Undead Murder Farce concluded its run on September 27th, so obviously, I am far behind schedule on writing episode reviews for this series. Sorry about that, but I’ll catch up eventually and start covering some Fall 2023 content afterward.
As for these three episodes of Undead Murder Farce, they were entertaining enough to not bore me. However, I also feel that they were lacking something. This anime has its own sort of style, along with two charming main characters, but there’s not much beyond that. There’s no real suspense, nor deep character psychology, and it’s not like the comedy is always great. Despite this lack of interesting qualities, I will definitely watch this anime through to the end and base my final judgements on the series as a whole.
Normally, I write semi-detailed recaps in my episode reviews, but this time, I may skip that step and simply write my thoughts on specific elements of the episodes. Without further ado, here are my notes for Undead Murder Farce episodes 7, 8, and 9.
Episode 7: Free for All
Aya’s plan to hide in the safe was surprising and smart – a great way to catch Lupin off-guard so Tsugaru coul charge in to seize the diamond. I do have serious doubts that Aya could hold the safe shut with her mouth for that long, especially when the safe was being knocked around and pulled up on a rope. I guess I won’t sweat the details, though. This anime is supposed to be a bit absurd at times – that’s the impression I get.
Tsugaru, with his way of telling stories and dumb jokes, is amusing. However, I still don’t really understand the Goemon story, since I wasn’t paying much attention to it. Moreover, I don’t care enough to look into it right now.
Besides Tsugaru and Aya, this episode also featured a good amount of screentime for the two agents of Royce: Fatima and Reynold. They both have impressive skills, but their character designs are a bit off-putting to me. In addition, their character concepts are shallow and one-dimensional. I’m not impressed with them so far.
Episode 7 introduced viewers to several new enemies working for the mysterious old man with the M on his cane. Most of them are figures from Victorian-era fiction, such as Viktor (Frankenstein’s Monster) and Aleister Crowley. Speaking of Aleistar, the voice actor playing him is Tomokazu Sugita. He is a well-respected seiyuu who voiced Gintoki in Gintama, among many other memorable roles. I haven’t heard his voice in a while, so this was a pleasant surprise for me.
One of the new villains was Carmilla the vampire, whose character design is absolutely ridiculous. So far, this anime has been relatively realistic with body types and consistent with artistic style. However, Carmilla breaks that mold completely with her enormous ass, voluptuous chest, and an absurdly tiny waist. Her entire character is clearly meant to be over-the-top, and some might find this entertaining. For me, however, it was just annoying.
Episode 8: The Banquet
In episode 8, we learn that the mysterious old man is actually Moriarty, the arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes who was presumed dead. Since I’m not very familiar with the lore, I don’t know the full story of Moriarty or how he was defeated, but it doesn’t matter. The important point is that a criminal mastermind has returned and is rebuilding his organization. I’m slightly disappointed that the old man’s only real goal seems to be gathering and seizing power for its own sake. However, I suppose not every anime needs a complex villain.
As for “Jack the Ripper,” his creation story was fairly interesting. However, he seems almost too overpowered to me. Although Tsugaru managed to survive, I have a hard time imagining how he will ever defeat Jack in the future. Speaking of Tsugaru, I will once again state that I love his mannerisms and refusal to be serious. His goofiness and flippancy may have saved his life in this case, since it convinced Jack that he was an idiot not worth killing.
In my opinion, the best part of this episode is the scene where Carmilla tries to bite Shizuku, but takes her time and is extremely sensual with her. Shizuku manages to defend herself, so it all worked out in the end. The reason I liked this scene was Shizuku’s implied sexual relationship with Aya back when she had a body. If you recall, Shizuku said Carmilla was terrible at being sexy, and that she was used to being with someone with centuries of “experience.” There’s no way to interpret that other than the obvious: Shizuku and Aya are close in more ways than one.
On a final note, I thoroughly enjoyed the twist at the end of this episode, with Tsugaru having snatched the diamond from Jack. With this, the “good guys” were successful and Moriarty’s organization failed to accomplish their mission. Nice one, Tsugaru!
Episode 9: Werewolves
It’s about time we finally got to see some werewolves in this series. Late is better than never. In this episode, Aya, Shizuku, and Tsugaru go to a tiny mountain village in Germany. Their goal is to find the werewolves and presumably prevent them from falling into Moriarty’s hands. The scenery of the village, the forest, and the Alps was pleasant all throughout the episode. However, I would probably hate living in that village, since all the people there seem stupid, rash, and xenophobic.
The villagers have good reason to hate and fear werewolves, since several young girls have been seemingly abducted and killed by a local monster. However, it doesn’t seem like werewolves are automatically evil in this universe, which I appreciate. The flashback of the caring mother wolf trying to protect her child was good evidence that werewolves are not inherently villainous. In addition, there is no conclusive proof (at least not yet) that a werewolf was the one who killed the girls.
If those girls are truly dead, and were killed by a werewolf, then my guess is that the daughter wolf from the flashback is the one to blame. After her mother was chased out of the village and burned alive, the young werewolf girl must have survived on her own. She probably wanted revenge on the humans for killing her mom. That’s just a hypothesis. I am looking forward to seeing Aya solve this mystery next time.
One more note about the werewolves in this anime: according to Aya, they have three different forms. Most versions of werewolves are limited to two forms, so this was an interesting difference. A werewolf has an ordinary human form, an ordinary wolf form, and a huge humanoid-wolf form with super-strength. Anyway, that’s about all I have to say for episode 9. See you next time!
Thank you for reading~
Anime Rants 
I loved the scuffle with the criminal group Banquet! Tsugaru was definitely the high light of that fight!
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