I didn’t think all that much of the premiere of Undead Unluck, to be honest. But it did score some points with my by setting the intro scene at the Southern Terrace Exit of Shinjuku Station. That’s the first Japanese railway station exit I ever used – on my first visit I stayed at the Sunroute Shinjuku Hotel, just off the Southern Terrace Exit. Got off the Narita Express and spent like fifteen minutes looking for it (Shinjuku has a ridiculous number of exits). As it turns out it’s a really nice area, too – especially when they have a light-up at Christmas.
Unfortunately it was all downhill from there. Not a terrible episode and I didn’t hate it. In fact David Production did a nice job with the visuals, imparting a nice comic book aesthetic with virtually no detectable CGI. A bit Shaft-y (director Yase Yuki is an export from there) bot not intolerably so. Looks like there was a pretty good budget here, perhaps surprisingly so as it was my impression that Undead Unluck was a decidedly mid WSJ property in terms of popularity.
Mid in terms of quality too I’d always heard, and nothing here dissuades me from that. It’s a pretty standard Jump premise – a cute teen girl (Fuuko) has a weird magical ability. To wit “unluck” – anything she touches dies gruesomely (Shinigami Bocchan does it way better). She’s about ready to off herself at the aforementioned place when she’s stopped by an undead dude with “1865” tattooed on his chest. He’s mostly naked, but that’s an improvement as he winds up spending most of the episode totally naked (which I would say stopped being funny after a few beats, except it was really never funny in the first place). Once he lamps her ability, he gets the idea that maybe she can actually allow him to die.
Most of the rest is slapstick, and not especially great slapstick. I find both “Andy” and Fuuko kind of low-key annoying, and it feels at times like there’s more screaming and shouting here than spoken dialogue. I sort of get why this premiere seems to have proved popular – it’s bright and flashy and grabby and clearly well-produced. But as little as it engaged me, I find it pretty hard to imagine this show can convince me to stick around for long. I sense an outside chance this could cool down (WSJ newbies are under enormous pressure to throw the kitchen sink into opening chapters these days), and perhaps become more interesting when it’s slower and quieter. So one more episode? Sure – but it’s not going to be a long leash.
R3rok
October 8, 2023 at 3:36 amAs many said before, Undead Unluck has fairy okay begging volumes in WSJ, however as series reveals the true plot and showcases more of itself, it reception continued to grew to straight up great, hence why committee probably decided to go into more high-profile approach with 24 episodes and DavidProduction. It has creative power system, quite unique plot structure for shounen, nice cast of character with plenty of emotional hooks and genuine plot-relevant romance in a battle shounen.In 2nd phase of the story Fuuko is straight-up one of the best female heroines in WSJ history, it is quite delightful work. But I think you won’t stick with it, which is totally fine, your taste it quite established at this point.
Simone
October 8, 2023 at 4:50 pmI know this is a common refrain, but honestly the “early installment weirdness” effect is particularly strong with UU – both for the ecchi bits and plot-wise (some details in these early chapters seem to contradict later stuff to the point that it feels like they got retconned away). Happens as you say when you gotta hit the ground running and figure things out on the way, though in theory anime adaptations unafraid to be a bit more elastic with the material could fix those up.
The groping gag I’d guess goes away by episode 3 tops, but I’d call that part of an organic development – Andy right now is pretty much just a misanthropic savage that cares nothing for human feelings due to how immortality alienated him from everyone, so being a bit more tied down into an actual human dynamic makes him simply more civilized. But that aside, the series definitely shifts gear from just wackiness to a more focused battle shonen plot by what in the manga is chapter 9, when finally the full stakes and scope get outlined. So I’m gonna guess episode 3 or 4, depending on pacing. However it always remains very frantically paced (perhaps my main ongoing criticism of it, some arcs really could have used a bit more breathing space) and straddling the line between action and comedy, with a very upbeat and high energy mood despite the occasional existentially horrifying concepts being flung around (you already get a glimpse of that here with Andy actively lobotomizing himself to avoid the insanity of too many memories from his extremely long life). So that aspect is going to stay.
Joshua
October 10, 2023 at 1:28 amYeah the opening sucks. It’s just not good at all. Which eventually makes the shift around 20 chapters in (and possibly in 2 more episodes) all the more surprising when it finally does get compelling.
Also, I have no idea what TMS was thinking limiting Western access to this show to *only* Hulu. ffs there’s not even a Disney+ option for those outside of the US. And all while Disney is planning to merge Disney+ with Hulu sometime next year meaning anything that Hulu only licensed from other partners (and not made in-house) is going bye-bye.