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 was published digitally as an English simulpub 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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Characters

Izumo, Fuuko

Main

Andy

Main

Xiang, Shen

Supporting

Kuno, Akira

Supporting

Tristan, Rip

Supporting

Chamber, Gina

Supporting

Alfred, Billy

Supporting

Tatiana

Supporting

Vorgeil, Nico

Supporting

Juiz

Supporting

Reviews

Feb 6, 2025

popomelo

Recommended

This series totally subverted my expectations. At first, I had assumed it was going to follow the usual shounen plot route, but no. To think there was a point where I had gotten bored of the anime and almost dropped it - until I reached the Autumn arc.

Up until the Unknown and Autumn arc, I felt absolutely no attachment to the characters - if you killed Fuuko, Andy, or any of the other Union members at that point I wouldn't have really cared. It wasn't until I reached those last few episodes of Season 1 that I thoroughly enjoyed and started wanting to root ... for the characters of this series.

After the first season of the anime finished, I binged the manga until around Ch 200 last August 2024. All I can say is I'm so happy I didn't go through with dropping this when I mistakenly presumed it was another typical shounen story. What it lacks in style (I mean, even the author acknowledged that his art style's sort of outdated for a manga published in the 2020s), the manga makes up for with an ABUNDANCE of substance. This series is one of the best I have encountered since the pandemic.

First, UxU has one of the most unique power systems and world-building elements I've seen in a manga. I thought the negation abilities were confusing at first as some characters would technically break the conditions required for their negation abilities to work (and there would be little to no explanation for it other than "s/he expanded their power/range/interpretation of his/her abilities"). But after Andy's power up in the Autumn arc and the end of the first loop, I developed a deeper appreciation for the "it's all about perception" message the author was trying to push.
Point is, at some point the author made me forget about all the technical stuff and just enjoy the series for what it is.

For those who want to start reading this series, I think it's best if you go into it not dwelling too much on the world's mechanics. When I was still trying to get into UxU before the Autumn arc, the existence of universal rules as UMAs and the nature of "Revolution" as Ragnarok made it difficult for me to follow and reconcile some of the technical aspects of this show with what I know intuitively about the world. I'm not sure, but something about the exposition felt lacking and too axiomatic to me at the time which made me want to drop it. But again, I'm so glad I didn't. EVERYTHING makes sense now.

Lastly, UxU doesn't have the most unique ability users, but it does have one of the BEST and most LOVABLE ensemble of protagonists there are. The author has the uncanny ability to write arcs that will make you appreciate every single union member, even if there are over two dozen of them.

- On a side note: some will think Andy's new perception of "death" after meeting the Fuuko in his memories to be cliche and overused. But what I can say with 100% certainty is that this series, through Fuuko and everyone's interactions, really made me think long and hard about what Andy's definition of "death" means to me and makes me want to go out in the world in search of the greatest death possible for myself too!

Tldr: UxU is wicked sick, please go read it.

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Aug 28, 2021

RemiKG

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (56/239 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 (16/239 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 239 Discussion Nidhoeggr - Jan 26	28 replies	by Biisoo »» Feb 14, 8:29 AM
If I had done the anime adaptation + future seasons Ki11grave - Jan 29	0 replies	by Ki11grave »» Jan 29, 9:58 AM
Poll: Undead Unluck Chapter 234 Discussion ARK-13 - Dec 8, 2024	2 replies	by Feli_Esmeralder »» Jan 25, 8:50 AM
Poll: Undead Unluck Chapter 238 Discussion ARK-13 - Jan 19	7 replies	by Rexnihilo »» Jan 24, 9:44 PM
Poll: Undead Unluck Chapter 231 Discussion ARK-13 - Nov 17, 2024	10 replies	by Rexnihilo »» Jan 24, 9:19 PM

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