Welcome all, to another episode of Undead Murder Farce! I am here to announce that this episode was, pleasantly, kinda good. In fact I’d go so far as to say it was “pretty good”. There are a lot of reasons for that, so lets just jump right into it!
Starting off, this was one of the better looking episodes in a while. No shitty green-screens, no weird composites or dull action. In fact this episode actually had some pretty good action choreography, from three people fighting in front of a full moon to silly stuff like Tsugaru doing Rakugo to both explain their plan and just to have fun. It’s exactly the kind of shit I enjoy. The only complaint I have is that a couple of scenes, such as in the basement or the warehouse, were so dark as to be almost unwatchable. Like you couldn’t tell what was happening unless you shoved your face up against the screen levels of darkness. I get it, it’s a consequence of the sharp contrast they used effectively in multiple other scenes. But I feel those ones could have used a bit stronger lighting is all.
Narratively meanwhile this was fun. Remember how I complained last week that our leads felt sidelined, like they were the least important characters in their own show? Well this week rectifies that somewhat, putting them center stage for many of the big moments. Whether it be Tsugaru getting to go head to head in a three way fight or the brilliance of putting Aya in the box, something that can only works because of the unique circumstances of our leads, it felt like they got to be the main characters. To proactively do something and take control of the show for the first time since they got to London. Considering how much more content this arc has, probably 2-3 more episodes, that gives me hope for the rest of the season. Hell this arc’s conclusion might last for all of the remaining episodes!
And it’s not like this was done at the detriment of our secondary characters either! Holmes still got his moment, the whole thing with moving the diamond and outsmarting Lupin realizing the easy disguise from before was just a red herring was good. Lupin gets to trick people, throwing the diamond around and generally causing some chaos with his clever schemes. Even Moriarty makes an explosive appearance, kicking off some real conflict. The only ones I felt were lacking were the Insurance Agents, neither of whom is really a character yet at all. They exist more as these dangerous forces to be overcome, not really contributing much to any scene they are in. Still, I felt the overall balance of screen time was just way better this week, a clear improvement of the last.
Speaking of Moriarty, this week we get to meet his team in full! Aleister Crowley, the real life English occultist who also made an appearance in the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. Carmilla the vampire, one of the few to predate Dracula, though she isn’t quite as famous. Victor Frankenstein, the scientist who created Frankenstein’s Monster, though I’m not totally sure which one Moriarty has recruited. And finally we have a man simply named “Jack”, though I think we can all suspect his full title ends with “The Ripper”. It’s a nice little team, I appreciate that they all come from various literature and legends. Maybe a tad on the nose, but so long as Undead Murder Farce handles these characters better then Bungou Stray Dogs handles authors they should be fine.
So yeah, all in all I quite enjoyed this episode of Undead Murder Farce. It feels like we are back on track a bit, with our leads retaking the spotlight and our villains finally being relevant to the goings on. I’ll admit I still think the series is biting off more than it can chew, what with only 6 episodes remaining. But if Undead Murder Farce wants to swing for the fences then I’ll let it take it’s shot. Just so long as it can keep Tsugaru and Aya front and center, because they are my primary reason for enjoying the show. I can’t help but smile when Tsugaru is on screen throwing out his quips and uncaring antics, or when Aya uses her dry wit. So long as these two get to be in the spotlight, I expect Undead Murder Farce to be fun. And when they don’t? Well… You know.
Yet again the episode flew by for me; the way the story goes continues to be quite interesting and it was good to see Aya & co have a more important role this episode as you said. I didn’t pick up on vampire lady being Carmilla but that is another cool reference. I do think at this point they are asking us to juggle way too many characters; by my rough estimate we got 18 different characters to keep track of just for this arc. The insurance agents in particular come off as quite superfluous and there’s at least one additional detective guy that I question what the point of him is (the guy who shot Carmilla). But as long as I’m having a fun time watching is that the end of the world? No. Something that can be revisited at the end of the season on if they jammed in too many characters at the expense or providing us more plot and development for the characters that matter most..