Apologies, I belived I had already fed back on this title and I was alarmed to discover I had not done so before now.

Unfortunately I found this story wasn't to my enjoyment, I will not be providing a review as I fully understand we cannot all enjoy the same books and just because it wasn't a story "for me" I know there will be an appreciative audience.

Despite not leaving a full review I do appreciate the opportunity you gave me to read this book and I was impressed and enjoyed much of the artwork.

It was ok - the premise (what is Sherlock Holmes was a severed head in a cage and was trying to fid out who murdered a vampire) kid of had me from go - but unfortunately the characters are not fleshed out at all in the single volume we have here, and even when the detective names the killer, the story just STOPS without giving any type of explanation.

Thank you netgalley for a chance to read this. It was too fast pace and didn’t have much detail I wanted to like it so much.

I think I would have preferred this book more so if I'd read it physically. I just found it really hard to read digitally. It was okay I just wanted a little bit more from the story.

This was... fine. My biggest problem was the art, which I found difficult to look at on a computer screen. Maybe I would have enjoyed this more in print? It's hard to tell. I sort of slogged through this, because it was a bit painful to read.

3 out of 5 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

This manga had be at 'a vampires wife is murdered'. I was very interested in the combination of supernatural and crime solving.

I really enjoyed the artwork of this one. The concept works so well with this format.

I think I'm used to the supernatural books that go all out and it didn't quite for there for me but I still enjoyed it

I do recommend this

Undead Girl Murder Farce is a mystery series with demons and vampires. It's the end of the 19th century and a vampire's wife is murdered. This vampire family happens to be collaborating with humans, but police cannot solve the case. Thus a detective is called and the guy is a cage user and in that cage we have severed head (that is actually the detective). Both the head and the guy are demons working with crimes. The setting is quite interesting, but the rhythm is off. The beginning is slow and suddenly everything happens very fast until the end is slow once again. It's hard to keep track what is happening and the battle scenes and past mix up. It doesn't help that the art is smudgy and wonky, so it takes time to get what I'm looking at.

Sadly so the art is the worst part of the series as it makes the following of the story complicated. The structure isn't the best either, even though the premise is really great. It's such a shame! I also would've wanted to know more about the main characters, since we get nothing out of them. It's hard to care and the humor doesn't fit well because of it. Undead Girl Murder Farce isn't the worst, but lacks too much to work.

There's a vampire family in 19th century France, and the vampire mother has been murdered, so a young man is called in, who brings a decapitated head of a young woman sitting in a cage. The lady head is the detective, and she quickly gets too work.

All of this sounds weird, but it also never gets to be weird enough - at least for my liking. If you're going to do a story like this, I expect focused madness, That said, it's still a fun (and funny) read.

Undead Girl Murder Farce volume 1 by Yugo Aosaki and Haruka Tomoyama is a definite volume 1 as it is all about introducing the charcters. It is a bit try-hard and seems like charcters designed by junior high school students, including everything that might be deemed as 'cool'!
It is a murder mystery set in a ficticious fantasy 1890s France. In this setting, Vampires and Humans live together but not necessarily harmoniously. Three supernatural detective charcters are introduced when a vampire's wife is murdered and the local police won't help. The first volume follows the detective work of these three supernaturals and the volume ends with the culprit revealed but not the way they did it - meaning you need to read volume 2 to know how they did it! Clever! But not enough for me to want to read it - so as a customer I won't be picking this up!

The art style was interesting but too dark and sketching for my taste. It feels like a 'chuunibyou' wet dream! Not for me!

3.5*

OK, my bad. I totally forgot I had this arc to review. Life got crazy, let me remedy this situation.

Thoughts while reading:

Not sure about that cold open, but we'll see
demons/vampires ok
Ok slow start and a bit confusing
I like the character design even without knowing what those wrapped up objects are
Now things are getting a bit more interesting
Sherlock Holmes - this is both a good and bad thing
Well, we finally see the head in the cage
Not a big fan of that twist
I am however curious about what farce has been put up.

This was ok. I was never sucked into the story and was a bit confused by some things that I never felt got properly explained. Even with all of that, I am a bit curious about the ending.

Interesting concept and approach to vampires however the pacing felt a little slow and certain characters we felt needed to be in flushed out. Great artwork though. .

Personally, I found the beginning a tad clumpy. Between the character introductions, the info dumping and the set up of the introductory story it didn’t read all that smoothly. Once you get passed the beginning though Undead Girl Murder Farce settles, and you have the first mystery.

In a world where allied vampires can life in peaceful coexistence with humans (except occasional vampire hunters) a prominent vampire has been murdered. The “cage user” detective is called to investigate.

This murder mystery is the central plot. The ‘joke’ about the talking cage got a bit boring and I felt that sometimes the mystery walked over the line of becoming across as condescending to the reader. It is painfully obvious why the cage talks yet the characters remain mystified for much too long. Also, the same cliff-hanger ending is used repeatedly towards the end “it’s one of you” only has impact once, not over and over.

I think the next volume will give a much better idea of how this story works, both in style and plot.

The world is interesting, and I definitely was looking forward to knowing more about it, but the characters are very much typical manga personas, the dialogues felt strange in English, as if some of it was too difficult to translate, the story is very slow to start and the volume ends on a total cliff hanger with no hint to added depth to the series.
I am not particularly interested in continuing.

I knew going in that this wouldn't be something that would get wrapped up nice and neat in the end. We get just enough of a taste to learn a little something about the characters and to get attached to them; and as for the mystery they're investigating, we learn just enough for things to ramp up and leave us with more questions!

We get a decent introduction to the vampire lore of this world, which is fantastic since every author who tackles the subject of vampires tends to have a different explanation for how they're made and the rules that govern them. It's an interesting take in that humans must drink vampire blood because it's stronger in order to become a vampire; they're vulnerable to silver, holy water, and sunlight; and they have vast amounts of strength.

We also learn that Rindo herself is a demon known as The Immortal, and that she's roughly 1,000 years old. Beyond that, we know that there's something different about Shinuchi but we don't have much of a backstory yet. And then we know even less about Shizuku. To be clear, these aren't bad things - I'm just glad we had a little bit information about them to pique our interest.

It's an interesting start, for sure. I love the hilarious interactions between Rindo and her assistant, Shinuchi, but also Shizuku - the whole trio is just great! I'm very intrigued, and excited to see more from this series!

Huge thanks to the author, Kodansha and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this manga in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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I was super excited to see more art in the style of the cover and was not at all disappointed!

It's definitely a unique style that can at times be a little hard to follow but ultimately is perfect for the mood and setting of this story.

Vampires are a normal part of society in 19th century France, but things take a turn for the morbid when an unusual investigative team is gathered to investigate the murder of a vampire's wife.

This is a story full of plot twists that are hard to anticipate and that makes reading this an addictive experience. There are certain tropes used in this but, frankly, I was too interested in the story to be irked too much by those.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good gothic murder mystery!

Overall rating: 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was hooked. I really liked reading. The art made it hard to follow sometimes but I think the art style grew on me while reading. Would definitely read more if I got the chance.

In an alternate 19th century France, vampires have integrated into human society. However, when a vampire’s beloved wife is found murdered in their mansion, the police refuse to investigate. A special investigative team of three is called in instead: an immortal severed head, her maid attendant, and the Cage User who carries her.

Undead Girl Murder Farce Volume 1 by Yugo Aosaki (writer) and Haruka Tomoyama (illustrator) delivers a good old-fashioned gothic murder mystery with supernatural elements. It’s snarky and sharp and filled with shocking twists. It’s also tropey in the best possible way. (Yes, this includes the battle maid.)

However, it’s the art that falls flat to me. Maybe it’s the thick brush style that the illustrator used, but the artwork looks muddled in parts and some of the panel layouts appear cluttered, making it difficult to decipher what’s going on at times.

Overall though, the story itself seems promising and like something that would be completely up my alley, so I’m hoping that the illustrator’s art improves over time.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to like this one. I expected to like it. I mean, Sherlock Holmes-ish detective work, supernatural vampires and demons set in France, the mystery behind the body-less head locked away in a bird cage... It's all stuff that is right up my alley!
The problem is that I had to read the volume twice just to understand what was actually going on. I was reading on my phone, so it could be me, but sometimes the art was a little hard to follow, especially during the fights at the end, and I never understood the very first scene, the introduction of our star detectives, until my second read-through. I guess I just feel like I needed the information that comes later in the volume to understand the beginning of it. I probably won't pick up the next volume.

I enjoyed this, good story, good ending which leads on to following books. It was very quick and easy to read and follow. Was a little different reading on my iPad as for some reason it did warp some of the pictures/layouts throughout however this was something I got used to.

Story: I read quite a few manga in a victorian setting as I like the style. Also as most other manga I read in this setting, the setting was chosen in connection with Sherlock Holmes. Interesting was for me especially that france was chosen instead of the usual choice of england and that Sherlock Holmes was actually mentioned.
Also I am not a big fan of vampires I am of detective stories though. I think the direct combination of both and the different use and explanation of vampires make it quite interesting.
For the overall story from a detective fiction point of view I would say it is average, also I knew who was the murderer in the first case really early on. The demon and human relationship and also the view on historical events but changing them to fit the story was something I liked and push it a little higher than the average.
I think for the story we get a basic idea in the first volume and we also get tricked into reading more for not knowing everything of the main characters so far. I will continue this manga for similar reasons and look if the pace and story picks up a bit. I think there is potential for it growing over the average manga. (3.5)

Art: I really liked the artstyle. I think the main details were focused on the landscape/background when needed and made it look very deep. I like the mix of various shades and I feel that there is less work with fillers. I feel like I missed a bit of detail on the persons and sometimes the shades were too similar to figure everything out without stopping your complete reading flow. But all in all I liked the mix of styles and the details a lot. (4)