Danica Davidson
June 23, 2021 
After the French Revolution, demons are given human rights as long as they don’t prey on people. When a vampire is murdered, her husband seeks out private investigators because even though he doesn’t prey on people, there’s still prejudice against vampires.
Enter detectives Tsugaru Shinuchi and Aya Rindo.
Tsugaru looks like a pretty normal boy, except there’s an unexplained line that goes across his face. He travels with a maid, but the maid isn’t Aya. Aya lives in the birdcage he carries around with him. She’s only a head.
Characters hear her voice and think there’s a ventriloquism trick going on. But the readers have already seen what Aya looks like on the cover, so it’s not as big of a surprise to us as it is to the characters in the book when her true form is revealed. Aya is a type of demon referred to as the immortal, and she’s lived around a thousand years. This has given her a lot of time to learn about human behavior and to give her a keen eye of observation. Hence, she’s become a detective.
As a demon herself, Aya doesn’t mind helping out vampires. And by the end of the first volume she names the suspect, though the whole situation isn’t solved and that is left for the next volume.
Undead Girl Murder Farce is a horror title, but it’s a horror title that’s quirky and fun as opposed to one that’s actually meant to scare you or give you the creeps. Its historical European setting is reminiscent of other horror manga like Black Butler or a work by Kaori Yuki, where horror lurks below the surface of fashionable and flouncy clothing and old-timey manners. There’s definitely also shades of Sherlock Holmes in here as well, and the detectives even get compared to the famed detective as they show off their skills.
Undead Girl Murder Farce is a digital-only manga, and its first volume comes in at only 151 pages, making it a pretty short read. That short read does sweep readers away into a new, offbeat world. So far nothing really in-depth has happened, but the premise and characters are fun, and it’s set up so it could solve a lot of mysteries and go into Aya’s history.
Story: Yugo Aosaki
Art: Haruka Tomoyama
Publisher: Kodansha
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, and its sequel, Manga Art for Intermediates, with professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
