Undead Unluck

After reading the conclusion of her favorite manga series, Fuuko Izumo finally feels ready to end her existence. For the past 10 years, Fuuko has been afflicted by a condition that brings extreme misfortune to anyone who touches her. This has had a drastic effect on her surroundings, even inadvertently resulting in the deaths of those around her—including her parents.

As she stands on a bridge above train tracks, Fuuko is touched by a strange man, causing the footing underneath him to break and dropping him in front of an oncoming train. However, when Fuuko finds the man's corpse, she discovers that his body is regenerating and that he is coming back to life.

The man, whom Fuuko names Andy, is immortal—and like her, he also wishes for death. Initially dismissive, Fuuko eventually decides to team up with Andy to give him the best death possible; but a mysterious organization lurks in the shadows, hoping to take advantage of the duo's bizarre abilities.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Undead Unluck ranked first in the Best Printed Manga category at the sixth Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Awards in 2020. It ranked 14th in the 2021 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! for the Male Readers division and sixth on Honya Club's Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2021 list.

The series has been simulpub digitally in English through MANGA Plus. The volumes have been published in English by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint since May 4, 2021. It has also been released in Italian by Panini Comics since November 11, 2021.

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Izumo, Fuuko

Main

Andy

Main

Xiang, Shen

Supporting

Kuno, Akira

Supporting

Tristan, Rip

Supporting

Chamber, Gina

Supporting

Tatiana

Supporting

Alfred, Billy

Supporting

Juiz

Supporting

Vorgeil, Nico

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 16, 2023

Reki_Retro

Recommended

Well-written

Preliminary (174/? eps)

Rough ecchi beginning to one of the most unique and brilliant stories I've read in shounen. The first 10 chapters are a good introduction to the pacing, world, and power system, but they're a piss-poor guide to how the characters will develop over the course of the story. I genuinely feel sad for anyone who dropped UxU off the intro, but I guess I can't blame them if they don't know better, because it really has some uncomfortable moments. 174 chapters later, though, it's easily one of my favorite stories of all time, and I'm eagerly awaiting the anime adaptation (which I sincerely hope gets ...

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Feb 25, 2021

Half-Gifts

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (39/? eps)

(Review up to ch. 39, score subject to change)

I've fallen a bit out of touch with what's new in manga and anime over the past couple of years, so I decided to cop a subscription to the Weekly Shonen Jump app to get an overview of up-and-coming series. I already have a few ongoing series on my radar, but I started with Unluck x Undead at the suggestion of a friend. Sure, it's another shonen joint about eccentric, superpowered demigods, but I was intrigued by its central concept of Negation. The abilities of UxU's protagonists subvert the laws of universe, which can be a help ... or a hinderance depending on their user's creativity.

My first impression of the series was the frenetic pacing of its first few chapters, which rarely lets up. There's very little in the way of exposition and world-building, which means by the time you've reached the fifth chapter, you'll get the gist of the story, the cast, and the stakes. It's a welcome alternative to a cookie-cutter backstory and one-by-one introduction to characters, and the dynamic between protagonists Fuuko and Andy is original enough to create interest off the bat. As the pair are adults, we're spared your typical high school setting and puerile antics for a more complex relationship with romantic tension that's directly linked to their powers.

Unfortunately, because UxU never really lets off of its plot-driven gas, Fuuko and Andy feel wooden as individuals. The latter's design is generic, and his overconfident veneer is only occasionally removed via an artificial plot device. Fuuko's the more interesting protagonist on paper, though as other reviewers have suggested, we could spend more time getting to know her better. Shonen jump already has a dearth of multi-dimensional female protagonists, and having Fuuko play sidekick is a wasted opportunity. She's also the butt of some ecchi gags leave a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily, UxU gets significantly less horny as the story progresses: it's better for it.

Where the series succeeds is in its willingness to take wild risks and flirt with meta-referential humor. The central conflict between the union of Negators and God itself leads to an onslaught of ridiculous plot twists (including the earth expanding into an entire galaxy, each country occupying a different planet), and the weirdness of it all is a running joke in the story. Where I've left off in the series, our heroes are in pursuit of a mangaka whose writing has predicted the events of the story thus far — which may explain some of the existential confusion that I've experienced while reading. It's not as successful a deconstruction of shonen tropes as, say, Mob Psycho 100, but I've found UxU to be pretty promising. I forsee it continuing to improve as it goes on.

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Feb 21, 2021

officemerks

Not Recommended

Preliminary (16/? eps)

Moderate Spoilers up to Ch 17 ahead

I had high hopes for this one. I found the premise and the potential character dynamic between Fuuko and Andy to be very interesting. However, as I kept reading, I kept becoming more and more disappointed. I quickly realized that this story was not going to be about Fuuko overcoming her weakness and using her Unluck to her advantage. Rather, it was about Andy, which isn't good considering that Andy is an extremely bland and uninteresting character.

Andy is my main problem with this story. Not much about him is interesting or appealing. His main power (Undead) is simple ... enough, but the attacks which he performs using that power (like the finger guns) are poorly explained and honestly make no sense (feels like most of his attacks are just asspulls). His personality isn't appealing either. He has a very bland "idiot badass" thing going on with a very strong tinge of rape. He's also got the "demon inside" trope, which is one of my least favorites. There are barely any stakes when fighting Uma since he could just power himself up and tear everything to shreds. Very boring, very overdone.

Fuuko, however, is a much better character. Much more bearable, and I wanted to follow her story much more than Andy's. The problem, however, is that Andy takes much too much time being le epic badass man, leaving Fuuko in the dust. Doesn't feel much like a duo. My main problem with Fuuko isn't herself, but the way she's treated in the story and by Andy. From the very start, she's not presented as a full character, but rather an object Andy can rub his hands on to gain a power boost. I'm no stranger to women being objectified in anime either, it's just that in this case, that's her only purpose. That's it. Andy needs some power? He can go rub his face in Fuuko's chest.

From the start, this feels like Andy's story, not Fuuko & Andy's story. Andy's journey to grope Fuuko until she eventually falls in love with him and he can die already. The actual concrete story isn't very good either. Why are they joining the organization that only serves to hurt the Negators of the world? Even if that organization helps destroy the Uma, they could just do that themselves. There's no reason to force themselves into that organization. At the start, the story presented itself as a "fight the establishment!" story quickly devolved into "go on quests to kill the Uma and gain cool loot!" and I did not like it.

However, the art is nice enough and the supporting characters aren't too bad either. We've only really met a couple side characters, but Shen and the one girl that they fought with the big lake (forgot her name, sorry) were compelling enough, and had interesting personalities and powers. The battle system also has a decent bit of depth. Rather than throwing yourself at the enemy, you must figure out how exactly their negation works. By figuring out what exactly they negate, you can then find their weakness and exploit it. It's not the best, but it's more than I was expecting coming into it.

I'm really sad that it turned out this way. I don't read or watch much up-and-coming manga or anime, so this is a bit of a turn off from doing that again. I had really high hopes from what this could have been. What was an interesting premise just devolved into a story filled with tropes and gropes.

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Poll: Undead Unluck Chapter 221 Discussion Red_Ranger_Wien - Sep 8	1 replies	by MACHENIX »» Sep 8, 12:47 PM
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