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

Alfred, Billy

Supporting

Tatiana

Supporting

Juiz

Supporting

Vorgeil, Nico

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 26, 2024

Dnny99

Recommended

Preliminary (222/? eps)

Back in 2014 I caught up to the One Piece anime. I had been enjoying the ride quite a lot but it wasn't until I had to wait for new episodes that I really began to delve into the series. I would re-watch clips on youtube, read fan theories on reddit, scroll through fanart on tumblr, and pick up (eventually even re-read) the manga due to the increasing obsession I felt toward what would become my favorite thing on this planet (besides of course my friends, family, livelihood, etc.) Whatever day the new chapter would come out began to be the center ... point of my week, the day I looked forward to specifically because I could read more One Piece. It's a feeling that, despite being more and more into appreciating art as the years have gone on, I've never been able to feel for another piece of media, at least not on that level. A desire to not just engage with the surface level content - to not just let it occupy my thoughts for hours on end, but to want that thing to be a matter of my daily existence; one of the core pillars that make up what it means to be me. One Piece was Unique in that regard, at least it was, Until I read Undead Unluck.

Given the absurdity of what I've just said, if you've only read the first 5-10 chapters (or watched the first couple episodes) I probably sound deranged. The manga makes an Undeniably terrible first impression that I fear turns a lot of people away. If you gave the series a shot early on and were Unimpressed let me just say this; it gets Unbelievably better extremely quickly, and the sexual assault “jokes” present in the first chapter are lessened by the second, and after ten more they are entirely gone. It's an Unrepairable stain on the beginning of the series that does not represent the whole product in such a way that I can only attribute to editor meddling. It's not hard to imagine why they thought it would resonate with their intended demographic but it's so Unnecessary when Tozuka Yoshifumi has a setting this compelling and one of the best pairs of main characters in manga today to work with. So I implore you, if you dropped the series early on, pick it back up and give it another shot. Every single chapter of its relatively short run marks an increase in the quality Unlike any manga I've ever read. By the middle of its run (just around 130 chapters), it boasts some of the most creative ideas, intriguing settings, empathetic characters, and emotionally potent moments in the medium, and the quality still only goes up from there. Not only is the meat of the story Uncommonly incredible, its core values of ‘enjoying what life has to offer’ match my own so strongly that I can't help but want to shout its praises from the rooftops; desperate for somebody, anybody else, to give this manga an honest chance. So for a little while longer, I'll do just that in the hopes that I can convince you.

The number one thing to know about Undead Unluck is its blistering fast pace. Like almost all modern Shonen there's very little fat to trim on the story, but where Undead Unluck is Unequaled is in the density of that story. There are more major, story altering, events in the first 50 chapters of Undead Unluck than some manga get across their entire run. In between those massive moments are chapters which squeeze every single panel for all their worth with meaningful character interactions, insight on the world, or Unabashedly cool art. This makes it an endlessly fun story to think about, as a lot of plot points, character motivations, and mechanics of the world are all waiting to be Untangled by the reader. This would all be for naught if the large cast were Underwhelming, but luckily Tozuka has done a phenomenal job fleshing out almost everyone with moments both big and small. If you are a fan of ensemble casts but are generally disappointed by how many characters are Unceremoniously sidelined, then Undead Unluck may be the manga for you. What really sets all this apart though is the Unsung level of creativity on display on nearly every level of the manga; not only is the story packed with details, that detail is practically Unopposed in its innovation. All this to say, I've never wanted a piece of art to be enjoyed as badly as I want this manga to succeed.

One Piece has stayed in my mind for 10+ years, and even though Undead Unluck has only been with me for around one year, I've already daydreamed about it for countless hours, poured over my favorite sections multiple times, and re-read the entire manga since I just couldn't get enough. It has been Unabated in its warpath through my mental and digital lists of favorites that as long as it finishes properly, I don't see it landing anywhere outside of my top five “things” of all time. The only thing I can hope is that by writing this review I can convince at least one more person to support the series, as otherwise, it would simply be Unfair to the manga-going masses to miss out on this masterpiece of the medium.

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Aug 28, 2021

RemiKG

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (56/? eps)

Quite bluntly, I'm sad that this manga started as a funny, unpredictable action manga and slowly became a mess where tension has been lost and the plot twists seem contrived now in chapter 56.

The sexual harassment fanservice played for laughs wasn't very funny as well.

Art was always good.

After a while, in my opinion, the story became too meta. The emotional and deep moments also weren't because they felt forced. All in all, I think the story slowly ran out of energy.

I still think that people should read this manga. It was greatly executed for the first 20 or so chapters. Have fun reading :)

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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 238 Discussion ARK-13 - Jan 19	6 replies	by landofthekwt »» 9 hours ago
Poll: Undead Unluck Chapter 186 Discussion Red_Ranger_Wien - Dec 3, 2023	3 replies	by Feli_Esmeralder »» Jan 21, 5:16 AM
Poll: Undead Unluck Chapter 166 Discussion Red_Ranger_Wien - Jul 9, 2023	4 replies	by Feli_Esmeralder »» Jan 11, 9:49 AM
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