For years, manga-turned-anime adaptations have been sprawling out of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, defining what the next big hit will come henceforth into the anime scene after the likes of Yuki Tabata's Black Clover (recently transferred to Jump Giga), Tite Kubo's Burn the Witch, and most especially the reigning Shonens from Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen to Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia. As we see the new upcoming anime gearing up this year from Yusei Matsui's Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi a.k.a The Elusive Samurai to Hitsuji Gondai's Yozakura-san Chi no Daisakusen a.k.a Mission: Yozakura Family next season, we take a look at one of its most Shonen-ish contemporaries out there: mangaka Yoshifumi Tozuka's Undead Unluck.
The tale of Undead Unluck is quite the journey...if you can follow a straight-line path, only to like Gintama (cue the entire "Gintama explains filler" video) to go off the rails, restart its timeline and correct it like a time machine to ward off evil, that's basically the entire story in a nutshell. And for a Shonen Jump title that demands attention, this certainly caught the eyes of the Japanese for a title that screams "unhinged fun", though the reception in the West is lukewarm at best.
The Unluck girl: Fuuko Izumo may look like your average female MC, but she has one thing going for her, and not in a good way: her unlucky streak of incidents involving her, one being the un-karma-like death of her parents through a plane explosion that left scores dead when she was at a young age of 8. 10 years later, and having realized her ambition after reading a long-running Shoujo manga (the gag of mangaka Karuho Shiina's Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, published by Kodansha), she decides that she just wants to end her life by committing suicide. That's where she meets the Undead guy: Andy, and he's a character that sells to you exactly who he is: suicidal and reckless, with an unhealthy obsession to kill himself, and supports Fuuko on her conquest to team up together in a suicide pact. But these two are not alone: being targeted by a mysterious organization who wants their powers for their gain; the former Un-luck power being able to render anyone to die after skinship contact, and the latter Un-dead power preventing him from dying and using his body as a regenerative device, such as firing fingers like bullets.
These people, like both Fuuko and Andy, are people with special abilities, and rather than being the hunted, they adopt the "if you can't beat them, join 'em!" approach to newcomers within the organization. And a ceasefire request sends them both to the organization's way since their interests align with Andy, who is the literate Undead and wishes to find "the best death" while facing enemies and mysteries of the world. This mysterious organization is called the Union, of which members uphold a position (like Knights of the Round Table) according to their "Un"-related powers called Negators, and go on missions concocted by its central system: a book called Apocalypse, who hands them quests to hunt down UMAs i.e. Unidentified Mysterious Animals, creatures created by God which embody Earth's rules and complete them before the deadline is up, failing which new UMAs will be released according to the difficulty of the mission's requirement. It's already taxing for Fuuko, Andy and its members to tackle UMAs at once, not barring the fact that other groups of Negators are at their peril if they have objective or ideals that differ in one way or another from the Union, like Under. It's that secretive and enclosed.
It's the norm to say that Undead Unluck has a wide cast of colourful characters, because the more people, the more power to defeat God and the constantly created UMAs that continue to wreck Earth. You already know about Fuuko and Andy, but there's an alter ego for the latter: Victhor, another personality within Andy that is unlocked when the card lodged on his forehead is removed. Unlike his perfectly fine ego, Victhor is twice as much ruthless as the former and someone who shows no mercy, who initially is deemed a threat to Fuuko, until she manages to tame him down and gets him to trust in their abilities to push forward in their determination. Also, Andy gets naked all the time, he's a literate running gag joker until he gets clothes from an UMA.
With the two central characters away, the rest of the Union and Under are as follows (featured prominently in the anime):
- Juiz d'Arc, leader and founder of the Union, with her Un-justice Negator power being able to force her targets to do the opposite sense of "justice". Has a relationship with Victhor as a co-founder to work together and kill God;
- Gina Chamber, the former Russian member. Her Un-change Negator ability allows her to negate any change in inanimate objects, which she used this to make herself look younger. She is in love with Andy, though has to subsequently give up her position for Fuuko's success.
- Shen Xiang, the Chinese martial artist, with his Un-truth Negator power being able to force his targets to do the opposite of their intentions, so as long as he looks at them with at least one eye with fondness. Although he has his capable Nyon-Kinko staff Artifact which can extend him to space, he also has a subordinate in the form of Mui. They have a master in the form of Feng Kowloon, who's residing in Under, who eventually betrayed them and joined the side of evil.
- Nico Vorgeil, the Union's top inventor, with his Un-forgettable Negator power being capable of not forgetting any and all information.
- Chikara Shigeno, the new addition to Union, with his Un-move Negator ability to stop movements of targets, though like Shen, has to engage his eyes as well. Like Fuuko, he also accidentally killed his parents at the manifest of his ability, and although he seems more like a coward in panic, he will show courage when he needs to act upon.
- Tatiana, the young Russian girl, with her Un-touchable Negator power that negates anyone who touches her, effectively rendering her with that nefarious ability. That is until she is saved by Billy who found her being sold in the black market while in a spherical robot suit barrier. The thing is, Billy is part of the Union and thought to be had with the Negator power Un-believable (which shoots bullets that would seemingly miss the target and ricochet back at them), but when he reveals his true nature, his Un-fair Negator ability is the most powerful of all: being able to clone other abilities from those he regarded as enemies. Now that's someone that is worth fearing upon, given his major role further in both the anime and the manga.
- Rip Tristan, the young killer from Under, with his Un-repair power being able to negate the ability to heal wounds after damage. He is always accompanied by his closest friend of Latla Mirah, who also is a Under member, with her Un-trust Negator ability to redirect attacks at her and occur the opposite reactions of whatever she believes will happen.
- Akira Kuno, pen name Anno Un. The mangaka of Fuuko's favourite Shoujo manga series, his existence is a double-edged sword thanks to his Un-known Negator ability, which causes his existence to vanish, though this is bolstered by his G-Pen Artifact that allows him to create his fine work of "To You, From Me" Shoujo manga to life. The caveat of which sets the tone of the entire series as the G-Pen allows Akira to foreshadow events which would happen within both the Union and Under by the way of hints throughout his manga series, he's the biggest benefactor to the Union as a plot device that changes the shape of the entire source material.
Everyone is a resource, and both the Union and Under may have their attractions, but it's the clash that makes Undead Unluck such a fun show, even at its never-ending number of high-stakes scenarios that could change the game for either group at any one time.
It's no surprise to say that the production of Undead Unluck is one key reason for the anime's success at engagement values, and this is thanks to director Yuki Yase, who has harnessed his directorial duties under the famed Shaft director Akiyuki Shinbo, which brought him over to studio David Production to conduct on Season 1 of Enen no Shouboutai a.k.a Fire Force (to relatively decent success). With this show being his second outing, he has proved himself once again that he has the capability to measure up to his talents forthcoming from the former series, replicated onto here with some of the best action scenes worthy of the Shonen genre. Of course, you need not tell me about DavidPro's impressive animation, the studio has never failed in delivering great AND consistent production even in consecutive cour/season shows.
The music department is also one key highlight of the anime as well. Composed by music composer Kenichiro Suehiro, which he joins director Yuki Yase from working together on Fire Force, the OST has been nothing short of pretty good and even engaging at times. The theme songs on the other hand, I have to say that I prefer more of the 1st Cour's pairing of Ziyoou-vachi a.k.a Queen Bee and Kairi Yagi, though Shiyui and Okamoto's pairing for the 2nd Cour is no slouch either. Also, the opening visuals are some of the most creative consonants that I have seen, perfectly integrating the theme of the manga to greatness.
If anything, Undead Unluck acts as an enigma to Weekly Shonen Jump: being very Shonen in its approach, yet like Gintama, knows how to poke comedy and have tons of fun amidst its supernatural adventures. And that inevitably, is how Yoshifumi Tozuka wants his series to be: a pseudo-Gintama, yet keeping its themes close and working to conduct the long run through the ongoing manga.
I desperately want a Season 2 of this, the story of Undead Unluck has only really just begun.
