It’s time for the next three episodes of Undead Murder Farce, which is so far proving to be highly entertaining. It’s not my favorite show of the season, but it’s close, and has one of the best character dynamics with Aya and Tsugaru. The mix of mythology, history, and legendary characters from historical fiction make for a fascinating story.

Note: I’ve been behind lately. My apologies for the delay in writing and publishing this post. I would like to take a moment to thank all my readers for the recent support, and specifically the regular commenters. I’m sorry I haven’t replied to your comments recently – I’ve got no mental energy! However, I promise to get around to it soon. Thanks, you guys!

---

Episode 4: The Headliner Appears

It was another enjoyable episode of Undead Murder Farce, though some aspects of it were a bit disappointing for me. First, let’s recap the episode. Everyone gathers in the mansion and Aya (Rindo) gives her conclusion about who killed Lady Hanna. She explains a lot of details that point to the fact that the crime was committed by an insider.

With more deduction, she determined the murder probably happened before the time that Lord Goddard went hunting. Furthermore, the murder weapon was not the silver stake, but a frozen stake of holy water driven into the victim with brute strength. There is only one person who has no alibi for the actual time of the murder and who has the strength to drive in the stake with his bare hands: Raoul, the younger son of Lord Goddard.

Upon being called out, Raoul springs forward to kill Aya. Tsugaru protects her and knocks Raoul out a window. He then goes to fight the vampire boy outside. Lord Goddard is shocked and saddened by the news. He doesn’t object to Tsugaru killing Raoul. During their fight, Raoul explains that he still wants to consume and hunt humans. He was trying to get his father on his side. By killing Hanna and making it look like the work of a Vampire Hunter, he would make Lord Goddard hate humans forever.

The fight continues, and Raoul realizes he’s in trouble when his wounds don’t regenerate. He was unaware of the lore of the Oni, and the fact that Tsugaru is part Oni. Tsugaru also explains that he was part of a group of professional yokai killers in Japan – the Oni Slayers. The moment of Raoul’s death is not shown, but Tsugaru executed him in a brutal beatdown.

In the last few minutes of the episode, Anne the young journalist interviews people at the mansion and takes comments about the case. Meanwhile, Aya asks Lord Goddard if he has seen the old man with the M-cane. The Vampire Lord asserts that the old man came to his house a few days ago and invited him to London. When Goddard refused, the mysterious stranger left. So, the next step for Aya and Tsugaru is to head to London.

I felt disappointed that the culprit was Raoul, as it disproved my loose theory that Giselle and Charlotte were the murderers. I also felt weirdly disatisfied with the fact that Raoul’s death was not shown. I guess I’d rather have that than seeing gratuitous violence? I’m not sure. But other than those things, I loved this episode. A few random thoughts of mine are below.

I am interested to learn more about the Oni Slayers that Tsugaru used to work with. As always, I love Tsugaru and his circus antics. It was also impressive to be reminded how strong he is. He was basically toying with Raoul, making a performance out of it before killing him. Additionally, he implied that he fought with Dracula before.

I feel really, really bad for Lord Goddard. I wanted his dream to work out. Tsugaru said “Humans and monsters cannot live in harmony,” and I suppose I agree. Humans, after all, cannot even get along with each other. Coexisting with other species is seemingly impossible. And it seems the same can be said for intelligent “monsters,” if Raoul Goddard was any kind of example. That’s all for episode four.

---

Episode 5: The Immortal of London

Arsene Lupin is a famous thief whom nobody has been able to catch so far. He teams up with another powerful entity known as the Phantom of the Opera in order to steal “The Penultimate Night,” a gorgeous black diamond. Lupin sends a warning to the owner of the diamond, Phineas Fogg, saying exactly when he will come to steal the gem. This gives Fogg time to hire a massive security force, including eighty members of Scotland Yard. Fogg also hires two detectives: Sherlock Holmes and Aya Rindo.

After a brief misunderstanding, Sherlock and Aya are both welcomed into Fogg’s mansion, along with Dr. Watson, Tsugaru, and Shizuka. There are also two agents from Royce, a powerful organization with a history of exterminating monsters. Mr. Fogg takes all these people down into the basement and shows them the diamond in its fancy silver box. He explains that the jewel is a magic artifact from the 1200s, crafted by Dwarves. There is writing on the sides of the diamond that says something about a wolf that dwells inside.

The episode ends with Tsugaru asking Aya if she has any ideas to deal with Lupin. The undead girl says she has one idea, but the only hint she gave was “Goemon Ishikawa. ” I had never heard that name, so I looked it up. Ishikawa was an outlaw and ninja from the 1500s. He was the Japanese equivalent of Robin Hood, stealing treasure to give to the poor. That information is certainly interesting, but I’m still not sure why Aya invoked the name.

A lot happened in this episode, but as I am severely sleep-deprived, I don’t have many specific thoughts to write out. Trying to make predictions at this point also seems like a fruitless endeavor with my brain in its current state. But I’m definitely excited to see what will happen, and interested in all the different characters. The mentions of history in this world were fascinating – imagine a world where Dwarves and Werewolves lived in Germany.

The two agents from Royce are pretty weird, and may prove antagonistic toward Aya and Tsugaru. Sherlock and Watson were rather boring, to be honest. I expected some bright new take on their characters, but they were very standard and classic. It was also intriguing to see the old man with the M cane. He is keeping the old team of Oni Slayers with him. My last note to add is that Lupin is quite flambouyant and his vibe with Phantom is pretty gay. My inner fujoshi celebrates. Episode 5 was a good one for sure.

---

Episode 6: The Phantom Thief and the Detective

Tsugaru and Shizuka take Aya for a stroll in a park. There is a random man there too with a birdcage. They make a terrible mistake and get the birdcages swapped. So, Tsugaru and Shizuka go merrily on their way carrying a pet parrot. Aya goes on a series of misadventures outside of her control. At one point, she gets run over by a car – but being immortal, she regenerates. The two red-haired twins who appeared in episode 5 then capture Aya.

Meanwhile, Lupin donned a nearly perfect disguise as Sherlock Holmes. He did it so he could have the opportunity to talk to the real Sherlock as part of his plan. Sherlock and his brother Mycroft corner the fake Sherlock and force him to reveal his true self. Lupin escapes by flashily jumping out the window and landing in the Phantom’s car.

Shizuka is desperately searching for Aya, when she is nearly hit by Lupin and Phantom. Being a self-proclaimed gentleman, Lupin picks up Shizuka, giving her a ride in the car. They soon spot the red-haired twins who have Aya, and a pursuit begins. Tsugaru catches up with superhuman strength and agility. He jumps into the twins’ car and makes them crash, rescuing Aya in the process.

Now that everyone has met up in this chaotic way, Tsugaru almost immediately asserts that he is an Oni Slayer and thus stronger than Lupin. Apparently, he’s itching for more action. Lupin responds by initiating a fight, which he wins, clocking Tsugaru with a powerful uppercut punch. Then the gentleman thief escapes again with Phantom. Tsugaru is a bit embarrassed, but there’s not much time to dwell on what’s happened. It’s time to go to the mansion to protect the diamond.

While Tsugaru’s group goes to defend the towers of the mansion, Sherlock’s group and the Royce agents go to the basement with Mr. Fogg. They lock themselves inside the reinforced underground stronghold. Sherlock even shoots the locks, lodging bullets into the keyholes so that Lupin cannot pick them open. Suddenly, the basement starts flooding, with tons of water rushing in through the air-vents overhead. Lupin and Phantom caused an explosion that made the moat outside the mansion start leaking into the air system. To be continued.

For some reason, that episode recap took me five full paragraphs. I’m not going to spend much time writing additional notes. The main thoughts I wanted to mention are 1) the humor of this episode was great all around, including the dark humor when Aya got smashed by the car; 2) I was surprised when Tsugaru lost in the fight to Lupin; and 3) I was interested to hear the theory that the Royce agents have an ulterior motive of stealing the diamond themselves and using it to exterminate Werewolves. That’s all for today!

Thank you for reading~

---

PATREON