By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

The Victorian era has always fascinated me (as it has many others).

It inspired me to have literature focus over Creative Writing or Rhetoric and Composition. In grad school, it was this time period that became my focus as I neared my MA thesis on The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of the defining works of late-Victorian Gothic literature.

Fascinating as the time period is with fashion, industry change, and architecture—some people still don’t know that this was also a time with deep obsession for the occult.

New ideas increasingly challenged established religious beliefs and traditional understandings of humanity’s place in the universe, with scientific figures such as Charles Darwin exemplifying this intellectual upheaval. These developments are often seen as one of the forces behind the era’s growing fascination with the occult—a cultural response, if you will, to the scientific advancements of the period and the existential uncertainty they engendered. As traditional frameworks of understanding came under scrutiny, interest increasingly turned toward spiritualism, the metaphysical, and alternative forms of knowledge.

Such pursuits also found willing patrons among the wealthy (and fashionable). Thus emerged a flourishing culture of séances, secret societies, and pseudoscientific practices, alongside a corresponding body of literature.

This is precisely the sort of atmosphere that makes the Lord of Mysteries anime so appealing to me.

I knew I wanted to watch it but ended up waiting and I really wish I hadn’t. I suppose I initially expected a little more steampunk, especially given the Victorian-inspired setting and its technological curiosities. However, aside from some puppets and a turtle (called person, but its clearly a turtle), it didn’t really have any.

I would have loved to see more elaborate automata because the hand-crafted mechanical marvels of the period are still one of the most impressive things surviving from this era that are difficult (if not impossible in some cases) to replicate due to no longer having artisan labor that can craft certain things (though maybe that will change with 3D printing now… that aside). Still, while the series doesn’t lean quite as much into steampunk as I had anticipated, it offers something arguably more interesting: a full-fledged fantasy steeped in the atmosphere, anxieties, and peculiarities of the Victorian age.

Well—My, what a gorgeous fantasy it is!

The animation, despite its considerable use of CGI and 3D modelling, is sublime in the Gothic, literary sense. There is a wonderful tension between beauty and grotesquery, that makes the world feels simultaneously enchanting and unsettling, which captures that particular Gothic feel exceptionally well.

I also can’t help noticing the literary influences woven throughout its aesthetic too. There are moments that bring Dickens to mind, particularly in the dialogue choices. There are also shades of Sherlock Holmes in the investigative elements too. It evokes a whole tradition of Victorian literature, from the macabre to the detective novel, while building its own mythology around those influences.

As of writing, you can watch Season 1 on Crunchyroll.com; I don’t want to give too much away because I really feel like this is a must watch for any fan of the Gothic. I found myself thoroughly enamored with its fantasy, occult undercurrents, and Victorian sensibilities, and I think many others would too.

I plan start looking for the manhwa immediately not that I’ve binged the series and certainly recommend others do as well!