With this article, my episode reviews for Undead Murder Farce will finally be complete. I ended up liking the conclusion more than I expected. Eventually, I will post a series review for Undead Murder Force, highlighting the positives and negatives across the entirety of the 13 episodes. But for today, I simply present some selected responses to episodes 10 through 13. Please enjoy!
Note: These reviews/responses will not contain event recaps.
Additional Note: I wrote these responses as I watched the episodes one by one – so you may see my incorrect assumptions and guesses at some points along the way.
Episode 10: Misty Hollow
The character design for Alma was unique and beautiful. It was unfortunate that she turned out to be the werewolf who killed those girls. Though disappointing, this wasn’t surprising; it’s predictable to make the eccentric single woman into the monster. At least Alma only killed for hunger, and felt bad about it – not that I would blame her if she experienced no guilt. As usual in fantasy, I like the creatures better than the humans.
Alice and Kyle are the two Royce Agents assigned to hunt down the werewolves. Both agents had interesting character designs which helped me to not immediately hate them for being one-dimensional, loud, and intrusive. I definitely liked Kyle better, since he (or she?) doesn’t seem to be a psychopath like Alice. It’s rare to see a black character in anime, particularly one who looks potentially queer-coded. So yeah, Kyle is cool.
Ever since the first episode, I’ve wondered if Tsugaru needs to be kissed by Aya more than once to be safe from the Oni curse. This episode finally answered my question. Aya and Tsugaru do kiss on occasion – and this time, they were really making out. Shizuku’s obvious jealousy was mildly amusing. Plus it once again pointed to the fact that she had a very physical relationship with Aya in the past.
Speaking of Shizuku, she was bad-ass as usual when fighting. (The animation for the werewolf, by the way, was not very impressive.) As for what happened to her at the end, I’m not worried about her actually dying. Animated characters tend to survive tumbling down waterfalls. Moreover, Undead Murder Farce isn’t the kind of anime that would kill off one of the three main heroes in this part of the series. That’s all for episode 10.
Episode 11: Where the Wolves Dwell
I only have a few quick thoughts to share about this episode. The werewolf village was pretty cool, but I’m skeptical that it would remain undiscovered and virtually untouched by humans for very long. I’m also confused about the diamond. How was it in any way useful? They didn’t need it to find the village. I am clearly missing something here, so if anyone can explain it to me, I’d appreciate reading it in a comment.
The female werewolves all had beautiful and cute character designs – especially Vera with her tomboy thing. It was nice to see Shizuka being saved by the girl werewolves – and no, I don’t mean the part about them snuggling in bed naked. Shizuka is certainly sexy, but please remember that the wolf girls are only young teenagers. And they were only trying to keep the human warm. So, let’s just appreciate the fact that there are good and merciful werewolves who saved a human’s life. Nothing sexual there.
Despite all the new information and assortment of clues around Nora’s corpse, I still haven’t figured out this mystery. I do think, however, that it’s related to Jutte, who may have faked her death somehow. Also, I might have been wrong about Alma being the killer of the human girls. The truth will become clear when Aya and company arrive. In the meantime, it was kind of Shizuku to try to help. There were some other cool and funny moments in this episode, but that’s all I feel like writing about for now.
Episode 12: Where the River’s Flow Changes
I’ve got two complaints about the quality of this episode. Firstly, the mystery has been dragged out for way too long. It really didn’t need to take this much time, so I felt frustrated when the answer to the mystery still wasn’t revealed in this episode. The second issue is that the visuals are crappy. This anime has never boasted stunning visuals, but the cheap, bare-minimum animation hit rock bottom here. I was especially disappointed with how bad it looked when Tsugaru fought the werewolves.
It was a bit difficult to watch this episode play out. To be honest, I had forgotten that humans are always the truly evil ones in stories like this. Yet no matter how many stories I see where “humanity was the real monster all along,” it still surprises me and fills me with anger. The destruction of the werewolf village was brutal. Human villagers, led by the two Royce Agents, set everything on fire and massacred the wolf people. I’m glad Vera at least will survive, but it’s still a horrendous tragedy.
Undead Murder Farce isn’t normally strong when it comes to psychological and philosophical elements. However, this episode was more pronounced than most in its exploration of deeper themes. In particular, it points out the selfish nature of people and the cyclical nature of violence. Huge disasters like the destruction of the wolf town are not the only examples. Louise’s parents cruelly abandoned her to die. That truth is just as important for showing the key themes.
I’m sure there’s more I could process and respond to if I had the patience. But as it stands, I’m running through this content quickly so I can start covering the current anime season. You’ll have to excuse me for missing a few points that could have made for good discussion.
Episode 13: The Culprit’s Name
The last episode of Undead Murder Farce provided all the answers to the werewolf mystery. I will not be writing the details here, but I’ll quickly give a bare minimum explanation. The culprit was Jutte, the daughter of the werewolf banished from her own home and then burned alive by humans. Jutte also had two other identities she took turns playing: Nora from the wolf town and Louise from the human village. For part of the story, she worked alongside the real Louise, who lived with her in the caves.
The seemingly obvious motive for the killings was revenge, born of hatred of both humans and werewolves. I made this assumption just like Aya. But the actual truth was that Jutte was trying to free the captive “priestesses” of the werewolves who would be used as breeders. She managed to help three of them escape the wolf town, using the corpses of the murdered human girls as stand-ins for the bodies of the wolf girls.
Jutte did a lot of killing, as well as intentionally letting the Royce Agents find the tunnel connecting the villages. The most brutal thing she did, in my opinion, was killing the original Louise. They worked together for years and had a special relationship, so that murder was the ultimate betrayal. Nevertheless, Aya allowed Jutte to go free, feeling sympathetic to her motive and her desire for freedom.
I felt skeptical about the werewolf mystery the whole time because I didn’t think it would have a satisfying resolution. But I was wrong. It would be an understatement to say I’m happy with the final episode and the way everything was solved. It was amazing! I absolutely love Jutte – once I understood her, she became my favorite of all the supporting cast. Additionally, the mystery may have taken a long time to solve, but it was well-written, and made perfect sense by the end. Brilliant!
As for the bigger plot – getting Aya’s body back – the group already knows what to do next. That’s thanks to Victor providing information to Tsugaru. Although the story is over for now, there is more than enough material to craft multiple seasons in the future. Let’s all hope for Undead Murder Farce Season 2 soon!
Thanks for reading~
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