In an alternate 19th century, supernatural creatures exist among humans, but have been hunted and persecuted to the point where they have become quite rare.
Tsugaru Shinuchi is an experimental half-oni that has been used by a freak show to destroy the supernatural for the entertainment of the crowd. One night, he is approached by a woman carrying a bird cage containing a severed head. The head introduces herself as Aya Rindo, and asks Tsugaru to help her find and retrieve her immortal body that was stolen from her by a mysterious foreign man.
Leaving Japan for Europe, the trio decide to become detectives who come to be known as, “The Cage User,” investigating supernatural mysteries hoping they might hold clues to the mysterious body thief.
“Supernatural things in the 19th century” isn’t exactly a new concept in anime, but this series makes its seem so shiny and new with its interesting characters and even more interesting action. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Undead Murder Farce, head on down below.
Anime Like Undead Murder Farce
For Fans of Supernatural Mysteries
In-Spectre
At a young age, Kotoko Iwanaga was abducted by yokai and asked to become their Goddess of Wisdom to act as a mediator between spiritual and human issues. She agreed and lost her right eye and left leg in the agreement.
Meanwhile, Kotoko meets Kuro Sakuragawa, a man who just broke up with his girlfriend after a kappa fled before him.
Kotoko makes her move to not only lock him down as a boyfriend, but to have him help her settle various disputes with spirits.
Both Undead Murder Farce and In/Spectre are supernatural detective anime featuring female detectives/mediators and their near-immortal male assistants. Both series have those moments of slick-looking action, but most of the series is all about the dialogue.
When it comes to the mysteries, you have those periods of investigation, but the star of both show is when the female detective unravels the whole mystery in what is essentially just one long block of dialogue made interesting by the supporting visuals.
While the dialogue-dense mysteries are interesting in both series, they also share a lovable dynamic between the characters. Even if they are not doing anything interesting, it is a treat to watch them interact.
Gosick
Kujou Kazuya is a transfer student to the elite Saint Marguerite Academy in the Southern European country of Sauville. However, because of his Japanese descent, he is shunned by the other students.
One day in the library of the school, he ends up following a long blonde hair to a beautiful doll-like girl call Victorique de Blois who can predict the future, including their own currently entwined one.
Together, the pair begin to solve the mysteries that are beginning to plague their surroundings.
Both Undead Murder Farce and Gosick feature female detectives solving mysteries with their male assistants. However, unlike Undead Murder Farce that is very supernatural, Gosick actually goes the complete opposite route.
In Gosick, it often focuses on mysteries that truly seem supernatural, but the series is about showing the real, not supernatural cause behind it.
Furthermore, while Undead Murder Farce keeps the mysteries compact to move onto the more personal character mysteries, Gosick widely just focuses on various cases until the end when it focuses on character stories.
The Mystic Archives of Dantalian
After losing his eccentric grandfather, Lord Hugh “Huey” Disward is set to inherit his estate, but on one condition. He must take over care of his grandfather’s archives full of forbidden knowledge and care for a mysterious girl named Dalian.
However, he soon learns that the rival of his grandfather’s and his suspected killer is in the possession of a cursed tome that is causing problems in the world. Now with Dalian’s help, he must work to do what his grandfather failed to do – seal the tome away.
Both Undead Murder Farce and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian feature supernatural mysteries solved by a girl and her male assistant. However, unlike Rindo that mostly needs Tsugaru to carry her and fight, Dalian is far more dependent on Hugh, a man who is both more capable and more mature than her.
Ultimately, Undead Murder Farce and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian are supernatural mystery anime that put a decent amount of effort into the world and mysteries, but they are two anime series from different ages. The Mystic Archives of Dantalian is an older series and not a particularly good adaptation of its source material. It leaves the story interesting, but a bit disjointed in the way it is told. This, combined with its older animation, can put people off given the high quality of Undead Murder Farce.
For Fans of Unique Fantasy Characters
Bakemonogatari
After surviving a vampire attack, high school student Koyomi Araragi finds he has several supernatural side effects that remained after being cured including the ability to rapidly heal.
While trying to live a normal life after the event, he ends up catching a classmate, Hitagi Senjougahara, as she fell down some stairs. As he catches her, he discovers that she is near weightless after being inflicted with a curse.
After enlisting the help of the easy-going wandering Shinto priest that helped him with his vampirism, Araragi finds himself embroiled in not just Senjogahara’s issue but several different supernatural events afflicting those in his town.
While both Undead Murder Farce and Bakemonogatari are supernatural mystery anime with a mutual love for clever and occasionally lengthy periods of dialogue, they offer that in different experiences.
The mysteries in Bakemonogatari are really just a clever way to hide what is, in its bare bones, a supernatural harem anime. So often the mysteries he is solving are the supernatural problems of girls that will come to like him.
What both series really share is the depth they put into the world and the quirkiness of all the characters. Both series create worlds that appear normal, but sure have a large population of supernatural characters shown in the show.
Furthermore, while both series are fluidly animated, Bakemonogatari has a distinct surreal art style that makes it feel a little bit more like an artistic anime at times. Bakemonogatari is also a lower action show. Like Undead Murder Farce, the action happens in very quick bursts, but is less frequently.
The Kubikiri Cycle
Due to a mysterious disease, the genius Iria Akagami has been confined to a mansion on an isolated island by her family. With just a handful of maids, she entertains herself by inviting a series of fellow geniuses to stay at her home.
These visits continue for awhile until one guest is found violently murdered without a single clue as to why. With tensions running high, the assistant to computer savant Tomo Kunagisa takes it upon himself to solve the murder before anyone else meets a similar fate.
Both Undead Murder Farce are supernatural detective anime that have strong, interesting mysteries, but are easily carried by their cast of unique, visually interesting characters.
As The Kubikiri Cycle is a Nisio Isin series like Bakemonogatari above, it shares his signature love of dense, clever, and sometimes complex dialogue. Like Undead Murder Farce, Kubikiri Cycle can be heavy on dialogue at times, but both series are fluidly directed so you never feel like you are about to fall asleep while the genius detective is laying out the solution to the mystery.
Both series do well to keep you engaged with the mysteries and make the “genius detectives” in each series feel like true geniuses.
Bungo Stray Dogs
The orphanage that Atsushi Nakajima has been living at has been recently plagued by a tiger that only he can see. Blaming him for the incident, they kick him out.
Now homeless, he wanders the streets until he meets the eccentric Osamu Dazai and saves him from drowning.
As it turns out, Dazai is a supernatural detective and agrees to help him solve the mystery.
What Undead Murder Farce does, Bungo Stray Dogs does with a bigger emphasis on action.
Both series are about supernatural creatures or people with supernatural abilities solving mysteries. However, as things go on, they become less about the mysteries, and more about one side fighting another side, told through arc-based stories.
Both Bungo Stray Dogs and Undead Murder Farce both start off about solving mysteries, but Bungo Stray Dogs is often about them getting a case, and then going to fight someone. Since they have a member that can literally solve mysteries immediately using their power – there isn’t much emphasis on investigation.
A small, but charming similarity is both series also feature modified historical characters. Undead Murder Farce features characters from history or fiction like Sherlock Holmes, Arsene Lupin, and Aleister Crowley while Bungo Stray Dogs has its characters all named after various famous authors.
Moriarty The Patriot
William Moriarty is the second son of the noble Moriarty family. During the day, he is a mathematics professor, but at night he uses his keen mind in order to work as a consultant for individuals with a particular need for his intellect.
He has dedicated himself to revenge against nobility in order to crumble the crushing social hierarchy that oppresses much of England.
Most obviously, Undead Murder Farce and Moriarty the Patriot have mysteries that involve Sherlock Holmes, but don’t have him as a main character. Moriarty is the main character in Moriarty the Patriot while he is the antagonist in Undead Murder Farce.
In Moriarty the Patriot, it follows the legendary nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, William Moriarty as he and his crew carry out intricate plots to murder nobility who have wronged people. While murdering nobles seems like a different experience to solving mysteries – it’s really not presented as such.
Both series involve investigation, planning, and solution. They investigate the mysteries, set up the solution, and then lay everything out to solve the mystery in Undead Murder Farce. Moriarty the Patriot investigates the nobles, sets up the crime, and kills them in a way so that they get away with it.
Both series create unique and interesting characters that are a joy to watch. Furthermore, they also make a lot of the characters, even main characters or “the good guys,” seem kind of menacing and sinister.
For Fans of Searching For Something
The Case Study of Vanitas
Scorned by his vampire peers for being born under a blue moon, it is said that the vampire Vanitas created a powerful grimoire known as the Book of Vanitas that would bring retribution to all crimson moon vampires.
On his way to Paris, Noe is searching for this fabled book. While traveling aboard an airship, he is saved from a vampire attack by an eccentric man that claims to posses the Book of Vanitas and uses it to cure the attacking vampire that was driven rabid by a progressing event afflicting vampires called the Charlatan’s Parade.
Both Undead Murder Farce and The Case Study of Vanitas take place in historically inspired worlds that are made unique often my the large amount of supernatural characters that live there.
However, while Undead Murder Farce has a number of actual humans, The Case Study of Vanitas features primarily a vampire society. It also creates a sort of steampunk Victorian-inspired world that feels similar to Undead Murder Farce, but is a fantasy world.
Both series follow mysterious main characters and their assistants who get involved in a series of mysteries as they explore their own personal mystery. However, while Rindo is very clear about what she is looking for, Vanitas keeps things distinctly more vague.
If you enjoy a wide array of interesting characters made interesting by their abilities as well as sometimes their design, both of these series really excel at it. Undead Murder Farce has a little more visual flair, but The Case Study of Vanitas is certainly not skimping on excellent visuals and fluid animation either. The Case Study of Vanitas is, however, often more action-focused compared to Undead Murder Farce that often enjoys lengthy moments of dialogue.
Black Butler
Young Earl Ciel Phantomhive is a noble in the service of Queen Victoria of England. Not only does he handle the business affairs of his family’s toy business, but he travels around solving mysteries that irk Her Majesty’s kingdom. However, he doesn’t do it alone.
After the death of his parents and in his darkest hour, Ciel formed a pact with a demon to help him get revenge on those that wronged him in exchange for his soul afterwards. Now this demon poses as his butler, Sebastian, a man with superhuman abilities.
While Undead Murder Farce starts in Japan, and takes a jaunt to Europe, it eventually, like Black Butler, ends up in Victorian England. Both series are mystery anime that focus on a historically-inspired world that just happens to be overrun with supernatural characters.
While Undead Murder Farce is about supernatural creatures looking for someone and solving mysteries, Black Butler is about a young noble selling his soul to a demon who helps him solve various mysterious as he looks for people to get his revenge.
However, while Undead Murder Farce is dedicated to interesting, mature, and intricate storytelling, Black Butler is presented more like your standard supernatural shounen action anime, but with some surprisingly dark moments.
Katanagatari
In Edo era Japan, Shichika Yasuri practices one of the most unique sword styles among a culture of unique sword styles, a technique that uses his own body as a blade. As the seventh head of the style’s school, he lives in exile with his sister Nanami until the ambitious Togame barges into his life.
Togame tries to recruit him on her mission to collect the twelve unique swords known as the Deviant Blades for the shogunate. Interested by the girl more so than her mission, Yasuri accepts, only to later find the challenge in collecting these swords is defeating the legendary swordsmen that wield them.
Both Undead Murder Farce and Katanagatari start with a guy recruited by a girl to help her search for and collect something, picked specifically because of his fighting skill. Yet, where Undead Murder Farce is supernatural and Victorian European-inspired, Katanagatari is fantasy with historic Japanese inspirations.
While utilizing different art styles, both series have a distinct visual flair that makes them fun to watch, and the action is always brilliantly fluid.
While Katanagatari is more focused on battle and action rather than mystery, both series are the sort that you love for the interaction between the main characters.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Undead Murder Farce? Let fans know in the comments section below.
