close reading of Sakuraba's GOSICK light novel and related media mix. The complex conglomeration of media that GOSICK involves provides an informative example of the intermingling of literary and visual cultures – fashion in particular – that produces the contemporary Japanese Gothic. Western notions of Gothic and gothic literature would have arrived in Japan during the Meiji period, which saw a massive influx and adoption of European and North American culture into Japan as part of a project of modernization. The well-established aesthetic of the Gothic of an imagined Europe is reiterated especially clearly in Sakuraba Kazuki's GOSICK young adult novel series. Despite the violence and darkness, the GOSICK novels are streaked with comic and light-hearted moments, and entertaining caricatures.
