I’m starting off my October horror reviews with a mystery horror anime – Undead Murder Farce.

The series follows Tsugaru Shinuichi, a half-oni former monster-hunter for the Japanese government, who forcibly had oni-blood put into him by a man with an M on his cane – implied (and later confirmed) to be Professor Moriarty. He ends up recruited to hunt down the professor by Aya Rindo, a normally unkillable immortal whose body had been taken by Moriarty, leaving her just a head in a bird cage, transported by her maid – Shizuka. Together they travel from Japan to Europe to track down the professor, solving cases for various monsters along the way.

Rindo and company end up solving cases involving the murder of vampires, an attempted theft from Phineas Fogg, and a series of murders in a village with a history of werewolf problems (and which is near a village of werewolves which also has a problem with a series of murders).

So, on the one hand, these stories are a pair of what would otherwise be fairly conventional mysteries. On the other hand, these mysteries basically involve the wide array of public domain gothic horror critters – vampires (no Dracula, but we do have Carmilla), Frankenstein’s Monster, Werewolves, and even the Phantom of the Opera – a real Monster Mash. (No, Mash from Fate/Grand Order isn’t present).

This makes for a show that is less spooky, and more spoopy. There are plenty of action sequences in the show as well, with each of the show’s three arcs having at least a one, sometimes more involved action scene with Tsugaru and Shizuka fighting various monsters – either the killers of each arc, or the members of Moriarty’s organization – Banquet. They’re all very gorgeously animated and very well paced.

If I have some complaints, it’s that they tend to drop a whole bunch of fanservice on Shizuka, finding as many opportunities they can to get some sort of lesbian fanservice in – often, but not always, involving Carmilla. Again, I’m not prudish, but I like when the fanservice fits with the plot.

Now, the plot of the story doesn’t completely finish in this series – but the series of novels the show is based on is still ongoing, so we don’t get a complete resolution to the story. Hopefully we’ll get more of the story in a future season.

Undead Murder Farce is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

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