Manga Review: Undead Unluck Chapter 25

Undead Unluck Chapter 25

VIZ

Mangaka: Yoshifumi Tozuka

Earlier this year I reviewed the first chapter of Undead Unluck and was…less than favorable towards it. The first chapter did little to endear me to either of the lead characters, and the powerset presented initially didn’t feel interesting or original enough for me to get invested. The next few chapters were much of the same, and for a while, I continued to read the series more out of a strange sense of duty than because I was enjoying it. But somewhere along the way, the aggressively pervy elements of the first chapter began to subside and the world began to flesh itself out more and more until I found myself actually looking forward to seeing more and more.

Chapter 25 continues the major conflict from the last chapter as Tatiana engages with two from Unrepair’s group. This chapter features a brief flashback that fleshes out Tatiana’s character and motivations a bit more. We also get to see her fight a bit as she tries to puzzle together what the two Negators she’s facing are actually negating.

One of Undead Unluck‘s biggest strengths is the Negators and the way their powers work. Because each Negator negates one of the “rules” of the world, all of their abilities exist by actively going against the natural order. Thus, Andy “negates” dying and Fuuko “negates” luck. As the concept of Negators has been fleshed out in the series, it has been really interesting to see the abilities that Yoshifumi Tozuka comes up with and how he implements them in the series. In this particular chapter, we have three characters who have powers we do not yet have names or explanations for, but we did learn that Tatiana’s spherical mech is to keep her power in check rather than an extension of her power as I initially assumed.

So far, the weakest parts of the story for me have been the main cast. Andy has been slowly warming up to me with his humor and mysterious backstory, and the way he implements his Undead ability is very cool and makes for some great action spreads. But Fuuko so far hasn’t been much more than the generic nervous-but-cheerful girl protagonist that is used for lewd gags or to bring the male protagonist back from the brink. While she and Andy sometimes have a pretty entertaining dynamic, right now her character feels more like a prop than anything of substance. Her Negator ability has led to plenty of spectacular feats of destruction, but she herself does not do much for the story beyond that. I really hope that she gets to stand on her own feet sooner rather than later because the damsel in distress trope wears thin very quickly for me.

The art varies for me. Some of the characters, like Tatiana for example, have really interesting designs and look great almost every time they are on the page. But some of the other characters like Fuuko look fairly generic and will have maybe one aspect that makes them stand out from just being a typical cartoon character. Even Andy who I like has a design I’m not too crazy about but I will say it’s at least inspired. To me, he’s just a bit too ugly.

I’m here to eat my words. Undead Unluck has come a long way in the last 6 months, and while it started as a series that leaned into its perverted elements a little too heavily without having much more substance beyond that has evolved into a story that I’m always looking forward to seeing more of.

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