The following contains minor spoilers for the Undead Unluck manga.
Summary
- “Undead Unluck” is a fresh and subversive shonen action series that makes villainous superpowers fun.
- Fans of supernatural action series like My Hero Academia and Chainsaw Man will enjoy Undead Unluck and its similar narrative elements.
- The anime can be watched on Hulu with English subtitles and the manga is available for purchase in print and digital formats.
The Fall 2023 anime season has arrived, offering a delightful mix of new and returning series, from Jujutsu Kaisen and Dr. Stone to more Shield Hero and Goblin Slayer. In between all these familiar titles is the fresh new series, Undead Unluck, a comedy action anime that gleefully bends the rules of shonen action series while also hitting a variety of familiar beats.
The Undead Unluck anime, like its ongoing source material manga, makes a strong first impression with its bizarre opening. Undead Unluck kicks off with a shojo-loving female protagonist who nearly ends her life before an immortal warrior partners up with her to find the best possible route to death. This exciting premise aside, there’s much more to know about what Undead Unluck is about, who will like it, and where to read and watch its story as the saga continues to unfold.
What is Undead Unluck About?
Shonen Adventure, Supernatural, & Comedy
Undead Unluck is a somewhat subversive shonen action series that begins on an intimate scale, only to further expand and become a great struggle between humanity and the world’s creator, the almighty God. When Undead Unluck begins, it focuses on the lonely teenage girl, Fuuko Izumo, who has always been cursed with terrible luck. To Fuuko’s credit, she makes sure no one else has to suffer because of her deadly unluck. Fuuko lives in seclusion as a borderline “hikikomori” who makes sure that no one can touch her skin — and thus activate her “unluck” — the few times that she ventures outside. Still, Fuuko can’t stand living like this any longer and so the anime’s first episode tragically involves her plans to end her own life. Miraculously, Fuuko’s life is saved upon the arrival of a strange man who also ushers in the comedy and action.
This brawny fellow originally has no name, but he spares Fuuko of her grim fate while he declares his own intent to somehow end his own immortal life. This stranger is tired of living forever, which makes him and Fuuko the ideal pair. Fuuko’s creatively deadly unluck abilities become the key to fulfilling his self-destructive wishes. From this point forward, the man–who is dubbed “Andy”–and Fuuko begin their adventures as an odd pair who are equipped with Negator abilities and are resolved to break the rules of God’s world through supernatural means.
Fuuko and Andy meet other Negators who each have different un-abilities, that range from “unmove,” to “unchange,” to “unstoppable.” They fight over the fate of the world while God’s UMAs, or rule-enforcing creatures, stalk the land. Throughout Undead Unluck, Fuuko Izumo finds the courage and strength to fight for what’s right and to make the most out of her second chance at life, all thanks to Andy. Still, Andy makes for a rowdy and unpredictable partner. This means that Fuuko must figure out her relationship with him so that they can each get what they want, either as battle buddies, friends, or perhaps even lovers.
Who Should Watch Undead Unluck?
Fans of My Hero Academia, Chainsaw Man, One-Punch Man
The Undead Unluck anime will certainly appeal to any anime fan who want a high-quality, unique series to watch in the Fall 2023 season. The unpredictable nature of Undead Unluck gives mainstream audiences a break from new seasons of Dr. Stone, Shield Hero, and Spy x Family. The Undead Unluck anime has the potential to become the best new anime of the season, though some anime fans will be drawn to it more than others.
Undead Unluck should appeal most to anime fans who enjoy supernatural action series like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, since it shares many narrative beats with those series including a main character who learns how to harness their superpower and uses it to fight against evil organizations. Fuuko Izumo is almost like a vigilante pro hero in the ways that she wields her “Quirk” to do some good in the world while she makes up her own rules on her adventures with the undead, Andy. Undead Unluck‘s story has strong elements where a person discovers their true potential and finds their purpose in life, which makes it the ideal anime for fans of inspirational battle shonen series.
Undead Unluck also isn’t entirely formulaic as a “Big Three” copycat. It has some subversive elements to it, which put creative twists on the “shonen superpower” concept, while Undead Unluck also explores the lives of off-beat protagonists. Fuuko Izumo isn’t a Deku clone — she is an ordinary, unfortunate girl who lives alone with her collection of shojo manga. Only now, Fuuko learns to use her deadly unluck to destroy things with meteors, runaway vehicles, and far more, all while Andy chops off his body parts to attack enemies from unexpected angles. This makes Undead Unluck similar to other rule-breaking shonen titles like Chainsaw Man. Undead Unluck works within the framework of other action storytelling while it shreds the rules from the inside-out in order to create an unpredictable narrative that questions shonen’s most familiar tropes. Anyone who loves Chainsaw Man and its approach to the shonen genre is sure to like Undead Unluck too, even if it’s not quite as brutal and graphic.
Where To Watch & Read Undead Unluck?
1 Season (24 Episodes) (Ongoing); 18 Volumes (183 Chapters) (Ongoing)
Anime fans in the West have limited options to watch the Undead Unluck, but it’s still readily available. The Hulu streaming platform is the only one that currently supports Undead Unluck, which is available with English subtitles. It’s already confirmed that Undead Unluck will also get English dubbed episodes on December 13th as the series’ first season continues. In the West, Undead Unluck‘s new episodes air on Saturdays. Anime fans should also note that the Undead Unluck anime will run for two consecutive cours, which means that the season’s second half will conclude in the Winter 2024 anime season with its 24th episode.
Fans can also get the full story of Undead Unluck via the original manga, written and drawn by author Yoshifumi Tozuka. The Western release of Undead Unluck‘s manga has 13 volumes available to buy, with Volume 14 set to release on January 16th, 2024. Fans can find print volumes of Undead Unluck‘s manga at several online vendors, including the Crunchyroll Store, which recently merged with Rightstufanime.com to create an all-new shopping experience for anime fans. Undead Unluck‘s physical volumes are all available at the Crunchyroll Store, while Barnes & Noble’s online catalog and Amazon.com each stock the series’ print volumes as well as digital volumes on the Nook and Kindle, respectively. Intrepid fans who know how to read Japanese can enjoy all 18 volumes of Undead Unluck‘s original manga, with more content on the way.
Undead Unluck, Vol. 1:
The story follows an 18-year-old girl named Fuuko Izumo, who has been living in seclusion for 10 years since an incident that left more than 200 people dead, including her parents, when she was eight years old. Following the completion of her favorite long-running girls’ manga series, Fuuko decides to commit suicide. She is tormented by the fact that she cannot be touched by anyone due to her “unluck” ability, which brings bad luck to anyone she comes into contact with in the flesh. She meets an “undead” man who has amazing regenerative abilities and who desires to die the best death possible, disliking his immortal life.
- Writer
- Yoshifumi Tozuka
- Artist
- Yoshifumi Tozuka
- Letterer
- Michelle Pang, David Evelyn
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- Price
- 9.99
- Release Date
- May 4, 2021
