Undead Unluck

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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 ... a partially rewritten beginning).

The pacing is deranged and barely slows down until the later half of the story (which makes sense story-wise, for undisclosed reasons). The characters are all fantastic and, despite appearing to be cardboard cutouts upon introduction, get heavily expanded upon as the story progresses. Fuuko can feel like an objectified side piece to her own story at first (which is generally a major thing I hate in these kinds of things), but without getting into spoilers, she's easily become one of my favorite shounen protagonists by this point in the story, which is an impressive feat. This story will evolve and change in ways that are impossible for you to predict, and has some of the best and most absurd climaxes and arcs I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. As long as you can stomach the rough beginning, I would seriously, seriously recommend checking this one out. If you like ridiculous, over-the-top batshit insane stories that don't take themselves too seriously but can still throw some heavy emotional punches when they want to, don't pass on Undead Unluck.

(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.

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.