Welcome all, to another episode of Undead Murder Farce! This week we discover who the werewolf is, get in a tussle and maybe just maybe suffer the consequences of our actions. What does that mean? Well read on and find out!
Starting off, this week we get some actually decent animation for the first time in a while! Now it’s not like Undead Murder Farce is some kind of mess, aside from the poor lighting it’s fine. But even during the climax of the Lupin arc there wasn’t much in the way of dynamic, interestin animation. This week however we got a whole sequence as Tsugaru and Shizuku chase after the werewolf, the fist fight, Shizuku trying to stab/shoot it, the waterfall. It felt like things were really starting to ramp up leading into the finale. Undead Murder Farce isn’t an action show, it doesn’t need to be action that gets animated. I’ll take basically anything. Action is just a straightforward easy thing to point at and go “Caveman brain see flashing colors!”. So yeah, that was nice!
Diving into the actual narrative, this week was pretty straightforward. So much so that I was, and still am, actually rather suspicious of it. I feel like Undead Murder Farce is trying to trick me. I mean… Alma was obviously the werewolf. She lives on the edge of the village, is the only person to see it in the woods, paints the dead kids, showed up 5 years ago 3 years after the werewolves were killed, her original golden hair color is showing through whatever dye she has. She’s clearly Jutte, daughter of Rosa, the child werewolf from all the flashbacks. Yet… It’s so obvious that it feels like a red herring. It’s nice to be able to put the pieces together and figure out a mystery before the show gives you the answer, but this one felt to easy, you know? I suppose next episode will reveal the truth.
Still, while the answer to the mystery was rather easy the route Undead Murder Farce took to get there was nice. I enjoyed Aya’s chats with the various townsfolk. Going around and getting the villages history, interrogating each of the outsiders, picking up all of this knowledge about werewolves evolving, how to sus them out, how Louise “discovered” the ones before. Part of this is just that Tomoyo Kurosawa’s voice, the VA for Aya, is just pure sex. But again, for like the 10th episode in a row, her small back-and-forths with Tsugaru are just a treat. From crunching on hard cookies, calling out Alma’s backstory, Tsugaru’s rakugo. I’m beating a dead horse every time I bring it up, but its such a good one and it’s always the best part of any given episode. Seriously, props to Tomoyo Kurosawa and Taku Yashiro for carrying this show on their backs.
As good as all that was though, the episode kind of went down hill with the arrival of the insurance people. Kyle Chaintail and Alice Rapidshot… God everything about them, from their names to their visuals, just does not fit with the rest of the show. They are the most “anime” characters Undead Murder Farce has, and it shows. They pop in, start fights, get talked out of it for no good reason. They are walking tropes and stereotypes that only exist to introduce conflict to a story that already had conflict. Like… Am I being unreasonable in my dislike of them? Is there something I just don’t see? Because so far this entire organization has been nothing but a detriment for the show, none of them are actual characters. Every time I see them I wish I wasn’t.
Luckily we don’t stick with them for to long, as Alma the werewolf reveals herself in dramatic fashion! For some, highly suspicious reason cough Moriarty cough, she suddenly goes wild and begins to rant about devouring the children. This leads to a chase, which leads to a fight, which leads to Shizuku falling down a waterfall. On one hand, why would she do that, Aya is immortal. On the other hand, she’s a good maid so it makes sense. Plus we got to see Tsuguru being legitimately concerned for once, showing that despite all of their teasing and conflict they do actually care for and trust one another. It’s nice to get those kinds of confirmations for their relationship. Plus its not like she’s actually going to be dead, she’ll probably be taken to the Werewolf village and cared for or something if we want to go full stereotype.
Speaking of Tsuguru, I almost forgot: My guy went full tongue! I’ll admit, I completely forgot about this. It hasn’t come up since episode 1, how Tsuguru needs to ingest part of Aya to stave off his inevitable death. Makes a lot of sense why they are so close, and why Shizuku dislikes Tsuguru so much, nightly makeout sessions! Feels like a waste though to be honest, like we should see some kind of hint or reminder of this fate. At the very least we should see this interaction more. Personally I’d absolutely love to see it slowly transition to a more legitimate romance of some kind, the two just mesh that well together. That’s more of a long term desire though, stretching beyond this single season. I’ll have to check the original novel to see where it goes I guess.
So yeah, all in all I enjoyed the episode. It had some rough parts, the insurance people suck and the mystery feels… weird. But one of those can be written out and the other still has time to pull the rug out from under me, which is something I’m looking forward to should it happen. Even with those minor issues I’m certainly enjoying it more than I did the Lupin arc, where our leads were barely even present half the time. This one feels like an actual mystery, where as in the last arc we knew who was coming, when they were coming, why they were coming, what they are coming for, and where that thing was. All 5 important questions were answered before the arc even began. Here? Not so much. And I think it’s better for it.
