Highlights
Undead Girl Murder Farce has 13 episodes
Undead Girl Murder Face is a Fantasy Mystery anime about Aya Rindo
Undead Girl Murder Farce was released in 2023 by Lapin Track Studio
Undead Girl Murder Farce is a mystery fantasy anime produced by Lapin Track Studio in 2023. The series focuses on the immortal Aya Rindo and her quest to reclaim her body from a mysterious man.
If you like mysteries this series is for you however if you find tracking facts troublesome I’d say pass on this show. Hear me when I say that this anime is good. It’s just not for everyone the same way that not every genre is for every person.
For those who like shonen anime more than mystery for example I’d recommend Blue Exorcist however it wouldn’t make sense for me to recommend that show to fans of a Yuri slice-of-life series. It just doesn’t equate.
I’ll say it again however that this show is good.
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What is the plot of Undead Girl Murder Farce?
In this story, set in a different time period during the late 1800s, creatures like vampires and oni coexist with humans. The main character, Tsugaru Shinuchi, is an experimental half-oni known as the Oni Slayer. He accepts a job from Aya Rindo, an immortal woman with her loyal servant Shizuku Hasei, who only exists as a talking head and wants to die.
Tsugaru wants to extend his life.
They realize that a wealthy foreigner with an "M" printed on his cane is behind their current situation. They leave Japan for Europe to track him down. The trio tries to locate Aya's missing body and their target. Along the way, they encounter supernatural mysteries across Europe. Tsugaru takes on the persona of "The Cage User" for the birdcage he carries with Aya's head inside.
Undead Girl Murder Farce Characters
Aya Rindo, a 962 year young Heian-era woman and a yōkai, is beheaded by an unknown half-demon assailant from Britain and has her headless body taken away. Since she is a demon, she cannot die (though being decapitated by a half-demon means she cannot heal herself). Thus her head continues to live on, ultimately seeking support from Tsugaru to get her body back and take revenge on the man who left her like this. In Undead Girl Murder Farce Aya is a master detective who notices every little detail and makes logical & deductive observations to solve crimes.
Aya Rindo is voiced by Tomoyo Kurosawa, who has been voice acting since 2012 and lent her voice to the character of Tina Sprout from “Black Bullet”. She also voices Naomi Orthmann in the upcoming anime Metallic Rouge.
Tsugaru Shinuchi, a former member of a special oni extermination squad charged with slaughtering monsters across Japan during the Meiji Restoration. At some point, he was injected with oni blood by the same man who beheaded Aya and turned into a half-oni himself. Though the power allows him to kill oni and other supernatural beings with his bare hands, he knows that at some point in the future, the oni blood will overcome his human personality and he will be put down by a similar hunter. In the meantime, he supports himself by fighting other demons in cage matches as a circus act called the Oni Slayer.
Tsugaru Shinuchi is voiced by Taku Yashiro and he has been performing in anime series since 2012. Recently he has portrayed Toshiki Tokumaru in Overtake, Ichiro Kuga in “A Galaxy Lives Next Door” , and he played Kōichi Shindō in the anime “Horimiya”
Shizuku Hasei, is a stern maid who serves under Aya. She wields a rifle with an attached bayonet that fires silver rounds. In addition, she is devoted to serving Aya although the reason for such devotion and for what purpose she is traveling with Aya is never revealed. She’s been received well by fans of the series with several saying “Who is the maid in Undead Girl Murder Farce”? She has a sibling-like relationship with Tsugaru often times playing the straight man to his looney antics.
Shizuku is voiced by Makoto Koichi. Makoto has been active in voice-over work since 2014 and she has lent her voice to several characters including Sumika Tachibana in “Yuri is My Job” and Nurugai from Hell’s Paradise.
What studio produced Undead Girl Murder Farce?
Undead Murder Farce is produced by Lapin Track Studio. I’m not terribly familiar with this studio and I haven’t seen many of their releases however they have been in operation since 2014. To be completely honest this is the anime that put them on my radar however I’m very excited to see what else they are able to produce if this is the expected level of quality moving forward.
Lapin Track Studio brought in veteran anime director Shinichi Omata to direct Undead Girl Murder Farce. Shinichi Omata has worked mainly with A-1 Studios and Studio Dean in the past but he will step out and do other projects with other studios from time to time and I’m glad that he decided to partner with Lapin Track Studio. He is mainly known directorially for heading up the successful Kaguya-sama: Love Is War anime series which I would highly recommend if you are looking for a slice-of-life comedy series to brighten your day.
Another series that A-1 Studios produced is a series called Black Butler which is also a mystery anime set in Victorian times with a supernatural twist. The 4th season of Black Butler will be premiering in January 2024.
Is Undead Girl Murder Farce Good?
Undead Girl Murder Farce is a send-up of Fantasy anime tropes and Agatha Christie-style mystery. As I said earlier this series might not be for everyone but is good. I like the animation style and the character design choices that they make. The alternative timeline where supernatural creatures and humans have to learn to live together is also interesting if anything else.
Where the series breaks down is its focus on mystery rather than character development. The series is comprised of 4 mysteries that feed into solving the overarching mystery of the season namely the identity of the theft that stole Aya’s body from her. The episodes spend much of their time sleuthing and explaining how Aya has solved the case much like you would expect from an inspector Poirot-style presentation.
The case is laid out, the suspects assembled, the audience is walked through how the culprit committed the crime and then a resolution is reached.
This is entertaining and it’s fun to see all the clues come together especially since the audience is shown all the same clues that Aya is given as well. My issues comes from the fact that there isn’t much character arc or growth in any of our main cast of characters during the season. The characters are less important than the mystery that the characters are solving. This made them fun to watch but boring to contemplate. I would have liked 1-2 of the 13 episodes in the anime to have been specifically about Aya’s past or explaining why Shizuku is so driven to fight monsters. Our main cast started the season in one state of being and ended the series in the same state with no growth, no change of opinion or worldviews, all they had at the end of the season was mysteries solved.
Undead Girl Murder Face was a good-looking meal that left me still hungry at the end. I would love another season where we get to learn more about our cast through the mysteries that we solve rather than having these disjointed episode arcs.
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