Undead Murder Farce

アンデッドガール・マーダーファルス (Undead Girl Murder Farce)

7.8(78,147)

MAL Score

Ranked #1083

Popularity #1500

Fantasy
Mystery
Adult Cast
Detective
Historical
Urban Fantasy
Vampire

Episodes: 13
Duration: 22 min per ep
Aired: Jul 6, 2023 to Sep 28, 2023
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

In 19th-century France, tragedy strikes when the wife of vampire noble Jean Duchet Godard is found murdered inside her own home. With human authorities reluctant to pursue the case in earnest, Godard turns to specialists who understand the hidden world behind the crime.

He hires two private investigators from Japan: Tsugaru Shinuchi, a man who travels with a mysterious birdcage, and his sharp-minded partner, Aya Rindou. As they take on the murder investigation, their work is driven by a personal mission—to pursue the man responsible for stealing Aya’s body and Tsugaru’s humanity.

Otaku Consensus

Undead Murder Farce lands as one of 2023’s more distinctive genre exercises: Shinichi Omata’s stylish direction, Lapin Track’s moody period environments, and Noboru Takagi’s dialogue-heavy composition make the early locked-room material and theatrical banter feel brisk rather than static. The recurring reservation is not premise fatigue but adaptation density — the midseason can feel overstuffed, with talky deduction chains and a few fights losing the sharpness promised by the exceptional premiere.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Undead Murder Farce if you want Victorian occult mystery with adult professionals instead of school-age chosen ones. It scratches the same itch as The Case Study of Vanitas, Moriarty the Patriot, and Black Butler — the pleasure is in theatrical conversations, literary-gothic texture, and flamboyant deductions — but it is drier, stranger, and more case-file driven. The show is best for viewers who enjoy clues being argued over in long verbal volleys, where comedy, horror folklore, and crime logic share the same room. Lapin Track gives the period settings a stage-like mood rather than action-show gloss, and the central trio’s rhythm turns exposition into performance. If you want fantasy without RPG mechanics, mystery without a teenage club, and monster lore treated as legal evidence, this is the niche it confidently owns.

Key Characters

S
Shizuku Hasei(VA: Makoto Koichi)
Shizuku is the trio’s controlled blade: a stoic attendant whose deadpan presence and combat competence keep the show from becoming pure verbal theater.
A
Aya Rindou(VA: Tomoyo Kurosawa)
Aya is the series’ sharpest engine, a centuries-old intellect whose limitations turn every deduction into a darkly comic performance of authority.
T
Tsugaru Shinuchi(VA: Taku Yashiro)
Tsugaru gives the anime its farce: part showman, part bruiser, he makes exposition feel like banter and danger feel like stage business.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Lapin Track’s production leans into atmosphere over spectacle, with reviews singling out the environmental design, character visuals, and Victorian mood as major strengths rather than treating the setting as simple costume dressing.
2
Director Shinichi Omata and series composer Noboru Takagi build the show around verbal rhythm: long deductions, insults, and negotiations are staged like performances, which is why several reviewers note that the talk-heavy plotting moves faster than expected.
3
The season uses a travel-case structure instead of staying fixed in one city, matching AniList’s high-confidence Travel, Foreign, and Historical tags and giving each mystery a different supernatural social context.
4
Its premiere has a stronger reputation than the average setup episode; user reviews repeatedly describe the first episode as exceptional or unusually strong, while later criticism focuses on whether the series sustains that initial precision.
5
The anime’s monster catalogue is deliberately cross-cultural: AniList tags it with Detective, Monster Girl, Monster Boy, Youkai, Demons, Fairy Tale, Vampire, and Urban Fantasy, while outside impressions highlight its use of literary figures brought to life.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime is based on an original story by Yuugo Aosaki, with original character designs credited to Zerogo Iwamoto and TV character design handled by Noriko Itou alongside sub-character designer Naho Kozono.
Fun fact 2: The production credits list four people under original work assistance — Souhei Kawakita, Masae Yamato, Ayako Hori, and Satoshi Nishijima — an unusually visible reminder that its mystery framework was developed with support beyond the headline author credit.
Fun fact 3: AniList users classify it first as a detective anime: Detective sits at 97%, above Monster Girl at 92%, Monster Boy at 90%, and Historical at 89%, which explains why fantasy fans and mystery fans often discuss the show differently.
Fun fact 4: Despite the English title leading at least one reviewer to expect zombies, the available audience tags point elsewhere: vampire, youkai, demons, fairy-tale creatures, and urban fantasy dominate the show’s identity.
Fun fact 5: Its cross-site reception is notably consistent: MAL lists it at 7.84 from 77,957 votes, AniList has it at 78/100 with 1,669 favourites, and external review summaries cluster around the high-7 to 8/10 range.