This Week in Anime

The Head-Spinning Mysteries in Undead Murder Farce

Nicky
Well, if a title like Undead Girl Murder Farce wasn't enough to raise some eyebrows—oh, excuse me, I forgot the localization went with the inferior Undead Murder Farce, then how about the fact that it's a Victorian-era gothic murder mystery with monsters and ghoulies and the star detective being an undead girl's talking head? Still no? What if I said it was directed by the same guy who directed the anime Kaguya-sama: Love is War?

Putting Monster, Murder Mysteries, and Mamoru Hatakeyama together feels like if you decided to put some of my favorite things on a piece of paper and pull them out of a hat, and so far, it's a pretty good combo! We also got another undeniably visually inventive OP out of it, backed by the dubstep-heavy sounds of [Crackle-Crack-Crackle] by Classy.

I had seen a bit about the series from an old Spring Manga Guide, but that is an adaption of the novel by Yugo Aosaki. I was surprised to see the series start in Meiji-era Japan rather than the more steampunk Western setting as advertised. Still, I was pleased because we got a cool exploration of yokai and other Japanese legends and the more universal pictures fair than I expected. The first episode spotlights Tsugaru, who is a half-oni experiment making a living off of freakshow cage fights against other demons before he is introduced to his head(less) master, Miss Aya.

It also made me understand why Hatakeyama was the pick for this since the first episode establishes a lot of classic Japanese theater and storyteller-isms that follow throughout the rest of the show, including the significant chemistry of Aya and Tsugaru as a comedic duo with Aya being the serious intellect and Tsugaru playing coy in response. They're an interesting couple. And I do mean couple, as the only way for Tsugaru to stay alive is to kiss Miss Severed Head. (According to said miss, this is the best way to go about this.)

The first episode also made Tsuguru come off as a better character, as his role is to be more of a brawny Watson to Aya's beautiful Sherlock. He's the face and arguably the point of view, but he's there to keep the audience caged out of Aya's head to keep the mystery mysterious. He's a twisted shitbag, but he's more expressive and easy to read than Aya, and that's good because it gives us, and the other suspects, more to react to as he attempts to get a rise out of them. Not to mention, Tsuguru and Aya are united by the same quest to take revenge on the old bastard with a cane who did this to them.

He's like a good version of Monogatari's Araragi, showing the SHAFT influence there. His joker act is more endearing than annoying, and I think it plays off better than if he just did everything Aya said without question since she already has a maid that does that (who's also good, FWIW).

Aya is more straightforward in that she's business-like and refined, but she's got her dry wit about her in between bouts of exposition, most of which involve her predicament. There's also a good bit where she calls Sherlock Holmes out as a weirdo, which the cast list tells me might be more than just a cameo, so looking forward to that.

Having characters you can engage with sure helps because many people criticize mysteries for being too dry on their own. The best one is about the underlying tension of finding out whodunit, and being able to have little asides keeps it from getting too serious. Anyway, for our first case, Aya is assigned to solve the murder of the friendly neighborhood vampire estate's wife and mother, Hannah.

Yes, this is a completely peaceful and well-established family of vampires who are allied with humanity and only feast on animal blood while living in their big fancy secluded mansion. The show is good at investing in its world-building instead of just playing on classics. Some of the tensions come from the vampire family's political situation as genuinely respectable, but some humans are still looking for ways to demonize them, to the point that no one else would take their case seriously.

Besides the mystery aspect, the show does have some excellent action sequences when the occasion demands. Lest you'd believe this show would be all talk and no play.

It says a lot when this guy is strong enough to strike fear in the heart of heckin' vampires, despite how shitty and smug he looks. (aka GOOD)

Oh god yeah, I think mysteries are one of my favorite genres, but only because it takes a lot of skill to pull off. Explain too long, and you start losing the audience; too simple, and the suspense is killed; and withholding too many cards, and there's nothing to draw people in. A mystery's job isn't just puzzling observers; it's about seeming complex to hook people into seeing how it gets solved. There's some supernatural logic at play, but most are common, like vampires being weak to silver, holy water, daylight, or otherwise well-established by the story itself. I was surprised at how well the banter played into the actual solution of the mystery. I think we've had a good bunch of mystery-focused shows in the past couple of years with stuff like Moriarty the Patriot and In/Spectre Season 2, or even the recent outings by Ryohgo Narita. Undead Murder Farce feels like it fits right in. It helps to be stylish, to boot.

Spotlight for whenever someone in your house didn't flush the toilet.

I agree that the characters are good enough that they could carry even if I didn't already enjoy the mystery and thought it was well-produced. It's a good sign because we can't guarantee that all future mysteries will be as engaging. Even some of my favorite series, like Ace Attorney, have some cases that are flat duds, but I stick around because I enjoy the characters solving them. The hook of the revenge plot is worth sticking around for. But mostly, I think it's a nice show to hear a bit of amusing back and forth. Every other factor is just adding to the overall entertainment value.

All in all, I think we could say that Undead Murder Farce is off to a great headstart!