Highlights
- Shizuku's fighting skills and investigative abilities shine in this episode, pleasing viewers who have been eagerly awaiting her active involvement in the story.
- The introduction of the werewolf village mirrors the previous arc in the human village, highlighting the parallels between the two communities and implying a hidden agenda behind the murders.
- The unfair judgement and rigged trial in the werewolf village create empathy for Rosa and add suspense to the already captivating case, as both communities become both victims and perpetrators of parallel crimes.
The opening scene of Undead Murder Farce's latest episode is almost a mirror image of the arc's beginning, right down to a flashback in which a mother is made a victim of mob justice. It's the beginning of a turning point for the case; an exercise in parallels and perspective as the rabbit hole deepens considerably.
Last week, two new Royce agents, Alice Rapidshot and Kyle Chaintail, arrived in the village to take back the Penultimate Night from Rindo and deal with the werewolf threat. After coming to a reluctant agreement, Rindo continued her investigation until the culprit seemingly revealed herself to be Alma, prompting a fight wherein Shizuku fell to an uncertain fate.
#ShizukuSweep
After the awkward look of the previous episode's final fight, it was a thrill to watch Shizuku fight against the werewolves during her attempted escape. Her speed and quick thinking speak to a combat prowess that has been sorely underrepresented, though perhaps not any longer. There's a reason that viewers have been pining to see her more active in the story.
Even her brutality isn't without some grace as she shoves a broom handle down one werewolf's throat. It's a strategic move, and while it's a rather violent act to perform after just making friends with a few werewolves, she knows they can heal from the wound. After all, it isn't as though she could kill them without her silver rifle anyway.
Beyond the action, it was exciting to see how Shizuku handles an investigation on her lonesome. As a prisoner, she's in a more vulnerable position than either of her companions would be, but she's intent on helping the werewolves because it's what she believes Rindo would do. She begins to work through the clues, echoing her master's deductive process, and demonstrating that she's not half bad of a detective herself.
A Tale of Two Mobs
What's great about the introduction of the werewolf village is that it's practically a repeat of Episode 9. A village full of paranoid people, all on high alert because of a series of murders. There have been three murders, all young girls, all on rainy nights, then a fourth murder which didn't occur on a rainy night. It's a perfect match for what has occurred in the human village.
Rosa, a werewolf, was judged by her own kind for wanting to leave the village and live her own life. Upon escaping, she was discovered by Cnut, as discussed in the last episode, where she gave birth to Jutte, before they were both discovered years later, leading them to be burned alive inside the tower. One mob punished her for being different, but her own kind punished her for wanting to leave at all. Neither were right and certainly neither of them were innocent.
Now that the audience has spent time in both communities, it's clear that something or someone has a grudge against both of them. Even the methods of murder suggest an attempt to create a war between the two villages. What also becomes clear is that both of these groups are woefully unequipped to carry out any justice fairly under the circumstances.
Through Shizuku's eyes, the method by which people are judged in the werewolf village is entirely rigged. The "sheep's scaffold" is meant to slowly crumble with each lie spoken, but the one who determines truth and lies is Granny Regi, whose perception of truth seems inexorably tied to her opinion. It becomes so easy to empathize with Rosa, seeing how unfairly she was judged in such a sham trial.
The story portrays these distinct communities - both of them the victims and perpetrators of parallel crimes - to cleverly add another layer of suspense to an already captivating case. The humans found bodies mauled by werewolves while the werewolves found bodies shot by human firearms. The signs suggest that it's all some sort of retribution for what happened to Rosa, the victim tying everything together.
Undead Murder Farce came back strong this week, making up for the previous episode's few shortcomings with great animation and even better developments in the narrative. Best of all, Shizuku finally gets time in the spotlight, which hopefully is a sign of great things to come in the last two episodes.