REVIEW: Undead Unluck, Vol. 1: The Odd Couple Action Caper (Mostly) Hits Its Mark

Undead Unluck, Vol. 1:

WRITER

Yoshifumi Tozuka

Artist

Yoshifumi Tozuka

Letterer

Michelle Pang, David Evelyn

Publisher

Viz Media

Price

9.99

Release Date

2021-05-04

The first collected volume of Viz Media's English edition of Undead Unluck begins with an apology from writer/artist Yoshifumi Tozuka. "I'm finally living my childhood dream of having a series in Shonen Jump. I never would have guessed I'd end up drawing a manga overloaded with censor bars." As he goes on to admit, these censor bars are omnipresent throughout every single chapter, but really, no apology for them is necessary. In fact, these ommissions, which mostly spare the reader from seeing a certain part of the male anatomy from virtually every angle, only contribute to the series' credentials as an unexpected screwball comedy.

Jokes aside, Undead Unluck is, strictly speaking, a fairly typical action story for Weekly Shonen Jump. Much like its self-inflicted censorship, the action revolves around special individuals whose power comes from what they negate rather than what they create. The title refers to its central, thrown-together-duo: 'Undead' Andy, an immortal, katana-wielding warrior desperate to cure himself of his neverending existence, and 'Unluck' Fuuko, a young woman with whom intimate physical contact causes varying degrees of bad luck to befall those who touched her. This affliction pushes Fuuko, at the first volume's start, to attempt suicide on a bridge, lamenting that she'll never experience what her favorite shojo lovebirds do in manga.

At that very moment, Andy happens to be passing by and overhearing her explaining her "disease" to concerned onlookers, becomes interested in whether her claim is true. A series of comedic mishaps causes Fuuko to discover Andy's unkillability, while the more time he spends with her learning about the correlation between where and how he touches her, and the catastrophes those actions cause, the more excited he becomes that she could finally be the one to end his life. In other words, they're made for each other. In order to sate his eagerness, Fuuko stipulates that need to be in love before they can "seal the deal" and potentially kill him, a setup that has all the hallmarks of a standard rom-com format: the fake it 'til you make it plot. The landing it'll have to stick is whether Andy and Fuuko's unusual partnership can ever overcome its transactional nature, which is Undead Unluck's main drawback.

Though she's not drawn or characterized as such, Fuuko's body is primarily used as a sexualized tool for Andy to grope and fling around at will, with changing levels of consent offered depending on the life-and-death stakes. Andy, meanwhile, enjoys the male privilege of being nearly or totally naked all the time (hence the censor bars) without risking such attention. In fact, nudity only empowers him further: his lack of socially-conditioned 'shame' cuts an ever more intimidating presence.

There are some emotive seeds sown during Andy's more attentive moments with Fuuko -- such as cutting her hair for her -- and there are hints towards the volume's end that Fuuko will need some martial training if she's to survive the superpowered world she's stumbled into. Future installments will have to not only develop their relationship but also more agency for Fuuko, or else risk the audience made more uncomfortable by her being frequently taken advantage of. So far, even observations made to deepen her character, such as her feelings about romance, are made by Andy. There's a glimmer of self-discovery when the pair are temporarily parted in Russia, but the narrative soon shifts back to fleshing out Andy's backstory instead.

Undead Unluck is one of the most explicitly violent series currently running in Shonen Jump -- though it has very stiff competition from the gorefest that is Chainsaw Man. The humor, and Andy's powers and eccentricity as a character, are comparable to Marvel's Deadpool, and similarly, its Looney Tunes-esque approach to violence tempers what would otherwise be R-Rated imagery for a younger audience. Andy is constantly weaponizing his own body, from turning his fingers into bullets to raining his own bloody down on an invisible target. His own head spends almost as much time being thrown around as it does attached to his neck. This, combined with the unpredictability of Fuuko's unluck and the various negating abilities of others they encounter, makes for some very engaging fight scenes.

Undead Unluck also benefits from Tozuka's incredibly distinctive art style, which, for reasons which are hard to define, has a very throwback sensibility to it -- it probably would have fitted in with western, '90s superhero cartoons pretty well. This might have something to do with Tozuka's thick, bold linework, while his character design has a certain blocky, sturdiness to it, which altogether marries well with the manga's far from subtle tone. Michelle Pang's English sound effect work enhances the bombast, with big, sketchy letters that jump off the page at times.

Overall, this first volume introduces a world that is interesting enough to potentially overcome the story's flaws as it progresses. While not as thematically rich as Chainsaw Man or dazzling in its action as Jujutsu Kaisen, Undead Unluck is nothing if not fun.

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